Smart TV

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

I'm going to replace my hot plasma with an LED. LED prices have come way down from 4 or 5 years ago. Summers coming and the heat a plasma throws out is too much. I have a techy question about a smart TV. I'm know all about Netflix and have no use for any online movie stuff. Does or can I bring up a browser like Firefox on a smart TV? It costs about $300 for for a smart TV versus one without and since I'm not interested in online movie stuff I don't know if its worth it. Thanks.

[South40]

I have 2 and have never used the features. But I don’t give Netflix my money, some do.

[MamaB]

I bought 2 Panasonic smart tvs before Christmas. We love them. We have Netflix. I ordered them from Amazon and got them 2/3 days later. Check prices before buying.

[Gene Eric]

SmartTV technology is also available in some DVD/Blu-ray players.

[Partisan Hack]

The LG Google TV has a full web browser.... It is an amazing device.

[Gene Eric]

Focus on screen quality and whether or not you care about 3D tech. You can get peripherals to handle the extra SmartTV stuff.

[UB355]

That was my solution. I have a Sony BDP-S390 Blu-ray/DVD Player it is wireless to my home network and lets me access my Amazon Prime account content on my slightly older Samsung LCD TV. It was about $80.00.

[Spunky]

"Does or can I bring up a browser like Firefox on a smart TV?"

I have a Vizio and no you can't browse the Internet. It has lots of different Apps though like YouTube etc. You don't have to use the Netflix there are others like Hulu etc. I have a laptop that I plug a RocketFish cable into then to the TV and you can browse the Internet that way.

[peteram]

Basically, when you select Internet through the TV menu, it brings you to a series of shortcuts to popular online services like YouTube, Pandora, Netflix, etc. you can’t browse like on a computer. But my laptop has an HDMI output so I sometimes plug it into one of the HDMI inputs on the set (My TV has three HDMI inputs) and My set becomes a giant monitor for my computer.

[867V309]

The Roku set-top device, about the size of a hockey puck, connects your tv to your wifi and gives you many program options, some are free.

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

That was suppose to be “$300 more”.

Thanks for the input. Yes, I’ll concentrate on picture and if I want the smart stuff there is that aftermarket thingy, Ruxu or something.

[svcw]

We bought a great LED TV last year, and an Apple ITV, which you can stream NetFlix, Hulu, and RedBox in a few months.

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

That was it, Roku for the smart option.

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

But wait,,,,,,,,,,, since I’m asking let me ask one more.

Is the video picture on the screen true HD when it comes from Ruku, Netflix or other internet sources. I kinda thought that internet speeds for multiple customers just could not handle true HD. But maybe I’m a bit old and my DSL connection is like lightning:<))))))

[867V309]

I love mine. Also you might check out Playon and Playlater software. Go to Roku site for HD info, they make different models.

[Cementjungle]

I have a Samsung SmartTV... love it. There’s a lot of good free content we can get on it from places like Crackle and YouTube. It’s connected to our Internet using it’s built-in WIFI. I also have a Samsung phone, so I can easily send photos/video from the phone to the TV.

[bigheadfred]

you can tell how much the culture is corrupted when the boob tube is now smart tv

[Las Vegas Ron]

you can tell how much the culture is corrupted when the boob tube is now smart tv

LOL...well done!

[mconley22]

If you are mainly interested in activities like streaming Youtube videos, surfing the web, etc., then I suggest that you consider buying what I would describe as an “Android on a stick.” For less than $150, you can buy a device that will turn your HD TV into the equivalent of a large screen Android tablet; a powered USB hub for adding a flash drive, hard drive, DVD/CD recorder, etc., and a wireless keyboard with a trackpad. The device has an HDMI interface, a USB port, a quad-core graphics processor, and a microSD slot. Wireless-N networking is built-in and some models also support Bluetooth.

I have been using one for a couple of weeks and it is faster than my Blackberry Playbook or Acer Android tablet. There are a few apps that I have tried to install that are not compatible with it but overall, it is the best thing I have purchased on a bang-for-the-buck basis in many years. The only problem that I had was that the wall adapter that came with mine was not up to the task, so I replaced it with an $11 Samsung 2.0 amp model from Amazon.com. (This is apparently a common problem with these devices but they are still a bargain even if you have to buy a better quality charger.)

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

Ahhhhh, does this device have a specific name? I reread your entry a couple of times getting ready to write it down and didn’t find anything.