Roku's Service Outage Shows Why a Smart TV is Not Always The Best TV
A Service Outage Can Brick Your Roku Smart TV
With the recent snafu that caused widespread outage of many Roku powered televisions, leaving them virtually useless. It left many Roku customers scratching their heads and many bad cuss words were undoubtedly said out loud.
Here's What Happened
The Verge
What made this even worse, is not only could they not access their Roku, some users reported they could not even use external devices like DVD players, or gaming machines attached to their TV's HDMI ports. This outage rendered their expensive Roku TVs useless.
Fortunately, this time, the outage did not last long. But it shines the light on something many of us never expected or even considered could happen. A television dependent on another partys software and servers, to function, could easily become a doorstop if that company ceased to support their product or went out of business.
For most of us, it would not be the end of the world if a $29 Roku Streaming Stick stopped working. Most consumers would simply move on to a Fire TV, Chromecast or other inexpensive Android Media Streamer.
But if this were to happen to a television costing several thousand dollars, for most consumers, this would cause an emotional meltdown. Before this happened, almost no one ever considered this was even a possibility. But now the cat is out of the bag. Roku customers may never look at Roku TV or any other smart TVs the same way again.
It's getting harder to find televisions that are not Smart TVs. But they still exist and are typically sold commercially as professional displays or signage monitors. The good news is there are some really high-quality televisions available. Signage monitors are designed, so it's easy to add external media streaming devices by HDMI port. So they don't really have a need for the smart TV software.
And since they are built for commercial business, they often are higher quality than many cheaper low budget Smart TVs. But they don't cost more than Smart TVs. And to get the best prices, be sure to check eBay for deals on overstocked, or new models with a full factory warranty.
"Roku experienced a significant service disruption on Wednesday evening, which resulted in some of the company’s streaming devices and even Roku TVs getting stuck on the loading screen or going through a reboot loop and becoming effectively useless. Roku TV sets from TCL, Hisense, and other manufacturers were affected."
What made this even worse, is not only could they not access their Roku, some users reported they could not even use external devices like DVD players, or gaming machines attached to their TV's HDMI ports. This outage rendered their expensive Roku TVs useless.
Fortunately, this time, the outage did not last long. But it shines the light on something many of us never expected or even considered could happen. A television dependent on another partys software and servers, to function, could easily become a doorstop if that company ceased to support their product or went out of business.
For most of us, it would not be the end of the world if a $29 Roku Streaming Stick stopped working. Most consumers would simply move on to a Fire TV, Chromecast or other inexpensive Android Media Streamer.
But if this were to happen to a television costing several thousand dollars, for most consumers, this would cause an emotional meltdown. Before this happened, almost no one ever considered this was even a possibility. But now the cat is out of the bag. Roku customers may never look at Roku TV or any other smart TVs the same way again.
Professional Displays (Dumb TVs) Are Still Available
It's getting harder to find televisions that are not Smart TVs. But they still exist and are typically sold commercially as professional displays or signage monitors. The good news is there are some really high-quality televisions available. Signage monitors are designed, so it's easy to add external media streaming devices by HDMI port. So they don't really have a need for the smart TV software.
And since they are built for commercial business, they often are higher quality than many cheaper low budget Smart TVs. But they don't cost more than Smart TVs. And to get the best prices, be sure to check eBay for deals on overstocked, or new models with a full factory warranty.
Some Signage Monitors, and Commercial TVs don't include an ATSC Tuner
Carefully check the specs before you buy a Dumb TV. If it does not include a TV tuner, you can add an external one which now even comes with ATSC 3.0 and can also be used as a DVR like the excellent HDHomeRun.
These are all high quality commercial signage displays that you can use with standalone media streamers like a Roku Ultra, Apple TV, or Nvidia SHIELD.
Carefully check the specs before you buy a Dumb TV. If it does not include a TV tuner, you can add an external one which now even comes with ATSC 3.0 and can also be used as a DVR like the excellent HDHomeRun.
Commercial Business Quality Dumb TVs
These are all high quality commercial signage displays that you can use with standalone media streamers like a Roku Ultra, Apple TV, or Nvidia SHIELD.
Samsung QB65R 65" 4K UHD LED Commercial Signage Display TV
Samsung 55" BE55T-H Pro TV Commercial Digital Signage Display TV
Samsung BE43T-H 43" 4K PRO UHD HDR Commercial Business Display TV
Samsung 55" BE55T-H Pro TV Commercial Digital Signage Display TV
Samsung BE43T-H 43" 4K PRO UHD HDR Commercial Business Display TV
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Use of third-party trademarks on this site is not intended to imply endorsement nor affiliation with respective trademark owners.
We are Not Affiliated with or Endorsed by Roku®, Apple, Google or Other Companies we may write about.
