All Of Samsung's 2015 Smart TVs To Be Powered By Tizen

[phoronix]

Phoronix: All Of Samsung's 2015 Smart TVs To Be Powered By Tizen

Samsung Electronics announced today, one week prior to the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, that all of their Smart TVs this year will be powered by the Linux-based Tizen operating system...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTg3NzI

[GraysonPeddie]

I'm curious... In the future, would it be possible to install a Smart TV operating system of my choice? That is, if I decide I don't want Tizen but want Samsung due to black uniformity? What I mean by black uniformity is this website: http://www.rtings.com/info/black-uni...-flashlighting

Besides PlayStation Now, what can Tizen do that Android TV cannot do?

I'm thinking I might go with Android TV, so my brand of choice might be Sony, hoping the black uniformity will be the same as Sony W600B or better.

But then, what about Ubuntu TV? Well... not like I can dual-boot between two Smart TV operating systems... Speaking of which, I could go back to Ubuntu if Unity supports GTK 3.14+ (Hmm... I wonder if I could make use of Unity in Elementary OS...?).

Pardon me with all the questions that I have on top of my head. Heh heh.

And oh, yes. I do have my computer and PS3 hooked up to my Marantz SR-5008. I may need to upgrade my Marantz receiver to get 4K60Hz support which is another $900 down the drain. And my receiver is connected to my Vizio 39" dumb TV with no local dimming. Although it's a Full Array LED, I am too skeptical about local dimming. C'mon! Why can't manufacturers make 40" TVs with deepest blacks?

[flyflytn]

Never had a good experience with Samsung software

Phoronix: All Of Samsung's 2015 Smart TVs To Be Powered By Tizen

Samsung Electronics announced today, one week prior to the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, that all of their Smart TVs this year will be powered by the Linux-based Tizen operating system...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTg3NzI

I've never had a good experience with Samsung's software - it always feels like its been done by a work experience kid. Maybe not so much their mobile stuff, but certainly in their TV's and PVRs I've always found many bugs that never get fixed by patches. Some of them in particular are show stoppers - my Samsung PVR is terrible for this.

Their hardware is great, but let down by bugs or poorly designed UI. Lets hope that Tizen is better...

[GraysonPeddie]

Referring to my post due to the edit time limit...

I'm curious... In the future, would it be possible to install a Smart TV operating system of my choice? That is, if I decide I don't want Tizen but want Samsung due to black uniformity? What I mean by black uniformity is this website: http://www.rtings.com/info/black-uni...-flashlighting

Besides PlayStation Now, what can Tizen do that Android TV cannot do?

...

Oh, wait! My PS3 already supports PlayStation Now. Never mind!

[duby229]

I've never had a good experience with Samsung's software - it always feels like its been done by a work experience kid. Maybe not so much their mobile stuff, but certainly in their TV's and PVRs I've always found many bugs that never get fixed by patches. Some of them in particular are show stoppers - my Samsung PVR is terrible for this.

Their hardware is great, but let down by bugs or poorly designed UI. Lets hope that Tizen is better...

Yeah, I've played with Samsungs 3d SmartTV. It was probably a 2013 model. The interface obviously is not accelerated in any way. And I d oubt highly it even has a gpu. Obviously it has all the interface controllers for the different inputs and outputs, each one most likely accelerated by hardware. In my opinion it's cpu is totally inadequate to render the interface they designed. It really needs a graphics processor to accelerate it.

EDIT: And it's a TV, it should have a graphics processor. A beasty one.
EDIT: I taste the end of the consoles!

[Nobu]

Honestly, it'd probably be fine if they used the same SoCs they use in smartphones...the resolutions are generally lower than smartphones, and your tv isn't exactly a gaming machine (just needs to do some video decode work, for video streaming, and the UI stuff most of the time), probably doesn't even need much ram, maybe 2GB.

Of course, with 4k+ TVs they'll need more powerful graphics hardware, but for their mainstream stuff I don't understand why their hardware struggles so much with simple transitions and interaction.

[droste]

Have you seen recent smart TVs? They have the same needs as PCs with browser, apps (+games), streaming, widgets, different input methods (pointer, remote control, motion recognition, etc) and so on. So you basically need everything a PC has.

[chimpy]

It will be great to finally see Tizen in action in 2015, but as far as smart tvs go, I rather just buy something cheap like a Roku.

[Awesomeness]

Besides PlayStation Now, what can Tizen do that Android TV cannot do?

When I compare Android TV (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQFvwwQeIfU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ1_-M-1mRc ) to Tizen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7O-1dIRjlA Android TV looks just clumsy to me.
So apparently the options to control Android TV are either via arrow buttons or a friggin game pad (so 1990's), stupid Kinect-like hand gestures, or to use my phone (that I rather use for a second activity, not to occupy two devices with the same). Knowing Google they'll definitively will not only make Android phones as mandatory as possible, they'll also spy on everything.

Samsung seems to have learned the one thing the Wii did right: Use the remote as pointing device.

But if I had to choose, I'd go with LG webOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83qFpKEZ10
It also uses a Wii-like remote but is so much smoother than both of the above. Considering that both webOS and Tizen use HTML5 technologies for apps, I'd be surprised if 3rd party applications won't be available on both platforms equally anyway.

But then, what about Ubuntu TV?

Dead: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu...tv/trunk/files
Last commit 2011.

[Nobu]

Have you seen recent smart TVs? They have the same needs as PCs with browser, apps (+games), streaming, widgets, different input methods (pointer, remote control, motion recognition, etc) and so on. So you basically need everything a PC has.

Or everything a phone has: +1080p screen, wigets, apps/games, browser, streaming video/audio, different input methods (voice/motion/facial recognition, pointer/touch control, etc), keyboard/mouse/gamepad input (yes, I can use all three with my phone), camera, and then some. The only difference is the pixel density (because TVs have a greater viewing distance, the pixels aren't spaced as closely together), and you might have more on the screen at once (so you'd need more RAM and a little more processing power), but otherwise they're basically the same. Since they're in a larger enclosure, their cooling requirements can be met more easily (so they can be run with more voltage or at a higher clock, if necessary), and because they're connected to the wall you don't have to worry about draining the battery.