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Remember When Your TV Just Turned On?

Samsung-TV-Apps-0516I love new technology. In fact, I teach a course on how new technology effects Advertising, Marketing and PR at the University of North Carolina.

But, sometimes I hate it.

Remember when your TV just turned on? Oh, how I long for this days…

Now, then you hit the TV power button on your remote (if you’re lucky enough to have everything wired together so the cableTV box or your Apple TV / Roku box turns on from that same, said, button) and you have to wait 10, 20 and sometimes even 30 seconds for a picture to appear. The TV “boots” up now. Then, the Apple TV set-top box or the cableTV box boots up and goes to a static menu awaiting your command.

The TV doesn’t just turn on and play TV anymore. Ugh.

att-uverse-0516The other day, I was driving home and heard on the radio that someone was being interviewed by CNN — on TV — in just a few minutes. I hurried home, parked my car, rushed inside and, well, hit the TV remote and waiting. And, waited. And, waited. The TV seemed (this was confirmed later to be true) to be doing some sort of software update. So, what was normally a 30- to 45-second boot-up before I can hit the cableTV remote’s “OK” button to confirm that I do, in fact, want to watch TV, now took 3 minutes or so. And, by then, half the interview was gone. Ugh, again!

Sure, I can (and did) find it online later that night and watch it via the CNN app. But, where’s the immediate gratification in that?

Seriously? Can’t anyone build a TV or a set-top box that just turns on anymore?

I would pay more! I will pay a premium to have the TV (and assorted connected gear) just turn on the moment the TV remote control button was pressed.

Oh, how I long for the days of the 1990s…

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