AWS outage knocked out my TV
Something to consider when getting a connected TV is when there’s no connection there’s a damned good chance that there’s no TV. This I learned last night as my Vizio refused to load the Smartcast screen so I could select Plex. I was however able to change inputs to my NVIDIA Shield, where I selected Plex, and then noticed that the audio was completely horrible (no idea, seemed to be stuck in some mode that enhanced all background audio.) Attempting to change it locked the TV up in a menu.
I also highly suspect that outage took out my Withings tracker log yesterday…
I was unable to correctly power off the TV and ended up having to pull the power cord. When it came back up I was told there was no connection to the internet (there was,) and the sound bar didn’t work (it did,) but finally managed to get into Plex on my Shield.
The Shield then locked up. I was unable to do anything except, once again remove power from a supposedly smart device. I’ve never had the Shield lock up before – that thing’s been solid. No idea, all I can guess is, once again, the AWS outage. Upon telling my Google Home later to turn off the TV I was told that it did not have that ability.
It seems like in these connected times that perhaps putting your eggs in one service’s basket is no longer enough and that manufacturers should consider hosting services on multiple platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft’s Azure.
Seems like we’re seeing more and more large scale disruptions these days that just shouldn’t be happening.
Also seems like the big three of web services would combine to form a fallover agreement for when, not if, they go out. But that would make too much sense.
