Help buying a smart tv

Gangu

I’m going to buy a smart tv before Christmas. Haven’t bought a tv in about 12 years. Any suggestions? What should I be looking for?

ShaunC

You could hang on for a few weeks as black Friday sales might save you a few Euro. That will give you time to compare makes and models.
I'm eyeing up the Samsung 8000 series myself.

Gangu

Thanks. So avoid Samsung. Yes. I’m doing my research now ahead of Black Friday.

ImARebel

Deffo avoid Samsung I got a smart TV and tbreifi card went caput in it one month after the warranty ran out. They wouldn't fix it and rang their repair company and they said it would nearly be cheaper buy a new one

Never again...

We've an ordinary non smart Samsung still going 14 years later grest TV but smart.. Avoid

When you google it you realise loads have the same issue

ImARebel

Deffo avoid Samsung I got a smart TV and tbreifi card went caput in it one month after the warranty ran out. They wouldn't fix it and rang their repair company and they said it would nearly be cheaper buy a new one

Never again...

We've an ordinary non smart Samsung still going 14 years later grest TV but smart.. Avoid

When you google it you realise loads have the same issue

adm

Well I got an LG smart tv and it only lasted 2 and a half years (Google 'lg black screen' to see it happens a lot). Perhaps I was just unlucky but I was pretty disgusted.
Richer sounds do a 6 year guarantee as standard so I will be buying from them in future.

Gangu

Oh god none of that sounds encouraging. We’ve a good tv that has been working fine for about 13 years. Just recently I’ve noticed a minor issue with sound being unclear for some programmes. I really want to but a tv and that’s it for another 13 years ..,

eoghan104

OmegaGene wrote: »

Yeah you can’t go wrong with richer sounds to be fair they are sound fellas to deal with and you can pay using gbp via Revolut for an extra saving
6 year of cover is great

How does the delivery work? Can you use parcel motel? I am assuming a tele is too big for that!

Bravobabe

???? - I have 3 x Samsung TVs at home.
The oldest is over 10 years old and still going strong, the next is 7 years old and the newest is about 5 years - all working well.
Only the newest TV is a smart model and while it has Netflix, Prime & apps like RTE & TG4 the rest is basically crap.
A good android box for €50-80 euros would be a better investment.

Obviously "smart" has or should have moved on in recent years and more modern TVs (incl. Samsung should have a better setup) - but I still think you will not have the flexibility of an external android box (as in applications will be limited by the operating systems).

I'm interested in knowing what Apps & services are available and working well on modern smart TVs? Is it worth an investment?

Gangu

Bravobabe wrote: »

???? - I have 3 x Samsung TVs at home.
The oldest is over 10 years old and still going strong, the next is 7 years old and the newest is about 5 years - all working well.
Only the newest TV is a smart model and while it has Netflix, Prime & apps like RTE & TG4 the rest is basically crap.
A good android box for €50-80 euros would be a better investment.

Obviously "smart" has or should have moved on in recent years and more modern TVs (incl. Samsung should have a better setup) - but I still think you will not have the flexibility of an external android box (as in applications will be limited by the operating systems).

I'm interested in knowing what Apps & services are available and working well on modern smart TVs? Is it worth an investment?

We have a google chromecast and I wouldn’t be thinking about a change except for sound

Bravobabe

Yes - the RTE App needs a bit of work. On our TV at the AD break the program goes back to the beginning.

kala85

OmegaGene wrote: »

I had a Samsung smart tv and it was crap
I changed to an LG smart 4K tv and the smart side of things is much better, it actually functions very well, I have a smart dns running so have all the uk players on it
Richer sounds are worth a look because of the good prices and extra warranty, if you want to see what they look like first Harvey Norman normally have a good selection to view and you can do a price comparison at the same time

How do you run the smart dns and how is that organised

kala85

OmegaGene wrote: »

Loads of companies offering smart dns, I use getflix

Is there a setting that is changed in the router or is it changed in the telly

kala85

OmegaGene wrote: »

You can do either

Can you explain how to do it on the tv.

Do I just get the dns from the vpn provider and and put the dns number into the TV.

Is there any security issues.

kala85

So this will allow me to watch bbc iplayer but will it allow me to watch rte player as well at the same time

kala85

OmegaGene wrote: »

Not exactly at the same time unless you have two TVs lol
But seriously I know what you mean and yes you can watch all the uk and Irish players and even American netflix

Thanks so just to clarify, i dont need to change any settings to allow me to switch from bbc iplayer to rte player.

mccartj5

Anyone have an Android TV? Was thinking of getting a couple instead of buying new android boxes. The electriQ brand seems to be much cheaper and might be worth a punt

https://www.buyitdirect.ie/st/android-tvs

eoghan104

OmegaGene wrote: »

Not sure on the size of tv you are thinking about it your budget but this is a nice tv for the money

https://www.richersounds.com/lg-55uk6400plf.html

Can anyone tell me the difference between the TV above and this TV below?

LG 55" 4K UHD HDR Smart LED TV | 55UK6470PLC

https://www.harveynorman.ie/tvs-headphones/hd-tvs/all-tvs/lg-55-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-led-tv-55uk6470plc.html

The high horse brigade

mccartj5 wrote: »

Anyone have an Android TV? Was thinking of getting a couple instead of buying new android boxes. The electriQ brand seems to be much cheaper and might be worth a punt

https://www.buyitdirect.ie/st/android-tvs

That's not Android TV. It's an old version of touchscreen Android running on the weak hardware the TV contains. It'll have no play store and will probably never get updates. It may not even do Netflix or YouTube in HD
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_TV

You are better to just buy the best TV within your budget, forget about the smart features and pickup an aftermarket Android TV box for a much better experience. Smart TV is a marketing gimmick.