TD Systems, Engel and Nevir: what they ship with and what comes off
· 7 min read
| Brands | TD Systems, Engel (Engel Axil) and Nevir |
|---|---|
| System | Tizen 8.0 on TD Systems; VIDAA on Engel; VIDAA and webOS Hub on Nevir |
| Android | On no model in any of the three current ranges |
| Directory entries | 8 for TD Systems, 4 for Engel, none for Nevir |
| Exclusive platforms | None for TD Systems or Engel |
| Memory | 1.5 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, published |
| Source | Official sites and the Google Play device list |
They sell by the tens of thousands in Carrefour, El Corte Inglés, Eroski and MediaMarkt, and there is barely a serious analysis of any of the three. So we downloaded their entire catalogues and read them.
The result was not what we expected: between them they run four different operating systems, and not one of the models they sell today runs Android. Their own websites, however, still say otherwise.
What they sell today, brand by brand
TD Systems has seven televisions in its official shop, and all seven run Tizen OS 8.0 Powered by Samsung, with Samsung TV Plus, Samsung Gaming Hub and Bixby. They run from the 32-inch PRIME32C22TIZEN to the 50-inch PRIME50C22TIZEN, with LED and QLED versions of most sizes. It is Samsung's system on a set that is not a Samsung.
Engel, which is Engel Axil, has fourteen televisions, nine of them smart, and every one declares VIDAA: from the 24-inch LE2486SM to the 55-inch LE5588SM, by way of the LE4395QLED, LE4397QLED and LE4398QLED. VIDAA is Hisense's system.
Nevir has fifteen, and here there are two systems: the QLED100 and QLED200, the 8850BM and the 8079 run VIDAA, while the NVR-9840-43KSWN, the NVR-Q8480-55KWBA and the NVR-Q8861-65KWBA run webOS Hub, LG's system licensed out to third parties, Magic remote included.
Four systems: Tizen, VIDAA, webOS and — according to their sites — Android. Of the four, the only one that appears on no product is the last.
Where it still says Android
On the very category page where TD Systems lists its seven Tizen sets, the footer text reads: "our Smart TVs are easy and intuitive to use with an Android system". The corporate site also keeps a "Hey Google" filter in its navigation; press it and the shop answers "page not found". And searching for "android" in the shop returns no products at all.
Nevir is more striking. Every product page has an "additional information" tab with an attribute called Tipo de Smart, and on all six pages we downloaded that attribute reads ANDROID. That includes the webOS ones. The NVR-Q8861-65KWBA page says "webOS Hub" in the body and "ANDROID" in the attribute table, two screens apart.
At Engel the contradiction is in the set-top boxes. The YOU-BOX EN1040K and EN1060K are described as "a receiver with the Android TV operating system", and in their specification tables the "operating system" field reads Google TV and Google TV 12. And on the LE4086SM television, the "operating system" field is simply empty.
We are not going to pick whichever version we like best. What works is asking the set itself.
How to tell what you have
Settings → System → About shows the system and its version. If it says Tizen, VIDAA or webOS, there is no Android anywhere in there, and no ADB either.
If it says Android TV or Google TV — because yours is an older unit, or one
of Engel's YOU-BOX boxes — the difference between the two is the launcher:
com.google.android.leanbacklauncher is the older Android TV interface,
with its row of apps; com.google.android.tvlauncher is the Google TV one,
with rows of recommendations. Once you know what to look for, you can tell
them apart at a glance.
The memory, and a surprise
In this range, what decides how many years a television lasts is not the panel: it is the memory. Once the storage fills up, apps stop updating and in the end the set cannot even apply its own system update.
And here something unusual happens: two of these three brands publish the memory, which neither Samsung nor LG do on their marketing pages.
TD Systems puts it on every model's spec sheet. The PRIME50C22TIZEN declares 1.5 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, on an NT72690 chipset with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1 GHz and a Mali G52-2EE MC1 GPU. The PRIME43QC22TIZEN, the same. The PRIME32C22TIZEN drops to 1 GB of RAM with the same 8 GB.
Nevir publishes it in its PDF datasheets, not on the web pages. The 43-inch QLED200 says "1,5GB RAM / 8GB FLASH". The 55-inch QLED100, the same. The 50-inch 8850BM, the same. And the webOS sets, written differently but identical: "RAM: 1,5GB FLASH: 8GB" on the 43-inch 9840 and the 55-inch Q8480.
Engel publishes it nowhere: not on the nine smart TV pages, not on the YOU-BOX ones.
Which means: 1.5 GB and 8 GB is the floor of this range, whatever the system. Tizen, VIDAA or webOS, the box underneath has the same amount of memory. With 8 GB, part of which the system has already taken, half a dozen installed apps leave you with nowhere to put anything.
What panel is underneath
TD Systems goes further than almost anyone and publishes the panel maker too. The PRIME50C22TIZEN carries an HKC PT500GT04-1; the PRIME43QC22TIZEN, an Inx V430DJ1-Q01; the PRIME32C22TIZEN, an Innolux V320BJ9-Q01. All three at 60 Hz, with HDR10 on the 4K sets and no HDR on the 32-inch.
The brightness figures are what you would expect: 250 candelas on the 43- and 50-inch, 200 on the 32-inch. Nevir declares 180 candelas on the 43-inch QLED200 and 282 on the 65-inch Q8861. These are manufacturer figures, not measured with a photometer by anyone independent, but at least they are written down. Engel publishes brightness for none of its televisions.
If yours does run Android, look for yourself
This is the advantage of the budget range over a Samsung or an LG: if your unit runs Android, you do not depend on any spec sheet. With ADB connected:
df -h /data tells you how much storage there is and how much is free.
cat /proc/meminfo | head -1 tells you the total memory.
If you have less than two gigabytes free, the clean-up this site explains stops being optional.
Who they share a platform with
This is where this site's directory says things the brands do not.
In the official Google Play device list, TD Systems has eight entries:
martin, redwood, tamachi, yeongdeungpo, guandu, alimos,
dangni and osaka. Not one of the eight is exclusive to it. Across
those eight, it shares hardware with 170 other brands.
Engel has four: bangbae, mateo, osaki and pioneer. It has no
exclusive platform either, and shares with 52 brands.
The two do not even overlap with each other: there is not a single platform common to TD Systems and Engel. But 22 brands sit in both neighbourhoods at once, among them JVC, Blaupunkt, Hyundai, Nokia, Schneider and Daewoo. It is the same handful of names that came up in the own-brand article.
Nevir does not appear in the list at all. Not one entry, which fits with none of its current models running Android.
What comes off
If your unit is Android or Google TV, the usual rules apply. Out go the streaming apps you do not use, which on 8 GB all weigh something. Out go the free content channels that fill the home screen.
Carefully: the recommendation engine
(com.google.android.tvrecommendations). It leaves the home screen clean,
but it also empties the "continue watching" row.
Leave alone: Google Play services (com.google.android.gms), the launcher
as long as you have no other one working, and anything starting with
com.android. that you cannot identify.
If your unit is Tizen, VIDAA or webOS, there is no ADB and no package to disable. What applies is each system's own clean-up, and it always starts with the privacy settings: you can cut a fair amount there with no risk and no tools.
If you own one
We need almost everything about these televisions, and above all exactly what your set says under About. With a handful of answers we can say what system each series really runs, which is something none of the three clarifies today.