can someone explain to me why this exists when smart tv's are your only option for 4k anyway? so confused...

[Space Lynx]

Roku's latest streaming device delivers 4K, HDR and a voice remote for under $40

The new Roku Express 4K+, which will replace the Roku Premiere in the product lineup, features dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and microUSB Ethernet should you prefer wired connectivity....

www.techspot.com

 

[R-T-B]

Because smart TVs are ad-laden sponsored content monstrosities in a lot of brands, if not all.

An external box breaks you free of that.

Nevermind the time I made the mistake of connecting my Chroma 4:4:4 capable Vizio 4k TV to the internet and it autoupdated without my consent to firmware that took that feature away...

My current LG OLED is allowed online but only for firmware updates I research & start, otherwise it's connection is cut.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

I miss dumb tvs. I utterly hate how just going into the menu I got ads. Its seriosly ridiculous even on high end tv. Not recommended to connect smart tv to wifi unless you have a firewall router to block those ads.

 

[Bill_Bright]

when smart tv's are your only option for 4k anyway?

Huh? What do you mean?

Being "smart" has nothing to do with it. "Smart" just implies the TV has integrated network connectivity.

Have you not heard of 4K monitors? There are dozens of 4K monitors on the market and they are not "smart".

There are 4K Blu-ray players for your home theater system too - so they can be used to play 4K Blu-ray movies. Though I suspect all are "smart", they don't have to be to view those disks.

4K Roku simply means the devices supports the required bandwidth for streaming 4K signals. But then of course, you would need to subscribe to some 4K streaming service, like Netflix 4K Premium, and select 4K content on that service.

 

[Udyr]

Because some TVs have horrible software with even worse UI full of bloatware you cannot uninstall.

 

[dirtyferret]

can someone explain to me why this exists when smart tv's are your only option for 4k anyway?

For the same reason you have a Ryzen 5600x based PC and even though you can go to the town dump and get a Phenom II x6 based PC for free

 

[INSTG8R]

Because smart TVs are ad-laden sponsored content monstrosities in a lot of brands, if not all.

An external box breaks you free of that.

Nevermind the time I made the mistake of connecting my Chroma 4:4:4 capable Vizio 4k TV to the internet and it autoupdated without my consent to firmware that took that feature away...

My current LG OLED is allowed online but only for firmware updates I research & start, otherwise it's connection is cut.

My LG 4K IPS has no ads?? I use all my streaming services(4K) and my media from my PC as I expect from the “smart”

 

[jboydgolfer]

i bought one of those rokus for my kids TV, as well as the wifes TV.
theyre a great easy way to add functionality to tv's that dont have it.

as far as 4k smart tv being your only option, id say that roku is targeting a larger broader market, that isnt limited to just what may be available in your area.

 

[GerKNG]

I miss dumb tvs. I utterly hate how just going into the menu I got ads. Its seriosly ridiculous even on high end tv. Not recommended to connect smart tv to wifi unless you have a firewall router to block those ads.

it's not just Ads.
my Samsung TVs Storage is 95% filled with forced bloatware.
and the best thing is it can NOT update its firmware since at least 1 year because the storage is completely full and i am not allowed to uninstall all the crap the pre installed.

 

[Space Lynx]

my dad's tv has roku built in. i really like it. and it has no ads. i may consider getting this just so i can stick with that roku UI, it seems to flow really nicely to me. not bloated.

 

[oobymach]

My smart tv isn't connected to any internet, if I have content to watch I have my ps4 and pc connected to it and use it for 4k gaming and as my main pc monitor. I hate ads with a passion, I can't watch regular tv unless it's recorded so I can skip the damn commercials. Hover your mouse over my fat duck.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Nevermind the time I made the mistake of connecting my Chroma 4:4:4 capable Vizio 4k TV to the internet and it autoupdated without my consent to firmware that took that feature away...

That's some grade-A prime bullshit right there. Why would they even do that?

