Smart Tv's

LuttiS · January 2018

My TV died on Sunday. To be fair, i bought it for £50 many years ago and we have had our monies worth from it.

So it's new tv time. I started looking and then i got confused. There are so many different features about this and that and after much googling it appears that majority of features are not comparable between the brands.

So i want a 32" (apparently this is now classed as small tv.. ) Smart TV with bells and whistles. Bells & whistles being the tv apps and stuff, amazon/bbc/all4/youtube etc. I'm thinking Samsung brand maybe Sony.. so i've done my looking and found THIS TV HERE!

Can anyone who is in the know tell me if that is any good? Does it have the right gubbins? Are there "better" ones i should look at?

Looking to spend £50 again, but not being overly optimistic i'll stretch to £300 ish.

Fanks!

crunchman · January 2018

Personally I wouldn't bother with a "smart" TV. All the software in it will be out of date in 3 or 4 years time. Just get a dumb one with a decent screen and get something like an Amazon Fire Stick for the smart content.

If you need a new version of the Fire Stick in 4 years time that's probably a lot simpler for £35.

axisus · January 2018

We got a dirt cheap smart TV about 4 years ago I guess, and we love it. Seems like a massive upgrade from the old tank of a TV that we had before. We use Netflix, Youtube and iPlayer way more than regular TV. The only annoying think is that it only has catch up apps for BBC and C4.

spark240 · January 2018

Sadly it seems none of them are smart enough to actually last very long....almost all of them now have the Apps you need such as Netflix etc, some have a few apps bespoke to the brand.

I just got a new 58" Panasonic , and they sales guy said it should last 5 yrs...after that your lucky...cheap tech in side.

crunchman · January 2018

axisus said:

We got a dirt cheap smart TV about 4 years ago I guess, and we love it. Seems like a massive upgrade from the old tank of a TV that we had before. We use Netflix, Youtube and iPlayer way more than regular TV. The only annoying think is that it only has catch up apps for BBC and C4.

So you need something external anyway. Unless there is no price difference you are better off saving money on the TV and using something external to get the content.

LuttiS · January 2018

crunchman said:

Personally I wouldn't bother with a "smart" TV. All the software in it will be out of date in 3 or 4 years time. Just get a dumb one with a decent screen and get something like an Amazon Fire Stick for the smart content.
If you need a new version of the Fire Stick in 4 years time that's probably a lot simpler for £35.

Looking at it there's not a huge price difference between them... I think it's the size tbh, there appears to be a limited selection at 32" and only a fraction of the features that you start getting at 40".

axisus · January 2018

crunchman said:

axisus said:

We got a dirt cheap smart TV about 4 years ago I guess, and we love it. Seems like a massive upgrade from the old tank of a TV that we had before. We use Netflix, Youtube and iPlayer way more than regular TV. The only annoying think is that it only has catch up apps for BBC and C4.

So you need something external anyway. Unless there is no price difference you are better off saving money on the TV and using something external to get the content.

It's a reasonable point. I shall consider that when we next need a TV.

strumjoughlamps · January 2018

Not all Smart TVs have all the streaming apps, I have a Samsung in the living room and that has Netflix, Prime and NowTV as well as the usual ones(iPlayer etc..) but the Hisense 4K Smart in the bedroom does not have NowTV so make sure you check this if considering one.

crunchman · January 2018

It's very difficult to get everything in one place on any device. Google and Amazon are having a spat at the moment. You can still get YouTube on a Fire Stick via the browser, and it doesn't function all that differently, but it can be a pain.

Don't think you can get Now TV on the Amazon devices either, but the Now TV device also doesn't have certain things on.

exocet · January 2018

External device for "smartness" is the way to go e.g. Google Chromecast, Roku. Amazon Fire. Smart TVs themselves tend to be very selective about "how smart they are" and "how long they retain that smartness for".

I have a 5 year old Sony that surprisingly still handles Amazon Prime plus some obscure stuff that I never use. You Tube dropped out of it's compatibility a while back. The 1st Smart TV I had was a Panasonic - it appeared to fall out of love with YouTube within 6 months of me buying it (it was a brand new model as well).
I've found Samsung to be poor with respect to iPlayer support...it does the catch-up bit but not "Live Streaming / Play from start" for programmes that are "On air now".

The BT / Humax external box is very good for iPlayer / Netflix / Now Player (excluding live content purchased via one day / month passes).

So all in all - go for external boxes / sticks for the smart bit...it's cheaper and less frustrating when it stops working!

strumjoughlamps · January 2018

exocet said:

I've found Samsung to be poor with respect to iPlayer support...it does the catch-up bit but not "Live Streaming / Play from start" for programmes that are "On air now". !

