Have any of you recently purchased a tv and/or changed the method your programmes are screened?

[Fifiesta]

We moved during Covid (purchase took a year, and the pandemic wasn’t even a glint in a bats eye when we started!)
Since then, we have been totally renovating our property, and next year are finally going to sort out the last room, the lounge.

TV’s have totally changed in the interim. We would really like to avoid losing
money going down a route that becomes obsolete in a few years.
It seems like a minefield researching it, and we will need to make decisions on electrics/cabling in the next few months before a total re plaster.
What did you choose, or where should we get impartial advice?
Any advice you have would be so useful, and help us ask the right questions when we purchase.

I’m not sure I understand the question.

i would say regardless of what you view, having a largish screen/monitor in the living room is useful. What you then connect to it is a matter of preference (airplay, chrome cast, Apple TV, Roku, fire stick, whatever)

We are totally behind the evolutionary tv curve. So far behind, and such a luddite that I am obviously not making any sense at all.
Our TV must be in excess of 20 years old. We watch programmes through a now tv stick. Previous to our move we had a satellite disc and hummax box for Freesat.

While we have been busy sorting the house out, tv has moved on multi times.
We want to update, and are very confused.
If it’s possible an idea of what ordinary programme watchers (not gamers) are choosing would be really useful.

My friend just redid their house and got a Samsung Frame tv - I have no idea the price etc, but it’s brilliant. Just looks like a nice picture on the wall unless you want to watch anything. And no cables to be seen anywhere so I guess they must have a point plastered in.

Thanks, I have been eyeing them up myself!

All of our tvs are now Samsung free tvs attached to the wall so that they don’t look like tvs when they are not being watched. The boxes connect with Ethernet cables which run throughout the house. We don’t have an aerial anymore but we should have kept one since our broadband isn’t the best.

Just get a tv, it’s not hard, they’ve not changed ‘exponentially’ in the last 4 years. Is this some kind of market research?

If this was market research it would have surely been worded coherently.

You must have missed me saying that we have not replaced the tv in 20 years.
It is not even a smart tv, and on researching a lot of things are going to change further in the next few years. It’s left me very confused, and believe me I do get that leaves me in the minority. I certainly wish the technology and choices available all made absolute sense to me, but sadly they do not…

With the renovation in this post I assume you are interested in cables etc and whether to hide in the wall?

For now you will need power, internet and an aerial socket, I'd add an ethernet cable to your broadband hub. WiFi is good but a cable is more reliable and gives less delay in the signal. Aerial or satellite reception is moving to internet delivered (like sky glass or BT TV) but isn't quite there yet.

I wouldn't build a unit around the Tele because it'll get replaced in a few years and you might go for a bigger Tele, or you might want a sound bar, connect a games thing, or plug in a fire stick, Chromecast or sky puck Smart TVs go out of support after a couple of years, then the apps aren't supported so don't work, so the streaming sticks provide the smarts for the otherwise perfectly usable display.

I use a TV unit so the screen is at a comfortable height. Please don't wall mount the TV above the fire, that's too high for comfort.

Thanks this is the sort of information I was after.👍🏻

Just thought. If you do run cables in the wall do include a couple of HDMI cables of the latest version for connecting games consoles, computers etc.

If you're talking about how to stream, I still think Sky was by far the easiest. All the free channels and all the apps (Netflix, prime etc) - still need subscriptions, but there and easy to find. Record, pause rewind etc.

I decided against it in my new house and find Freeview navigation so rubbish.

My WiFi is shocking here too, so watching anything on TV has become a pain in the arse.

Check your new TV hosts the NOW TV app as a clunky stick in the side may prevent your TV sitting flush (if you go for a gallery TV).

I have the LG Oled and it looks great flush on the wall.

I love Apple TV and find it really easy to use.

We have a big channel in the wall behind the TV so extra cables can be added. We use an Ethernet cable to connect it.

We have had LG OLED TVs for the last 7-8 years. Our first 55” is still working perfectly and we upgraded to a 65” in our new home. We access TV entirely through the built in wifi and apps on the device.

I don’t think TVs have changed that much in the last 5 years. I don’t notice all that much between our two.

Depending on how much you want to spend, either this or a Samsung Frame would be my pick. Look for last year’s model, you should be able to get a good deal in the next month or two when the 2024 version is released.

I found this at John Lewis & Partners. What do you think?
https://www.johnlewis.com/lg-oled55c34la-2023-oled-hdr-4k-ultra-hd-smart-tv-55-inch-with-freeview-play-freesat-hd-dolby-atmos-dark-titan-silver/p110261186?tmad=c&tmcampid=7&s_share=jlappios_Y29tLmFwcGxlLlVJS2l0LmFjdGl2aXR5LkNvcHlUb1Bhc3RlYm9hcmQ=

Samsung Frame TV - look great and they have all the apps you'll need for streaming. They only have one wire coming out of them that connects to a box elsewhere which you can then plug anything into so you don't need to worry about running multiple wires to behind your tv. One wire, very slim, and the TV looks like a decent piece of artwork when not in use 👍

Basically a TV is a screen that can be fed with a video signal. The question is, does that video signal come from within the TV itself or from a separate box. The basics of the TV screen itself has not changed in recent years. What has changed is the various "smart" additions inside the TV to feed this video signal to the screen itself.
My advice would be not to rely on any kind of smart TV which provides the signal from within itself. Buy a TV just for the screen, and rely on a separate box for the signal, this can then be upgraded as time goes by, while the screen itself stays the same. I bought a Samsung Smart TV and within 5 years Samsung was no longer updating all the apps within the TV and everything stopped working. Always get your TV from a separate box and you will be able to keep the screen itself for a very long time.

I’m not sure if this is the right terminology but embed ducting into the wall for cabling rather than the cables themselves so you can upgrade/add more if you need to.

Also, make sure there are sufficient sockets for all the things you will want to plug in, or space for an extension so you can add things, and we’ve gone down the route of smart plugs so we can switch the tv off at the socket easily (on a schedule or by using the app) to save it going on standby and using electricity 24 hours a day. We’ve saved about a tenner for each tv in the house doing that so the plugs have paid for themselves in a year.