Friends, I got my first smart TV in 2011. I’d hoped at that time that it would be the only streaming device I would need. I soon learned, just like all of you did, that streaming TVs of that era suffered from poor organization, a lack of popular apps, and were dog slow. By 2014 it had gotten to the point where I more or less gave up on that dream. That was ten years ago.
In 2017, I was looking for a low-cost TV for a spare room and decided on a Roku TV, which was a pretty new thing at the time. I didn’t worry much about the “smart” features, which were not the reason I bought it. I bought it, as opposed to any other TV, because I figured if any smart TV had a chance of lasting more then three years it would be Roku. The operating system used by these TVs is developed side by side with standalone Roku players so I figured I’d have a while working with this TV.
Along the way, I discovered that Roku does have some apps which are not part of the Apple ecosystem, and so I’d eventually dig into that TV to watch them.
I think my luck has run out
My Roku TV recently got the latest update, and my feeling is that it probably shouldn’t have. Since the update, it’s been ridiculously slow, even in simple things like changing inputs. It’s started having HDMI problems it never had before. Sometimes lately it just flat out freezes. Yes, it’s 7 years old. If it were a 7-year-old streaming box, any of them besides the Apple TV anyway, I’d probably just upgrade it and move on. But this is a whole TV and despite the fact that I can replace it for $150 with something vastly superior, it seems really wasteful to totally chuck it.
In the meantime, there’s another TV I bought a year later for another spare room. It was $99 for a 32″ 720p TV. It’s not in a room I use a lot. That TV is still doing great. It never had smart features or an app, and I never worried about it. If I’d have bought a similar TV instead of the Roku TV, it would still probably be working great.
A word about my Apple TV boxes
I have a couple of Apple TV HDs, which I bought new in 2015. By tech standards, that makes them total dinosaurs. They’re not as fast as they once were, especially compared to the latest and greatest. But they still work. They don’t freeze and they’re about the same speed they were when they were new. Of course they were about the same price as that Roku TV when they were new, so I’d expect them to last a little longer. My only point here is that it is possible to create a streaming device that can last almost a decade. It just seems that most manufacturers… don’t.
How much time should you expect to get from a streaming box?
That’s sort of the question we ask about all tech, right? I have wired earbuds from 20 years ago that work great. My first-gen wireless ones stopped working after about 18 months because of dead batteries that couldn’t be replaced. I have computers that still work pretty well even though they’re 12 and 13 years old. I’ve put Linux on them because I don’t want the security issues associated with running Windows 7 in 2024. But they would run Windows 7 if I wanted them to. On the other hand, I’ve gone through two Chromebooks in four years because they just stopped functioning.
It’s not always a matter of cost. As I said the Apple TV devices are way more expensive than any other streaming hardware, so you expect them to last longer. But as I pointed out above, that $99 TV is still going strong while the Roku TV that cost twice as much is pretty much toast at this point.
In the early days of streaming, I was willing to forgive a device that turned into a boat anchor after 2-3 years. But we’ve all been streaming now for over a decade. Whether you use Google, Roku, Apple, Amazon or something else, it’s all pretty mature. At this point I would expect to see devices that worked for the long haul, right?
Or is that the problem?
If my Roku TV had told me a year ago that it was going to stop getting updates but would still work the same as it did, I’d be ok with that. I’d know that sooner or later some apps would stop working. YouTube, for example, is famous for breaking older streaming devices as it updates its own encoding standards. But I’d be ok with that. I’d even be ok if there were three choices: (1) keep the TV in a permanent state of 2023-ness, (2) eliminate all streaming features and turn it into a regular TV, or (3) take my chances.
And yes I get it, I could have disconnected the TV from the internet last year and I’d be fine now. But I didn’t know how bad things were going to get and it’s too late to revert.
It’s all water under the bridge now, I suppose. I’m off to the club store to buy another one. This TV is driving me crazy.
