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Author Topic: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.  (Read 10563 times)

Chrysalis

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #15 on: December 31, 2018, 10:42:33 AM »

A smart TV that cannot update its software, not very smart I guess. ;)

I have some sympathy, I think its a bit unreasonable to expect the average punter to know the ins and outs of operating systems on smart tv's, I think its reasonable to expect to not need to update a TV after 2 years.

Did Firefox OS go into abandonware?
Did the tv manufacturer fail to tie down a contract with Firefox OS for ongoing updates?
Is buying a smart tv akin to buying a smartphone where its considered the norm to replace every 2 years?
Did the tv manufacturer sell and advertise the tv knowing it was a dead platform or was it very much alive 2 years ago?

Solution shouldnt be too expensive tho, no need to buy a new tv, just buy a cheapo device that can play netflix and plug it into the tv, like a amazon or nowtv stick.

From wikipedia, firefox os

Quote
Initial release   February 21, 2013; 5 years ago
Latest release   2.2.0 / April 29, 2015; 3 years ago

That is shocking, they made a product and abandoned it only after 2 years.

Also, if you got your tv after this date and it wasnt discounted for this reason, you could possibly argue it was been sold knowingly as a dead platform.

Quote
In December 2015 Mozilla announced it would stop development of new Firefox OS

It also says the ceased development only 6 months after they agreed for its use in tv's, however if its a Panasonic TV it may not be abandonware, it says Panasonic have continued their own fork of Firefox OS.  So if its a Panasonic TV it doesnt seem clear what the situation is other than for whatever reason netflix have not made a new app for it.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2018, 10:56:51 AM by Chrysalis »
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kitz

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #16 on: December 31, 2018, 01:10:14 PM »

>> Is buying a smart tv akin to buying a smartphone where its considered the norm to replace every 2 years?

I have some sympathy, it appears that Smart technology is progressing at an extremely rapid rate.   My Smart TV in the lounge has also become 'obsolete' when it comes to more modern capabilities. Toshiba just never seemed to update anything on the the 'smart' side and any updates I do get are usually for changes to channels.

In the end I abandoned the built in Smart TV and bought a firestick when they were on offer for £20.  Suits me fine as it's multiple purpose - Cheaply updated my smart tv, Gave me access to lots of free viewing via Prime, I have a lot of smart home equipment integrated with Alexa.


In fact I even bought another firestick to plug into my JVC TV which is capable of the more modern technologies... purely to replace Chromecase and for Prime TV and smart home integration.  IMHO the Firestick is far better than Apple TV or Chromecast.

----

Bandersnatch is a new development and won't play on lots of devices including AppleTV, Chromecast, Firestick, TiVo, BTYouView  as the interactive play requires caching of multiple streams...   so add in the older smart tvs, there will be quite a large audience that can't view it.
 
I'm sure I read somewhere yesterday that Bandersnatch is an experiment and that planned future Black Mirrors wont be interactive.

You would have thought that Netflix could have implemented a default stream play.   Apparently if you don't make an interactive decision within 'x' seconds, then you get some sort of a default choice.  Surely it wouldn't have been too hard to fall back to a default choice for those devices that are unable to cope with caching of multiple streams.  :/
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chenks

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #17 on: December 31, 2018, 01:26:58 PM »

i'm glad i picked a Sony Android TV, has had quite a few updated since i bought and still runs everything it did when i bought, with some extra stuff thrown in since then.
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Ronski

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #18 on: December 31, 2018, 01:28:13 PM »

Yes it really would make sense to have a default stream for unsupported devices.

The TV may well be two years old, but when was the model first released?

There are many things sold with out of date software,  Android phones are probably one of the worst and often never get updates. What about hardware rendered useless when a manufacturer shuts down servers for a service it relies on, now that would be really annoying.
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chenks

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #19 on: December 31, 2018, 01:30:32 PM »

people should often use this philosophy when buying something.
assume it'll never get any updates and what it does now will all it'll do for the how many years you have it.
if something new comes out at a later date don't assume the device will support it.
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broadstairs

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #20 on: December 31, 2018, 02:31:03 PM »

Interesting discussion. I have just had to replace our main TV and initially bought a Toshiba smart TV but that had to be returned as it kept crashing and had to be unplugged to recover. It has been replaced with a JVC one.

I had quite a problem finding a 32 inch TV as there are not nearly as many around now, seems like 40inch plus seem to be the majority. I wanted a smart TV mainly for the Freeview Play facility so as to watch mainly BBC programs which clash with others, as there is no plus 1 channel. Not bothered about Netflix etc. Not sure which OS JVC use but they apparently moving to ROKU in future.

