Latest news with #VizioTV
Tom's Guide
26-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
6 tips and tricks to make your Vizio TV even better
Vizio TVs are some of the sleekest value picks on the market and are packed with tons of features for HDR movie nights and gaming. But even some of the best Vizio TVs can be made better using a variety of tips and tricks to improve the picture, controls, and so much more. SmartCast, Vizio's user interface, is where all the magic happens. There's a lot you can do with SmartCast beyond simply searching up content and opening streaming apps. With the right settings enabled, you can easily turn on your TV when casting content and control your TV with your voice. So, let's get into it. Follow these several settings to get the most out of SmartCast and streamline your Vizio TV experience. Your home screen is where all your favorite content lives. It's where you'll find all of the best streaming services, but it's not always set up to your liking right out of the gate. That's why I tend to recommend changing the home screen up to better suit the content you watch on a daily basis. To customize the home screen on your Vizio TV, head to the App store and select Home screen apps. From here you can not only rearrange the order of the apps to your needs, or delete apps that you don't want on the home screen. This should make it far easier for you to get to the platforms you enjoy the most and lets you limit all the extra apps that might clog up the starting carousel. ACR, or automatic content recognition, is a new feature cropping on several smart TVs that's a huge privacy risk. It essentially reads and records the content you watch on a daily basis to better understand your viewing habits and serve up ads that aligns with your interests. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. It's a nasty play to boost ad spend and target users for even more revenue by selling user data to third parties, main among them major advertisers. That's why it's a good idea to ensure you turn this setting off immediately after buying a new TV as it sets a terrible precedent for content privacy. To turn it off, head to settings -> System -> Reset & Admin -> Viewing Data, then turn this off. It might be slightly different dependent on what specific Vizio TV or SmartCast software you're running, but you'll most often find it in "Data" or "Privacy" sections. While this won't thoroughly protect you from all the ways Vizio and others can target you specific ads, it will limit their reach in understanding the type of content you enjoy. Just look at how LG TVs are about to show you ads based on your emotions to see even more ways companies are set to abuse targeted ads. Your TV remote is disgusting, so why not switch it for simply using your voice instead? I've lost count of how many times I've lost the remote and simply resorted to using voice controls to do all the heavy lifting. Luckily, it's super easy to enable on the Vizio SmartCast platform. Simply head to Settings --> Extras and look for "Smart Home Settings." This will let you set up all of the neat voice-enabled controls to make navigation and opening an apps an absolute breeze on your smart TV. What's even better is that you can even use your Vizio TV to control all of your smart home products around the house. This will work primarily with SmartCast or Google Home supported devices, but gives your Vizio TV an extra leg up in the modern era. If you're not one to use voice controls but still want a second option to use your Vizio TV beyond its included remote, the SmartCast app is a worthy pick. It's similar to Samsung's SmartThings app, allowing you to control your TV in a variety of ways. Do note that it has a different name for Android devices on the Google Play store, called Vizio WatchFree+. It's essentially the same thing on iOS, but also gives you access to free channels that you can watch anywhere on-the-go, which isn't bad to have if you're looking to kill some time. If you have a supported soundbar, particularly a Vizio one, you could also control that device along with the TV through the SmartCast app. You'll even have some Chromecast functionality, making it far easier to cast content to the screen. Although Vizio models aren't often found among the best gaming TVs, that doesn't mean we can't tweak them to give them some better picture performance. If you head to the picture settings, you'll find an option dedicated to "Game," and from there we can make some minor adjustments. For starters, you'll want to make sure ALLM and VRR are both set to on if not already. Some Vizio TVs will even come with an "HDMI 2.1 mode," which is adequate more for both modern consoles and some of the best gaming PCs. You might even also have to enable "Game HDR" in the advanced picture settings, but some consoles (namely the PS5) might look slightly better without it. And, while the "Game" picture setting does often net you good-enough quality for gaming, I'd also recommend switching to "Vibrant" for slightly better colors. (Though, we often avoid this setting for shows and movies, as it tends to over-saturate the image). No one likes waiting to enjoy they love to watch. If you're like me and a bit impatient when it comes to jumping right into that new episode or movie release, you'll want to enable Quick Start within the Power settings on your Vizio TV. As the name implies, this essentially makes the TV boot up faster. You'll dive into the home screen quicker and you can even customize which HDMI port or menu to prioritize when the Vizio TV powers on. Another awesome feature this enables is automatic power-on when costing content from a mobile device to the screen. This makes it so much easier and faster to enjoy the content you love and you don't even need a remote. With a faster boot time, quicker access to your favorite apps and voice control through your choice of smart home device, you should be able to get to the content you want to watch faster than ever before.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Billboard's Women in Music Awards Honors Doechii, Erykah Badu and More
'It's a night to celebrate the womb of the world… The womb of life,' Erykah Badu said, as she accepted the Icon award at Billboard's Women in Music event on Saturday. 'The wombiverse of all things. The smartest creature on planet earth. The wisest, the most invincible, sexiest, purist, finest – the woman.' Badu's speech also had a funny anecdote about 'the vagina' being the most important thing on the planet, but she made the biggest impression with her outfit, a 'full figure form' costume 'imagined' by herself and engineered and built by designer/artist Myah Hasbany. View the to see embedded media. The "booty suit," as Hasbany called it on her Instagram, lit up in strategic regions when Badu performed her classic, 'Annie,' live on stage, and it was a sight to behold in person, with some calling it a 'cultural reset' for stage performance and acceptance speech wasn't the only attention grabbing moment on stage at the event, which took place at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood. The annual event brings together women from the music industry (both recording artists and behind the scenes figures) to celebrate their achievements and impact. This year, producers, songwriters, managers, and even moms had their moment to shine alongside some of the biggest names in music. Tina Knowles, mom to Beyonce, Solange, and, as she addressed at the event, a mother figure to Kelly Rowland and the girls in Destiny's Child as well, spoke of her influence on the singing group when it got its start and exploded onto the music scene. 