Internet TV, the Future Today!

[Simon350S]

With Internet enabled TVs becoming the norm in the shops these days, how many of you have experienced the future of TV?

Personally we are massive fans of internet TV’s, choose the right TV and the content is awesome with some having access the ever popular Google marketplace for updates and the latest apps the possibilities are pretty much endless.

Having invested in one of the early internet TVs from Panasonic we feel a little robbed of content with Panasonic being a little light on the facts pre-launch. With limited updates and no way of expanding content the original Panasonic VieraCast is quite simply utter crap, with the exception of Skype which for us works rather well even if the camera is a little on the bulky side.

Now Samsung are a different kettle of fish altogether and the latest Sony TVs having Google TV built in the future is looking very rosy indeed.

Samsung are pretty much the only TVs we specify and sell recently due to the design of the screens, the perfect crisp picture, the quality and availability of apps, the discrete Skype camera which looks ace and the thoughtful placement of connections on the rear making wall mounting simplicity itself. We can mount these screens with only a few mm gap behind.

These new TV's are mucho £££ I agree and its a sizable investment, to think at one time we were happy with the 14" portable in the corner of the living room, a 50" wall hung TV is now very much common place. Recently we’ve installed a few of the latest 64" Samsung Plasmas and I stand there looking at them, seeing the content they can display, and wonder quite how we’ve got though life without them.

If you've not experienced Internet TV go take a look at one that’s properly hooked up and you'll be amazed.

Some of you may have experienced a lot of the above through your PS3 or other console and if you have that’s great, if you've got a console and haven't connected it to the internet yet then do it and see what your missing out on.

For those who have neither an internet TV or games console and don’t want to shell out £000's on a new TV then why not get yourself one of the latest internet Blu-ray players or set top boxes and open up your viewing world, you can even control it all from your phone or tablet.

Take a look at this link about Google TV, one of the options out there and looking very good indeed.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Simon350S

[Trevsked]

Simon,

I,m lost on setting up my Samsung 46 LED. Can get BBC I Player but that's about it, and the internet of course. Next time you are up you can come over and work your magic and I'll take you out for romantic meal.

Trevor.

[Simon350S]

Hi Trevor

What you having difficulties with?

Some of the apps require an account to be created before use, some are free, some are paid for, many of the paid for services such as LoveFilm offer a free trial so you can see if the service is for you or not.

Skype ideally requires a camera so you can video chat and that retails at about £130 but as said before it is very discrete.

What model of Samsung to you have? Is it the D8000 or D9000 series? If so have you tried the Samsung App for iPhone? Its a free app that allows you to control your TV from your phone, it syncs with your TV via your WiFi connection. Go to the app store and search for Samsung, if nothing else you get yourself a nice new gadget to play around with!

[Justin182]

Simon, bit of a hijack, but whats your opinion on the D7000/D8000?

I'm away to buy a new TV this month, and really cant decide between the D series, or the Pana VT30.

[Simon350S]

The Samsung D7000 & 8000 are very sexy looking TVs, you'll be hard pushed to beat them on looks, the D8000 plasmas have larger silver bezels unlike the almost bezel less finish on their LED TVs. Pictures are ace on them and as said the internet TV functionality is excellent. If your wall mounting the layout of the connections on the back is great.

Having said that the new Panasonic range has learnt a lot from Samsung and have pretty much copied all of their good features from the bezel less finish to the thoughtful rear connections, no more need for 90 degree angled adapters to make your HDMI and Toslink fit. Panasonics Plasma screens have also been very much praised for their 3D capabilities from the very start back when they launched the VT20B last year. The Samsung LED TVs and as such pretty much all the LED 3D TVs from all manufacturers always seem to lack behind in the reviews of the 3D imagery, from jittering to ghosting and cross talk. Avoid LED/LCD at the moment if 3D is important to you.

I do like the Panasonic products but feel a bit cheated by their very poor Viera Cast. They have since brought out SmartViera which is an improvement although they have pi$$ed off quite a lot of people by not updating last years model, me included..

If it was me personally I think I'd go for the 50" D8000 plasma especially as Skype is so important to us it just looks so much smarter. The 64" D8000 is a treat and is what I'd really want but is just that little too much.

