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In brief
Current 26 inch tv stops working
Its used with an Apple tv which works well, a Talk Talk box that is a bit rubbish but works and a surround sound system. Oh and an PS3 for the odd DVD
I was planning to spend a £279 on the cheapest samsung from John Lewis
http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-ue40j5100-led-hd-1080p-tv-40-with-freeview-hd/p1951623
But my wife has walked through the door having spent £400 on this
So a few questions
Any chance the more expensive on will have a better picture? The more expensive one is well reviewed no meaningful reviews of the cheaper one
Do you record from a smart tv to an external hard disc? If this really works then we could ditch talk talk tv
We already have netflix, apple tv and all the catch services via other boxes. Might we still enjoy a smart tv? Or shall I take it back and swap it?
The in built TV recording is locked to that TV. You plug a usb drive in and register it with the TV. the days of the freedoms of analogue recordings are gone (unless you have a PC with recorder etc)
3D - I doubt you will ever use it.
The h6400 series are very good though. I just would have bought something bigger than 40" for £400.
Smart features are not a big deal as most external ones can do it better. BUT I do tend to use the smart functions on both our sony and samsung. Samsung is also one of the better and they often have nice quick processors. On my sony I can control it from my phone (browse the tv guide and then click on a TV show) and we do tend to use the iplayer, youtube apps etc on the TV a lot of the time. It's nice to have them there in case the one you already have donest have all the services. Our youview box beats all the smart TVs in terms of content as it has all the channels but lacks apps like yourtube and plex that the sony and samsung both have.
It probably will have a better panel than the 5100 series, best thing to do is go compare them in store.
But I would have gone the extra £99 and got the 48" version of the h6400
edit: I do use the recording on our sony TV. It's handy when you are watching something and have to go out and you can add any size drive you want.
Thanks Andy
All 3 in the house are sure we didn't want to go bigger tv. We visited friends with a bigger tv in a bigger room and it still felt like an elephant to us.
So it just whether we should have saved £121. Looks like the cheaper one didn't have the full motion compensation package which maybe worth the extra. Given the life time of a tv its not a huge amount of money
Until last Christmas we had a 32" CRT in the living room and a 14" CRT in the bedroom. I didn't see the need to upgrade.
On the black friay sales we ended up picking up a 22" smart samsung (same price as non-smart version) and then a couple of weeks later I bought a 42" Sony at Costco. I had been coveting the 50" 8 series every time I went into JL though. Got the 42" out and found it was the same total perimeter as our 32" due to the bezel and felt it was a bit small, then spotted a discounted 50" 8 series in JL and got that and compared the too and there was no going back. I did see a 55" samsung (older model F series) in Richer Sounds but felt that was too big.
Now I am used to the 50" and want a 55-60"....
You get used to the new larger TV VERY quickly.
oh and the OH now wishes she had listened to me and got a 27" TV for the bedroom but that is because her glasses are getting thicker and thicker...(although I hate TVs in the bedroom)
One more thing: the motion processing rate is generally a load of rubbish. I hate the effect it gives you (can't watch the TV at Dads as they have all the motion rubbish turned on). Test TVs with all the motion stuff off and from the same source. I compared our 8 series sony to the lower ones and there was no contest in panel quality.
I'm putting it toegther and we will see how it goes. I'd rather have gone cheap or better research. But c'est la view
This is normally the other way round as the husband wants the better TV and the wife doesnt see the point.
Pop into JL/Currys and take a look at both sets.
I've got the 6400, which we got in January (first flat screen after a life time of CRT).
It's a great TV and the picture quality is spot on IMO (not that I've actually compared it with anything else!). As with all flat screens, the sound can be a bit 'thin' at times, but it largely depends on what you're watching and the quality of the broadcast in my experience.
As a keen user of iPlayer and Netflix, I love the 'smart' feature. I'm not sure you need this though if you have other sources. Then again, it's convenient having it all on the one device...
40" was big enough for our space. I can see the attraction in getting something bigger, but after coming from 28" CRT, 40" was a significant improvement (and was the largest that would fit in the allocated space).
I think it's worth the extra £120 (of your money).
The non-smart TVs are often cheaper everything - less connections (and lack ARC etc), cheaper panel, cheaper sound etc etc so even if you dont want the smart stuff it can be worth getting the better one anyway. This is what we did and it turns out we ended up using the smart features and the satellite connection as our youview box uses the aerial connection.
But sometimes the cheaper ones are fine...until you see the nicer panels 😉
All looking good so far. haven't quite sorted out the highlights yet but I'm sure I will
I need to think about getting sound from the tv back to the 5.1 receiver. The old tv was never used accept as a display panel
But thanks all for your support
You need a teenager.
When we got a smart TV a couple of years ago we set it up late one night but I couldn't be bothered to sort the Internet bit out there and then. Next morning my 14yr old comes in chuckling and turned out he'd been watching something funny on YouTube on the way through the living room. 🙂
We've had some bother with one hard drive which would reformat itself every few months which was a little frustrating. Think it was the hard drive not the TV though as a new one has been fine.
It will be a much nicer panel - if you're set on that size then it's about as good as it gets. It got excellent reviews at £550ish.
The Samsung apps for the smart TV stuff (netflix, etc) are usually pretty good, they have all the UK catch-up services and it is more convenient to just do it direct on the TV rather than switch to another box, find another remote, etc.
For recording get a 2.5" external drive (eg. [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-HDTB310EK3AA-Canvio-Portable-External/dp/B00KWHJY7Q/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1446500017&sr=8-7&keywords=2.5+external+hard+drive ]Toshiba 1TB for £40[/url]) then just use some velcro tape to stick it to the back of the TV - no extra trailing wires.
Thanks paul and Simon
Just been watching the vikings on "Last kingdom". Terrifying on a larger screen
Its looking good so far