 

[R-T-B]

My LG 4K IPS has no ads?? I use all my streaming services(4K) and my media from my PC as I expect from the “smart”

Probably an earlier model. Here is my homescreen on a modern LG B9.

Ignore the wonderful garish Xbox360 "pawn shop special" stand. (I don't pay more than 50 bucks for consoles, and I really need to get a proper TV stand, yes). Anyways, none of those apps on the bottom bar have ever been installed/used. They are purely ads. I think I accidentally toggled DIsney+ open once, hence the mark (it's near my PC input). Helpful when switching inputs, that's for sure...

That's some grade-A prime bullshit right there. Why would they even do that?

I don't know but they still haven't fixed it as of as recent as 10 months ago, according to reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VIZIO_Official/comments/g8snvy/_/frb5d91

I returned it. The LG OLED has been great, but I haven't trusted it with free roaming wifi either.

my dad's tv has roku built in. i really like it. and it has no ads. i may consider getting this just so i can stick with that roku UI, it seems to flow really nicely to me. not bloated.

That's the idea behind Roku. No nonsense media player that isn't ad filled. If I were to buy another smartTV I'd consider it running Roku a plus.

 

[INSTG8R]

Probably an earlier model. Here is my homescreen on a modern LG B9.

View attachment 196591

Ignore the wonderful garish Xbox360 "pawn shop special" stand. (I don't pay more than 50 bucks for consoles, and I really need to get a proper TV stand, yes). Anyways, none of those apps on the bottom bar have ever been installed/used. They are purely ads. I think I accidentally toggled DIsney+ open once, hence the mark (it's near my PC input). Helpful when switching inputs, that's for sure...


I don't know but they still haven't fixed it as of as recent as 10 months ago, according to reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VIZIO_Official/comments/g8snvy/_/frb5d91

I returned it. The LG OLED has been great, but I haven't trusted it with free roaming wifi either.


That's the idea behind Roku. No nonsense media player that isn't ad filled. If I were to buy another smartTV I'd consider it running Roku a plus.

I guess you’re not totally wrong but my Home Screen is 90% apps I already have installed.

But I just use Recent which is just the apps I actually use.

Edit: Could also be a regional thing as well I have very little “content” offered to me in the Nordic region.

 

[JeffF]

Even though one may have a smart tv doesn't mean that particular smart tv will have certain apps, So Roku's/Android boxes and etc come in handy to get a large range of apps. I have Samsung smart tv's and LG and I can count on 1 hand how many times I have oped to use the TV's apps and etc. I keep the internet disabled. My Roku or Android Tv box's are my goto.

 

[wolf]

I have a Hisense smart TV but the smarts aren't great, Netflix takes a while to load, you can't just install any apps you want, the UI is a bit laggy and unintuitive.

Slap on an Nvidia Shield and it's great, apps/streams load blazing fast, can install heeeaaps of stuff on it, and I can game stream in 4k60 over ethernet with practically imperceptible latency. I'd have preferred the TV came dumb (A panel with inputs) rather than smart.

 

[Space Lynx]

I have a Hisense smart TV but the smarts aren't great, Netflix takes a while to load, you can't just install any apps you want, the UI is a bit laggy and unintuitive.

Slap on an Nvidia Shield and it's great, apps/streams load blazing fast, can install heeeaaps of stuff on it, and I can game stream in 4k60 over ethernet with practically imperceptible latency. I'd have preferred the TV came dumb (A panel with inputs) rather than smart.

my dad' is a hisense roku built in and it works great, netflix loads fast and 4k hdr are auto turned on for movies that support it. i love it. are you sure your hisense has roku built in? some hisense don't.

 

[R0H1T]

I utterly hate how just going into the menu I got ads.

If you can sideload apps there's always a handful of them which will block some ads.

 

[wolf]

you sure your hisense has roku built in? some hisense don't.

Mine is maybe a 2016 or 2017 model, so I'd imagine it predates roku inbuilt, or was too low a series, it certainly doesn't have it.