Pop over to Currys, see what floats your boat, then drop me an email and I'll see what deal I can do for you on price!

Here’s a photo part way through an install of a Samsung 64" D8000 complete with the new Canton In Wall 880 speakers all connected up through a Sonos ZP120 which in turn is mounted elsewhere in the house along with the Sky HD box etc in a rack.

The camera photo is crap, to see it in person is quite something and without exception everybody has commented on how good it looks! You can just make out the Skype camera on top of the set, those bits to the bottom are none other than cables we'd not yet connected up and are well out of the way now, think one is the toslink and the other the power.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Simon350S

[Simon350S]

Sat here thinking that TV looks small.....

To put it in to perspective those floor tiles are 600mm/2 foot wide, that makes the TV 6 foot wide. Hope that puts it into perspective for those who've not seen a 64" TV up close and personal.

[arbell9]

A PS3 does internet through your tv , and has iplayer, itv and 4od as well.

I cant see many poeple upgrading tvs just for this when there are tons of ps3 and xbox360s around, millions of smart phones, tablets and laptops.

I checked the internet tvs out at JL recently and read up on them. Its not that impressive yet.

[Simon350S]

Alex you’re a switched on guy who knows his stuff and that’s great. I touched on all that in my first post though.

Some of you may have experienced a lot of the above through your PS3 or other console and if you have that’s great, if you've got a console and haven't connected it to the internet yet then do it and see what your missing out on.

For those who have neither an internet TV or games console and don’t want to shell out £000's on a new TV then why not get yourself one of the latest internet Blu-ray players or set top boxes and open up your viewing world, you can even control it all from your phone or tablet.

The idea of this is to open up to those who are not aware of what is available to them right now for very little outlay.

I was sat in someone’s house the other day after installing their new projector system watching something on BBC iPlayer. He asked how I got BBC iPlayer on his projector and I said it’s on your PS3. He had been online gaming for a long time but had no idea what he could do with his console.

Couple this with the fact that some consoles are paid subscription only for their internet content and highlighting options is a very valid discussion.

I’d love to know what you use on your PS3, getting a further understanding of what people use this kind of technology for will help us to specify systems that fulfil everyone’s criteria in the future.

Also there’s a whole generation if not 2 or 3 generations who have no interest in games consoles and will be alienated from this technology without the understanding that you can add this through ‘set top’ boxes and Blu-ray players for relatively little ££.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Simon350S

[arbell9]

We watched casualty on iplayer tonight. I use the pc a lot so tend not to do internet stuff on the ps3. The PS3 browser is crude and is in desperate need of modernizing.

The blue ray dvd player on the ps3 is the other good seller if you are not into gaming.

I have one friend who has switched from mainsteam tv to internet tv , mostly iplayer as the tv schedule doesn't match his other interests schedule

[Justin182]

Thanks Simon.

I have had a good look at both the D8000 (LED though!?) and the VT30. In my eyes the Samsung looks amazing in all the shops, but everyone says the VT30 will look the best when its actually in a house.. I love the look of the Samsung, but a TV is for watching, not for looking at!

I mostly like watching blurays, HD sport, and the odd bit of gaming...

[arbell9]

Buddsy it would have to be a pants router to be slowing down iplayer, its more like your overall conection is slow. Some providers choke your supply back at peak times.

[Simon350S]

Justin, I think for me I'd still go for the Samsung. Picture quality on these high end sets is pretty equal and it's hard to choose between them unless your a real anal TV buff which the vast majority of us are not, I really don't think you'll notice much of a difference.

Panasonics Smart TV offering is still too weak in my opinion and they have shown a lack of backwards compatability support.

Take a look at this link which gives a good overview of what differing manufacturers sets offer.

http://www.which.co.uk/technology/tv-and-dvd/guides/viera-connect-from-panasonic/viera-connect-performance/

Buddsy as Alex said BBC iPlayer doesn't require a particularly fast connection to function well, although my father couldn't use it effectively but his broadband speed was just under half a meg. He's now on fibre and is loving it!

Try this web link and see what speed your achieving.

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

TalkTalk are a pretty crap provider from experience and reputation but maybe it's your internal WiFi signal that's causing issues. WiFi in our house is useless and the signal is glitchy at best even when only 3 or 4 metres from the router through a single brick wall. For me it's hard wire Ethernet every time and it eliminates any drop out caused by interference from other appliances and poor signal strength.

