^OPM^

I'm thinking of treating myself to a new TV for xmas, anyway been fancying one of these smart tv's as i like idea of catch up tv, youtube etc being available on the tv in living room but, from what i read there is a vast difference in what smart tv's will do on net depending on brand and how much you pay and even some of the expensive ones seem to have quite limited internet access.

Now rather then pay say £700 - £800 say for a decent 40 - 42" tv could i not just but a more bog standard but decent make one that isn't smart tho for say £400 ish but then buy a cheap ( i think term may be barebones?) pc to place in tv stand underneath and when i wish to go on net use the pc wirelessly and just connect it to tv and basically use the tv as the computers monitor?

This way surely i could pick up a cheap basic computer with no monitor for say £100 ish and have access to the full internet with all the catch up channels (bbc1, channel 4, 5 etc plus youtube) so for a cheaper price have a decent tv with better internet access then a more expensive smart tv would have?

Anyone else done this?

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

yep - have a freeview satellite receiver with built in HDD recorder for normal telly watching and recording.

I have a small PC which runs Ubuntu 12.04. This runs XBMC, myth TV and has connectivity to the interwebs for Iplayer, you-tube, browsing etc. All this connects back to my NAS which stores a huge collection of music and movies.

The whole shebang is connected to my home cinema amp - wife hasn't a clue how to make it all work, but when you are used to it, it is a pinch of ****.

Graz

Planning on building my own home theatre PC (HTPC) soon for this reason and many others, opens up a whole world of stuff you can do on you're big telly. I do have a Panasonic 50" plasma that is supposed to have a load of smart features, it's ok, but only BBC iplayer, no 4OD or ITV player facility. It is quite impressive that I can stream films, music etc. to it from my micro server though.

Most laptops have a HDMI output these days and are more than capable of driving a 1080p screen. Might be another option for you

john banks

I'm looking for a 60" (edging towards plasma rather than edge lit LCD) instead of projector for a very long room, but don't want to spend a fortune and the models I've seen have been cheaper before so I think I'll wait until new year when I gather the deals are better due to old models and low demand. I'm not bothered about smart TV (which will date) or 3d which I think is a fad, my Humax box and Sony Blu ray player do most of the stuff like that I need.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I dunno, I like speaking to my TV telling it to turn on and off

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Cheapest option would be an Android device http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_tr...at=0&_from=R40
Or if you already have an andriod phone with TV out, you can use that. A decent-ish spec will play anything.

mart360

Cheapest ways for smart tv at mo,

Rasberry Pi, about £30 notes, more smart tv you can shake a stick at

Smart Bluray /3D player £60-100 notes,

All the smart stuff you need, which will cooect straight to the TV

we currently have a smart telly and the Bluray is smart too,

Bit of overkill really, as you can only access the smart function of one atany time, although you can use the smart functions on a non smart tv

Alterantivly get an Xbox, lots of media stuff on there now


Mart

^OPM^

isn't that just a fangled media player that i already have connected to my tv - which i can then download say films then either put on a dongle or sd card and plug them into that then watch via the tv?

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

You can get micro PC's powered by Atom cpu's which would be perfect for a smart TV application.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Or make life easy for yourself - 51" Samsung 3D full HD smart TV, £699 with £100 cashback possible if you buy another Samsung product - e.g. bluray player.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/51-3...c-free-1376568

p.s. i'd tried the JL pricematch as mentioned - you can do it online, and this gives you a 5 year warranty free.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My main TV has Viera cast....its hopeless. Not that it doesn't work; it has the usual stuff like Youtube and facebook etc, buts its just so slow and clunky to use.

So I bought one of these: http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/de...q-series/q180/

Basically a net-top. Works just like a normal PC, I added a wireless mini keyboard and also downloaded a remote control phone-app. For a dual core Atom performance isn't too shabby. Sure its no good for gaming and stuff like that, but for streaming media from the NAS or catch up stuff via the internet its fine.

Only criticism is the fan is a bit noisy for my liking, not that its intrusive, but it is noticable if the TV is on mute.

edit: Q190 is comming out soon.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

use a few media pcs around the home, main one has dual dvbs and dual dvbt so I can record 4 things at the same time and these give me freesat and freeview. I run win 7 on these with media centre and there is an app called tunerfree which gives you all the catchup stuff etc. If I want to browse the interweb / youtube etc then I have a wireless mini keyboard I can pull out and use that. Also play my films from my nas.
Just gone back to sky though due to lack of decent viewing material on terrestrial tv.

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

I'm using a Mac Mini i5 with 8gig of ram, not the cheapest option but my desk top packed in so i killed 2 birds with one stone. Also running XBMC, which is brilliant with the right repositories (Sports Devil) you can watch loads of sport that isn't on UK TV Channels, amongst other stuff

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

Asrock ION 3D system is real nice, blu ray, 1080p, full 3d, for under £260.

Atom based PC

Littleted

Yep mine too pretty dire ain't they.

My personal view is buy something that has passive cooling, I got a DVD shaped case, and the asus passive cooled micro motherboard, comes with CPU, I popped 8 gig of ram in it for 30 quid, and used an oldish 500 gig drive.

The asus main board has everything it's fanless, hence passive cooled so silent, it's got hdmi optical wireless gig Ethernet, I just slapped windows 8 on bought an rf mouse and keyboard and its perfect , just sit at back of room pick correct input and Walla.

For catch up get virgin lol