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The Internet Is Wrong: You Can't Speed Up a Smart TV That's Slow

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I don't know how misinformation about TVs spreads. Actually, that's not true, I absolutely do. Uninformed people make a claim online; it gets repeated as received wisdom; Reddit references it; and ChatGPT and other large language models use those posts as sources.

As someone who has reviewed TVs since the early 2000s, and confirmed with a major TV manufacturer, I'll tell you decisively: You can't speed up an older smart TV. Sorry.

I think some of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of what TVs are truly capable of -- and what's actually happening when they're "slow."

All TVs, even the best ones, use far less capable processors than what's in your phone, tablet or computer. They might do a good job in a few specialized things, like image processing, but broadly speaking, TVs use the least expensive (aka slowest) processors they can reasonably get away with. You can't speed up slow processors.

The bigger issue is figuring out why any device "feels slow." There are plenty of conspiracy theories about planned obsolescence. But the real issue is that all software gets more elaborate and complex with each generation. With ever-increasing processing power, there's little motivation to optimize for slower hardware.

In fact, with limited development time and money, most of a company's effort and resources will be spent on adding new features and ensuring the TV runs.

Well, there's your problem. The TV is going to look terrible when it's that dirty. Tzahiv/Getty Images

The results are big, bloated apps compared to the versions released when the TV's hardware was new. Or, to look at it another way, the old hardware is now being asked to run software that's just barely optimized for modern hardware. If that same software had been released when the TV was new, it wouldn't run on anything.

There's no conspiracy here. This happens to apps on all devices: TVs, phones, tablets, computers, anything.

These methods won't make your TV faster

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