But it's a good point, if it's well enough done, sure use the smarts, but I tell you compared to the stock TV the Shield is legitimately amazing - especially game streaming for me personally.

 

[anachron]

I have a 4k Philips smart TV with Android TV on it, it work fine and the only "ad" i get are suggestion of movies.

But on my old Samsung HD TV that is now in the bedroom, the UI and apps where indeed a bit laggy, so i bought a 4k TV stick like the Roku one so i can have a snappier interface and watch anything including 4k content (that i got for the other TV) without issue.

 

[WatEagle]

I miss dumb tvs. I utterly hate how just going into the menu I got ads. Its seriosly ridiculous even on high end tv. Not recommended to connect smart tv to wifi unless you have a firewall router to block those ads.

you're totally right. I tried a philips smart tv and man if it is slow even to load netflix. I bought a xioami mi tv stick and is far better once you unistall some things via adb.
I have only dumb tvs at home and in italy we will be forced to change them because of dvb t2 thing. I would rather buy a good 4k non smart tv and add my own stick for little money than being stuck with an unusable tv after only 1 or 2 years

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Probably an earlier model. Here is my homescreen on a modern LG B9.

View attachment 196591

Ignore the wonderful garish Xbox360 "pawn shop special" stand. (I don't pay more than 50 bucks for consoles, and I really need to get a proper TV stand, yes). Anyways, none of those apps on the bottom bar have ever been installed/used. They are purely ads. I think I accidentally toggled DIsney+ open once, hence the mark (it's near my PC input). Helpful when switching inputs, that's for sure...


I don't know but they still haven't fixed it as of as recent as 10 months ago, according to reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VIZIO_Official/comments/g8snvy/_/frb5d91

I returned it. The LG OLED has been great, but I haven't trusted it with free roaming wifi either.


That's the idea behind Roku. No nonsense media player that isn't ad filled. If I were to buy another smartTV I'd consider it running Roku a plus.

did the maid take off for a month? Swiffer has a nice duster model thats easy to use.

BTW have you tried to access the OS on that ?

 

[silentbogo]

can someone explain to me why this exists when smart tv's are your only option for 4k anyway​

1) 4K dumb TVs are still a thing. My initial choice of 4K TV was actually a cheap-ass non-smart Philips (at one point it was cheaper than my formally-cheapest-ever 4K monitor).
2) Some people prefer flexibility of Android. Tizen and other alternatives have underwhelming ecosystem riddled with not only ads and garbageware, but also bugs and lack of QA. I'm not even gonna talk about security.
3) Just because your box can do 4k doesn't mean that you are gonna use it (or have to use it) with a 4K TV. It works just fine with a 12y.o. 1080p LG in someone's mancave, or extends the lifetime of grandma's old 720p bravia. Some people simply need a box with snappy SoC that has decent H265 decoder and few modern features.

 

[dorsetknob]

can someone explain to me why this exists when smart tv's are your only option for 4k anyway? so confused...​

​

Smart Tv's and 4k Monitors .........and someone said
"If we Build it someone will buy it".

Nuff said Someone thought there is a market for this

 

[las]

Because smart TVs are ad-laden sponsored content monstrosities in a lot of brands, if not all.

An external box breaks you free of that.

Nevermind the time I made the mistake of connecting my Chroma 4:4:4 capable Vizio 4k TV to the internet and it autoupdated without my consent to firmware that took that feature away...

My current LG OLED is allowed online but only for firmware updates I research & start, otherwise it's connection is cut.

My LG C9 has zero ads and all apps runs flawlessly and fast.
I always disable auto-update for firmware updates tho, everyone should do that, always.

Last time I saw an ad on a TV, was on a Samsung.
I have seen ads on external boxes too. Android ones.

High-end TV SoCs are very fast these days. Most people buying high-end TV's simply do not need an external box anymore. Unless you are buying a top-unit like Apple TV, you are more prone to get issues using an external box (app bugs, app crashes etc). Dev's are focusing on built-in apps first and top-streaming units like Apple TV, Chromecast etc.