Samsung Smart TV

I’m getting little confused about the ever upward screen refresh rate and of course definition.

I’m sure I saw an 4k with almost 500 Hz refresh rate.

defo gonna need freesync with that.

I don’t own a smart tv for this reason. Looking at threads regarding this issue, it seems that alot of tvs as their hardware gets old the apps get yanked, which was the main concern I had about smart tvs.

Tbh all the family and many friends have smart tvs, and I’m yet to use one that gives a decent experience.

Give I use smart boxes, I wouldn’t be put off from buying a smart tv, but I wouldn’t use the smart side of the tv, so it being smart wouldn’t make me choose one over anther non smart. I’d rather buy a cheaper dumb tv.

All I’m interested with is a decent picture, 3+ hdmi, and a powered USB port or two. Everything else, I couldn’t care less.

I’m into cutting edge in almost everything I play with, but with cutting edge comes issues, bugs, and breakages. I learnt long ago, for my tv I want simple, I don’t want to have to trouble shoot a TV media system when I want to “veg”.

It’s the reason the pc media player has gone, as has plex and mostly Xbmc has gone to. When I want to veg, I want to turn the tv on and it just work. Roku and amazon just work, and relatively cheap to replace when their hardware starts showing age. A tv should be a 10+ year device, I don’t want obsolescence built in.

Tbh our tvs have dwindled, they are now mainly used for console use. Most of us use phones and tablets for media consumption. I even watch the footy on my phone more often than not.

I find I quite funny that all the normal people have been buying up the smart tvs, and the geeks on the whole, are sceptical. It’s a total revers to most other tech items.

They love to push for an answer, I don’t want to give too, inevitably I’ll answer, why I’ve yet to get one and they always get a bit offended as they think there tv is the dogs.

Clunky ui, slow cpu, low support, broken apps, spying scandal, builtin end of life, all on your dime. A smart box and dumb tv is half the price. Especially when you point out the majority of tvs all share 1 or 4 (iirc panels oems), so the picture is all but the same if the tvs is bought I’m the same year and the same res.

(ot mine are new or expensive. Ever since the 4 oems got done for unfair practice (cartel) I’ve just bought cheaper tvs. Before that you could by a 38″ tv for under £700, now that price is £200.

It’s actually a great way to get the wife to make us leave at the next appropriate moment. Lol.

This says it all for me in that Review link, Ed:

” When I moved back about 7 feet from the displays, differences between 4K and HD content were not discernable to any meaningful degree. In all cases, the differences between the two formats were in the very finest details in the image. ”

A little over 7 feet, is the distance from our sofa to the screen of our 40″ Sony dumb goggle-box. Couple that with our declining eyesight and inabilty to discern a difference between UHD and 1080p, and there is no reason why we should spend daft money on a TV. Then consider Steve‘s excellent summing-up:

” Clunky ui, slow cpu, low support, broken apps, spying scandal, builtin end of life, all on your dime. A smart box and dumb tv is half the price. Especially when you point out the majority of tvs all share 1 or 4 (iirc panels oems), so the picture is all but the same if the tvs is bought I’m the same year and the same res. ”

No contest, as long as my dumb Sony does what we want, it stays on the wall. If it dies, we have to hope that we can find an equally dumb (but essentially smarter) option.

Dave, I am soon going to cancel my Sky at contract end and will probably also buy a Humax. I can use the Sky dish with that, I believe. For me, apart from just a couple of box sets, Sky has been a bust.

+1 Ed I hear that comment! (Pun intended ?)

I have a new digital hearing aid in my left lughole, which is a big improvement on the previous analogue effort. Still having problems, but soon to attend another Audiology appointment to test and fit the right ear and fit a longer tube to the left. However, I can now hear everything spoken, even by most people whose English is not their first language. Americans are another story: apart from most Southern Americans. One of my favourite US comedians is Reginald D. Hunter*, who is I believe an Alabaman, I can understand his speech better than NewYorkers, Bostonians or (????) Californians, all of whom have taken the English language and masticated it into gobbledook, IMHO.

*My favourite Reggie retort, to Ian Hislop on HIGNFY: Hislop – “What do you know about Shakespeare, Reginald?”

Reggie – “He dead.”

JCD, I just subscribed to DofG and sent a msg to Mr Brew, with compliments from us ex-MM forumites.

On the Sky “lesser” channels the drop in quality is staggering – picture and especially audio – approaching VHS in some cases. Even on the “better” channels the quality of the audio is grim on the US content – I used to assume it was down to poor down-mixing of surround (e.g. DTS) content but even when fed through my AV amp it is still sh!te. Who knows why.

Sky is appealing to me less and less – cricket used to be their saviour for me but I think BT have the Ashes this winter which may well be the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Sky Q would have been great (if it worked well which for most I know is not the case) a decade ago – but too late now. Never been @rsed about the football except my lot – which as most will know is not going too well.