Which Samsung TV Apps are the best?
October 29, 2011 12:04 PM Subscribe
What are the best Samsung TV Apps for watching movies and TV?
I just bought a Samsung TV and a blueray player that allows me to access hulu plus and Netflix. I noticed that there is an app store that offers other movie and tv watching opportunities. I'm especially excited about this because I'm on the verge of cancelling my cable service. Does anyone have any experience with any of these apps - Blockbuster, vudu, CinemaNow, ChannelLive, etc. and have comments on them? Also, suggestions for other good apps are welcome.
Thank you!
I just bought a Samsung TV and a blueray player that allows me to access hulu plus and Netflix. I noticed that there is an app store that offers other movie and tv watching opportunities. I'm especially excited about this because I'm on the verge of cancelling my cable service. Does anyone have any experience with any of these apps - Blockbuster, vudu, CinemaNow, ChannelLive, etc. and have comments on them? Also, suggestions for other good apps are welcome.
Thank you!
I can vouch for VUDU and Netflix on my TV, but not any of the others - most of the other TV Channel apps seem to be in languages I don't speak or care to watch generally, I don't have any pro-sports subscription packages, and I doubt a TV's CPU would make for incredibly fun games when compared to my consoles. My experience so far, though, is that the apps I have glanced at look like ports from the respective PS3 apps.
The VUDU app looks almost exactly like the one on my PS3. What's even better is that you get the free $5.99 on a per-device basis, so even if you already have a VUDU account, you will still get the $5.99, at least until you link your TV to your account.
The Netflix app looks exactly like the old one on my PS3. Same exact setup they had before they upgraded it. You may prefer this, actually! Compared to the PS3, it is a little laggy when pulling up the movie thumbnails, though.
In fact, that is probably my only real complaint about the Samsung TV apps - they are a little laggy, and what's more, they queue up your button presses, so if you don't have a response to a menu click, then hit it 10 more times, it may look frozen for a few seconds, then zip through 5 menus to start whatever random movie was at number one on your list.
posted by mysterpigg at 8:56 AM on October 31, 2011
The VUDU app looks almost exactly like the one on my PS3. What's even better is that you get the free $5.99 on a per-device basis, so even if you already have a VUDU account, you will still get the $5.99, at least until you link your TV to your account.
The Netflix app looks exactly like the old one on my PS3. Same exact setup they had before they upgraded it. You may prefer this, actually! Compared to the PS3, it is a little laggy when pulling up the movie thumbnails, though.
In fact, that is probably my only real complaint about the Samsung TV apps - they are a little laggy, and what's more, they queue up your button presses, so if you don't have a response to a menu click, then hit it 10 more times, it may look frozen for a few seconds, then zip through 5 menus to start whatever random movie was at number one on your list.
posted by mysterpigg at 8:56 AM on October 31, 2011
I can't say that I'm overly impressed with Samsung TV apps. Some don't work, like the BBC News app that has never successfully displayed any video content. There are others that ought to exist but don't.
Now here's the interesting (to me) bit: it appears that the apps on the TV are some combination of HTML and JavaScript. Using developer mode, you can load your own non-App-Store apps onto the TV. Most users probably won't want to write their own apps, but it opens up possibilities.
For those of us who have been working on cutting the cord by building up our own media libraries, for example, the totally awesome Plex Media Server has an unofficial client for the Samsung TV that can be loaded up. I have two TV's with nothing more than power and ethernet connected to them. No HDMI. No coax. No RCA. With access to our local media library, and for the cost of a Netflix subscription, a lot of other odd stuff, we haven't felt it to be substantially missing anything significant.
Our DirecTV bill had increased from around $30 to around $70 over the last decade or so, for roughly the same level of service, and the value proposition was already solidly in the "buy content directly" department. No commercials, watch at our convenience, all that.
It's very different than the TV I grew up with. It's kind of fun.
posted by jgreco at 3:46 PM on January 3, 2012
Now here's the interesting (to me) bit: it appears that the apps on the TV are some combination of HTML and JavaScript. Using developer mode, you can load your own non-App-Store apps onto the TV. Most users probably won't want to write their own apps, but it opens up possibilities.
For those of us who have been working on cutting the cord by building up our own media libraries, for example, the totally awesome Plex Media Server has an unofficial client for the Samsung TV that can be loaded up. I have two TV's with nothing more than power and ethernet connected to them. No HDMI. No coax. No RCA. With access to our local media library, and for the cost of a Netflix subscription, a lot of other odd stuff, we haven't felt it to be substantially missing anything significant.
Our DirecTV bill had increased from around $30 to around $70 over the last decade or so, for roughly the same level of service, and the value proposition was already solidly in the "buy content directly" department. No commercials, watch at our convenience, all that.
It's very different than the TV I grew up with. It's kind of fun.
posted by jgreco at 3:46 PM on January 3, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sharkfu at 10:36 PM on October 29, 2011