Smart TV or some sort of add on?

[Polgara2]

So dd2 would like a tv for her room that she can watch the likes of Netflix etc on for Christmas. Am really not sure whether I should be getting her a smart TV or an ordinary tv and then adding some sort of box or something to it?
Help I am completely clueless and smart TVs seem to be very expensive which won't go down well with dh (who has told me not to go mad this year!)

Thank you

You can get an Amazon fire stick or a Chromecast (both support Netflix plus other stuff) for £30. The TV needs to have an HDMI port. Wifi needs to be decent in her room. And of course your Netflix sub needs to supoprt multiple streaming devices.

Get a normal one with an Amazon firestick.

Ive got a smart tv and ut has nice but you need to be aware that the tv manufacturers withdraw the apps/support for them quite quickly sometimes. I saw a forum where some people with two year old expensive Samsungs (one certain model) now can't watch YouTube and netflix.

A £25 stick is more easily replaceable if you need to upgrade.

We have a Fire stick and it's great. Not the easiest thing to use though 11yo DS seems to manage perfectly fine
My big issue is that I don't seem to be able to get iplayer on it, or any of the other catch up channels. As we hardly watch any TV it's not really a problem though TBH.
Which reminds me to check DS's telly for the correct holes

I player demand five etc are available as apps on the fire stick. You just download them using the remote.

If you get a smart TV remember they don't all have all the catch up channels. I think samsung are meant to have the best range.

Hmm a fire stick seems the weapon of choice I'll go have a look then. Hopefully the wifi in her room should be OK as she already has a booster in there because her phone stopped picking it up but that's a whole other story! What is chromecast though? never heard of that one.
Thanks everyone

Chromecast is the Google offering unlike the Amazon you use your phone (or tablet) to cast onto the screen. I have many Google devices so cannot say whether it works for all devices. You can easily stream stuff over from your phone. So local images and videos, even websites (I used youtube onfire for a bit and worked a treat).
Doesn't have Amazon prime.

We have a Fire stick and it's the best thing I've bought for a long time. We don't watch live TV any more (long story) and used to rely on the Wii for stuff like iPlayer and Prime but that got less well supported as it got older, so the Firestick has been the perfect replacement. As Libidinous says you can't get all the catch-up channels (although you can get iPlayer so not sure what's happening with yours) but Prime, Netflix, YouTube are all there plus a load of other apps we've not bothered investigating. There's a new one called UKTV play which has some interesting things on, old drama series etc.
As a device it's not straightforward to begin with but if you're prepared to have a bit of a fiddle you can pick it up. The screensaver pictures are lovely! But the remote is tiny and keeps getting lost.

Ooh and also you can do that "flinging" thing from a tablet or phone apparently, similar to what moveon is talking about, never tried though.

I can do flinging dreamy