Smart TV or not?

[giggsy1977]

Hello all.

I have what I hope is a relatively quick question.

My friend would like to buy a new television and as he has a fast internet connection would like to make use of all the Smart Tv features on newer models.

The issue is that he wants i-player, ITV-player, 4OD, 5 on demand and everything else, but he is on a budget.

Consequently I suggested he look to a cheap(er) television and a PS3 of Blu-Ray player for the above features.

The question is which option would give him the widest range of 'on demand' type features?

Thanks for listening.🙂

 

[Son_of_SJ]

but he is on a budget.

What exactly is his budget??!!

 

[giggsy1977]

Son_of_SJ - thanks for the response.

I doubt he would want to spend more than £600.00 which to me limits him greatly.

I think he would be better looking towards another way of bringing all the i-player/4OD/Demand 5 stuff he is on about. Question is, is there a piece of hardware out there with all this in?

 

[GSB]

My dad has just bought the same tv as mine,with all you require i guess,for£650......it's last years model,so its worth shopping around.

 

[giggsy1977]

spsplastering - I suggested he look towards Panasonic as I have one myself and he likes that, but he is adamant that LED is the way to go as he is woried about reflections and likes the brighter picture LED gives. I personally think LED's appear to offer more fine detail (my subjective experience anyway, but I like the filmic glossy look you get with a plasma). Anyway, I'm moving away from the point there - he wants a 47" - 50" LED for the moneu which I don't think is possible without sacrificing performance in a big way, but he is "careful" with his money - would a PS3 offer him what he needs (hooked up to a cheaper screen)?

 

[GSB]

A PS3 is a great buy,if you will use it to play games aswell...if not a BDP would be the cheaper option.

As for the choice of tv all i can say is the choice is subjective..,but my advice would be to shop around.

hope this helps🙂

 

[professorhat]

The advantage of the PS3 is it's the only device I'm aware of which offers BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD. I don't think there's any TV which has this built in.

Of course, virtually everyone has a laptop these days and most of the newer ones are pretty easy to hook up to any TV via HDMI.

 

[Tonya]

"virtually everyone has a laptop these days and most of the newer ones are pretty easy to hook up to any TV via HDMI"

Correct of course, but may I add that if you are shopping for a new laptop or TV, you may wish to ensure it has WiDi capabilities.
Most of the new laptops sold in Europe have this, as do the latest TVs from LG.
Not to worry, you can always add a WiDi dongle to almost any laptop USB port and connect a relatively cheap WiDi receiver (currently approx £60) to a spare HDMI input of your TV or projector.

WiDi, as the name suggests, will wirelessly and more importantly without loss, mirror anything you are displaying on your laptop and present it on the TV with no discernable degradation whatsoever.

It's a widespread standard that is popular here in Europe developed by those eggheads at Intel and it simply works like it says on the tin.

So now it's even easier to access all the web goodness without long trailing HDMI or SVGA cables cluttering up the living room!