Oh - which TV to go for.

[martint123]

My trusty old LG LCD seems to be on its way out (although I may try a capacitor kit for the PSU in it's death throws)

With the recent activity on here with talk of apps for Samsung, LG and little android dongles etc etc is which replacement TV I ought to be considering.
From a really dumb thing with USB/HDMI for a dongle up to a "smart" TV. Both the Samsung and LG solutions would appear to be reliant on the development and support of a single person (although so does NPVR/sub and that works out ok! and so does the NMT/martin).

I guess I'm hoping the existing TV lasts for a few months and see what transpires for the various options - I didn't get caught with the old VHS/Beta choice years ago - I made the even worse choice of the Philips V2000 format ;(

[ACTCMS]

I made the even worse choice of the Philips V2000 format ;(

I would defer your new TV for as long as possible... you don't seem to have any luck with your technology choices - I suppose you went with the eight-track audio player too...

[martint123]

- I suppose you went with the eight-track audio player too...

Managed to avoid that and went with Compact Cassette (staff discount!) and big reel to reel. Made the mistake of moving on to DAT after that though. I seem to follow technical superiority rather than mass appeal. ;( (still got a 5.25 WORM cartridge drive!)

[ACTCMS]

and big reel to reel.)

It's been up in the attic for a few years now (since I ripped everything to mp3, but I did love my old AKAI 4000DS (bought second hand in 1977 for £25)...

Alex

[martint123]

but I did love my old AKAI 4000DS (bought second hand in 1977 for £25)...

Almost a coincidence, my trusty old Akai M10 is also in the loft - with a worn out head - got it in HongKong 1970 ish and ripped all my Taiwanese LP's to tape with it.

[ACTCMS]

Almost a coincidence, my trusty old Akai M10 is also in the loft - with a worn out head

AFAIK mine is still in full working condition - I keep hoping Mrs ACTCMS will get fed up with the Minimalist look and go for the Retro style instead - I could then bring it down, give it a polish and have it on dsplay on the living room - I could probably even hook it up to the TV via an aux socket and actually use it...

Alex

[Lao Pan]

Almost a coincidence, my trusty old Akai M10 is also in the loft - with a worn out head - got it in HongKong 1970 ish and ripped all my Taiwanese LP's to tape with it.

Anouther coincidence - my collection of Taiwan LP's was up in the attic till we moved year before last - bought in 1978 they were some off the first of the black ones and outlasted my record deck!

Think I got about 40 LP's for £10 - and met the future Mrs Lao Pan - She was the Manager of the record shop.

Amazing what you could get for a Tenner back in the good ol' days

Back to the original post - I am really happy with my LG 50" plasma - just wish I had thought to get the smart version - mind you it was about £300 extra at the time.

[martint123]

Anouther coincidence - my collection of Taiwan LP's was up in the attic till we moved year before last - bought in 1978 they were some off the first of the black ones and outlasted my record deck!

Think I got about 40 LP's for £10 - and met the future Mrs Lao Pan - She was the Manager of the record shop.

I think I got my LP's in the early 70's and most of them are black ones with only one or two a sickly red!. Lots of labels and sleeves printed back to front though.
ISTR going up the road and first buying a suitcase and then filling it with LP's at around 10 to 15p a time. Mine are probably till up in the attic.

Ah, the good old days. I certainly enjoyed my trips round that part of the world.

[bgowland]

The problem with "smart" TV technologies seems to be they're mostly proprietary or rely on web standards such as HTML5, Javascript etc. The latter is all well and good but still relies on a developer somewhere developing something that fits your requirements. In many ways they just fit the gimmick / gadget model.

As Alex said in post #2 - holding off for as long as possible is probably sound advice and, as with various posts here, there are plenty of technologies which have gone almost as fast as they came.

Personally my opinion is Internet provision and, most importantly, the Internet media providers buying in to a technology are the key things to look at but how that is panning out is ongoing. I don't have a "smart" TV but the TiVo which comes with my cable deal has built-in iPlayer, 4oD, Demand 5, YouTube facilities free of charge. If I want to, I can subscribe to Sky Movies on demand, NetFlix and Spotify. There may even be other services now but I'm not particularly interested so don't keep track.

As far as I'm concerned there are too many "standards" causing useful apps (for want of a better term) to be spread too thinly. If you don't need to buy a new TV any time soon then stick with what you've got - if you really do need to get a new one then just buy something that does what you currently need and if it has supposedly "smart" capabilities, don't expect them to be future-proof.

Cheers,
Brian

[martint123]

Thank for your thoughts Brian - I'm hoping the current TV will keep going a while longer, so far a switch off/on will bring it up and once running it's fine.

If I have to get one in the near future, I think it will now be a dumb one and I have an Acer Revo somewhere that I could glue to the back of it. The NMT still is the main device in use with both gbpvr and npvr on different servers. IK've got a minimal sky sub and the sky+ box works well with fairly good android and web remotes for it.

I notice that Revens samsung app doesn't seem to support devices that are more than a year or so old, so as you say, the technology is changing too fast to be a wise purchase at the moment.

thanks again,
Martin