Do I need a Smart TV to have a smart TV?

happyhero

Hi I am after a 40 inch LED TV and I would like to be able to surf on the TV and use YouTube and all the other stuff, etc and I have seen that there is a device called Chromecast, what would be the difference between buying a smart TV or buying an ordinary one but using Chromecast, is one way better and why?

Can you do everything with both methods or are some parts missing and is this effected by TV make i.e. Samsung seem to do a lot of Smart stuff and so seem to lean towards this heavily whilst the Smart Panasonic I looked at seemed to get a lot of moans about the smart side of things not being as able as the Samsung?

How do you control the internet on the TV, is it with the remote of the Smart TV?

I like the idea of looking at something on a tablet or mobile and then putting that on the TV, can you do that with the Smart TV or only Chromecast?

I assume you control everything with your mobile or tablet with Chromecast so what happens with the smart TV how do you control that?

Any help or info appreciated, I am quite tech savie but this is my first look at the smart stuff.

Timalay

happyhero wrote: »

what would be the difference between buying a smart TV or buying an ordinary one but using Chromecast, is one way better and why?

A Smart will have more apps than Chromecast (which imo is quite limited atm).

happyhero wrote: »

Can you do everything with both methods or are some parts missing and is this effected by TV make i.e. Samsung seem to do a lot of Smart stuff and so seem to lean towards this heavily whilst the Smart Panasonic I looked at seemed to get a lot of moans about the smart side of things not being as able as the Samsung?

If you want it for catch up TV, I would say Samsung is the way to go. It have the 4 main catch services (iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, and Demand 5). I can't vouch for what other services provide (Panasonic also offer Freetime with some of their Freesat smart tvs).

happyhero wrote: »

How do you control the internet on the TV, is it with the remote of the Smart TV?

My 22" Samsung smart TV only has a standard remote, but I haven't found to bad for surfing the net (wouldn't use it regularly though).

happyhero wrote: »

I assume you control everything with your mobile or tablet with Chromecast so what happens with the smart TV how do you control that?

Yes do control Chromecast this way. TV manufacturers have different ways of control their TV (some of them a little gimmicky).

This is all to the best of my knowledge.

Idiophreak

happyhero wrote: »

I assume you control everything with your mobile or tablet with Chromecast so what happens with the smart TV how do you control that?

Any help or info appreciated, I am quite tech savie but this is my first look at the smart stuff.

Most smart TVs offer apps to allow you to control the TV from your phone....mine (LG) enables you to drag a cursor around on screen, which makes some stuff faster than using the remote - and it allows you to do text entry on the phone, too...which is much better.

You can also "cast" to most smart TVs, in exactly the same way you can with a chromecast...you just hit "cast" on your phone and choose your TV...simples...then you can start/stop stuff with the mobile.

That said, I think the chromecast is fine for most people...youtube, netflix, that's 99% of what I use on smart...there *are* many more apps etc...but I don't use any of them, especially if I have my phone in my pocket. Because there are so many different "smart" interfaces across the different manufacturers, none of them wind up looking particularly polished...and they're often clunky to use.

The Netflix app, for instance, is notably worse on my TV than the app on the xbox...or on my phone.

I guess you have to ask yourself what you want "smart" for...

comphunter345

Alternatively, buy a Playstation 3 and use the TV apps on there. You can get all the catchup services plus Netflix or Amazon Prime instant. Also it's a lot cheaper than upgrading the TV.

happyhero

Cheers for the help, can you surf and Google with both methods, i.e. get a browser up and search like you would on a PC?

Idiophreak

happyhero wrote: »

Cheers for the help, can you surf and Google with both methods, i.e. get a browser up and search like you would on a PC?

In a word...no.

You can do some kind of screen mirroring on chromecast, but it's clunky.

You can do web browsing on a smart TV, but it's clunky.

TBH, if you're sat on the couch and you want to google something, get your phone out.

If you actually want to try and find stuff quickly, use a PC.

comphunter345

I agree, any intensive use of the web is not ideal through a smart TV chromecast or a games console. They just aren't really designed for it.

pledgeX

I agree with the last two posters. Using apps such as netflix or bbc iPlayer are generally fine on smart TV's, but my Panasonic has a web browser and it's pretty much useless. Even using a phone to control it (i.e. type in the address and move the cursor) it's still very clunky. I also found that the web browser doesn't support video players very well either, which is the one thing I wanted to do on it! I highly doubt this is limited to Panasonic TV's either - I imagine all in built in web browser on TV's are pretty poor.

happyhero

Ok thanks everyone, thats really annoying as it would have been nice to be able to be able to surf and Google properly on the TV and I was assuming they could do that now with all the talk of Smart TV's but obviously that is not the case yet, really appreciate the help though, I can make a better judge on what to get now.

almillar

Pretty much every single thing you've been told you can do on 'Smart TVs' shoud be 'SOME Smart TVs'. 'Smartness' counts as basically the ability to get stuff online and/or apps - as in watching iPlayer.
Just because one Smart TV has a feature, doesn't mean the one next to it in the shop has the same one. Depending on what you want to do, you may want to consider a YouView box which would add a stack of Smart stuff to your TV, and as above a PS3 would fill many gaps too, that I don't think most 'Smart TVs' would match.
Think of Chromecast as putting onto your TV screen, whatever you're looking at on your tablet, laptop or phone.
Web browsing on a TV - not good. PS3 has a web browser, which again, isn't good. And if you're thinking of using any video streaming websites, that may be Adobe Flash, guess what - your Smart TV doesn't have Flash.
Just in reply to your web browsing which you appear to really want - Chromecast would be very good for this - anything you're looking at in the Chrome browser on your laptop, tablet or phone, will be replicated on your TV, and critically, you're using a far better web browser, and better controls, than your TV would have.

Idiophreak

almillar wrote: »

Just in reply to your web browsing which you appear to really want - Chromecast would be very good for this - anything you're looking at in the Chrome browser on your laptop, tablet or phone, will be replicated on your TV, and critically, you're using a far better web browser, and better controls, than your TV would have.

...but then you might as well just look at it on the phone.

The only time it's useful to do something like that is when you have people round and you want to show them something...but most of the time the stuff I want to show people is videos anyway, so can just use youtube etc anyway.