If only Yahoo had a dev kit… or maybe is some sort of a $5 dongle that connects through HDMI and communicates to end user via wifi… then you could customize it to do anything you would want it to, like…you could even make a private 24/7 platypus stream, where they’d all wear hats!
Man, if only either of those existed…
Seriously though, there’s a reason why countless other solutions exist, and they’re specifically tailored to unique wants and needs. ‘Smart TVs’ are made for the majority of the market and they cover a wide variety of features that your average consumer wants.
The DLNA capabilities on these TVs, just like others, isn’t mature (read: handful of codecs). TV companies specialize in creating Televisions, the other bells and whistles are just addons. They literally spend time making sure that the actual Television portion of the TV doesn’t set on fire, stays in one piece, and doesn’t steal your cookies.
If you’re an average user who enjoys the hell out of services like Pandora and Netflix, you have nothing to worry about. If you try to watch anything on Netflix, it’ll work without a doubt, and might even give you a back rub if you’re lucky.
However, if you want to support your personal library of movies (which I’m going to guess they’re ‘permanently borrowed’), encoded in your own personal x264Platypus codec, then you’re going to have problems. Either get this magical $30 dongle I’ve heard legends told of by this orange man with a giant head, or run it connected to a media PC, or whatever else you prefer. As a power user and as someone who requires a customized experience, my dear sir/madame, you will be forced to do some work. Even if you were to modify any open source app on Vizio’s store itself and you’re a total nub, you’ll figure it out in no time … Yahoo’s SDK is very simplistic.
Just remember, wrap a try statement around the encoding process on your personal and futuristic Plat-in-a-hat Cast. This way, you’ll know which codec you’re missing. Now if you really want to get fancy and show Vizio who the real boss around town is, you can set it to display “IS 100% COMPLETELY DLNA COMPLIANT!”, and then simply send them a picture of that screen.
Now for my final, and most important, piece of advice… make sure you DO NOT tell anyone I told you this but… just make sure you attach a chocolate bar to that inquiry with them, Vizio Techs love chocolate.