I'm buying a new TV very soon. Never had anything fancy or techy before but stayed with friends recently who have a smart TV and really liked what it had to offer. Question to you wise BE peops. Would you buy one or are they a waste of money? Do you need to have a certain amount of internet to cover it's usage and what about download speeds etc? As you can see, I'm about as techy as a tree so any help would be very muchly appreciated.

They're quite expensive but I've seen one recently for about $700.

Thanks.

Dot

I bought one recently, a relatively top end one, and am happy with the purchase. To be honest though the vast majority of the "Smart" features can be obtained through a separate box such as a Roku, WD TV, Apple TV, XBox, PS3 etc. I mainly bought the smart one because it was a nice TV, not for the smart features.

As for internet, only if you use it for internet services, just like with everything else. It isn't going to go off and stream stuff on its own, only when you ask it to.

Hehehe...that last little bit made me smile. What, you mean it doesn't think for itself?! But it's a smart TV

I had a look at those tv conversion kit jobs but you end up spending what would have been a smart TV budget anyway, don't you? Gawd, it was so simple when I was growing up, you simply rented a TV from Rediffusion (B&W to start with and then a COLOUR one if you were lucky - my family BOUGHT a colour TV and we were so excited). Nowadays I walk around tech stores looking like I've just landed from another planet with eyes wide and chin on the floor. I must be a geek squad's dream 'look, there's another sucker we can prize loads of cash from'

Buy a normal TV and then plug an android box into it for $70. You end up with the same thing.

Thank you, that's handy to know. Have you done that? Is it as complicated to set up as it sounds or just plug and go? I hate being so detechtified!

Actually....to add to this post....I forgot to ask....will I be able to obtain Netflix UK? I know all about expat shield stuff but would that mean I'd have to run my TV with a laptop or would that android box thingy work with it? Yes, I'm struggling with this

In a couple of years all TV's will be smart tv's. Don't faff around, just get one and enjoy using it. 3D is another story, not yet certain whether it will be around in the long term.

See, that's my arguement (with myself)! It's just because they're quite new, they're very expensive. I actually saw one at Best Buy for $19,999! What on earth would that TV do that's worth that kind of money?!

I run a "boxee box" through mine I have never tried faffing about with proxies for the British tv , uk Netflix etc .
The box does what I need it to do but my next telly will still be a smart TV

We have a smart 3D tv , the 3D is pretty good but we dont really use the other smart functions. I have to say though that we bought it together with a 3D dvd player which is also smart and together the two items are smarter than we are. They switch themselves off when you dont want them to and have a habit of changing inputs by themselves. Perhaps we are getting old :-)

Oh, shame

I don't want anything too tech, it scares me, but I just fancied splashing out, for once, on something fun. But there's splashing out and there's SPLASHING OUT! Hmmmm......

I have a Samsung Smart TV and we use it for BBC Iplayer & ITV Catch up. It also has a camera and we use it for Skype which is great as the camera gets all of us on sat on the couch rather than just a close up mug shot of one person

I use a smart DNS service at $4 a month for the UK catch up channels.

I don't use netflix but the TV has that on it also.

I have other ways to watch TV (Apple TV, Raspberry Pi) but the good thing about the Smart TV is that my OH loves the ease of use rather than another couple of controllers etc.

My Smart TV has Netflix installed and connecting to it is easy.

Now that sounds like the sort of thing I'm after! Erm.....cheeky question....can PM me you like....but how much did the TV cost? I'm guessing $1,000+?

You will only be able to source Netflix UK if you are able to bypass the requirement to be based in the UK - i.e., you will need to have something that hides where you are (Unblock-US, etc.)