Which "Smart TV" OS is best for Emby and fastest?

[Devdroid 23]

The obvious answer should be Android TV, but since pretty much all of the ATVs out there run on the same old SoC it's so slow: https://www.mediatek.com/products/digitalTv/mt5596 (Most phones today priced around USD 199 are way, way faster than this ancient SoC). 

 

There's a new SoC coming next year, which should be in the 2019 models and improve things, but can't wait that long. 

 

So: LG/WebOS 2018 or Samsung Tizen 2018? Which is best? 

Edited November 1, 2018 by Devdroid

[Luke 42077]

Hi, they are both great choices.

[ebr 16169]

That is true but my answer to your question is "None" for the very reason you have found.  When you rely on the embedded software in the TV you will always be way behind.

 

I suggest you buy the TV with the best picture quality and other features you require and then use a separate stick/box for your streaming applications.  That will give your TV a much longer life and allow you to keep current with streaming technology.

[metsuke 27]

I actually tried both a Roku and Amazon Fire TV.  Both gave me problems with playing certain media types.

 

I've had a very good experience with LG's WebOS in general, and it plays 100% of my Emby content.  Other embedded TV software I tried (Vizio, Sceptre) couldn't even get me far enough to want to install the Emby plugin.

[shrouski 7]

Has anyone tried a small Windows TV stick/PC with bitstream out to a receiver? I really don't want to use Android unless it has Emby Theatre, it just looks so much better.

Edited November 15, 2018 by shrouski

[Luke 42077]

Has anyone tried a small Windows TV stick/PC with bitstream out to a receiver? I really don't want to use Android unless it has Emby Theatre, it just looks so much better.

 

Not recently but I've done testing with intel compute stick in the past and it performed fine.

[jachin99 88]

Honestly if you don't like slow, then i wouldn't put a big bet on Samsung or LG to deliver an optimize app experience, even out of the box.  I think if you want a contemporary setup you should look at the NUCs, or some other SFF PC.  Research which bugs are present in our purchase choice because there is almost always a bug.  My NUC crashes when I put it to sleep, and then resume because of a poor display driver I'm guessing.  I just leave it on all of the time.  I'm still on DLP in my theater, and it does fine with my PC.  Its one of the last mitsubishis ever made, and impressively enough, the VUDU app still works!!

[fraddyD 0]

I believe both of them will do