Vizio has a knack for making TVs with strong image high quality at affordable costs, however its SmartCast platform has been an also-ran subsequent to the likes of Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s WebOS. I’ve all the time questioned why Vizio doesn’t simply deal with {hardware} and license Roku or Android TV for software program.
At CES 2020, Vizio made a nice case for SmartCast’s continued existence. By controlling its personal software program, Vizio can supply issues that different platforms don’t, like higher aggregation of streaming content material and help for each AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. And with Vizio’s newest TVs, the software program is turning into much more fluid. While I’d hesitate to declare that SmartCast is outright higher than the likes of Roku or Android TV, it does have its perks.
All about aggregation
One of the largest rising traits in streaming TV this 12 months shall be makes an attempt to tame the rising variety of streaming companies that customers should take care of. Jumping between a dozen completely different apps to browse for content material is not environment friendly, and I believe we’ll see much more efforts to combination throughout sources like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney+, and so forth.
Vizio suggests motion pictures and exhibits to look at, then directs you to the suitable app.
At CES, Vizio’s SmartCast software program represented a kind of efforts. (The just-announced TiVo Stream 4K is another.) From the SmartCast house display screen, you possibly can browse for motion pictures and TV exhibits and see an inventory of find out how to stream them. SmartCast will then take you on to this system itemizing within the applicable app while you make a choice. With the notable exception of Netflix, each SmartCast app will feed content material into this common menu.
While this isn’t a brand new function in SmartCast, Vizio is constructing on it this 12 months by personalizing its suggestions primarily based on the apps you’re utilizing and by including a “view more” possibility, so you possibly can browse extra strategies that don’t seem instantly on the house display screen. Vizio can also be refining its “WatchFree” app that streams free on-line channels, sourced primarily from Pluto TV. SmartCast 4.0 will help marking channels as favorites and leaping shortly between genres.
Jared Newman / IDGVizio’s “WatchFree” part gives fast entry to internet-based dwell channels.
New voice search
Vizio can also be updating the TV distant on its P-Series and OLED units with two large modifications: Dedicated channel quantity buttons are gone—an acknowledgement, maybe, that streaming has made them out of date—and there’s now a push-to-talk button for voice management.
Jared Newman / IDGVizio’s new distant is easier and has a voice management button.
With voice, you possibly can ask the TV to vary settings and seek for content material, and whereas the latter function continues to be in growth, it confirmed a formidable quantity of granularity in my demo at CES. Searches for “Show me movies with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks,” “Show me sci-fi movies from the 1970s,” and “show me the Oscar winner from 1958” all returned correct outcomes. Follow-up searches additionally work, so you possibly can ask for James Bond motion pictures, then press the voice button once more to specify simply those with Sean Connery.
Jared Newman / IDGUniversal search is not a novel streaming TV function, however at the least Vizio is getting with the occasions.
Long-term help
A standard criticism of good TVs is that distributors are inclined to abandon outdated units earlier than lengthy, so if you’d like the most recent software program, you’ll both should improve to a brand new TV or purchase a separate streaming participant to plug in.
Vizio, nevertheless, has been establishing a observe document for preserving its SmartCast TVs updated. All of its SmartCast units from 2016 onward run the identical software program and help the identical apps, and final 12 months, Vizio added Apple AirPlay 2 help even for these older units. As of now, meaning SmartCast is the one streaming TV platform that helps each AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast.
Support for 2016 TVs will proceed with SmartCast 4.0, and you may even buy the brand new voice distant individually if you wish to add push-to-talk options. The fundamental distinction in software program between newer and older SmartCast units is efficiency, as the most recent fashions have quicker chips that enhance load occasions and make scrolling extra fluid. Even on older units, nevertheless, Vizio has been optimizing its software for older TVs in order that apps and menus load quicker.
The upside to good TV sofware
Last 12 months, a Vizio govt provoked some pearl-clutching after speaking candidly with The Verge about “post-purchase monetization.” At the time, the exec acknowledged that firm makes cash by way of focused advertisements and content material gross sales on SmartCast, which led to a bunch of tales concerning the evils of good TV software program and the necessity for TVs which can be dumb by comparability.
SmartCast 4.0 illustrates the flip aspect: Because Vizio can proceed to earn a living from customers after promoting its {hardware}, it has an incentive to enhance its software program with new options and higher efficiency over time as a substitute of simply pushing customers towards {hardware} upgrades. In that sense, SmartCast isn’t all that completely different from Roku or Amazon Fire TV, which pursue the identical technique by way of their streaming bins and good TV platforms (and have similar trade-offs by way of privateness and advert concentrating on).
Vizio’s insistence on competing in earnest with these platforms is on some stage irritating. Ultimately, it’s one other platform that app makers must help, and one other issue TV consumers should contemplate atop a pile of buy selections.
Still, I’m not writing SmartCast off as a rickety good TV whose advantages primarily accrue to Vizio’s backside line. After years of regular enhancements, it’s beginning to seem like one thing that customers would possibly truly get pleasure from as nicely.