Only 2013 & newer smart TVs to get YouTube Apps soon?

[satrow]

A quick search failed to lead me to an earlier topic on this.

https://support.google.com/youtube/a...ort&hl=en&rd=1

Certain older YouTube apps will no longer be supported after April 2015

Devices affected: Select devices manufactured in 2012 and earlier, including Sony TVs & Blu-ray Players, Panasonic TVs & Blu-ray Players, and devices running Google TV.

On April 20, 2015, we will no longer support the YouTube app on certain device models from 2012 and older, as we upgrade the Data API that these apps are based on.

We will continue to focus our efforts on improving our official YouTube app for TV which is available on most 2013 and newer smart TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and streaming devices. You can find a list of our device partners here.
How can I continue using YouTube on my TV?

If you have a web browser on your Smart TV that supports flash and/or html5, you may be able to continue using YouTube by visiting youtube.com in your browser.

Sony's list of affected models.

[kalniel]

Ah shucks, mines a 2012 panny model. Oh well, it was kind of expected that the smart apps were going to be outdated at somepoint. Can always stream instead.

Hmm though looking at the pictures, I think mine looks like the newer one anyway.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3153576?hl=en

[shaithis]

Do many people use these apps? I've had 3 smart TVs and only given the apps a cursory glance. Using a remote as an input device means it's quicker to turn a PC on!

[herulach]

I occasionally use the one on ours for remote playback. If you're on an android device (or PC) on the same network you get a little broadcast icon that will queue the YouTube video to the TV. Almost never use the built in functionality though. Even with the crazy wiimote thing LG uses its a pita to input text

[kalniel]

Do many people use these apps? I've had 3 smart TVs and only given the apps a cursory glance. Using a remote as an input device means it's quicker to turn a PC on!

Don't know how many do - we certainly use netflix and iplayer quite a bit, with you tube occasionally.

[Saracen]

Do many people use these apps? I've had 3 smart TVs and only given the apps a cursory glance. Using a remote as an input device means it's quicker to turn a PC on!

I've no idea how many people do. Suffice it to say I haven't even connected my 'smart' TV to the internet, which I guess suggests how much I do. I can conceive of me using, on occasions, catch-up type services, but I'm not bothered enough to have yet connected it. Apps? Nah.

[MrRockliffe]

I use Netflix on mine. It's quite good actually as an app. YouTube and all the others are terrible at best with a remote, rather than a mouse + keyboard.

[Output]

Wouldn't any manufacturers simply be able to release a firmware update supporting the newer API? Or does it make more sense to assume that they've already stopped updating it?

[DanceswithUnix]

Wouldn't any manufacturers simply be able to release a firmware update supporting the newer API? Or does it make more sense to assume that they've already stopped updating it?

They *could*, but I suspect they wouldn't want to QA the app against the crazy number of TV models they will have churned out in the last couple of years.

In a similar way, my Samsung TV is one of their first smart ones. I don't use the smart features so I am not that pothered, I bought it for picture quality, but it does seem that there are lots of apps available for other Samsung TVs that won't run on mine. I have to wonder why, I know it is just an embedded Linux system in there and I would have thought an app would just be a python script or similar that renders some html style markup and/or routes video to the video decoding device. Should be very device independent anyway.

[Millennium]

:sadface:

Given the terrible bitrate of most youtube video, I hardly see how they can justify this as a company. If they were a UK company, I bet they wouldn't be doing this (oooh controversial!)

I can see though from a programming point of view it makes a little sense, though as DanceswithUnix suggests I also think that they are just embedded Linux systems that need upgrading. Upgrading the API would be a last resort if I was in charge, hopefully it was just that.

Also, for those witha smart TV or similar not using the smart features, iPlayer makes this a must try for me. I've tried it with a smart Toshiba TV (amazin) and with a sky box (also amazin). Smart TV is a huge value add and it's well worth your time and effort, even compared to a HDMI connected x86 laptop. How else would you catch all those BBC Masterchef semi finals?

[DanceswithUnix]

Also, for those with smart TV or similar not using the smart features, iPlayer makes this a must try for me.

It probably depends on the age of the device. As I said, my Samsung TV is an early smart model and in the time it takes to meaningfully respond to pressing the "smart" key and waiting for the app list to appear on screen I could have fired up the Wii-U and be watching something on Netflix. Really, it is that bad.

OTOH, The Wii-U is by far the best Netflix viewer I have used (I don't do much iplayer).

[Saracen]

...

Also, for those witha smart TV or similar not using the smart features, iPlayer makes this a must try for me. I've tried it with a smart Toshiba TV (amazin) and with a sky box (also amazin). Smart TV is a huge value add and it's well worth your time and effort, even compared to a HDMI connected x86 laptop. How else would you catch all those BBC Masterchef semi finals?

As one of those not using smart features, I don't doubt that iPlayer is useful to some people, or even many/most people. But when you say it's "well worth your time and effort", well, there I disagree. Worth yours, it seems, yes. But mine? Nope.

There's a whole series of factors that feed in to that. First, I don't watch that much TV in the first place. I'm quite selective about what I watch. Second, currently, I have no less than five recorders hooked up. Two Pioneer, one Panasonic, one Humax and a Sky box. Two of them are dual tuner. So that means I can record 7 programs simultaneously. Oh, and if I plug an HD or memory stick into the TV USB port, I can record direct from TV too, so make that 8 programs I can simultaneously record.

I VERY rarely watch anything on TV live. Exceptions are rare, but might include MotoGP races, snooker finals, the occasional BBC wildlife program and, when I watch it, the news.

Everything else is recorded and watched later, not least to skip, or even edit out, adverts.

So how often do you think I need iPlayer to get something I missed?

Then, of course, there's the fact that you never quite know what either an app, iPlayer or not, or even the TV itself, is "sending home". Several TV manufactures have been caught doing this, snooping on users TV habits, and for the record, yes, I object like hell to them doing that. It seems to me that the ONLY way to be sure my TV isn't reporting back to Samsung, LG or whomever, is to ensure it does not have access to any communication channel to do it.

So, the price for a few naff apps on my TV is the risk, however small (and we just don't have enough info to quantify it) is that risk to my privacy and that, to me, is unacceptable.

Besides, if I really wanted an odd prog on iPlayer, I could always get it via PC or tablet. But, in some years, I've not needed to.

Is my attitude commonplace? Not among the tech-cognoscenti that tend to be found on forums like this, I suspect, though I'd also bet it's far more common among older (and perhaps, more cynical) people than you might think. I certainly know quite a few that not only don't have, but don't want and even won't have an internet connection at all, for much the same reason.

[Smudger]

I've used the apps on my Smart TV once. On the day it was set up, in an 'ooh, look what it does' kind of way.

My VM Tivo has iPlayer built in, as well as all the other major catch-up services, and has a YouTube facility, but I've never used that, and I've got a Chromecast for Netflix, Play Movies, NowTV, etc so I've never found the need to even look at the Smart Apps on the TV since that first day.

[Saracen]

Another thing about SmartTVs .... rarely does there seem to be much updating. You generally seem to get whatever you got on the day you bought. A better solution, IMHO, is a smart box of some sort, hooked up to the TV which, in my world, is just a display, a monitor, effectively. That "box" might be my standalone HDR, or Smudger's Chromecast, or a PC, or .... well, whatever.

Personally, if I could have got my current TV in a Smart-less for a fiver cheaper, I would have. I value the fiver more than Smart capability in the TV. YMMV.