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Tell me about smart TVs. I have only had ‘ordinary’ TVs I the past and currently a right faff with a TV that feeds through a DVD recorder. What do I want? I think I want;
Flat tv to go on the wall, strictly no more than 1100mm wide.
Only a power cable and CAT5 cable (to the house network) connected to it
Watch all freeview channels (not bothered about Sky and all that stuff)
Just have one remote for the TV, or smartphone, and do everything though that
Using the TV, record to and watch back, to a NAS drive at the other end of the house but on the house wired network. Do that real time plus record out-of-hours
not bothered about WiFi.
Watch paid-films not very often, but maybe 3 or 4 per year so don’t want a subscription
Want to get signal both over the aerial and over the Net
Watch DVDs either by pushing them into the TV or happy to copy them to the NAS drive to watch
Play audio from the TV, via remote speakers, either jackplugs from the TV or some other way (but with no separate amp)
Not bothered about superHD, 4k and all those kinds of things.
Currently have a broadband connection of 10-15Mbps but in late 2016 it should be 1Gbps
Any helpful hints on what I should be asking the shop for as I have no idea at all even what to ask about
ta
Just buy a dumb flatscreen. Ask for the very best quality without all the 'smart' gubbins, although, TBH, it might be increasingly difficult to find a modern set without it, the same as UltraHD, 4K, 8K, etc. The fact it's there doesn't mean you have to use it. There are good sets around from Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Sony, (they went through a period where the quality dropped off, they stopped making their own panels, but I think things have improved).
Even Lidl and Aldi do some which look pretty good value, although how they shape up against the big names I really don't know.
I paid £899 for my 40" Bravia seven years ago, reduced from £1400; I've seen a 50" Sony, beautiful picture on demo, for £499, and I wouldn't use any of the smart crap that's bundled because I use a Sky box and a Mac Mini, so you could just ignore the rubbish and use your existing setup.
What CZ said. You can then add the 'smart' bit with any manner of devices; Chromecast / Amazon Fire Stick / Apple TV / Raspberry Pi running Kodi / etc etc then you won't need a new TV when you want to change the smart stuff.
^ What they said.
Buy the TV you like and add the smart bit yourself. Manufacturers tend to get bored of updating their TV software, so you could find it out-of-date within a few years.
I have no idea how to add in the smart bits myself.
Will I be able to just plug in an rj45 and have all the other gubbins well away?
Will I be able to do the raspberry pi bit myself? I have no\limited knowledge
C
Dead simple ones - just plug in and connect to your Wifi...
Google Chrome Stick
Amazon Fire TV stick or box
Apple TV
Roku streaming box
Now TV Box
Pretty much all of them plug into and HDMI port on the telly.
I've never played with a Raspberry Pi, and really couldn't be bothered with the faffing.
Other options... Who are you with for your Broadband? Lots of ISPs do TV packages now for not a lot of cash (and often bundled). The boxes are smart and have catch-up services.
Our broadband won't have inbuit services. It's a rural community thing.
C