Smart TV, Dumb TV, 1080p, 4K, curved, straight, HELP!

[ccrascal]

Traveled from Portsmouth England above Canada down West coast thru Canal and ending in Capetown......satellite is the only way to go .....much more than you can ever watch.....not cheap....do not remember how much....but great service on a Sony TV with satellite....

[Zephyrcat229]

can't believe no ones mentioned projectors...
my preference for the flexibility & space savings

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by Zephyrcat229

can't believe no ones mentioned projectors...
my preference for the flexibility & space savings

Projectors can be good in certain circumstances, but in a house a big modern TV is almost always going to produce a more enjoyable experience.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Zephyrcat229

can't believe no ones mentioned projectors...
my preference for the flexibility & space savings

I did early on I thought, the comment on Home Theater.
However a TV for when your not in serious movie mode and just want to watch the news in the morning is good too.
Last house I had a two way mirror on top of our dresser, with about a 50" TV behind it, in the wall. No TV visible in the room at all, until you turned it on, then it showed through the two way mirror perfectly.
You can do the same thing in the bathroom , usually a smaller TV though so you can still see to shave.
https://youtu.be/tdRbt4NpewM

[chris mac]

The problem with a getting higher end TV is you need high end cables and high end blue ray player, ect. If you are just going to stream online, don't bother with top of the line. Get a TV that shows decent and doesn't give you a headache.;-) your computer probably doesn't send near the quality even a cheap TV can display.

[parkerfilms]

I would recommend a 4K, HDR set (high dynamic range) so you will have at least a few years of "future proofing". HD actually looks better on a 4K set, and HDR, when the content is available, is simply spectacular. HDR means you see more levels of light to dark, with significantly greater detail in the shadows. It has a greater impact than even increased resolution. Whether or not you get a "smart" TV is really up to you. Even without it you can use an Amazon "Fire" stick or somnething similar to achieve the same results. When shopping for your new set take some material with you (BluRay preferably) that you are familiar with. Be sure and look at the really dark scenes as well as the very bright scenes. When you do get a monitor/TV back into your home, put a low intensity light behind the monitor itself to backlight the wall/space behind it. This will decrease "eye fatigue". Enjoy your new set!

[sailingpzas]

Originally Posted by Shrew

Smart TV: Are you going to browse the internet? If not, you don't really need smart TV

A very generous suggestion: Never ever connect a so called "Smart TV" directly to the Internet.
N E V E R!

Why you might ask? Well, there are many reasons. The most obvious (I have been working in IT security) is, these so called SmartTV's are in almost all cases vulnerable to many attacks from the outside. They do not have any firewalls, or protection against malware, and the browsers on those devices are worse than anything you get on a "normal" computer. Just read up on any security board what kind of flaws exist on proper PCs. Those are, with some luck, usually fixed within a couple of month (what could possibly go wrong?), but smart TVs? Forget it. It's as rare as getting struck by lightning. These TV's are in many cases just made to work for being sold. But thats about it. (After you bought it, you are essentially not existing anymore for them.) Often, they do not even have any sort of authentication when connecting from the outside.
I have seen some scary s**t. TV's, webcams, heating controllers, well, even home alarm systems or the SmartHome controller for the garage and garden lights, including camera. You would not believe it.
(In fact it is very interesting to get/hear the reactions from those affected, when you contact them and tell them, that you could set their heating to max and close the valves... I reckon it's a dangerous mixture of being naive, lack of knowledge and silly trust in new technology. Though, most of them are very grateful to get the hint, but you cannot rescue them all.)

Anyhow, anyone with some general network knowledge can just scan through the internet and you *will* find many of these SmartTV's being accessible without any protection. No password, no nothing. And if t hey had one, most of them would still accept a "manufacturers default password". From the simple things that someone could adjust the volume of your SmartTV up to more serious stuff like for example checking out your local Movie-/Picture-database or what ever you have at home linked/connected to your TV.

On top of that, most manufacturers could not care less. Updates are rare, and when they are done, they are usually related to functions and not security. Apart from that do essentially *all* SmartTV's monitor and log all your usage information (anything you do on that device) and send it to the manufacturer. The newer generations even have voice control, which seems "cool" but in terms of privacy they are a nightmare. Or do you want to have a microphone in your home that listens all the time, sending potentially every word you speak to the manufacturer!? The ones with camera are even better...
But who cares. Since nowadays apparently nobody has anything to hide... - until the next Hitler appears.

And we are just starting with the Internet-of-Things.... I can see already the virtual nuke blowing up. Get ready for the fallout that will follow.

Just my 2 ct.

[bletso]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Way back, it was PAL or NTSC, there was no both and that was for TVs, VCR's Video cameras everything.
I do not know now though.

Also SECAM (France)

Some sage advise when it comes to smart TV's. It is a very short step from industry watching you and the government highjacking all your data.