'Thank you Billboard for thinking about mothers because a lot of times we're forgotten,' Knowles said in her acceptance speech. 'There is no formal training class to prepare you for the most important job that you will ever have in your life. You will most likely screw up sometimes. I know I did…'Knowles also spoke of her input, both in terms of dress up and creative collaboration, noting that mothers are often a huge part of their kids' success. She dedicated her award to her mom, Agnes, and 'all the mothers who have supported their kids in their dreams.' Another heartfelt moment at the two hour event included Angela Aguilar, who received the Breakthrough Award and sang a rousing version of the Spanish-language classic 'Cielito Lindo' with female mariachis on stage behind her. The daughter of beloved Mexican singer Pepe Aguilar got emotional as she accepted her award stating that 'this year almost destroyed me,' speaking about immigrant women's 'sacrifice and resilience' and raising her voice for women 'whose voices don't always have a platform." She reminded the live and streaming audience (via Vizio TV) that despite adversity, her fellow Latinas will continue to move forward with hope and determination. Laverne Cox hosted the uplifting event Saturday and other honorees included GloRilla with the Powerhouse Award; Gracie Abrams with Songwriter of the Year Award; JENNIE (from Blackpink) with the Global Force Award; Megan Moroney with the Rulebreaker Award presented by Crown Royal Whisky; Meghan Trainor with the Hitmaker Award; Muni Long with Rising Star Award presented by Honda Stage and Tyla with the Impact Award presented by biggest excitement was audibly near the end of the night when K-pop sensation Aespa accepted their award for Group of the Year. The foursome also returned to the stage at the end of the show to close it out, which had their fanbase in the balcony seats screaming non-stop. Long, Moroney, Tyla and Abrams also performed. Disappointingly, recent Grammy winner, Doechii who took the last award of the evening honor, Billboard 2025's Woman of the Year Award, did not perform. Still, her speech was inspiring. It was just two years ago that the rapper accepted Billboard's Rising Star award, and she noted how far she's come, stating she lost her shoe that night performing and had to hop to the stage to accept it. "That moment really reflects how I've approached my entire career which is always go full out, always go hard and always be fab," she said, addressing her full circle perspective. "I stand here as a serious ally."Doechii also noted that "lack of inclusion and sexism are unfortunately still an issue in this industry," adding that events like Saturday's awards are still much needed. "This is our m*therf*cking night to come together and acknowledge each other, to support each other and to celebrate!" Check out the red carpet fashion below (photos courtesy of Billboard) and more extensive recaps of the event at View the 15 images of this gallery on the original article Get the latest news delivered to your inbox daily! Sign up for Los Angeles Magazine's The Daily Brief below or click here.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Yahoo
How to Use AI to Troubleshoot Tech Issues
We live in a time where we hop between devices throughout the day, going from one screen to the next. The speed of innovation is faster than ever, and "older" devices can glitch, unable to handle software updates or mercury retrograde. When technology breaks, or you need to troubleshoot an issue, Google and YouTube are handy resources, but it can take a lot of time to find an answer. Now with artificial intelligence, you can get instant answers from a chatbot. No need to watch YouTube "how to" videos on double speed anymore. In this article, you'll learn how to use AI to troubleshoot any tech issue. Given that ChatGPT is the most widely used AI tool, this is the one we'll use. We'll test three tech-related searches: A workflow question: How to create labels in Gmail. A health question: How to reduce eye fatigue from computer screens. A household question: How to set up YouTube on my TV. You can do all your searching at ChatGPT, or log in if you want the tool to access your previous searches. What's special about chatbots vs. YouTube is the conversation element – if you don't understand an instruction or need further context, you can ask ChatGPT to elaborate rather than doing further research on forums and sketchy websites. Time to test it out. Here's how you could get answers to these tech questions and problems. Example prompt: "Provide a list of clear steps on how to set up labels in Gmail and have emails automatically directed to each folder." It gave me a super detailed list of instructions: I followed up with a question about applying a filter to a single email, which outlined even more specific steps. Example prompt: "How to reduce eye strain from computer? I stare at a screen for 8-plus hours a day and have bad eyesight. Provide tips, strategies, science-backed research and product suggestions." It generated suggestions like adopting the 20-20-20 rule, adjusting my screen light to a yellow hue, prioritizing eye exercises, using artificial tears for lubrication and wearing blue light glasses. (You should double-check any advice it gives you with an optometrist.) I followed up with a question about blue light filtering versus antireflective coating and whether they are the same thing. I told ChatGPT I'm short-sighted and asked for the best product recommendation. Example prompt: "How can I stream YouTube from my Vizio TV. Provide easy-to-follow steps to set this up." It gave me two options: Using the YouTube app on your Vizio smart TV, and casting YouTube from your phone or computer to your Vizio TV using Google Cast. Here's the step-by-step guide it created for me: I could keep this browser open as I'm setting it up and ask ChatGPT any follow-up questions in real time. Very handy. You could also look up questions like how to unlink your iPhone from your MacBook, security steps to take to protect your computer, how to store all your photos (between phone, hard drive and cloud), how to make your phone grayscale and less addictive, and just about anything else. Heck, you could even upload a screen recording demonstrating a problem you're having and ask ChatGPT to help troubleshoot. Just be aware of what you have on-screen when you record, because the model can access anything shown during the chat. For example, messages or notifications that pop up on your screen. Always remember to double-check what AI advises, especially when it comes to sensitive topics or security suggestions. You don't want to accidentally lose a lifetime of photos or delete something you shouldn't.
