What use is WiFi on a TV screen?

A relative of mine called, who was told "something" by Costco, that their
Visio TVs have WiFi and therefore she wouldn't need the "box" whatever
that is.

I don't have cable, nor even a TV, but I suspect that "box" is something
that was added when they switched from Analog to Digital (or maybe it's a
descrambler).

They said they have to pay the cable company for a second box (the first
one is free), so, it's not a modem (because you'd only need one modem).

Anyway, my basic question, for you, is "what use is WiFi in a TV"?

Note that I can easily see that bluetooth is useful, since you can then
use that TV with a keyboard; but what good is WiFi in a TV screen at home?

"Ewald Böhm" wrote in message
...
What use is WiFi on a TV screen?

A relative of mine called, who was told "something" by Costco, that their
Visio TVs have WiFi and therefore she wouldn't need the "box" whatever
that is.

I don't have cable, nor even a TV, but I suspect that "box" is something
that was added when they switched from Analog to Digital (or maybe it's a
descrambler).

They said they have to pay the cable company for a second box (the first
one is free), so, it's not a modem (because you'd only need one modem).

Anyway, my basic question, for you, is "what use is WiFi in a TV"?

Note that I can easily see that bluetooth is useful, since you can then
use that TV with a keyboard; but what good is WiFi in a TV screen at home?

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:47:02 -0700, taxed and spent wrote:

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

Maybe I don't understand. Actually, I don't understand.

To watch youtube, you need a browser, which is usually a program compiled
for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating system, and which
has a certain byte order and memory structure and a whole bunch of other
things associated with a "computer".

Is the TV acting as a "computer"?
If so, what operating system is the TV?

What browser does it use?
What architecture is that TV browser compiled for?

"Ewald Böhm" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:47:02 -0700, taxed and spent wrote:

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

Maybe I don't understand. Actually, I don't understand.

To watch youtube, you need a browser, which is usually a program compiled
for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating system, and which
has a certain byte order and memory structure and a whole bunch of other
things associated with a "computer".

Is the TV acting as a "computer"?
If so, what operating system is the TV?

What browser does it use?
What architecture is that TV browser compiled for?


The newer smart TVs have their own built in inerface . Maybe you have heard
of the devices like ROKU or the one from Amazon. Anyway it lets the TV
connect to the internet so if you have say Direct TV you can get movies and
other shows on demand bystreaming off the internet. I don't know what
system they use,but my TV lets me surf the web. It is awful slow to do with
the remote,but I think I could hook up a mouse and keyboard to it if I
wanted to.

On Thu, 3 Sep 2015, Ewald Böhm wrote:

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:47:02 -0700, taxed and spent wrote:

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

Maybe I don't understand. Actually, I don't understand.

To watch youtube, you need a browser, which is usually a program compiled
for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating system, and which
has a certain byte order and memory structure and a whole bunch of other
things associated with a "computer".

Is the TV acting as a "computer"?
If so, what operating system is the TV?

What browser does it use?
What architecture is that TV browser compiled for?


And a tv set has become a computer. They needed a CPU to handle the data
conversion, so they might as well allow it to be used as a more general
purpose computer.

Both my DTV sets run Linux. A subset, but it's there.

My blu-ray player runs Linux too, as does my TomTom One GPS. It's free,
and yet provides a full OS for building on top of.

Michael

"EwaldBöhm" wrote in message ...


Ewald?
LOL

On 03 Sep 2015, Ewald Böhm wrote in
alt.home.repair:

To watch youtube, you need a browser,

No, you don't. You just need an interface that will display Youtube
content. It's included with a smart TV.

which is usually a program
compiled for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating
system, and which has a certain byte order and memory structure
and a whole bunch of other things associated with a "computer".

That's all included in your smart TV.

Is the TV acting as a "computer"?

Yes.

If so, what operating system is the TV?

I assume it's some customized version of Linux, but it doesn't matter
unless you're planning to hack it. Normally you're given a user
interface that will allow you access to the features built into the
smart TV, which will include apps to access Internet content providers
like Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and others. It may also include
some games and other miscellaneous stuff. It may even include a web
browser (mine does, but it works poorly.)

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 17:33:08 -0400, Nil
wrote:


I assume it's some customized version of Linux, but it doesn't matter
unless you're planning to hack it. Normally you're given a user
interface that will allow you access to the features built into the
smart TV, which will include apps to access Internet content providers
like Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and others. It may also include
some games and other miscellaneous stuff. It may even include a web
browser (mine does, but it works poorly.)

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly interested in
having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I want to avoid what
you have, if any other browser works better, that is.

--

Stumpy Strumpet
the bimbus
for dogcatcher

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV
remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't
work and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's
nothing I'm interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just
use one of the several other computer devices in the house.

In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.

remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't
work and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's
nothing I'm interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just
use one of the several other computer devices in the house.


