Smart tv

[Crumblybiscuit]

I want to buy a new telly
Going for a 50”or there abouts
Probably from AO or my son suggests John Lewis.
So...... what brand???

Looking at LG and Samsung
But the toshiba ones at same spec seem to be cheaper(price wise) and I am wondering why.

Budget is going to decide how far down the rabbit hole of specs/features you go down. In all honesty for the average home user stick with any of the popular brands and you will be fine. Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sony.

Supplier - I often do this for family members and have used either Richer Sounds or John Lewis. No one else. I have had to claim on the extended warranty with both companies and both times my issue was resolved brilliantly. Although John Lewis were faster and in general provided better customer service (in my experience).

 

[Roland]

Pressed the button.
If there’s any one close enough to collect, who wants a 32” telly I have two going for free.

Two weeks into our new OLED TV, and I’ve now got the options configured to my satisfaction. The old 32” is now being used for all the video calls that have become part of our lives during 2020.

 

[RogerS]

Two weeks into our new OLED TV, and I’ve now got the options configured to my satisfaction. The old 32” is now being used for all the video calls that have become part of our lives during 2020.

Funny you should say that... Lurker has started the ball rolling as well here ! Our 32" will be pensioned off and we'll look for a 50" .

 

[lurker]

The old 32” is now being used for all the video calls that have become part of our lives during 2020.

Interesting, please elaborate.

 

[Rorschach]

Chromecast works because your phone/table/pc sends it a link which it then loads. Great for stuff you can get to via a link. Sadly not everything can be accessed like that and, as you say, it's not always convenient to control it.

Just for those who don't know, you don't have to just stream the link, you can stream a direct video from a device, basically using your TV as a external monitor.

 

[lurker]

Funny you should say that... Lurker has started the ball rolling as well here ! Our 32" will be pensioned off and we'll look for a 50" .

The extended free warranty from John Lewis decided the supplier for us.
Ordered this morning due for delivery next Tuesday.

 

[lurker]

I cut a bit of cardboard to size, as we want to decide where the wall bracket will go beforehand.
Blimey! 50” is a bit bigger than 32” !!!

 

[artie]

Blimey! 50” is a bit bigger than 32” !!!

Yes it is, but soon nothing less will do.
I remember when a friends 26" was the talk of the neighbourhood.

 

[ScaredyCat]

Just for those who don't know, you don't have to just stream the link, you can stream a direct video from a device, basically using your TV as a external monitor.

For anyone that owns one already then it's fine but it's a poor choice if you're looking to buy something now. A roku for example will do everything a chromecast will and more for either less or the same money, depending on which device you opt for.

It's a half hearted attempt by google (at best).

 

[Rorschach]

For anyone that owns one already then it's fine but it's a poor choice if you're looking to buy something now. A roku for example will do everything a chromecast will and more for either less or the same money, depending on which device you opt for.

It's a half hearted attempt by google (at best).

You could well be right there. Tech changes so fast these days and if I had to choose again I am not sure what I would go with. At the time though the chromecast was perfect, cheap and did everything we wanted with very easy screen casting from all our devices. Indeed even now I am not really noticing any limitations for us, it streams everything we could want and allows me to stream my own video files as well.

 

[gregmcateer]

Do take the trouble to check it will DEFINITELY work with all the apps. One of our Sony tv's is fine, the other, for no obvious reason, won't work with All 4, itv app or BBC iPlayer. It also seems to have become incompatible with freeview after a software 'upgrade'

 

[Crumblybiscuit]

I cut a bit of cardboard to size, as we want to decide where the wall bracket will go beforehand.
Blimey! 50” is a bit bigger than 32” !!!

Not sure if you already had the bracket or not.

But for brackets Amazon is hard to beat for quality/price.

I was quite surprised at how expensive and crap the John Lewis brackets were! Almost £200, exact same thing with higher load capacity was £50 on Amazon.

 

[jrm688]

We bought the 55” 1080P LG more than 10 yrs ago. Still working great. A couple of years ago it got moved up to the open concept living room/dining room/ kitchen when the better half wanted to watch tv while cooking. It was a win/win situation. We then got a 55” 4K smart LG for the rec room. Paired with the Denon home theatre receiver and 6 PSB speakers it is great. Netflix is amazing in 4K with 5.1 sound.

 

[DBT85]

I maxed out at a 65" Panasonic OLED (sold brand new but with a water damaged box for £1500 about 18 months ago) and now won't buy a new TV for the living room until this one snuffs it. OLED is wonderful and the room can't take anything larger than 65".

I don't use any of the smart stuff on TVs though. The experience always feels sluggish when compared to a dedicated device like a ATV or Shield or even a Roku.

I have a chromecast but frankly I'm looking forward to replacing it with something good like another Shield.

The nice KEF flat speakers look great around it and at some point I'll actually make the new sub i've been promising myself.

I cut a bit of cardboard to size, as we want to decide where the wall bracket will go beforehand.
Blimey! 50” is a bit bigger than 32” !!!

I did exactly the same for this one You put it up and go "oh flip".

 

[Owd Jockey]

We previously had a Blaupunkt 55inch which we bought from Home bargains for £299. It was brilliant and was still working well when I gave it to my brother. We replaced it with a 75" inch LG ULTRA HD 4K TV (75UK6200p). I must admit it was quite literallylike having an elephant in the room at first before we got used to, but our living room is circa 20ft x 20 ft so it did not take too long. We've had other LG white goods including a washing machine that lasted many many years. Upon its demise I disassembled it and found it contained an amazing range of 'stuff' like screws, bolts, 2 cast iron weights for the drum balance (which help load my lathe down), pipes tubes mild steel thin plate etc...

 

[Misterdog]

Internet myth.

They used to say the same thing about Panasonic plasma TVs. I bought one of the earliest 42" Panny plasmas, it's nearly 20 years old now and still doing sterling service up in the bedroom. Not a hint of the dreaded burn.

Though the 5000 posts on this forum thread may show otherwise.
Screen burn issues are generally not covered by warranty.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/oled-screen-burn-permanent-image-retention.2056624/
Richer Sounds is a great place to buy a TV from as they include a 6 year warranty as standard. Prices in store can be lower than online..

 

[Roland]

Interesting, please elaborate.

The TV is plugged into my laptop by HDMI, and treated as a second PC screen.

An old iPhone is plugged in by USB, and used as camera by running the Epoccam app. I made a bracket to suspend it from the top of the TV screen.

 

[Chris_Pallet]

Haha excellent thread,
.
Totally agree with comments, not one TV fits all taking into consideration lighting in room etc.
2 years ago it was Panasonic I bought but this yearI went with LG as it doesn't distort if looking slightly at angle, picture quality excellent especially sky HD and the apps are good too.. I even use the speak into the remote feature.
Bought from from John Lewis as it comes with the extra year guarantee, wasn't the cheapest on net but they refunded me the price match from richer sounds.

I'm converted to LG as it just seems more up to date than others I was looking at.

Another tip definitely check the model numbers against the release date, AO sell off older versions posting as a good deal I found.

Good luck, hope you post a picture of it once set up lol...

 

[Racers]

I have a Samsung smart TVs with a small pc sat behind it, it works very well for me.
I run the tv through the Hifi permanently so it sounds very good a magnitude better than the built in speakers.

Pete

 

[Spectric]

Hi all

Buying a Tv is only the begining, what really causes the problems is the pile of remotes needed to try and stay in control, even worse because BT & Freesat use the same codes and so where does smart come into it, if anything was really smart they would resolve the issues on their own!