First TV in 10 years. Should I get LED or LCD? Or projector? Or home cinema.

I was told in Soundstore and the sales guy said that all TVs are smart now. What is the attraction of a soundbar? has 5.1 gone? I have an old Lidl DVD with 5.1 output that works great, I cannot seem to find a Blue Ray with 5.1 at a reasonable cost
 
Not all TVs are smart, it's becoming more and more common, but it's still not 100%. Perhaps that store only sold smart models. I wouldn't get too caught up with smart TV though, especially on the lower end brands/models as the offerings tend to be very limited, and you will get better from a cheap add-on box that can sit behind the TV.

Soundbars are becoming more popular as new TVs are getting thinner and thinner. With a thin TV, you can't enclose a deep speaker cone, therefore the sound quality the TV can produce has been compromised, particularly in the bass frequencies. Soundbars (there are good and bad) can be a good step up on the sound quality these TVs can produce, but they still fall short of a decent 5.1 or 7.1 system, albeit for less cost.

All decent blue ray players will have an optional audio output to connect to a 5.1 surround system. You really don't want a combined unit. A decent surround system will be a chunky enough unit to enclose quality amplifiers.
 
Purple said:
Don't buy a smart TV. I did and it's a waste of money. Just get Apple TV or Chromecast or something like that.
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Leo said:
Not all TVs are smart, it's becoming more and more common, but it's still not 100%. Perhaps that store only sold smart models. I wouldn't get too caught up with smart TV though, especially on the lower end brands/models as the offerings tend to be very limited, and you will get better from a cheap add-on box that can sit behind the TV....
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We use the smart TV stuff a lot. Have Netflix and NowTV client. Also use the playback from USB a lot. Some of the Samsungs have a RTE Player built in too.

That said the smart bits go out of date. A seperate box like a roku will be kept up to date more frequently and more often.

You can use a tablet do to the same thing. But I like the idea of doing everything on one box.
 
Best of luck, as I said don't let the salesman put on animation or slow moving programs. Stick on action movies or football games.
guys in DID/power city are not exactly experts in tv's, remember, they are also experts in toasters!
 
I have a Toshiba flatscreen...sorry no idea if it is LED or LCD. I have to connect my laptop to the TV if I want to watch Netflix or anything else online....It is a bit of a pain because generally when I'm watching TV I'm working on my laptop. So was very interested in getting a smart TV . What is the difference between a smart TV and an Apple TV?
 
join8x said:
LED or LCD which better quality?
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If you get a proper full OLED screen, that will be way better than any LCD, trouble is, most screens advertised as LED are simply LED back-lit LCDs. Plasma was a superior product, but unfortunately became too expensive to manufacture at larger screen sizes.

Take a look at the reviews on AV Forums for any model you are considering. What are your budget & size requirements?
 
clueless said:
I have a Toshiba flatscreen...sorry no idea if it is LED or LCD. I have to connect my laptop to the TV if I want to watch Netflix or anything else online....It is a bit of a pain because generally when I'm watching TV I'm working on my laptop. So was very interested in getting a smart TV . What is the difference between a smart TV and an Apple TV?
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Apple TV is just Apple's take on a smart TV set top box. A smart TV is a TV with that functionality built into the set.

If you don't have a smart TV, but would like the functionality without replacing your set you have options. If you're already an Apple user, might make sense to go with Apple TV as you can tie in content from your other iOS devices. If you're not an Apple user, there are lots of cheaper Android alternatives.
 
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