Hi Everyone,
I wanted to ask a few questions and see if my experience with my TCL TV (65P6US) is the standard or if it is the exception as so far I am not impressed. I settled on this TV based on rave reviews of the US Roku based counterpart calling it the best TV for the money, great performance in both hardware and software etc. It was only when I went to the store that I learned the Aus version uses Android, I was informed that performance would be identical or very close to it.
However the TV is so laggy that if I can avoid using it I will, not the best when you buy a new TV and quickly prefer using a PC screen or your phone to watch a video. Lag can kick in at any level whenever it feels like it, from scrolling down the home page, to going through the settings or using an app...any app. You can scroll and click a button and the delay means you'll see no movement for several seconds then it will do it all at once. Netflix has got to the point of where I do a full hard restart before even loading it to avoid frequent visual pauses (audio still plays). FYI if you are having this issue then this works but it is so frustrating to have to do every single time as it takes a while to start back up. You also risk it going into a seemingly endless boot cycle where you can leave this TV for 5-10 minutes and it will still be at the android startup screen.
The media player app that comes with it is frustrating, I've downloaded several others from VCL to Apex and MX and none seem to play the same range of files or they crash frequently. However the TCL media app, unless I am doing something wrong, frustrates because if you press back when drilled down into files on a HDD it returns you to the very top level i.e. select your HDD or source, rather than just go up one level. This also happens if you are watching a file and then press back, perhaps hoping to go and select another file in the same folder. It also defaults to organise by time rather than name which you can change but you have to do it after every restart and if you do it in a HDD it doesn't change that level of files and if you go back it still boots you out to the top.
( TLDR - Avoid buying any TCL Android TV based product. )
I've tried a few quick fixes I read online, like going into the advanced settings and limiting the number of background processes and lowering animation times etc to try make it snappy but to no avail. I've reached out to TCL tech support multiple times and only had one super non helpful response back. This has led me to the following questions
- Are you having a similar experience? If so did you find a solution?
- Is there any word on when the new Android update will be rolled out and based on past history what is the average time from being released by google to being released by TCL?
- Can anybody speak to the performance difference on Android N to O?
- Small one here but if anybody knows how to change the TCL media app to default permanently to sort by name and stop this kicking to the very start whenever I press back it'd be appreciated.
- Is it possible to flash the TCL Roku OS over Android? I'd rather take the hit of missing out on Android and some apps but have a fast responsive TV experience.
- Is it possible to flash a stock version of Android TV and still have my TV work? I'd guess no but if so that'd be great.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
On the whirlpool address above there are instructions to do a shop reset try updating and doing that.