First TV in 20 years...where do we start?

[SwitchingOn]

We haven't owned a television in 20 years. We'd now like to get one for family movie nights but we don't know how TV works any more!

We know we want 43" maximum size-wise, budget up to £500 but would prefer to stay well below that, if possible.

Can we simply connect a telly to our internet to watch iPlayer and sign up to and stream Netflix, Disney, etc? Could we also watch the free channels that way? Or do we have to get a TV package with our broadband provider?

Can we go with Freely or do we need Freeview to get the most out of it?

Do we need any special subscriptions or accounts to get a specific TV to work?

So far we've been looking at the Sony Bravia and some of the Samsungs and I think I saw something about needing a Samsung account for their TVs.

Any help bringing us into the 21st century is appreciated!

Any modern TV will have iPlayer, youtube, netflix, amazon video and various other apps available on them. You just hook the TV up to the wifi and they all work the same as they would on a computer/phone.

You'll also want an aerial to use freeview broadcast channels, same as 20 years ago but there's more of them now.

If you watch BBC live by any method or use iPlayer you'll need a tv license.

TVs themselves do not need an account or subscription. They'll usually try and get you to make an account anyway for whatever dumb corporate reason they always want an account, you can probably just not.

HiSense are a good make on the cheaper side. LG make good ones around the £3-400 range. Avoid Samsung, their UI is utter trash. At this sort of price point avoid Sony, they still charge 50% more for their name. https://rtings.com is the big tv review site. Buy from somewhere that'll take the TV back if you don't like it. And make sure wherever you're putting the TV works - they usually have little legs at the ends now, not a centre stand.

I agree with the lg recommendation. I think if you watch any live TV you need a TV license though, not just BBC, so streaming is ok but not channels through an Arial or the live stream you can get on the apps.

We’ve also been very happy with our LG TV.

Another vote for LG here. We upgraded to a larger TV from our 40" Samsung in 2021. Whilst we had no issues with the Samsung, we love our LG, although ours was around 1k.

@nomorezoflora I don't have any issues with my Samsung. I had an older Samsung that was less user friendly.
If you have a Richer sounds near you they are helpful advising on what is best for you.

Unless you have a tiny room, I wouldn’t go smaller than 55”. Below this, you won’t really get the benefit of 4K.

Another for LG here. Just upsized to 55".
Go to somewhere like Curry's which has loads of TVs on display so you can get an idea of sizes, picture quality etc. We didn't purchase our TV from them but it gave us a much better idea of what we wanted.

Thanks, everyone. All very helpful.

We already have a tv license for streaming iPlayer/BBC. Doesn't that cover all channels?

Yes - if you have a TV licence, it covers everything.
I think OP was pointing out that it wasn't just needed for BBC viewing - if you watch any TV live, you need one eg live sport on Prime or Netflix.

I recently bought a new TV as well OP and didn’t want a really high end one so budgeted £500 after a lot of research at the price range the LG was best for reliability, features etc, and they guarantee updates to the software for five years. I am very pleased with it I got an HD 4K ultra in Currys for £429 which I see is now reduced by £70. I also got it via TopCashback which got me £35 cash back . Very easy to set up took about half an hour. You need to set up an LG account which was straightforward, and link it to your WiFi and sign into the usual Apps like iPlayer, itvx etc. It is fine for my needs