--

Stumpy Strumpet
the bimbus
for dogcatcher

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 17:33:08 -0400, Nil wrote:

Normally you're given a user interface that will allow you access to the
features built into the smart TV, which will include apps to access
Internet content providers like Youtube, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and
others.

Is this correct yet?

1. You hook up this "smart TV" to the power but to no other wires.
2. The WiFi connects to your router, so the TV is "on the net".
3. The TV has built-in apps to get movies on Youtube, Hulu, Netflix.
4. Some TVs have a web browser - but they're so slow as to be useless.
5. Some have a DirectTV (coax wired?) input in the back of the TV?
6. Some TVs have built-in games.
7. You can't *add* anything; it's all built in to the TV OS.

Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

On 9/3/2015 10:38 AM, Michael Black wrote:
On Thu, 3 Sep 2015, Ewald Böhm wrote:

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:47:02 -0700, taxed and spent wrote:

so you can connect to the internet and watch Youtube, netflix, etc.

Maybe I don't understand. Actually, I don't understand.

To watch youtube, you need a browser, which is usually a program compiled
for a certain computer, which runs a certain operating system, and which
has a certain byte order and memory structure and a whole bunch of other
things associated with a "computer".

Is the TV acting as a "computer"?
If so, what operating system is the TV?

What browser does it use?
What architecture is that TV browser compiled for?


And a tv set has become a computer. They needed a CPU to handle the
data conversion, so they might as well allow it to be used as a more
general purpose computer.


Ya, so now you get to wait for it to boot up every time you turn it on.



Mikek

On 9/3/2015 7:01 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.


I have a Sony, and it's slow too!


remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't
work and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's
nothing I'm interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just
use one of the several other computer devices in the house.

On 2015-09-04, Ewald Böhm wrote:
Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

A disadvantage to Smart TVs is that they quite literally spy on you. At
least one manufacturer has issued a warning about it:

https://www.thestar.com/business/tec...-smart-tv.html

I really don't understand why anyone would even consider the purchase
of such a device. I suppose for many that convenience and entertainment
trump all other considerations these days.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015 07:45:51 -0500, amdx wrote:



Ya, so now you get to wait for it to boot up every time you turn it on.


If I turn on my TV and computer at the same time, the TV barely beats
the computer at booting.
It takes 17.86 seconds for the picture/sound to show up for the TV.

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 08:00:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Fri, 4 Sep 2015 07:45:51 -0500, amdx wrote:



Ya, so now you get to wait for it to boot up every time you turn it on.


If I turn on my TV and computer at the same time, the TV barely beats
the computer at booting.
It takes 17.86 seconds for the picture/sound to show up for the TV.


BTW, that's a hard-wired HD TV attached to a basic cable box not
providing HD.

On 04 Sep 2015, Ewald Böhm wrote in
alt.home.repair:

Is this correct yet?

1. You hook up this "smart TV" to the power but to no other wires.

Not necessarily. If you have a TV feed from an antenna or cable
service, you hook that up, too. The "Smart" features are internet only,
so you need an internet connection to use them. You could hook that
part of the TV to your home router with a cable or wirelessly.

2. The WiFi connects to your router, so the TV is "on the net".

Yes.

3. The TV has built-in apps to get movies on Youtube, Hulu,
Netflix.

Yes.

4. Some TVs have a web browser - but they're so slow as
to be useless.

Well, mine is. It displays content slowly (I think that there isn't
much memory or storage in the TV for buffering, plus the browser itself
may be a Java app, which is inherently slow to start up) but the worst
thing about it is that you have to navigate using your TV remote. You
may be able to hook up a computer keyboard, which would help.

5. Some have a DirectTV (coax wired?) input in the back of the TV?

There's a coax input on mine, but I don't know anything about DirectTV.

6. Some TVs have built-in games.

Yes. There are "apps" included with the Smart TV software, analogous to
the apps on your smart phone. The apps on my Samsung TV can be updated
from them. You can purchase others, I think.

7. You can't *add* anything; it's all built in to the TV OS.

The OS and apps may be updateable from the manufacturer.

Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

There may be others. Actually, if I knew then what I know now, I'd get
a dumb TV and add one of those add-on boxes like Chromecast or whatever
to get the content I use. Most of the apps on my Samsung suck royally.
I only use a couple of them.

In alt.internet.wireless Ewald BC6hm wrote:
Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

That's about it. I think my Sharp TV is Android.
Slow, clunky. Even the apps that work are inferior to what you would have
on a phone/tablet/PC.

I use the "MiraCast" option to cast my Android tablet to the scrren quite
often, so I can see my cat videos from YouTube in better quality.

--
Clarence A Dold - Santa Rosa, CA, USA GPS: 38.47,-122.65

In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 4 Sep 2015 07:47:23 -0500, amdx
wrote:

On 9/3/2015 7:01 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.


