Samsung Reveals Entire 2016 Smart TV Line-Up will be IoT Ready

My expectation is that it’s the other way around: IOT is an add on feature to sell more $4,000 televisions and refrigerators. Not more $40 sensors or $10/month video storage.

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I agree with Forbes contributor, Theo Priestley. In an article titled:CES 2016 - Still Important But Beware Of Hype Without Value, he said:

“Why. Why would you want to control anything in your home from your TV ? Technology is supposed to improve our lives and wellbeing, not tie us to the couch just to switch on the lights in the bedroom. Remember the humans in Wall-E ?…Companies are developing simple mobile apps as the interface and gateway for a smart and connected home, Samsung wants us to sit in front of the box instead.”

source:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2016/01/02/ces-2016-still-important-but-beware-of-hype-without-value/

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True, but at the same time, one has to wonder who will return a 3,000 TV because an app that they don’t need or want is not working? People will buy a TV because they need one, not because they want to watch the mail man dropping a box at the door. But they may chose Samsung over LG, because the ‘TV is home automation ready,’ just like the TV that it will replace was ‘3D ready’.

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I’m curious if you’ll need to be hardwired for the ST features to work.
That might be inconvenient for a lot of people who typically run their Smart TVs wirelessly.

If it does work wirelessly, then I hope they allow that to be the case for the traditional hub going forward (would be very helpful for those with wired devices that need to be close to the hub for pairing… it at least works on battery now, but you still need a network cable to reach the area)

I don’t agree with that article at all personally. The living room is generally a place where people spend most of their time at home. There happens to be a TV in most living rooms in America. There’s no reason to think that a hub built into a TV won’t also have app access on your phone. But a TV has a speaker and (more recently) a microphone built in. If you think of it as an Amazon Echo-type appliance with a screen, it makes far more sense.

I honestly have no problem with the strategy. The problem is, Samsung seems to be treating SmartThings like something that is consumer-ready, when it’s nowhere near that. There’s still basic platform stuff that needs to be figured out, and here Samsung is treating it like the only problem is expanding the reach / market.

IMHO, that’s why is going to be limited (maybe just the room where the TV is going to be). Definitely, location of the new hubless strategy is going to complicate a full automation house, and that’s why for additional control a ST hub will be required, or as mentioned, new hubless strategies.

From my point of view, it makes perfect sense for Samsung to purchase ST to provide an edge in the competitive TV market (short term), while developing something for the longer term.

I don’t expect it to be limited to the room the TV is in. They are offering a USB stick with Zwave and Zigbee to plug in. As long as devices are in range (whether directly to the USB radio or via repeaters) they’ll connect and function.

The last thing ST wants to do is fragment their market by offering 2 different but similar products (a standalone hub that covers the whole house and a TV that only controls your living/media room).

The goal is to unify. That is what will save overhead and allow them to be profitable.

Since they’ve already mentioned security cameras, it’s likely to cover more than one room. :wink:

Whether the connection is WiFi, LAN, or cloud, it still opens up location options, even without the stick.

We’ll see.

For all I care Samsung can stick the ST technology in anything they want to, as long as they provide the infrastructure and the budget to fix the platform. It only makes sense to me that Samsung didn’t buy ST to fund a 99 dollars hub that makes no money and comes with so many issues. I just hope that last year’s hub will still be maintained in some fashion, until the next best thing arrives.

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I think this view is as absurd as saying that today they want us to sit in front of the hub to turn the lights on.

Most of our automation is just that… automated. The controls on the TV could be similar in concept to a SmartTiles setup in a common space.

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If we are taking it out of conext, that may be the case. But the point was that sitting on the couch to turn the bedroom lights off, is not the trend or something that is desired by many. Serious “companies are developing simple mobile apps as the interface and gateway”… Putting it on the TV is a risk. We may become the humans in Wall-E or we may not…

There really is no context given in the article. Does the hub being built into a TV (and/or USB stick) really mean that there won’t be a mobile app as well? I wouldn’t assume that, but if that’s the case I’d consider it a bad move or at least a missed opportunity.

I’ve had 2 Samsung smart TVs. I found their software to be very flakey and unreliable. With the Samsung software, the apps for popular channels like Netflix and Amazon Music would often refuse to run. I tried all the troubleshooting tricks, to no avail. Many people seemed to be reporting similar issues. I finally got so frustrated that I bought a Tivo, which is much simpler and more reliable

Hopefully this new software will not suffer from the same problems as the Samsung smart TV. I’m very happy with my Smartthings hub, hopefully their good work will carry the day.

As far as I’m aware, Samsung doesn’t write the Netflix app for example.

INTERESTINGGGGGGGGGG . . . .

How does Samsung / SmartThings plan to battle UK/EU laws that ban live tv streams (all channels) from been covered in any proportion by tickers/boxes/alerts/pip etc . . .

I have an EU 2013 F Series plasma (60") and LED (40") and both have the tickers, PIP and notifications aspects disabled as they are EU models . . . Which is apparently due to UK broadcasting laws unlike places like the US.

Do you have any thoughts or explinations on this bit for us UK users? How do ST plan to ahow cctv pips as notifications or doorbell alwrts etc etc (basic features to make this viable) any ideas or views on this peeps . . .

I love the idea, i just want to make sure us EU consumers will benefit just as much as US users and not have a “limited” version . . .

@Tyler @tgauchat @JDRoberts

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Not to be argumentative, but I’m not sure it matters who wrote the applications. I bought a Samsung TV (2, actually), and the Smart TV functions worked very poorly in both cases.

The TV itself occasionally goes off-line on its own and I have to power it down then back up. My experience with Samsung TV software is not good.

My Smarthings hub behaves just as I expect.

Not to be argumentative but you stated it was Samsung software when it’s entirely possible it’s not, so blaming Samsung for the (potential) issues of other companies isn’t entirely fair.

For the record my 2013 works just fine, I’ve had the occasional glitch but otherwise all the functions work as expected.

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To be fair im with Benji on this . . . Ive had little to no issues with my 2013 Smart Tvs and both are reguarly updated by Samsung etc . . . Infact the new UI is a major refurb on the old and seems somehow to have speeded up app loading too . . . Thats on a 3 year old tv thats still be supported . . .

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Sammy will do the software, using Netflix APIs, as their new TVs are running tizen. Rest assured it will be as crappy as all of the other software/ui they are known for.

Their PR says “THEY developed the hub ‘with’ SmartThings”, so expect that to be at least as flaky as it is now.

I bought both of my Samsung TVs in 2015. I’m very happy with them with regard to picture quality, etc. But I would not recommend them to anyone who wants a smart TV unless they are willing to buy an add-on product like Tivo, Amazon Fire Stick, etc.

I’m pretty good with technology and I didn’t mind trying to fix the problems. I checked all the online resources I could, but I was unable to fix the problems with updates, etc. If I could have found alternative apps that were more reliable, I would have been happy to use them. But I couldn’t. So I gave up and bought a Tivo, which I have found to be simple and reliable.

This my experience. YMMV.