Help please. Smart TVs how good are they?

madrhino

Hello Everyone.

My mum is on the lookout for a new TV. I went to look at some TVs with her today and noticed that there were smart TVs with TV catchup. My mum is currently with Virgin Media and she stays with them because she likes their Catch up TV on the television (she doesn't want to watch it on the PC). What I want to know, is the catch up TV on these smart TVs a suitable replacement. Does the TV need to be connected to the internet for it to work, and if so is does she have to brouse the internet to get to things like Iplayer, rather than it just being a simple menu choice on the TV. The simpler the better really.
Also another question. My mum is very slightly hard of hearing and she wants a TV with clear sound (no buzzing or blurring). Which make is best for this. So far she has been looking at Toshiba and Samsung. She wants to spend no ore than £500, 32 inch being the size she wants.

bob_a_builder

Smart TV would need to be connected to the internet to receive the catch up stuff
Iplayer etc would generally be avaiable by button, rather than browsing.

Having VM catchup, Freeview and iplayer via an external HD box myself

I can't really see a smart TV being much of an improvment over VM for your mum, unless she's really dying to view all those youtube clips etc

Hammyman

"It Depends". Some TVs like mine allow you to attach a hard drive or memory stick and will record to that. Some have BBC iPlayer, 4OD and other players built in but this requires internet connectivity.

Most TVs are "OK" on the sound front and are only "buzzy and blurry" if there's a fault. They are quite "top end" in the sound with little bass so probably better for hard of hearing. £500 budget for a 32" one gets you a lot of TV with a lot of change to spare.

Ericd

I would definitely have a look at a Panasonic Viera plasma set.

An excellent picture and excellent sound.

I would consider purchasing from John Lewis for their five year warranty included in the price.