Need some advice on Smart TVs

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Dr.Debt

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Hi Guys

My two "young" kids have suddenly become technology mad with ipods, ipads and games and have been nagging at me for some time to upgrade our TV.

After a small bit of research, Ive decided to upgrade the cabling in the house to cat5 and buy a good quality Smart TV working on WIFI.

Basically, we will discontinue our SKY subscription, take a new subscription to netflix, install saorview and also take a subscription to a TV station from my wife's country. We will also upgrade the modem as the wifi is under increasing pressure.

So in the end of the day, we will be running a new smart TV from wifi,
two ipods, an ipad, two iphones, two imacs ,two PC laptops and one printer on the same network.

I've narrowed down the TVs to one of the Panasonic models but I would be very interested in other peoples views and experiences of the best approach and any recommendations for smart TVS and modems would be very useful.

Thanks in advance

Dr.Debt
 
Go with one of the big brand names: Panasonic, Samsung, Sony or LG. These four make up the majority of the market at this stage and have a proven track record. In my opinion, buying a lesser known name is a false economy in the long run in terms of picture quality and future proofing your investment. Now is also the time to pick up a bargain if you are not wedded to the idea of having to have the absolute latest thing as most of the manufacturers will start to release their 2013 models over the next 6-8 weeks.

A good idea is to pick out one or two TV's that have caught your eye and do a search on a site such as AVForums. You will see huge feedback on the TV you are interested in.

Not sure why you need to rewire your house if you are going to be relying on Wi-Fi? Not all Smart TV's come with wi-fi as standard. Some require a dongle but all have an ethernet port. You could invest in a set of homeplugs (very cheap on Amazon) which will provide internet access to your TV.
 
What's a dongle, an ethernal port and especially the homeplugs.

We got a Panasonic smart TV recently and my other half is having terrible trouble with the internet. Was told he needs a special cable costing about 100 Euro to connect direct to the Internet from the TV (mightly ****ed off after forking out for the TV). So he decided on his old method of via the laptop to the TV but it was really difficult to do and the screen on the laptop had to go sideways, as in scroll to the right to get it onto the TV (hope this makes sense and am pointint out that these smart TV's are not so smart when you have hopeless humans).
 
I have a smart tv but never use any of the 'smartness'. I think I've used RTE Player on it once in about 14 months. Having said that, it doesn't support Netflix - if it did, it'd get a lot more use. Note that the games consoles also support Netflix, so if you have a Wii, XBox of Playstation they can be used for that.

If you still get the smart tv, I'd try to cable it in, I don't know if I'd trust WiFi to be able to handle streaming video, plus the WiFi attachment will probably come at a premium. Also, as you have iPods and an iPad, I'd check if they can be used as remote controls for the tv - I know Samsung have some good remotes available for their tvs and phones/tabs.

For free tv, you should also look at getting a Freesat settop box (eg Humax FoxSat HDR), especially as you already have the Sky dish, so it will work straight out of the box, giving you hundreds of channels subscription-free. It'd be nice if a FreeSat box supported NetFlix too, then you could just get a normal tv, but I'm not sure if they currently do.
 
Many thanks for the replies

The cat5 cabling is to cable between the eircom phone point, (currently in the garage) to where the TV will be located. I want to have the option to cable the smart TV directly to the modem. Everything else can be wireless.

I assume that all new Smart TVs support Netflix ?

Is there an easier way of getting internet access to your TV without having to go the full Smart TV route ?

Dr.Debt
 
Haven't got the exact Panasonic model number in front of me here but its the 50" GT version.I suspect that model is on the way out but it doesn't bother me too much as its on sale with 30% off.
 
Firstly can you change your broadband to upc? Eircom broadband is quite slow, which also is halved when using wifi. Also with all those items you have using wifi, your bandwidth will be eaten up, causing the broadband to get even slower.

If it was me setting up, id change to UPC, run an ethernet connection from the modem to the tv at least, as this will give you optimum broadband speed for streaming movies or programs. Check tv for netflix and saorview, (not all new tv's now have saorview as standard).
 
UPC is not available in my area and yes I plan to have the option of connecting the smart TV to the modem directly by cable.

Obviously all the devices will not be in use at the same time but I take the point about all the pressure on the bandwidth.
 
Dr.Debt said:
Haven't got the exact Panasonic model number in front of me here but its the 50" GT version.I suspect that model is on the way out but it doesn't bother me too much as its on sale with 30% off.
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That'll be the P50GT50B, great TV, gets superb reviews. The next model up (P50VT50B) doesn't add a lot of performance/features for significantly more money. Where are you seeing it 30% off and how much is it? Best I can see is €1300 in Power City.

Make sure you browse the Netflix catalogue before you ditch Sky completely. Take the 30 day free trail now maybe. I tried it last year and was disappointed with what was available. Ended up watching very little and getting rid of it.

In terms of modems/routers, Netgear get good reviews. If you're expecting heavy wireless traffic, and plan to run cat5, you could add a wireless network switch in a second location in the house. Connect the stationary equipment (TV, PCs, etc.) to the physical network and reserve wireless for the portable devices.
 
