I once had a college HCI project where I designed the simplest possible TV UI (menus + on-display affordances + remote affordances.) I think I ended up with five buttons, and one menu. All the "settings" were automatic calibrations done during setup. You could re-trigger them by running the setup wizard again, but that's it.
Now, I am probably not a "professional TV user"... but neither are 99% of people who use TVs. Even if most of the complexity of a TV is important to the few people who, say, install one as part of an IMAX-certified home-theatre setup, most people want a TV that "just works" and gets out of their way—even if it's working in a sub-optimal way! They want a remote that can 1. turn the thing on, 2. control volume on their TV and/or soundbar; 3. switch input sources; and 4. proxy through to menu around in the streaming boxes/game consoles/etc. they own; and that's it. You don't even need the setup button on there—you can get up and press that on the TV itself.
The funny thing is, by default, TVs both have more functionality, but actually fewer desired features, than what I'm describing. People tend to have to buy a ridiculous 100-button (or digital touch-screen) Harmony remote just in order to get "turn on the TV" and "menu around in your streaming box" on the same remote. Why?
Now, I am probably not a "professional TV user"... but neither are 99% of people who use TVs. Even if most of the complexity of a TV is important to the few people who, say, install one as part of an IMAX-certified home-theatre setup, most people want a TV that "just works" and gets out of their way—even if it's working in a sub-optimal way! They want a remote that can 1. turn the thing on, 2. control volume on their TV and/or soundbar; 3. switch input sources; and 4. proxy through to menu around in the streaming boxes/game consoles/etc. they own; and that's it. You don't even need the setup button on there—you can get up and press that on the TV itself.
The funny thing is, by default, TVs both have more functionality, but actually fewer desired features, than what I'm describing. People tend to have to buy a ridiculous 100-button (or digital touch-screen) Harmony remote just in order to get "turn on the TV" and "menu around in your streaming box" on the same remote. Why?