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Vizio manufactures both TVs and soundbars. Their modern televisions are easily connected to apps that appear on the screen as widgets. Click on any widget to access the app and use the program. You can connect Netflix, Amazon Prime and just about any other streaming service for both video and audio. You can also connect directly to YouTube and web browsers for any general internet search needs. You can easily add and remove individual apps or reset the Vizio television for a completely fresh start.
Before you begin resetting the Vizio television, make sure the issue is originating with the television and not the app. Check your internet connection first to ensure the internet service and your wireless router are both running smoothly. Try running a personal computer or smartphone on the wireless connect and play a video to ensure it works properly. Next, make sure the service you are using is also functioning properly. Your Amazon video player may stick on a frame and freeze up because the service is experiencing an outage. This happens on occasion. Try testing another streaming service before drawing the conclusion that you need a reset.
You don't have to quit Amazon Prime when your Vizio Amazon app is not working in 2018, or when your Vizio TV Netflix is not working either. You can reset the individual app settings instead. To do this, access the settings panel and the app manager. Delete any apps that are not working and re-install the latest version. Also, check for updates and push any updates live to make sure the widgets are functioning properly.
If you need a fresh start, quit Amazon Prime and any other apps that are running. Next, press the menu button on your remote control. Scroll down and select the Settings option. Scroll down again and select the Reset and Admin option. Scroll to the option for Reset TV to Factory Defaults and click OK on the remote. This will completely reset the television to the original factory settings. It will be in the exact same mode as when first purchased. Doing a reset wipes the slate clean and you can load new apps as desired. The new apps will have the latest versions and your TV won't be bogged down by dated widgets and overextended memory. You will however lose any preferred settings after the reset.
Zach Lazzari is a freelance writer with extensive experience in startups and digital advertising. He has a diverse background with a strong presence in the digital marketing world. Zach has developed and sold multiple successful web properties and manages marketing for multiple clients in the outdoor industry. He has published business content in Angling Trade Magazine and writes white papers and case studies for multiple corporate partners.
Vizio makes decent televisions, and they make a lot of them. But its 2012 smart platform is much less rewarding to the user, in terms of content quality and quantity, than manufacturers like LG and Samsung. Like Sony, Vizio leans heavily on Yahoo! apps and services to provide the bulk of its content.
If you've got an internet-enabled Vizio television, you've probably discovered the one and only way to access the available smart content. Vizio has not only imitated Sony's use of Yahoo! services, it has also imitated the "cross-bar" design schematic. Pressing the stylized Vizio emblem on your TV's remote will bring up a horizontal row of apps and widgets. Some of these apps can also be "rotated" by pressing up or down on your remote, a lot like Sony's horizontal/vertical cross-bar setup.
This menu contains about 16 apps, some of which allow access to provider-specific apps within the service provider's interface. There isn't really any organization here, and it seems like Yahoo! weather, for example, is simply thrown in at random between two other apps so there aren't three apps in a row you've never heard of. Scrolling between and selecting them is done with the Vizio remote, using the navigational arrows and the confirm button. Here, you'll also find some blue-chip partners: Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, VUDU, and Skype.
Unlike other smart platforms, Vizio's platform gives no credence to the "type" of app in its organization (or lack thereof). Apps like Netflix, which offer streaming TV and movies, are sprinkled at random with social networking apps like Skype, or the mysterious MGO. MGO isn't available yet, by the way, but our attempts to discover what it was only taught us a little something special about magnesium oxide.
Yahoo! has also provided an app specifically for news, which will offer up top headlines, and organize news by type: Sports, Science, Business, etc. Unfortunately, beyond the fish hook headlines, there's really only a few sentences provided about the story itself. This app is updated automatically through your internet connection, but don't expect to walk away from it feeling terribly well-informed.
Yahoo! Weather will give daily updates on the weather of major cities like London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and... Sunnyvale? The weather information is provided by The Weather Channel, but beyond a graphical representation of sunshine, clouds, or rain, and the temperature in your location, there's no other information available. Creating and updating a Vizio profile will allow you to replace Sunnyvale, CA with your own location.
The major providers of streaming content, as we mentioned, are Netflix, VUDU, and Amazon Instant Video. Each of these content providers has a dedicated button on the remote, so if you want, you can skip the Vizio smart interface and jump right into your favorite episode of Futurama. Good news, everyone! Unlike all of the free apps on Vizio's platform, these three will actually initiate their own interface and fill your whole screen, offering a well-organized and aesthetically sound look at all of their content.
Netflix, VUDU, and Amazon each offer streaming movies and television. If you're looking for a content provider that offers the same sprawling collection of music, Vizio has also included access to Rhapsody, a subscription service music provider. Rhapsody organizes artists and bands by genre, name, and popularity, and also offers users a free trial of their services. These content providers can be searched using an on-screen keyboard that requires the included remote control for navigating and selecting letters.
Inserting a USB flash drive into your Vizio TV's USB input will initiate the option of playback, but you can also jump into this menu by clicking on the "Media" app on your smart selection bar. Vizio's TVs may make use of wireless internet apps, but they don't allow any wireless interfacing, so the only content you can access must be stored on a USB flash drive, and that flash drive also needs to be compatible with Vizio TVs. Sound annoying? It is.
Once you've worked the right magic to have your USB device and files detected, your photos, music, and video content is then organized into sections, and displayed in a plain but useable string of thumbnails across the screen. Supported files and unsupported files will both show up, so there's no way of knowing whether or not a photo can be expanded to fullscreen, or a video can be played back at all, without attempting to do so first.
It's good that Vizio has taken the time to include media playback alongside its less than stellar selection of apps, but like so much of its smart content, it feels tacked on, lackluster, and last minute.
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