It would have been that alright,and it's a good set, you can get for €1249 in the Panasonic Store. Now is the best time for deals all round as the new models will start coming through in about two months, but then the prices start at the upper end again.
I'd agree regarding netflix though, it's not exactly offering the latest movies, I would still be buying a TV on its old fashioned merits i.e how good is the picture, and The GT50 has done pretty well on the awards circuit. I can't see any reasonig for paying an extra €1000 on a VT50 though.
 
Cheers Dr. Debt. I've been looking at that model, trying to convince myself I need an upgrade. Most places significantly increased the price in the run up to Christmas, it was €1440 for much of last year, but increased to €1600 at the start of December.

As Mr. Man says, new models are on the way. Panasonic launched their 2013 range yesterday.

MrMan said:
I would still be buying a TV on its old fashioned merits i.e how good is the picture
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Very good point, after all, that's what you'll be using it for the vast majority of the time. As Smart TV technology advances rapidly, you might find that in 2 years time, you'd be better served by a stand-alone SmartTV box than what came with the TV. Watch the Android boxes, ~€50 will get you a box with all the functionality of an Andriod tablet with all the SmartTV functionality.


MrMan said:
I can't see any reasonig for paying an extra €1000 on a VT50 though.
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Nor could any review that I've read. They used to be a lot closer in price last year, 25% difference rather than almost 60% now!
 
The smart bit on a smart TV may become obsolete before the TV screen itself does. But you can always plug something else in at that point.

All you need for netflix is something like the Apple TV, or Android boxes or even a media PC. The latter you could add tuners and run everything from that. But might be too much work if tech isn't your thing.

Consider upgrading all WiFi devices to IEEE 802.11 (if its mixed you get the lowest speed) and using wall plugs with a Gigabit Router. Also consider a router with parental controls, so you can control access to difference devices. In our house the kids use the Smart TV to get around internet blocks on other devices. I'm looking into something like http://www.netgear.com/lpc myself. Though its gets mixed reviews, and I've not tried it personally. So I'm not recommending that specifically.
 
Dr.Debt said:
Many thanks for the replies

The cat5 cabling is to cable between the eircom phone point, (currently in the garage) to where the TV will be located. I want to have the option to cable the smart TV directly to the modem. Everything else can be wireless.

I assume that all new Smart TVs support Netflix ?

Is there an easier way of getting internet access to your TV without having to go the full Smart TV route ?

Dr.Debt
Click to expand...
You could also use Powerline connectors if cabling is not easy. Some of the latest ones are super; I've connected a SkyPlus and a couple of FreeSATs on that way. Can be expensive for top of the range but a breeze to install and even better if you also have same manufacturer router and App for mobile monitoring and rebooting router if kids mess up something while you are away:).
Personally as far as the TVs go I like the Samsungs with the dual Saorview and Sat options.
 
Leo said:
Nor could any review that I've read. They used to be a lot closer in price last year, 25% difference rather than almost 60% now!
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Apparently, the VT series never drops in price from Pana, because it is the flagship model and some people will only ever ask for the highest spec model, and pay the going rate, although I'd imagine that those people are thin on the ground now. From what I can see, the GT50 is a VT50 in disguise, I won't be buying until my TV dies anyway..
 
I got a Samsung 7 series last year - it's great....the 8 series was out but the only thing really different was a thinner frame, but I was upgrading from a Sony CRT, I didn't mind - and the waving and voice recognition. Now the day when I wave and talk to my cv, I'll sign myself in somewhere. My dad did all the research inc Panasonic and he reckoned this was the best.

Use the smart feature a fair bit, as it's synched up with my laptop etc.

Just to say, I got mine in Arnotts - chance your arm and bargain - I got a cantilever stand (200 euro), HDMI and Ethernet leads (all free) and 100 euro off the price. My dad tried the same, and got nothing, so it seems to be down as to who you get! (or the fact I was wearing a short skirt!)

Did the same thing in Currys over the weekend and got a freebies and money off a new Samsung laptop
 
The TV should have wireless built in or be able to take a dongle. My Panasonic TV streams video from a hard drive under the stairs with no issues at all.

Panasonic are generally the best quality TV but Samsung TVs seem to be 'smarter', with more features and all that. I have a Panasonic and rarely use any of the 'smart' features - we have laptops and smartphones for all of that.

You will very quickly become bored with Netflix. With two nagging kids, I would hold off on cancelling the Sky subscription until you are sure.
 
My advice is to buy the tv you want as a tv. Budget under 1k. Don't pay big money just for smart tv features that will soon be superceded. It's a fast changing area and better to buy seperates.
You could buy a media player such as WDTV Live Streaming for about €80. It has You Tube, Netflix and other internet apps, nice small box. Many blu-ray players also have smart tv features. You then have the option to change that again in 2 yrs when a newer model comes out with more smart tv features or new subscritions. Does not make sense to lock yourself into one piece of equipment with all eggs in one basket. You want to be getting 5-7 yrs out of a TV at a minimum.
Intel announced this week that they will also enter this segment of the market.
 
Smart features and quality TV tend to go hand in hand. The best quality picture available will most likely have all the extras attached, it is rare for a non smart TV, to have a high quality capability.
 
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