If running a cable is not an option then maybe an Ethernet over ring main adapter, they work very well hand have successfully used one over a 80m+ length of mains cable (was Alex's adapter) to stream audio.

Let us know how you get on with the speed test.

Less than a meg buddsy, that is bad...

That site I gave you a link to allows you to see what others are achieving in your area and what provider they are using. See how you compare and get back to us

It is also worth calling BT, even though you are with TalkTalk there is a department that specifically deal with broadband line speed issues, was told this by the guy who was fixing our line. We had only 1.5 meg until they renewed a length of cable that ran through some trees on it's way to our house and we had an increase of 2 meg so now average 3.5, much better and less drop outs with audio streaming.

Our problem was a combination of the branches rubbing though the cable insulation and also that where the able had been joined on the posts the connectors were soaking wet and badly corroded.

Can you follow your line back from your house to the main pole and see how many junction boxes have been used along the intermediate posts? We had 2 and both were very bad. Maybe worth a look

Edited October 23, 2011 by Simon350S

[Trevsked]

Simon,

Mine I believe is a D6530. I tried to watch ITV player last night but that seems to require Flash Player and when I try to load that it tells me there isn't one for my system?

Trevor.

[NedaSay]

I opted for a Sony Bravia LED Internet TV but to be honest the content available in France is quite dismal! Sony gives pretty much nothing of interest right now! My TV is connected to my home network but the only video codec accepted is mpeg 1 no, divx no avi no mp4! Catch up tv is only nice when your basic TV package is ok and in here it's not, I do prefer the content I have, available in Canada... Netflix, Hulu and comprehensive catch up TV provided by the biggest players of the industry in Canada!

I'm waiting for a Sony update to the software so that more format are playable!

If anyone is looking for a router here I can only suggest the the Cisco Lynksys E4200 this thing is really good!

[B1 RMA]

There is quite a difference in price too, some time ago I bought the Sony 3d package which from Best Buy was a good deal. When I looked at the Samsung D8000 the other day which is a very nice TV Best Buy had it up for £2500 whereas on the net you can get it for £1900 quite a difference.

[Simon350S]

The only thing I'd say about buying a TV over the Internet is be careful what your buying.

Many sites are selling European products and often not even telling you so which is very naughty. First you know in some cases is when an adapter plug falls out of the box, that's if they've even bothered to put one in!

It's a massive pain in the arse dealing with customer service and warranty claims at best. I'd stay clear unless you get a promise of a genuine UK model otherwise the savings can turn out to be a real false economy!

[B1 RMA]

Couldn't agree more, most of the larger well known companies on Pricerunner seem to be selling the genuine article, bought my last two sets before the Sony on-line and I guess it was the luck of the draw but had no problems so returning wasn't an issue.

[Vulcan Grey]

Rather than buying a fancy TV that has built in internet ability (that will be quickly surpassed, or not supported) I use a program on my pc called "playon" that will stream media to any DLNA device.

So if HULU blocks my PS3 or my Android tablet or phone... I use playon to stream Hulu to those devices. Same with netflix or the others.

My tv is actually a 42" NEC plasma monitor with no built in tuner.

[oneshot]

I also have a Fujitsu 42" plasma monitor with no TV tuner in it.

[Wilf]

If your WiFi is not doing too well you can try changing the channel used. If you can see lots of your neighbours networks when scanning it is usually worth the effort

[Bibs]

There are some very handy apps for that nowadays too

[Simon350S]

Scott

Your PS3 may well be better for content but it's worth doing an update on your TV as Samsung are pretty good.

Let me know a 'comfortable length' from you're router to your TV and PM me your address.......

[Simon350S]

Firmware update mate.

I think you'd be better off trying an update using a long cable for now to see if the content on the TV is worthwhile investing in a wifi dongle.

If you want to try it then like I said, let me know the length of cable you need to comfortably reach from the router to the TV

[oneshot]

Noise from the extensions. The extension cables can act as aerials and pick up noise which will affect the maximum speed.

[mayevora]

**thickie question alert**

What is the difference or is there any difference between a TV advertised as Full 3D and another advertised as 3D Ready?