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?

2016, I'd not had one for years, bought it to watch the Olympics as there were multiple events I wanted to watch at once, and have scores up.

It's smart but not smart enough, but get around that with a firestick.

Well, I suppose if you buy a smart TV you are tied into that manufacturer's ecosystem as far as the smart apps are concerned. Technology moves on, and some apps become unsupported. Our 2012 Samsung smart TV still has a very watchable display that is pleasant to watch, but quite a few of the apps on it are not usable any more (BBC iPlayer for example) however our 2018 Panasonic hard-drive recorder box has Freeview Play (catchup) on it, so that's taken care of. Except the box hasn't supported ITV Hub (now 'ITVx') since last year, but Kodi on our Raspberry Pi does (you see where I am going with this? Cheap sticks...) A smart TV may be overkill for a bedroom or caravan. You can get a 32 inch dumb TV for around £130 or less, whereas a big-name smart TV e.g. Samsung might be £100 more. So there's economy. I suspect there is a fair market segment in the UK of 'Luddite' type users who might prefer a bare-bones device.

You could plug a laptop into that TV using a HDMI cable and watch stuff off Iplayer and ITVX.

Our most recent TV was bought 7 years ago as we needed an additional one when we moved to a house with an additional reception room. The older TV was put in the front room that we use less often as it it smaller and fitted in that room better. That is not a smart TV and is probably around 14 years old but we have virgin TV so we can get on to streaming services that way. We have a firestick in the v.small TVs we have in the kitchen and bedroom. You need a USB port for them.

A USB port on a charger type wall plug? Or one on the TV? Plus HDMI on the TV? For a Firestick I mean? I haven't tried one yet.

If you have a Firestick plugged into the HDMI port, you can cast anything on your laptop (or phone) onto the TV.

Does the Firestick get its power from the HDMI port? If so, what's all this 'USB' stuff I keep seeing?

Ours is 8 years old. Believe it or not it was our first flat screen - we had a cathode ray tube one before that!

Ah, I see. The cheap TV we bought our child for Christmas was a Sharp smart one for about £120. I assumed non-smart had just disappeared.

Cello brand is aimed at caravans and motorhomes mainly where if you had a smart TV you probably couldn't use it much as a lot of site wifi isn't that good and you would need a very large phone data plan to run off your phone data so that is probably why they have a lot of non smart TVs. DVD slot is better for caravan telly. We just use freeview on site and if I particularly wanted to watch something off Netflix I would download it to my iPad beforehand to avoid using my data.

DH streamed the cycling on the iPad on holiday and it took over 2gb phone data for 1.5 hrs SD Sky go so we wouldn't be using streaming apps much on a TV

I think it will go that way. The 'smartness' in a TV is just a chip or two like in a mobile phone that maybe cost £1 if you buy a million at a time.

I got a new tv a few months ago and love it. Prior to that the tv I had was about 10 years old. The picture is so much clearer and sound quality is much better. Obviously this would depend on the tv you buy. Best advice I can give is when the time comes to get one, go to an independent electrical shop not somewhere like curry's. You will get much better advice on what you really need.

It comes with a power supply. Many people use USB to mean 'the bit you plug things into' rather than specifically a Universal Serial Bus. The power supply is a USB one, confusingly enough., though

Oh, like 'the little slot thingy'. Like my manager who thinks a PC base unit is a 'hard drive'.

All this streaming presumably assumes you have a nice stable WiFi.

Or Ethernet? My Samsung does, and we bought a pair of powerline adapters to link it to the router. Made by TP-Link but there are other brands. The pair cost £25 and a wi-fi adapter for the TV would have been £80.

Our current one was our first flat screen too ha!

@CharlottenBurger it seems that (according to the currys guy we spoke to) you can't stick a fire stick/roku stick into our HDMI slot. But we can connect the tv screen to a laptop if we wanted. He also informed us that our tv is 15 years old 🙈

Our 2012 Samsung is fine for those sticks. It has 3 HDMI slots.

I wouldn’t believe someone from Curry’s if he told me I was on fire until I saw the flames. My tv is older and the roku sticks work fine…..surely a hdmi port is a hdmi port? Does he just want to sell you a tv?

Also remember that as a new TV ages the manufacturer often stops doing updates for that model…..so then your apps don’t update and work and you need a roku or similar anyway.

You might need a Roku HDMI extender so it fits, have a look at them, does that look like it fits

2008. It's still going well.

Never bought one. Watch the computer screen if there's something I want to watch.
Before it was on computers we didn't watch TV, just DVDs.

I’d think the guy from curry’s was talking shite to be honest op. I set a fire stick up on my DMs ancient tv with an hdmi that looked like that. They come with an extender attachment for any awkward fittings.

I can’t remember how old it is but it is a flat screen smart TV. Most of the apps don’t work on it anymore so it is essentially a monitor, but as we have a Freesat box and Apple TV that doesn’t matter.

That's so crap if the curry's guy was talking rubbish. It was through live chat on the website so you'd hope it was honest. He gave me the impression the sticks do work in some HDMI TVs but that our particular tv wouldn't cope with internet.

How do sticks work? Do you get a separate remote to navigate the internet? I'm assuming it doesn't allow internet surfing but what comes up on screen when you startup and how do you navigate this on an old tv?