Even though many people may have a Roku or FireTV, Samsung TVs, and thus Tizen, make up almost +30% of North America’s television market share in 2026. That’s not a trivial amount. This number rises to 40% for Premium Mini-LED TVs and 50% in the Premium TV (>$2,500) space.
My problem with most Samsung TVs is that their hardware and upgrades go stale quickly and don’t get updated as they move on to newer hardware.
To me, using a Roku or FireTV is a no-brainer because of their longevity of use. We have the latest Roku and FireTV, but I know you have older Roku devices, maybe even 10 yrs old, that are still working.
Can you buy a TV that isn’t a smart TV. Hopefully people buy a TV for the actual TV features and not the Smart features. And if so it’s meaningless to imply that all Samsung TV users are using Tizen. If LG and SAMSUNG TV owners were using WebOS and Tizen, Roku and Fire TV Stick would be out of business.
Yes my Roku 4200, 4660, 4802, and 4850 all work. As do my Fire TV sticks gen 2, gen 2 4K, and 4K max.
It is damned near impossible to find a TV that is just a TV. Not only that, more and more manufacturers are making it harder and hard to NOT use the smart features.
I have a couple of VIZIO TVs in my house… not the best, but good enough for me. I bought a new on just a few months ago and this one it nothing but a pain the a@*. It keeps making assumptions about what it thinks I want to do and starts up in modes that I don’t want. Then have to go find the factory remote and fight with it to get switched back to the mode and input I want (I really only use the ROKU remotes day-to-day). I went into the settings and set it to ALWAYS start up set to the last input used (HDMI 1), but it would continue start up sometimes on the smart apps screen, or trying to do some firmware update… to make things worse.
Eventually, I did a factory reset, and DID NOT connect the TV to the WiFi. That mostly solved the problems… mostly.
I have come to the conclusion that it really depends on what the OS is. The only one I like (that I have tried) is the Roku TV. I like that you can totally eliminate the home screen by hitting the input button on any other remote. It will start up on the input you choose by default or the last input (and of course the Roku home screen is an option).
For a couple of years now, I really had no use for any Roku apps, so I never saw the home screen. Recently, I had an app or two that work best with Roku, so I started using it more often. It is pretty much identical to a Roku Stick which I have on another TV.
To me, this is the ideal situation. All of the other TV OS’ I have tried pretty much force you to look at their home screen (and their ads, even if it does eventually go to your last input). The Roku approach gives me the best of both worlds. It stays behind the scenes until I want to run an app in Roku.
Probably not, but can’t you dumb them down by not connecting them to a network?..and use a streaming device in place of the smart TV features.
Our pre-Tizen 2010 model 55" Samsung TV is still going strong with a Roku. What I mean is that Tablo only works with specific Tizen versions, which Samsung sometimes abandons or leaves behind because some HW can’t be upgraded to later Tizen versions. Whereas, like you, Roku owners enjoy a much longer HW lifecycle with Tablo.
I’ve never connected a TV to the internet. I pick an STB and model that does the job I want for all the apps I have. Now if Nvidia would come out with a new up to date Shield so Plex would be happier.
Keep in mind people have multiple TVs in their house . And for every TV if you keep buying Roku what is a point of having a smart Tv with Tizen as OS .
The smart tvs are having all the features and enhancing at a faster pace with new technologies. If Tablo wants to be on the market they have to enhance their product for smart Tvs than Roku. Lot of apps are. Getting on the smart tvs than Roku
The point is that one can stretch their television investment further, as I demonstrated with our 2010 model Samsung 55" non-Tizen TV [still] running both the OG and Gen4 Tablo software on the latest Roku software.
If you want a Smart TV, okay, no worries. I didn’t ask Tablo to make my old TV work with their system - I bought a Roku.
In my experience, support for Smart TV operating systems is shockingly short. After just a few years, they “age out” and the manufacturers no longer support the OS or the current versions of even the most popular streaming apps.
On the other hand, I have some pretty old Roku boxes, and they are working just fine and continue to get updates. Not only that, if they do eventually sundown the support, I can replace them for less than $100.00.
