If you have an older smart TV, say goodbye to Netflix

If you have an older smart TV, say goodbye to Netflix

One of the benefits of owning a smart TV is they don’t require streaming boxes. This has helped make smart TVs a staple of the electronics market, and sales in recent years have even eclipsed traditional TV sets. Tap or click here to see our top TV picks.

Unfortunately, early smart TV adopters might be feeling a pinch soon. Netflix has announced select smart TVs will no longer be compatible with the company’s app.

It’s not uncommon for tech to become outdated, but outright losing a basic feature is disappointing . Will everyone with an affected TV be forced to buy new streaming devices? If you bought a smart TV earlier in the decade, here are the models that are losing access to Netflix this year.

Smart TVs, dumb idea

According to an announcement from Netflix on the company’s help webpage, select users with older TV models will be unable to access Netflix as of December 1, 2019. These TVs are primarily Samsung smart TVs sold between 2010 and 2011, but older Roku streaming devices may also see the same error and denial of service notification.

These devices have included Netflix as a built-in feature since their release. Removing it now, after nearly a decade of integration, comes as a shock to many longtime smart TV owners.

To make matters worse, Netflix isn’t exactly being coy about their proposed solution. For customers affected by the change, Netflix has prepared a list of compatible devices you can buy to replace the service that came with your TV.

In other words, you gotta buy a new device for Netflix or you won’t get access. Seriously!

Why is Netflix doing this?

The company doesn’t appear to be making the change out of malice or greed, but rather a compatibility issue found with older TVs and streaming boxes.

The modern Netflix interface puts a big emphasis on autoplay, which figures into the platform’s recommendation algorithm. Older Samsung smart TVs and Roku boxes have historically experienced issues with this feature, and slow down or crash when autoplay attempts to run.

But rather than simply retool Netflix to be as compatible as possible with all devices it runs on, the company wants to march towards the future and leave the past behind.

Is my TV affected by this issue?

Samsung has a tool that lets you see the serial number and model of any of the company’s TVs. Using this tool, you can verify whether you’ll be losing Netflix in the coming months. TVs sold in 2010 and 2011 with a C or D in the model code are confirmed to lose access to Netflix on December 1, 2019.

As for Roku devices, the following streaming boxes will also lose compatibility in December 2019:

  • Roku 2000C
  • Roku 2050X
  • Roku 2100X
  • Roku HD
  • Roku XR
  • Roku SD
  • Roku XD

No one is stating whether these are the only affected devices, but you can use the tool to verify. If you find your device is included among the products losing access to Netflix, you may want to purchase a new streaming gadget to continue using the platform.

Thankfully, there are several cheaper devices, like Google’s Chromecast, that make the process a little less painful, and can save you from having buy a brand new TV set. Click or tap here to see our Komando.com streaming device comparison chart.

Tags: devices, Google, sales, tech