Smart TVs - more like stupid TVs

Ok, today's post is more of a rant than anything. If you've even considered buying a TV in the past year than you know that most new TVs are what they call "Smart TVs." Basically the TV is Internet-enabled so you can watch content from the web as well as standard TV programs. At home I own two of these Smart TVs. But in my opinion they should be called "Stupid TVs." The "Internet" feature to these TVs is all but worthless.

When you think of the Internet, there is a ton of great free content to watch. And I'm not just talking about YouTube. Some of the great free sources of content are Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS. There are a lot more, but with just those 6 there is more free content then you could ever hope to watch. So, how many of these 6 Internet sites do you think you can watch using a Smart TV? The answer is ZERO! It's very frustrating too because you can use a computer and visit all these sites and watch free content all day long. But you cannot use a TV to view free content from these sites.

I don't blame TV manufactures either. The problem is the content providers (the above 6). They have decided in their infinite stupidity that we should not be able to watch this content from our TV (again, despite the fact that we can watch it from a computer, even a computer connected to a TV).

As far as I can tell the only uses for a Smart TV right now are the following:

1. If you have a Hulu Plus, Vudu, Amazon Prime, and/or Netflix accounts (all of which cost money), you can watch that on your TV.
   
2. I have found a single source of free content on my Smart TV, Revision3. Revision3 offers tons of great free programming, all of it is technology/computer related. If you're into that you'll enjoy their content, otherwise this channel won't be for you. My personal favorites are Tekzilla, Hak5, and the Ben Heck Show.
   

Well I'm just hoping these sites will finally realize how arbitrary and stupid their decisions are and allow us to starting watching this content. If not, I may build a HTPC to get around this problem.