I have a Sony, and it's slow too!

Okay. I can remember that too. But I'm getting discouraged.

I think I should follow Mark Lloyd's advice in next thread about using
wires when one can.

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a
keyboard/mouse to plug into it;, and an AV balun with cat6 to connect
the computer to the DVDR



remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't
work and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's
nothing I'm interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just
use one of the several other computer devices in the house.




--

Stumpy Strumpet
the bimbus
for dogcatcher

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:03:13 -0400, micky wrote:

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a
keyboard/mouse to plug into it

Do I understand the situation correctly that the WiFi enabled TVs are dog
slow, for example, at browsing, because of two fundamental flaws?

1. The CPUs are slow, and,
2. Using a remote to type URLs is slow.

You can't fix the CPU processing power.
But, can you simply add a standard bluetooth keyboard?

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 14:44:21 -0400, Nil wrote:

Well, mine is. It displays content slowly (I think that there isn't much
memory or storage in the TV for buffering, plus the browser itself may
be a Java app, which is inherently slow to start up) but the worst thing
about it is that you have to navigate using your TV remote. You may be
able to hook up a computer keyboard, which would help.

Can't you just connect any old bluetooth keyboard to solve that problem?

Ewald Böhm wrote:
On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:03:13 -0400, micky wrote:

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a
keyboard/mouse to plug into it

Do I understand the situation correctly that the WiFi enabled TVs are dog
slow, for example, at browsing, because of two fundamental flaws?

1. The CPUs are slow, and,
2. Using a remote to type URLs is slow.

You can't fix the CPU processing power.
But, can you simply add a standard bluetooth keyboard?

Don't think blue tooth is not on the TV. I have an AMD A10 laptop
dedicated as HTPC. Laptop connects to AC2600 router on 5GHz. My down
load speed is 50mbps solid. No problem even real time streaming 1080P,4K
UHD, 3D videos. Native 4K material is rare but A/V receiver upscale to
4K on 4K 60" set. Our HT is 7.1 set up. Biggest I could afford for the
family room space. For storage I have small 4 bay Synology NAS with
4x2TB WD Red drives.(not powerful enough for some codec)

In sci.electronics.repair, on Sat, 5 Sep 2015 04:43:38 +0000 (UTC),
Ewald Böhm wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:03:13 -0400, micky wrote:

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a
keyboard/mouse to plug into it

Do I understand the situation correctly that the WiFi enabled TVs are dog

I don't have a new tv.

slow, for example, at browsing, because of two fundamental flaws?

1. The CPUs are slow, and,
2. Using a remote to type URLs is slow.

You can't fix the CPU processing power.
But, can you simply add a standard bluetooth keyboard?

Thanks but won't work for me. You've come in in the middle of the
story, Not worth repeating it.

wrote:
In alt.internet.wireless Ewald BC6hm wrote:
Is that the sum total of the advantages of WiFi on a TV?

That's about it. I think my Sharp TV is Android.
Slow, clunky. Even the apps that work are inferior to what you would have
on a phone/tablet/PC.

I use the "MiraCast" option to cast my Android tablet to the scrren quite
often, so I can see my cat videos from YouTube in better quality.

THat probably is a very good and simple idea. Connecting laptop or
tablet to use as primary display and big creen TV set as a duplicate
display.

micky wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair, on Sat, 5 Sep 2015 04:43:38 +0000 (UTC),
Ewald Böhm wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:03:13 -0400, micky wrote:

So I think I'll just get a USB active extension cord and a
keyboard/mouse to plug into it

Do I understand the situation correctly that the WiFi enabled TVs are dog

I don't have a new tv.

slow, for example, at browsing, because of two fundamental flaws?

1. The CPUs are slow, and,
2. Using a remote to type URLs is slow.

You can't fix the CPU processing power.
But, can you simply add a standard bluetooth keyboard?

Thanks but won't work for me. You've come in in the middle of the
story, Not worth repeating it.

Micky, B4 asking whole bunch of questions, you ought to search for your
answers on the 'net. Specially Youtube gives lots of visual demos. Be
specific when you have questions. Like telling us what you have and what
you are trying to do and what problem you are running into or something
you don't understand. As far as TV set goes, we're in HDTV era and HDMI
cable takes care of a/v hook ups. When you mention WiFi, then do you at
least have a router for your home network in your home?

On 9/4/2015 5:03 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 4 Sep 2015 07:47:23 -0500, amdx
wrote:

On 9/3/2015 7:01 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.


I have a Sony, and it's slow too!

Okay. I can remember that too. But I'm getting discouraged.

I think I should follow Mark Lloyd's advice in next thread about using
wires when one can.