Stuart
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #21 on: December 31, 2018, 02:32:31 PM »

A small confession, my TV turns out to three years old.  My, how time flies.   :P

I still argue the same though, three years is far too short.
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chenks

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #22 on: December 31, 2018, 02:42:59 PM »

the TV hasn't stopped working, it still does what it did when you bought it.
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Chrysalis

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #23 on: December 31, 2018, 04:55:11 PM »

certainly makes me glad I didnt buy a smart tv, to me it seemed bad sense, the same functions been provided by addon box's or usb sticks, but the benefit been those devices are easier to update, and of course if you dont need those functions save the money in the first place.

Ronski's point regarding smartphones is of course accurate as well, the android smartphone situation which seems accepted by the typical consumer is pretty bad.

Ironically tho buying a phone with older android is probably better, my new oneplusix with android 8 or 9 (choice of which), breaks literally half my apps because either the apps have become abandonware and never been updated, or the developer cannot get their head around changes made by google in the OS so the app misbehaves, the android problem I feel is clearly that the development speed of android OS is way too rapid and manufacturers plus app developers cannot keep up with it.  It makes me really wish that android hardware was like PC hardware so e.g. if you buy a coffee lake PC you can probably still boot up a 10 year old build of linux.  But each android build is tailor made for the device it runs on so you dont have that cross compatibility meaning you cannot use older android versions on newer phones.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #24 on: December 31, 2018, 05:53:39 PM »

Smart TV does have advantages, not least being a single remote that covers all bases.   I can switch from Amazon to iPlayer or to youtube, or to my own home media servers (though that’s clunky on mine).   

Yes I know you can get “universal remotes” that operate the TV as well as the Blu Ray as well as the Amazon adaptor, and etc, but they are never as good as the one the set maker designed to match the TV.  With the “universals” there are invariably features that you can’t access because there is no button provided, or buttons that do nothing because your appuratus lacks that feature.

Additionally, the various stbs, USB sticks etc all add to power drain.   Most TVs are pretty darned efficient, and incredibly efficient in standby, it’s a shame to ruin that.    Somebody will now say you can get a remote controlled socket and plug everything into it, but these so called “green” sockets often have much higher standby consumption than a decent TV.

So Smart TVs are useful, but the media publishers need to get their heads around the fact that people will expect them to find a way of providing a long service life.   In software, there is nearly always a way of providing backwards compatibility with earlier hardware.   It’s just a question of how hard you try.
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GigabitEthernet

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #25 on: December 31, 2018, 05:57:31 PM »

Firefox had a TV OS?
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #26 on: December 31, 2018, 06:27:41 PM »

Firefox had a TV OS?

Indeed,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS

Incidentally, contrary to what has been implied by some, it remains supported.  Updates still happen, they are spotted automatically and  in fact are a pita, as istr it sulks and refuses to work when an update is available, until I permit it to install. :D

Mine is running 3.252, which seems to be from September this year.   So Panasonic have held good to support expectations, the question is why Netflix have not bothered to support or update their App.

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/tv/download/fw/eu_2015/down_eu_uk_cis_02.html



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Ronski

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #27 on: December 31, 2018, 07:29:59 PM »

7LM 'universal remotes' are pants, unless you get a proper programmable remote. I have a Logitech Harmony Elite and also a Harmony Ultimate. They are excellent and have fully programmable buttons (both short press and long press) and touch screen.

In our lounge the elite controls the TV, PC (Mediaportal), amplifier, Wii and the lights, even the wife and my daughter's use it.

In the cinema room it control's the Fire TV, Blinds, lights, projector, Nvidia Shield TV, Blu-ray player and amplifier.

They are expensive but the Elite can often be had for £120 on Amazon.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #28 on: December 31, 2018, 08:27:22 PM »

One nice thing about setting up MythTV was, you kind find a programmable remote that you like, with all the buttons you like, then set it up work with your TV, Optical player, amp, whatever.

You then turn attention to the Myth front end, over which you have complete control as you built it yourself (you even bought some veroboard and soldered together an IR receiver), and configure the front end to “obey” the buttons on the programmable remote in a way that is most useful.   For example, I have buttons to skip forwards 30 seconds, and back 10 seconds, but you could make that 40 and 20 if you prefer.   And for xample I have configured the “off” button so that its effect is delayed so, if I hit it by mistake, I don’t have to wait for the system to reawaken.

If there are any “spare” buttons left over you can always find a use, such as toggling some obscure video renderring parameter, its just a case of mapping the received IR command onto something useful in the config files.

Best of all worlds? :P

As I say, MythTV is a hard act to follow.
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chenks

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Re: Netflix - two year old TV now obsoleted.
« Reply #29 on: December 31, 2018, 08:35:38 PM »

As I say, MythTV is a hard act to follow.

still can't play the new blackmirror on netflix though. time to ditch it me thinks!
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