Our tv has developed an interesting new picture mode, stripy and multicoloured. It adds to the two different colour whites on either side of the screen, so I concede it’s now time for a new one. We just got a chromecast, for Netflix and iplayer, which we like, so do we need to spend extra on a smart tv? What extra would we get?

Access to the internet as a web browser, syncing with other media devices, etc. Id be inclined to get it, especially if its going to last. My current flat screen is on a lot and its still great quality so I cant justify buying something new with smart TV and all the other gubbins.

I think I would rather buy a dumb TV and have the extra add-on boxes. At some point the smart bit will probably go wrong, or not be updated etc and you have paid out for it. Add-on boxes can be replaced easily and probably have better support.

Also more hackability of external things – eg for adding HDD space etc.

DumbTV here and we don’t miss out, cos we have a PS3. I wouldn’t avoid smartness, but if there was a good deal on a better dumb tv I’d take it. Depends what the deals are.

Chromecast makes it smart IMHO. Why do I need Facebook etc on my bloomin tv ?

In my experience different boxs means that each failure or change isn standards is cheaper to sort out

I’ve been looking at TV with a loose aim to buy one at some point. I’ll be plugging in a chromecast and a server of some sort or a rpi linked to said server. Not convinced that a smart tv would add anything that those can’t cover.

proprietary in buit technology gives you less control.

Wasn’t there a story of LG smart TVs still sending data back to LG even though the setting was set to off?

Can you get a good quality TV that doesn’t have smart features built in. I didn’t buy my TV for that functionality and don’ use it, I access through my xbox – but I don’t remember there being any difference in price between smart and dumd – or more likely not a dumb option?

Isn’t it that ultra high res stuff that is the pocket emptying thing now?

Dumb TV every time. The various boxes are cheap and easily upgraded, ie an Apple TV can be had for around £80-99, and the OS gets updated reasonably frequently. There’s no guarantee that any given TV manufacturer will upgrade the set’s OS over the life of a TV, in the same way that there are plenty of Android phones out there that the manufacturers have never supplied any update of the OS; they’d rather just sell a new phone every six months.
Also a dumb TV will happily work as a monitor for a small PC like a Mac Mini, which gives you full computer functionality.

Thanks all. Now why does my wife believe you and not me?

‘Cos STW is ossum!

p.s. Dumb TV. The ‘smart’s stuff is generally crap.

Apple TV can be had for around £80-99, and the OS gets updated reasonably frequently

My family and I have spent many Friday nights sat round the tv watching the Apple to perform another seemingly pointless firmware upgrade before we dare rent a film…

We don’t have an Xbox, PlayStation, Chromecast or Apple tv so when we got a new tv last Christmas we got a smart one.
Went for a Samsung which has all the catch up stuff (not all do) and it has a browser so I’ve been able to watch the dh world cup live on Red Bull tv.
It didn’t cost much more than the non smart variant so made sense for us.

Buy Dumb, as then you can choose your “Smart” add on device, and change it in the future.

I’ve got a ‘smart’ Samsung. It’s ok but I’m underwhelmed to be honest, get a lot more use out of the Sky box and using the Blu-ray as a media header.

Thought about getting a Chromecast or a Pi, but there’s very little I’m actually missing.

I would go smart. Fewer remotes to keep track of….

Dumb TV – for the time being, I don’t think smart tv’s are that smart just now, but they are getting better.

The Smart tv’s Ive used Smart functions are slow, laggy & unintuitive. Much prefer my Chromecast.

What ever is the best price, there is nothing stopping you adding chromecast, apple tv, rasp Pi etc. to a smart TV. We got a huge non smart Samsung on a huge discount as nobody wanted dumb tv’s but then I have a media PC and now have a chromecast to go with it so it’s really not worth any more to me.
I suppose the argument is it’s not worth £100 more for a smart tv but if it’s the same price might as well have it anyway.
As for one less remote the chromecast works from the phone and the PC has it’s own wireless keyboard/trackpad.

You know what this reminds me of?

You know when a car has an integrated satnav option, and it costs like a grand, and turns out not to be anywhere near as good as a standalone TomTom?

If there was no cost premium(unlikely) then I’d go with a Smart TV, having said that just got hold of a NOW TV box(with 3months Sky movies included for £12.50 all in,thanks Tesco).

I have sideloaded Plex(actually Rarplex for those in the know) and its bloomin great.

I can stream media from my Laptop, got all the catch up TV services which seem to work a damn site better than the same ones on my You view box.
Plus can download extra Plex channels for things like ABC in the states or Icefilms etc.

You know when a car has an integrated satnav option, and it costs like a grand, and turns out not to be anywhere near as good as a standalone TomTom?

Yup – think about the advancement of phones – the phone I had 4 yrs ago feels pretty poor in comparison to the phone I have now, phones/sat navs/other similar devices have a much shorter replacement time than items like cars or tv’s – imagine trying to use a 15 yr old sat nav on the roads today… but using a 15yr old car is fine.

My family and I have spent many Friday nights sat round the tv watching the Apple to perform another seemingly pointless firmware upgrade before we dare rent a film…

Why do you let it? It can only do this if you agree to it going ahead. I have a Mac computer and three iOS devices, and none of them do firmware upgrades on their own, in fact I can’t recall any firmware upgrades, and major software upgrades ask for permission.
In fact, you’re probably talking about software, firmware upgrades are few and far between, as far as I can discover, and need the box to be connected to a computer via a cable.

Well I’ll admit that i have no idea whether I’m updating software not firmware

But as to why, the answer is simple. Its a device that generally works fine. But its on occasions thrown a hissy fit and stopped doing something important. Having wasted hours on a few issues i found online advice to check that you have the device up to date. All problems have been resolved by update.

So having wasted hours on this we will never set down to an evenings viewing without installing any updates

You know when a car has an integrated satnav option, and it costs like a grand, and turns out not to be anywhere near as good as a standalone TomTom?

Yeah, but you nothing makes you feel like you’re in KITT quite like an integrated satnav.

Ive got a Panasonic ‘smart’ TV. It is no smarter than a cardboard box. Waste of time IMO.

The laptop/Xbox are much more capable.

new samsung 4k smart tv arrived today, imagine my joy

For anything a smart TV can do, there are many other cheap devices that do it much better and you already have one…..Chromecast

I bought a smart tv on sale it was the cheapest in the shop. I never use the “smart” bit of it, wasn’t interested in that in the slightest. I have Apple TV for streaming to from my macbook, and Netflix is AWESOME.