Nothing to do with wires, just turning on the tv to watch, it takes to
to boot,
and you must wait in order to change the channel.
Mikek
before

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 10:21:58 -0400, Ralph Mowery wrote:

if you have say Direct TV you can get movies and other shows on demand
bystreaming off the internet.

I don't have direct tv.
My router does not have a coax input.

I thought that was a coax cable coming out of all those direct tv
antennas I see on houses.

If the output of Direct TV is coax, how does that coax get "into" your
network?

It can't go through the router.
How does it get into your router without a coax connector on the router?

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 10:49:10 -0400, gfretwell wrote:

My Samsung will take a USB mouse/keyboard but it is pretty clunky
searching the web.

I guess a USB wired mouse and keyboard would be useful.

Do most of these WiFi TVs have the ability to accept a typical USB mouse
and keyboard?

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil wrote:

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV
remote is painful. I tried hooking up a USB keyboard, but it didn't work
and I haven't bothered to try to troubleshoot it, since it's nothing I'm
interested in using. If I want to browse the web I'll just use one of
the several other computer devices in the house.

I went over to a friend's house who had a new samsung wifi tv and the
browsing was so slow that I'd say it's unusable for two reasons:
1. Typing the URL with the remote was punitive, and,
2. Once you had the URL, the time to load was interminable.

This might just be a bad Samsung TV, but, wow. It's great for checkboxes
but it doesn't work in real time.

In sci.electronics.repair, on Sat, 5 Sep 2015 12:12:45 -0500, amdx
wrote:

On 9/4/2015 5:03 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 4 Sep 2015 07:47:23 -0500, amdx
wrote:

On 9/3/2015 7:01 PM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:36:31 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Sep 2015, micky wrote in
alt.home.repair:

So what do you have that works poorl?. I was particularly
interested in having a browser (more than having Netflix.) so I
want to avoid what you have, if any other browser works better,
that is.

I don't know what it's called, it's just whatever was included with my
Samsung TV. It's deadly slow slow slow, and navigation with the TV

Okay, I can remember Samsung. Thanks.


I have a Sony, and it's slow too!

Okay. I can remember that too. But I'm getting discouraged.

I think I should follow Mark Lloyd's advice in next thread about using
wires when one can.


Nothing to do with wires, just turning on the tv to watch, it takes to
to boot,
and you must wait in order to change the channel.
Mikek
before

That's bad too. I hate my smart phone because it takes so long to turn
on, and 5 steps to turn off. The "bar" phone I used to use turned on or
off in a second or two.

My Philips DVDR, which does it's main job very well but has a bunch of
design flaws, takes noticeably longer to change channels than does the
Zenith set-top box.

On Thu, 03 Sep 2015 19:40:40 -0700, Ameri-Clean wrote:

I recently got a smart TV then got a message from my provider (DIRECTV)
that I need to connect to the internet.

The output from the Direct TV is a coax cable, right?
How does that coax cable connect to your router?

On 05 Sep 2015, Ewald Böhm wrote in
alt.home.repair:

The output from the Direct TV is a coax cable, right?
How does that coax cable connect to your router?

It doesn't. The TV network connection is via the common wireless or
ethernet cable.

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 15:52:39 -0400, Nil wrote:

It doesn't. The TV network connection is via the common wireless or
ethernet cable.

So, help me here.

Let's say the DirectTV dish is on the roof, and it has a coax cable that
goes down the side of the house, through a wall, to a wall plate.

From that wall plate, how does "it" (i.e., the tv signal) get on my
"network"?

You said the tv signal gets into the network via either the wireless
connection or through the wired ethernet (cat5) cable.

But, how does that coax cable tv signal get to either one of those (i.e.,
how does the coax connect to the wifi or the ethernet cable)?

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 17:57:53 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:

The DirecTV boxes I've had all had an ethernet connection that I plugged
my home network into. I think some of the newer boxes also have wireless
capability, or maybe they provide a separate device to connect
wirelessly.

Oh. That explains it!

So, the coax cable that comes out of the dish on the roof then goes into
a "box" which has, as outputs, either coax or RJ45 or a wifi antenna?

Is that correct?

On Saturday, September 5, 2015 at 7:49:36 PM UTC-7, Ewald Böhm wrote:
On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 17:57:53 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:

The DirecTV boxes I've had all had an ethernet connection that I plugged
my home network into. I think some of the newer boxes also have wireless
capability,

So, the coax cable that comes out of the dish on the roof then goes into
a "box" which has, as outputs, either coax or RJ45 or a wifi antenna?

There are 'cable' systems that provide Ethernet I/O, and satellite
systems that provide an Ethernet socket (on older ones, telephone modem),
which is intended for Internet connection through your OTHER network
services. Satellite receivers rarely include any transmit-back-to-the-satellite
provisions, meaning they don't support full internet connection.

DirecTV says "we bundle with top internet providers", because the
internet service is distinct from the satellite receiver of television programming.