Technology marches on

I have had a smart TV for a few years now, and have used the apps extensively that are built in. Things like Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon have become all I watch in my apartment after making the decision to cut the cord on normal TV. I had a smaller app that had been acting very strange for a few months now, and I recently found out why. This particular company merged with another company, and the name changed. However, I noticed that the app didn't change name, even as the content was being updated with the new hosts. Eventually, it just stopped working regularly. I've also noticed that YouTube wasn't working all that well with the app, and Netflix sometimes would be buggy as well. I figured out the work around, but it was still annoying.

I called the tech support for the smaller app that I was paying for and wasn't working. The first question they asked me was if I had a Samsung Smart TV. Surprised, I answered that yes that was my TV. They then told me that they have been trying to update the app with Samsung for months, but have had no success getting it updated, and no help from Samsung. He recommended a Roku and see how I liked that. I had always avoided getting a streaming box, since I had a TV that had it built in. However, I had gotten my parents a Roku for Christmas, and they seemed happy with it, so I gave it a try.

What a difference, to put it mildly. I purchased a Roku stick and it is working great. The picture is actually better than it was for the internal apps. And it was easy to set up the apps I already have subscriptions for. I'm very happy with the purchase, and wish I had done it months ago.

However, it makes me wonder about the future of Samsung Smart TV in particular, and built in apps in TV's in general. Will manufacturers continue to offer and support the apps native to their boxes? I've already seen some that say they have Roku built in. That seems like where we might be headed. Let the company who is only dealing with the apps deal with the apps, and let the TV manufacturers deal with the hardware. I'd be interested to see how things are shaping up in the Cedia world of residential audio visual, and what trends may be happening in that sphere. Apps were not a big part of commercial audio visual and I'm interested to see what is going to happen there as well. Depends on how the apps are used as tools in a commercial environment.