Mine does this fine

both my smart TVs regularly get app updates so not sure why yours doesn’t

vasselmeyer · January 2018

The only external box I know of that does iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon, ITV Hub, All4 and C5 as well as Plex is Roku. All the others have at least one of those services missing .

Dominic · January 2018

Cant help you .........never watch tv but Gumtree is the place to start looking

exocet · January 2018

strumjoughlamps said:

exocet said:

I've found Samsung to be poor with respect to iPlayer support...it does the catch-up bit but not "Live Streaming / Play from start" for programmes that are "On air now". !

Mine does this fine

both my smart TVs regularly get app updates so not sure why yours doesn’t

I've just checked it again.

So Firmware version is 1520....no firmware update available via online updater.

I can launch iPlayer, put it into "beta mode" etc.

I can watch live streaming via iPlayer BUT if I select a programme that started 10 minute ago, the latest iPlayer should give you a choice "do you want live" - "do you want to play from the start". My TV doesn't - it only plays live.

My BT/Humax box on the other hand supports this function perfectly

The TV is about 2 years old - it was latest model when I bought it, 55 inch UHD, wasn't cheap.

https://i.imgur.com/kUzhyup.jpg

iPlayer via embedded Samsung

https://i.imgur.com/3GL75Bz.jpg

iPlayer via Huamx/BT Box

Flink_Poyd · January 2018

Always worth a look at Richer Sounds if you've got one near

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/tv-projectors-label/all-tvs.html?tv_screen_size_breaks=1377

strumjoughlamps · January 2018

exocet said:

strumjoughlamps said:

exocet said:

I've found Samsung to be poor with respect to iPlayer support...it does the catch-up bit but not "Live Streaming / Play from start" for programmes that are "On air now". !

Mine does this fine

both my smart TVs regularly get app updates so not sure why yours doesn’t

I've just checked it again.

So Firmware version is 1520....no firmware update available via online updater.

I can launch iPlayer, put it into "beta mode" etc.

I can watch live streaming via iPlayer BUT if I select a programme that started 10 minute ago, the latest iPlayer should give you a choice "do you want live" - "do you want to play from the start". My TV doesn't - it only plays live.

My BT/Humax box on the other hand supports this function perfectly

The TV is about 2 years old - it was latest model when I bought it, 55 inch UHD, wasn't cheap.

https://i.imgur.com/kUzhyup.jpg

iPlayer via embedded Samsung

https://i.imgur.com/3GL75Bz.jpg

iPlayer via Huamx/BT Box

IPlayer via my Samsung

richardhomer · January 2018

I’ve just bought a 40” Samsung for £349 from John Lewis. 5 year warranty is standard on all TVs at JL - and if it breaks and they can’t fix - they will replace with an equivalent model. They actually did do this for me a few years ago....

exocet · January 2018

strumjoughlamps said:

exocet said:

strumjoughlamps said:

exocet said:

I've found Samsung to be poor with respect to iPlayer support...it does the catch-up bit but not "Live Streaming / Play from start" for programmes that are "On air now". !

Mine does this fine

both my smart TVs regularly get app updates so not sure why yours doesn’t

I've just checked it again.

So Firmware version is 1520....no firmware update available via online updater.

I can launch iPlayer, put it into "beta mode" etc.

I can watch live streaming via iPlayer BUT if I select a programme that started 10 minute ago, the latest iPlayer should give you a choice "do you want live" - "do you want to play from the start". My TV doesn't - it only plays live.

My BT/Humax box on the other hand supports this function perfectly

The TV is about 2 years old - it was latest model when I bought it, 55 inch UHD, wasn't cheap.

https://i.imgur.com/kUzhyup.jpg

iPlayer via embedded Samsung

https://i.imgur.com/3GL75Bz.jpg

iPlayer via Huamx/BT Box

IPlayer via my Samsung

Doh..If only I'd gone for the curved screen...iPlayer would have worked

That said, it proves my point about smart TVs, you're better off getting one with loads of HDMIs and plugging every cheap smart device into it to give it "brains".

Danny1969 · January 2018

The smartest TV is a just a PC plugged into a normal TV ... VLC player will play every possible format, iPlayer \ ITV player \ 4player work great, you tube works great, web streams works great, you can download torrents and play directly.
That's all I've used for years, small Dell Opliplex PC and HDM1 cable into TV, wireless keyboard and mouse

Sporky · January 2018

exocet said:

That said, it proves my point about smart TVs, you're better off getting one with loads of HDMIs and plugging every cheap smart device into it to give it "brains".

Or with just one HDMI, and add an HDMI autoswitch in front of it.

Rocker · January 2018

The OP ought to budget for a soundbar if he/she is unable to route the sound through their hi-fi system. The built in speakers on flat screen TVs are nothing short of rubbish. An old hi-fi system can be used for the sound. Worth the effort.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Smart Tv's

Comments