Internet widgets on TV

This is not what I'm searching for. Written on 28-05-2011 by lukasv

Nowadays, more and more TVs have the possibility to connect to the internet. This sounds good, but is it user-friendly too? Is it just a gimmick, or something you'll really use?

These days, all famous TV brands offer TVs that can access the internet without a computer. This sounds good, but is it really that useful?

Surfing the web on your TV works differently than surfing on your PC. The big difference lies in the way of navigating. You control your computer with a mouse, a keyboard or even a touchpad. Most TVs don't have this equipment, so you are completely reliant on the remote control.

There are two ways to surf on the TV.

Use a standard browser. This resembles the way you surf on a normal PC.
Use widgets. Widgets are apps that are made especially for the TV (like there are apps for a smartphone).

Surfing with a standard browser

Surfing with a standard browser allows you to visit any website you want. Right from the beginning you'll face some problems, though. Because you don't have a keyboard, you'll have to type in the url with the remote control, like on a cell phone: the numeric keypad also serves as keyboard (1=a,b,c ; 2=d,e,f etc.). Therefore, typing a url is a big task. What's more, the sites you'll visit aren't made for browsing with a remote control. You'll understand that this kind of surfing is quite inconvenient, and that you'll fall back quickly on your PC.

Surfing with widgets

To make surfing on TV more user-friendly, most TVs have special internet widgets. These widgets are apps designed especially for TV. This means that they are adapted to browsing with a remote control. The act of booting a widget and navigating through it, happens mainly with the arrow keys and the OK button. The big disadvantage of this kind of browsing is the limited amount of websites that have made a widget for the TV. At the moment, most brands offer several dozens of widgets: that's nothing compared to the countless websites you can navigate to on a normal PC. The number of widgets will grow, of course, but it will never even come close to the amount of sites there are on the internet.

Even though there aren't that many widgets for TV, some of them are funny and useful. They can give you a quick insight into the weather or files, but you'll also get some kind of interactive TV, as most manufacturers offer a widget that allows you to rewatch a broadcast you have missed. This allows you to watch a TV program that was broadcasted a few days before on demand, without a subscription for interactive TV.