When my brother gave me a choice of going to the car races or visiting the electronics store this weekend, I quickly made my decision. Who am I to decline a visit to a high tech play land? As he darted towards small electronics, I immediately zipped my way to the televisions.
I have been dying to see the new Smart TV’s and how they operate. Since seeing them emerge in the marketplace about six months ago I’ve been curious about their capabilities. I’ve also been intrigued about the impetus of someone who would purchase a television rather than a computer for the same purpose.
Operating systems like Android have come full circle – fighting to get the use of Adobe Flash and other plug-ins. So I was curious how newly developed and proprietary operating systems handle Flash and other plug-ins. I also wanted to take a look at the interface provided by the television manufacturers.
Most of the Smart TV products don’t actually have an internet browser like Explorer or FireFox. Rather, manufacturers use applications (apps) specific to the function they are trying to achieve. The salesman at the store I was visiting pointed out the Facebook, weather, and movie apps. Rather than typing a URL for the specific place you’re trying to visit, there are specially designed apps.
Clicking through the apps was a somewhat cumbersome task with the television remote; however, I would gamble that after a few days of owning the set it would be much easier. The salesman I spoke with didn’t know if any of the televisions had web browsers so I did a little research on my own and found that many Smart TV’s are equipped with browsers.
Some major television manufacturers have videos illustrating how their Smart TV browsers actually function. It appears that many use the standard remote and an onscreen keyboard to allow data input. Typing a quick e-mail reply would mean entering each word, letter by letter via remote control. I can’t imagine how long that would take.
With a little digging I was able to answer my first question about plug-ins like Flash player. It appears that the specific apps – like the one for YouTube – get around Flash by being uniquely proprietary. In other words, the apps have been developed only for YouTube and specific Flash enabled websites. This might hinder users’ abilities to venture to other movie websites that use Flash.
After doing my research and having some fun with the salesman I have to say I’m unimpressed with the new Smart TV’s. Most people are going to be unimpressed with the ability to view Facebook on the TV. I think many will be disappointed with the lack of interaction they’ve come to expect from a PC.
Most gaming consoles have the ability to perform many of the same functions as Smart TV’s. In many households the gaming consoles are already connected to the main TV and are already live on the internet. Wii, Xbox and Playstation consoles already have most of these capabilities.
Last year I purchased a Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 computer for a customer’s entertainment system. The Q150 is considered a nettop PC: very compact and designed solely for internet surfing. For under $350.00 it included a wireless palm sized mouse and keyboard and a bracket for mounting on the back of most televisions.
Adding a dedicated PC, like the Lenovo, to a home entertainment system would provide all the features of the Smart TV. Moreover, the PC would allow additional functionality of a complete Microsoft Windows based computer with full browser capabilities. Rather than buy a new TV with Smart TV functions, for my money it would make sense to simply add a small PC.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)