Current old massive thing is playing up. I will be looking at a new set up after Xmas. Currently I’ve got a satellite dish running freesat via an old cheapo box.
Smart TV? Or just tv then get Google thing or the like and a freesat hd box?
I guess no more than 500 all in. Any recommendations/advice?

Go to John Lewis and see what best suits your budget.

as long as it is not samsung…

Probably will Pete. Took the grandparents to get their Panasonic recently from there. Apple tv?

or now tv, or playstation 3, or amazon thingy…

Apple TV is probably better than most Smart apps in a TV, but will you really use it? Mine don’t see much use it has to be said. They were mostly used for the Now TV app this Autumn to watch the rugby.

I would not buy a Smart TV again but for the fact 3D and Smart TV seem to be inseperable.

I use 3D more than any smart features and Sky+ rather than catch up TV.

I plugged the Amazon one in at work, the menu on a 50″ was horrendous, I felt dizzy after!

as long as it is not samsung…

Samsung make bloody good tellys

My 4yr old samsung smart TV can’t play all the apps now. I think over years the software has outgrown the hardware and they just make the TV crash. I wouldn’t pay a premium for smart.

Samsung make bloody good tellys

I was referring to the recent thread on the poor reliability of samsung tvs, which included an ex-sky engineer who said that the most number of duff tvs he saw were samsungs.

Plus I personally thing they make a complete hash of any picture processing, which obviously will be invoked for anything other than a high quality 1080p signal.

http://m.hotukdeals.com/deals/toshiba-50l2436db-50-inch-full-hd-led-tv-bdx1500-blu-ray-player-2-blu-rays-5-year-2079181

I was referring to the recent thread on the poor reliability of samsung tvs, which included an ex-sky engineer who said that the most number of duff tvs he saw were samsungs.

Samsung sell many different TV and one of the top sellers. Why would a sky engineer see broken TVs?

I have a Samsung one of the top spec ones from earlier in the year, it’s excellent. I use the smart features regular but rarely the 3D.

get as big a plasma as you can afford/risk

attach whatever smart device to it to give you films/movies/tv

Don’t get one with a built in web cam #beingwatched.

My 40″ Samsung is around 8 years old and still one of the best pictures around with a good HD source. SD reproduction is good too – comparable with a decent CRT. Setting it up right out of the box always helps – if you are relying too much on processing, then you are on a losing streak from the off.

It’s failed once, but that’s because I hashed a firmware update

Why would a sky engineer see broken TVs?

maybe he was a tv engineer as well – I will look up the thread if you wish.

I recommended a small samsung to my sister once, that messed up a couple of days after its warranty was up.

Anyway – even if they are not unreliable I still maintain their picture processing sucks.

Here’s the thread about samsung tvs :

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/samsung-tv-broken

and here’s the quote :

unovolo – Member

When I was a engineer at Sky, Samsung was the most common brand we came across that developed faults, I came across 2 that were faulty straight out of the box.

I know there will be plenty of people very happy with there Samsung TV’s and have had no issues , personally I avoid them because of the above.

Why would a sky engineer see broken TVs?

That would be me, now why would I see a TV that is faulty, maybe because thats how you would actually VIEW the picture, unless you would prefer to sit there with your eyes closed and just imagine whats going on.

Quite often would get called out for a fault/service call which would transpire to be the TV that was at fault,and not the Sky system.

Of course I came across other brands of Tv that had faults(as well as the Sky boxes) but common consensus amongst engineers was Samsung developed the most faults, also Samsung and Sony to a lesser extent were lax at developing software updates to keep the TVs compatible with newer standards.

I have 3 Samsung TV`s in the house, 2 of which are hooked up to sky and a 3rd in the bedroom which isn’t
Bedroom one is a smart TV which we use a lot for catch up services and Netflix etc.
They are all toward the top end though, as when I was shopping the picture quality was better in the 6-6500 series than the ones lower down the range (But with slightly less features than the 7 or 8 series)

Not had a problem with any of them.

Nice TV`s, easy to set up and use, intuitive UI, decent warranty from John Lewis whats not to like 8)

Quite often would get called out for a fault/service call which would transpire to be the TV that was at fault,and not the Sky system.

That clears that up cheers.