I finally gave up on my “smart” TV and bought a streaming…

I finally gave up on my “smart” TV and bought a streaming box insteadxda-developers.com

If you have ever used a smart TV in your life, you know the pain I'm about to outline. Smart TVs with Google TV or Android TV are available from almost every brand. However, even after all these years, they still suffer from poor performance, basic navigation challenges, and limited discovery features. Even the relatively expensive models from the likes of LG and Samsung with first-party operating systems feel like they're begging you to bypass the software entirely and buy a streaming device.

And that's exactly what I did a while back on my Hisense TV. I was already invested in Apple's ecosystem, so the Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) was an easy pick. While much more expensive than the alternatives, it's one of the most polished experiences in its category. It's still not without some minor flaws, but my TV experience has never been better. It probably comes as no surprise that most smart TVs are riddled with incapable hardware.

The processors and RAM in these devices aren't equipped to deliver a smooth, stutter-free viewing experience. My Hisense TV was fairly responsive when I bought it years ago, but within a year, it became a chore to use. From the gradually increasing boot time to waiting almost a minute on the home screen for things to pick up, even basic usage was starting to feel like punishment. Navigating the UI and switching between apps were sluggish, and some apps took way longer to launch than they had any right to do.

Plus, the Android TV OS didn't have much in the way of intelligent software features — it was barely keeping up. The home screen was riddled with needless recommendations that were nothing short of intrusive ads. Replacing the TV with yet another underpowered model wasn't an option. The image quality may have come a long way over the last few years, but the likes of Android TV, webOS, and Tizen OS are still resource hogs that strain the hardware they run on.

I had the option of buying a cheap streaming device to bypass my TV's native software, but I would have found myself in the same boat a few years later. Considering my partner and I already had multiple Apple devices in our house, the Apple TV 4K was starting to feel like the right answer. We debated the investment for a while, but eventually bought it when the frustration with our TV became too much to handle.

If your smart TV's operating system is stuttering, clearing its cache is often a quick way to speed it up. The damage was around $170, which was significant for a streaming box, but it was the only money we'd spent on our TV setup in over five years. Given the Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) 's reputation, we were confident the ROI was there. Once we got the box and set it up, we realized we should have upgraded sooner.

The difference between the Android environment and tvOS was mind-boggling. Launching and switching between apps, navigating the settings, and modifying the home screen were a delight. Even the apps that felt like dinosaurs on Android TV (looking at you, Prime Video) ran surprisingly fast on Apple TV. The UX was simple and uncluttered, allowing us to focus on what was important rather than being bombarded with pointless content.

Even the high-quality screensavers feel like a small but neat addition. Thanks to the A15 Bionic chip inside, I finally felt confident running stuff like Steam Link and Plex on the TV, something I never would have imagined on the terrible hardware of the Hisense TV. Playing my Steam games from the comfort of my couch and streaming our local movie library on the TV are now some of the best ways we enjoy our new streaming box.

And the Apple ecosystem I mentioned? — It finally got rid of mirroring our phone screens on the TV. AirPlay works like a charm every single time, and my partner loves to cast her MacBook and iPhone screen on the TV whenever she wants to show me new photos or our next travel itinerary. As smooth, powerful, and uncluttered as the experience is, Apple TV 4K isn't without a few hiccups. First, the universal search feature, which is otherwise quite useful, doesn't always work as intended.

If I search for a show I know is on Netflix, the OS sometimes returns no results or unrelated results. It's only a few more steps to find the show or movie myself, but that's not the point — universal search should work as advertised. Then there are the rare but noticeable bugs with audio input. Even after spending a considerable time with the device, it sometimes doesn't register my voice when searching for something.

Perhaps the most annoying thing is the frame drops as soon as I play a heavy media file, such as a 27GB movie on Plex. For the first few minutes, everything works great, but then the movie starts stuttering, and that doesn't really go away. I came across a Reddit user who solved this issue with a 120mm PC fan, and I'm considering doing the same. The stuttering seems to stem from the overheating hardware when it encounters large 4K files.

I could even skip the heatsink, connect just the fan to 12V power, and tape the thing to the top of the Apple TV 4K. I need to arrange the power supply and find some free time for the DIY job. It sucks that I have to make makeshift additions to an expensive streaming box to stop it from stuttering, but other workarounds, like playing relatively small 4K files (like 10GB), also exist. The Apple TV 4K is a feature-rich media streaming device that will provide access to all your favorite streaming services for movies and TV as well as music, fitness, gaming, photos, and more.

It's simple to connect to a TV and operate via the included remote. But you can use your iPhone to control it, too. Give your older smart TV a fresh, modern feel with simple projects that add new features and make everyday viewing more enjoyable. The decision not to upgrade our TV and buy a quality streaming box instead turned out to be the right one. We don't feel like we need anything more than a 50-inch screen, and the image quality is honestly great for our needs.

I use an OLED monitor on my PC, and my partner's iMac M1 has a 4.5K display that's not too shabby either. With the smarts now outsourced to the Apple TV 4K and the sound quality handled by our old but gold Blaupunkt soundbar, our existing setup can realistically last another 3–4 years.

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