FIRMWARE UPDATES

[johnjo569]

What are Panasonic like with ongoing firmware updates to their existing models? Do they regularly bring out updates improving issues/apps/settings that may arise? I have a Panasonic LED that’s around 9 years old and am wanting to update but the support for my old tv seemed to be non existent. Iv looked through the various threads and can see Sony and LG regularly update their TV’s

 

[Clem_Dye]

They don't. It's not worth their while. Why offer a firmware update to something that's old, incurring a heap of costs, when they can flog you something newer that will be supported for perhaps two years before they loose interest in it? My Panasonic FreeviewHD PVR, which I purchased in 2013, is still going strong (touch wood!), but was nearly rendered useless a couple of years ago by a transmission change that stopped it recording programmes on certain muxes. Luckily, the change was regressed, otherwise I'd have to not only worked out for a new machine, but sent a perfectly working piece of electronics to landfill for the want of a small firmware update. It's the way of the world.

In my experience, Panasonic is about the worst for supporting older kit, with Samsung a close second. That said, all of the manufacturers are pretty much the same. Think about it: if they produced perfect kit and supported it ad infinitum, why would anyone buy anything new?

 

[CaptainJames]

Yeah Panasonic are not good, two years support if you are lucky.

 

[johnjo569]

What's annoying is if you bought an iphone 10 or a similar android you still get software/firmware update support for years after so there's no excuse for these top end TV makers really. Especially when you are paying sometimes well over £1000 for these items.
I remember when I got my last Panny and it was almost devoid of apps thinking this will get updated at some point or they'll bring a firmware update out soon to sure up any small errors or make some enhancements... but nothing.

Its the only thing putting me off a Panasonic really, their support system.

 

[larkone]

@johnjo569 Android phone update support is 3 years and Apple is 5 years.

What people forget is that as apps get bigger, more complicated with added functionality then the processors in older TVs just cannot support them so this is why you do not get updates for that long.

 

[Clem_Dye]

Maybe, but the apps. on TVs have a limited set of functionality, so don’t evolve in the same way. There might be a few tweaks along the way which eventually fall foul of a TV’s CPU or memory capabilities, but I don’t think that a comparison between TV apps. and ‘phone apps. is entirely valid in this case.