When did you last buy a tv?

[SugarAndSpike]

Mine is about 13 years old and I feel like I've been left in the dark ages as I haven't a clue about smart TVs, I don't stream, don't watch 'catch-up' tv or whatever. This is mainly a financial decision as I can't justify monthly payments for telly but actually if my current one broke down I'd be completely lost as to what to buy.

Anyone else?

Have I got the wrong end of the stick and actually it's worth having a more high tech tv? I haven't been bothered to look into it as, to me, it's a minefield and I've got enough on my brain.

How old is your tv?

Ours is 12 years old, we use a fire stick and have Disney plus etc through that, plus sky movies, we also have the full package with amazon, which all work well with our tv.

16 years? Not sure if we bought it before or after DD was born.

It can do catch up and Netflix. DD watches Disney+ on the laptop or ipad. The. odd thing on prime or Disney+ we want to watch can be done via a cable linking laptop to TV.

But we aren't big TV viewers.

2015 - Sony Bravia 40" which replaced a small TV my parents had got me in the 1980s which had the slot for videos at the front, along with a freeview box. Young delivery guys couldn't believe their eyes when they delivered the new one as I don't think they knew what a video was😁

It's worked perfectly since and fits my front room well and I bought a Firestick in January so that I could have the additional channels added that I wanted. Easy to install.

Bought a new one a couple of months ago as we recently moved and needed another TV for the living-room (our old TV is in the family-room).
Went for a Panasonic 50in Smart. Not expensive, nice picture and I am sure it has lots of wonderful features but we don't have Sky, stream, or anything like that so we just use it for live TV or watching DVD's (although we rarely use the living-room anyway).

Erm I think about 2017? Maybe earlier?

Although ours is 'smart' but I haven't watched live TV in about 10 years

2 months ago. Although it’s new to us and is about 2 years old.

Like others have said iplayer and itvX (not all of the content) are free.

i’ve never bought one, is what I mean. I do own one, as it’s in my house. Nothing against TV. I just don’t watch it. No reason, really...

We bought ours around fifteen years ago, haven’t felt the need to upgrade it as yet.

Hmm at least 15 yrs ago. It's a small (18" maybe?) Samsung. It has built in freeview, I use netflix, prime, I player etc on it

2 tvs three years ago for new house. Never managed to get the aerial working in new house, didn't really want to pay for anyone to look at the aerial so just been using streaming (netflix and BBC), anything outside of those I just don't watch-loving the lack of adverts so don't miss terrestrial tv at all.

About three years ago. I can’t remember exactly how much but much less than I expected a decent TV to cost. It’s only 32” but it’s a Samsung. I’m pretty sure all TVs are ‘smart’ now. We almost never watch live TV (in fact our aerial hasn’t worked for months) and we don’t miss it at all.

Dh and I have been together 32 years and in that time have bought 3 TVs.

Our first CRT 19" we bought in 1991 and we replaced it with what felt like an enormous 42" flat screen just before Christmas 2008 so ds could play his Christmas present (Wii Sports) on it. We still have that flat screen TV in the living room and don't see any reason to upgrade.

The 3rd and newest is a 42" wall mounted LCD smart TV in ds(19) room and is about 8 years old. He only ever uses it for his PS5.

About 5 years ago when its predecessor died. I do use iPlayer to catch up on stuff I've watched, but none of the paid for services, though I did use a 30 day Amazon Prime trial to watch the first series of Good Omens back when that came out.

Partner bought a new one last week - OLED and all. He's visually impaired and is delighted by all the accessibility features, and that he can use his laptop, tablet and phone through it - so it's a much bigger screen he can actually read. He can also use voice commands and it will speak to him (which is incredibly tedious when scrolling through the apps or a list of films, for those of us who can just read them easily...) So I was probably wrong in thinking why spend that much when you can't see it properly, because it does have features that are helping him.

I bought DS a new one for his bedroom last year. I think I think I bought the main living room TV in 2015 or 2016.

We bought a new smart tv for Christmas. It is the first one I used and I love it. It is so easy to steaming channels like youtube & netflix.

Also love that you can pop a memory stick into it and watch stuff from that. My relative gave me one with their photos from their travels and they were so great to view on the large screen.

Those ports in your picture, labelled 'HDMI' are what you plug things like Blu-Ray or DVD players, 'TV boxes' from internet providers, 'Sky boxes', TV recorders, and... Amazon, Chromecast, Roku,etc, sticks. USB is something different, and does not have the corners on one edge cut off.

USB is for plugging 'memory sticks' (what I call 'pen drives') in that might have video files on like you took on a phone or camcorder, etc, which a smart TV might be able to play.

Last year, it's a little Bush one, it's got all the fancy things on but we only use Netflix and iPlayer and UkTvPlay because I'm incredibly boring when it comes to telly. It cost £199 I think.

Before that I had a big fancier one that a friend gave me when she upgraded, it lasted me 6 years before giving up.

You can still buy non-smart TVs. Caixun is one well known brand that makes them. Also many smaller 24 inch 'caravan' TVs are 'dumb' (as the term seems to be).

I’ve never heard of Caixun-who stocks them?

The fire stick plugs into the hdmi port op, so you can use one on your tv.

Maybe hard to get in UK, but Cello is another brand. Their ZBVD0223 32 inch 'non smart TV ideal for bedroom' is on Amazon for £139.99. Also G Craggs Ltd in Ripon Yorkshire stock non-smart TVs in a range of sizes (please note I am not affliliated with them. Or Google 'dumb TV uk 2023'. Also Mitchell and Brown is another brand to look for that includes non-smart models. In general, if a TV description says something like 'Freeview HD Ready' it is probably not smart. Freeview Play is a handy thing for e.g. iPlayer, ITVx, etc.

Sorry, possibly wasn’t clear. I’m quite happy with smart TVs. I like ours! Just curious about an unfamiliar brand. But if anyone else is looking for one, I’m sure that will be helpful.

Is there a reason to avoid them? It’s never occurred to me before. Even the cheapest ones I’ve seen have had smart functionality so cost can’t be an issue.