Modern Televisions - what do I need to know

[marknotgeorge]

This Panasonic 4K Ultra-HD with Freeview Play (which is Freeview HD with on-demand from all BBC, ITV and channels 4 & 5) looks a good buy for £379 at John Lewis. Whatever smart TV you get, if you can connect it to your broadband router with an Ethernet cable (they're a couple of quid for 5-10 metres), do it. Save your WiFi bandwidth for your mobile devices.

 

[sight-pin]

If you do go for a 3D TV, you have a choice of Passive or Active type, Passive is the same type 3D as what you have at the cinamas and Active use the more expensive 3D battery operated glasses.

 

[Levo-Lon]

John LEWIS and SAMSUNG SMART TV - bloody fabulous

We got the sony smart led..from JL..love it..
we have older samsung and LG too in plasma and lcd..all are fantastic panel tv's

 

[vickster]

Yes, to your question on freeview

What size do you want?

 

[mybike]

We bought a Samsung Smart TV a few years back. Sadly the ITV player app stopped working and hasn't worked since, we just get a meaningless error message. It would probably be better to get a decent TV and a separate smart box to connect to it. Bear in mind that while wifi is convenient cable is faster.

 

[13 rider]

[QUOTE 4092567, member: 9609"]I can watch iplayer through my computer and most of the time it is ok, (sometimes early evening 6-8pm) it can stutter a bit. would my experience through a "smart" TV be better, worse, or just the same ?


With a smart TV, would I be able to watch normal freeview channels (through the ariel) ?

We have a 'sagecom' pvr (hard disc recorder) that also gives a freeview signal to our old TV. would we still be able to use this as a recorder for a 1080p HD modern TV

nearly all our TV is watched through the recorder, probably only watch the news live - so presuming the recorder is not HD, what sort of picture am I likely to get on an HD tv?

If my internet signal is a bit slow, and I tried to download / stream a movie from netflixs or whatever. would it be all stop/start, or do you dowload them and watch later ?[/QUOTE]
The viewing should be the same as computer . basically your just streaming to a different screen is TV not computer monitor

 

[TVC]

[QUOTE 4092591, member: 9609"]Decided on 40" (not interested in 3D) happy to go above £200 but £3,500 would be a bit OTT, so probably 500-1000 . we only watch a couple of hours in the evening and often none in the summer months.

Sound quality is a big one for me, we have our old tele wired up through some proper HiFi speakers and sound quaulity is good with lots of base, modern flatscreens always as @mcshroom suggests I will need some sort of addition sound system to go with it.[/QUOTE]
You will get a very good 40" for under £500. If you have more to spend then look at a home cinema system too, you'll get blue ray, cd, and plug in for other data devices.

 

[alicat]

It won't have a better picture if viewed at an angle. Or better sound.

 

[Smokin Joe]

[QUOTE 4092591, member: 9609"]Decided on 40" (not interested in 3D) happy to go above £200 but £3,500 would be a bit OTT, so probably 500-1000 . we only watch a couple of hours in the evening and often none in the summer months.

Sound quality is a big one for me, we have our old tele wired up through some proper HiFi speakers and sound quaulity is good with lots of base, modern flatscreens always as @mcshroom suggests I will need some sort of addition sound system to go with it.[/QUOTE]
A budget £25 sub with a pair of speakers running from the headphone socket on my TV made a planet load of difference to the sound quality.

 

[Tim Hall]

[QUOTE 4092591, member: 9609"]
Sound quality is a big one for me, we have our old tele wired up through some proper HiFi speakers and sound quaulity is good with lots of base, modern flatscreens always as @mcshroom suggests I will need some sort of addition sound system to go with it.[/QUOTE]
I recently bought a Samsung smart tv with the plan of hooking the sound up to my amplifier. Unfortunately, the tv has digital (s/pdif & optical) outputs, while the amplifier only has phono inputs. A cheap digital to analogue converter is on my shopping list.

 

[the_mikey]

LED, look for freeview HD and 1080i. Don't expect a smart TV to be supported with service and software updates beyond a year or two: I bought a Sony smart TV in 2011 but by 2013 most of the smart services had stopped working because Sony did not provide continuous software updates to keep the smart TV services current.



You'll need at least two HDMI sockets, one is not enough.

 

[MarkF]

If you are still using a CRT then anything, even the cheapest modern set will be a massive upgrade. All will come with a 'freeview' capability. Some will be 'smart'.

I had a great Sony Triniton 32" that went pop in the 2002 World Cup, since then I've had plasma and LCD and neither gives me the quality of picture (for footie) that the CRT did, plus with the Sony I could watch 2 games simultaneously (half a screen each) as the tournaments entered the latter stages.

After it'd demise I bought an LCD Philips 32" first, for £1200, after all sorts of plasma and lcd my last purchase was an Panasonic Viera 43" plasma in Xmas 2014 from Ebay, for £95, that's still going strong, but not as good as the CRT Trinitron.

 

[mybike]

I recently bought a Samsung smart tv with the plan of hooking the sound up to my amplifier. Unfortunately, the tv has digital (s/pdif & optical) outputs, while the amplifier only has phono inputs. A cheap digital to analogue converter is on my shopping list.

I did that too. Be careful with the socket on the TV, mine broke. and make sure you have an optical cable.

LED, look for freeview HD and 1080i. Don't expect a smart TV to be supported with service and software updates beyond a year or two: I bought a Sony smart TV in 2011 but by 2013 most of the smart services had stopped working because Sony did not provide continuous software updates to keep the smart TV services current.



You'll need at least two HDMI sockets, one is not enough.

Samsung at least seem to be better than that, mine is still supported, apart from ITV. I reckon the best answer may be a dedicated PC running a smart TV app.

 

[Fab Foodie]

John LEWIS and SAMSUNG SMART TV - bloody fabulous

Agreed.
That's about the sum of my knowledge.

 

[User482]

LED, look for freeview HD and 1080i. Don't expect a smart TV to be supported with service and software updates beyond a year or two: I bought a Sony smart TV in 2011 but by 2013 most of the smart services had stopped working because Sony did not provide continuous software updates to keep the smart TV services current.



You'll need at least two HDMI sockets, one is not enough.

Yep. I have a Sony blu-ray player from around that time and none of the smart services work any more. Much better to use something like a Roku - much cheaper to upgrade if needed.