Does anyone review streaming capability on any tv's?

[Comfysofa]

As above. Ive never posted on here....just joined and watched but this is something that in my opinion makes or breaks a TV. Ive got a couple of LG tv's (one OLED and one Nano) - i was looking for a 75"cher for a spare room (for mainly streaming films in on) - my budget wasnt large but i settled on a samsung 75" Q75T (a break from the LG's that i have) and thought "ill just go for a change..." how wrong i was...a change yes but, not in a good way....

1. Picture seemed to be blotchy on some solid colours....not a great problem but you find yourself looking for it.
2. Samsung didnt want to navigat through my PiHole ad blocked - again fixed with a permanent ip....(the LG's go through fine)
3. After plugging in a Nintendo switch and the TV identifying it, it then didnt - thereafter it was HDMi "unknown"
4. And the biggie. Native streaming. The LG's native "Photo & Video" app browses my plex server with ease. In most cases the Native tool is better then plex as its less hassle quicker and easier to nativate. The samsung failed hopelessly at best....it couldnt display any coverart, played a couple of films, couldnt identify the rest and randomly disconnected (after a firware update i might add)

To jump back a bit in other rooms ive got an old 32" samsung in our room a couple of generations before tizen and one before that...all with good pictures and still running but bought when streaming wasnt on my hit list of must have apps. Those of you that say, "well, just use plex.." yes i do but at the end of the day i just want to watch a film...im not interested in who directed it and their latest pic....yes, it looks nice and i can appreciate that, but, The native app "just works". So essentially after countless revisions of their TV's - theyve still not managed to get it right...how this has not been brought up in any review i find incredible...unless ive missed it somewhere (any youtube links i welcome).

Anyway....early yesterday morning i couldnt sleep so went down to have a play and do some testing/fault finding and fixing...see if i could sort it out myself....no dice. I hopped on the samsung forum and the little icon was there to chat to a support bod. After about half an hour - no further...he essentially said about the HDMi unknown issue as "yeah - we know about that - it "should" get fixed with a software update" and the streaming he had no answer or fix for it.

So, its back in the box ready to be collected by Currys. Im going to go for a Nano906 (which currys dont have in stock) and other retailers are selling out of fast so got one from John Lewis. Hope this helps anyone that has a read...

 

[next010]

Thats not quite what "streaming" means in common use these days. When people talk about they are talking about Netflix etc. It's generally not covered in reviews, most mid range to high end TV's these days have decent enough media features.

Your issues are local network based with DLNA media playback.
1 - Plex apps are just front ends to the internal video player on the TV same as DLNA video player.
2 - DLNA servers require compatibility profiles to work properly, the Plex server likely did not have one for your TV or applied the wrong profile.

You probably would have gotten better results using a server like Serviio.

 

[Comfysofa]

I would disagree....my brother has 3 different generations of LG and they all work. And, ive got 3 different generation of Samsung and none of them work (in that they work but all as i stated. My brother has one samsung tv (a different generation of tv to 3 samsungs that i have) and, that doesnt work either. Plex adheres to the DLNA standard. I find it unbelieveable that plex, one of the biggest home server solutions would not get it right over so many generations (and for that matter with one of the largest suppliers of TV's) and 3 different generations of LG would all work.

I have just clicked on your link to serviio - never heard of it but thanks very much all the same - always good to look at new stuff. It does look a little basic.

I am aware of what streaming is....the point i made is that the local streaming is a functionality which both (in this case) manufacturers offer (they offer a native dlna app for local use) - my perception is that samsung is way behind and always has been IMO. For the record ive also got another DLNA server called mezzmo which i dont use anymore and yes - even that works on the LG and not on the samsung....it is also Java based like serviio.

 

[Sloppy Bob]

Which is why I'd always advocate using an external streaming device rather than relying on a TV.

TVs are picky about what video filetypes, video and audio codecs they'll playback so when relying on Plex you get transcoding to compensate.
A decent external streamer plays everything natively.

 

[Jagjit]

DLNA was always great on paper but a hassle to use in real life (for me anyway).
I agree that an external android type stick works so much better, whether it’s plex or kodi, to stream files natively with no transcoding/processing. You can change the view options to folders rather than films if that helps the navigation.

Out of interest how are you hosting the media? NAS Box, Windows PC etc. An advantage with Kodi is that you can add SMB shares (Windows Shared Folders) and other formats directly without relying on DLNA.