It really depends on the quality of the interface. My lower-end Samsung TV is laggy and buggy, maybe there are better Samsung TVs though. I have seen far more expensive LG TVs with decent interfaces that are snappy and work well with a remote.
I generally prefer using a PS4 to the TV apps. But, for instance, in theory the TV could be on standby and I could still use Spotify to cast to the TV and it would perk up and start playing in a way that my PS4 wouldn't, because I'd still need to turn the TV and the PS4 on. However even that doesn't work with my TV -- I have to manually turn it on, then launch the Spotify app before I'm able to cast to it.
Additionally, the Spotify app on my TV works in such a way that the optical audio out to my stereo doesn't produce any LFE/sub-bass, but the Spotify windows app on my PC through HDMI to the same TV, outputting through the same optical does it just fine. And the Netflix app on my TV outputs LFE just fine. Even changing my stereo to output LFE+Main to the sub, the sub gets no signal for some reason if I'm using the TV Spotify app. AND, still with this crap Spotify app on my TV, I have to set the TV audio to TV+Optical Out (and turn the TV volume all the way down) otherwise it doesn't send the sound through the optical.
Clearly I'm dealing with a variety of poor integrations and actual bugs; on my friends' LG TVs most/all of these issues are not present, and everything 'just works'. All I'm trying to do, is open Spotify on my phone and play a song, which I can then cast to a device that will output to my stereo with full audio (including sub) without having to first turn on a bunch of devices and load specific apps.
I generally prefer using a PS4 to the TV apps. But, for instance, in theory the TV could be on standby and I could still use Spotify to cast to the TV and it would perk up and start playing in a way that my PS4 wouldn't, because I'd still need to turn the TV and the PS4 on. However even that doesn't work with my TV -- I have to manually turn it on, then launch the Spotify app before I'm able to cast to it.
Additionally, the Spotify app on my TV works in such a way that the optical audio out to my stereo doesn't produce any LFE/sub-bass, but the Spotify windows app on my PC through HDMI to the same TV, outputting through the same optical does it just fine. And the Netflix app on my TV outputs LFE just fine. Even changing my stereo to output LFE+Main to the sub, the sub gets no signal for some reason if I'm using the TV Spotify app. AND, still with this crap Spotify app on my TV, I have to set the TV audio to TV+Optical Out (and turn the TV volume all the way down) otherwise it doesn't send the sound through the optical.
Clearly I'm dealing with a variety of poor integrations and actual bugs; on my friends' LG TVs most/all of these issues are not present, and everything 'just works'. All I'm trying to do, is open Spotify on my phone and play a song, which I can then cast to a device that will output to my stereo with full audio (including sub) without having to first turn on a bunch of devices and load specific apps.