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Buying an internet TV which connects wirelessly


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Old 21-04-2012, 15:22
bazellis
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I'm about to buy a new TV and want one that can connect to the internet wirelessly rather than via an ethernet cable.
Can anyone recommend a good 40"-46" model?
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Old 21-04-2012, 16:10
Nigel Goodwin
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I'm about to buy a new TV and want one that can connect to the internet wirelessly rather than via an ethernet cable.
Can anyone recommend a good 40"-46" model?
Plenty of the Sony range have in-built WiFi, I presume others do as well. The main thing to check if that it's in-built, and doesn't require an extra dongle to add WiFi.
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Old 21-04-2012, 16:55
chrisjr
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And judging by some posts I've seen on DS some TVs that use a plug in WiFi adapter only work with a specific dongle, usually provided by the TV manufacturer at a much higher price than a generic device you could buy elsewhere, even from the likes of PC World.
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Old 21-04-2012, 16:59
Nigel Goodwin
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And judging by some posts I've seen on DS some TVs that use a plug in WiFi adapter only work with a specific dongle, usually provided by the TV manufacturer at a much higher price than a generic device you could buy elsewhere, even from the likes of PC World.
As far as I know all of them need specific dongles, which is fairly obvious really - it's not a PC, you don't have an internal HDD running it all that you could use to download and store load's of different drivers.
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Old 21-04-2012, 17:11
chrisjr
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As far as I know all of them need specific dongles, which is fairly obvious really - it's not a PC, you don't have an internal HDD running it all that you could use to download and store load's of different drivers.
Obviously it will be a specific dongle but not usually one that you can buy a compatible generic replacement for.
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Old 21-04-2012, 17:31
alanwarwic
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Some of the new ones will have plug-in Android box that can upgrade and thus be future proof.

For now I'd certainly ignore this requirement to get a great TV for your money. Just get a nettop for it instead.
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Old 22-04-2012, 20:43
ibatten
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As far as I know all of them need specific dongles, which is fairly obvious really - it's not a PC, you don't have an internal HDD running it all that you could use to download and store load's of different drivers.
You can take a short ethernet cable into a wireless bridge, and extend the network from your router. I've got my TV attached to an Apple Airport Express I had lying around, rather than buying a specific dongle. That has the advantage that I can use 802.11n on 5GHz, which will give somewhat better performance that a cheap dongle, and probably less interference from my neighbours.
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Old 22-04-2012, 22:11
iangrad
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Wireless connection to your PC / network via your router is OK for low bit rate music or low to medium resolution photos HOWEVER if you want to run iplayer in HD or stream HD Video from your PC its got to be hard wired ( a home plug set up is a part way solution )

Wireless = buffering !
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Old 22-04-2012, 22:15
call100
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Wireless connection to your PC / network via your router is OK for low bit rate music or low to medium resolution photos HOWEVER if you want to run iplayer in HD or stream HD Video from your PC its got to be hard wired ( a home plug set up is a part way solution )

Wireless = buffering !
Not necessarily. All mine is done wirelessly and I don't experience any problems. That includes iPlayer and Netflix amongst other services. The problem is not with wireless it's with your particular BB connection/speed..
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Old 22-04-2012, 23:00
iangrad
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Not necessarily. All mine is done wirelessly and I don't experience any problems. That includes iPlayer and Netflix amongst other services. The problem is not with wireless it's with your particular BB connection/speed..
Are you saying you can watch iplayer in HD & stream AVCHD or other HD content from your PC without any buffering ? You must have a super router & broadband speed . What router have you got ?

If its from your PC the router is the only determining factor if the PC is hard wired to the router .
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Old 22-04-2012, 23:18
grahamlthompson
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Not necessarily. All mine is done wirelessly and I don't experience any problems. That includes iPlayer and Netflix amongst other services. The problem is not with wireless it's with your particular BB connection/speed..
Not true, Iplayer and netflix have a relatively low datarate requirement. The BBCi-HD iplayer service needs more speed.

There are two types of router the older G type and the newer N type. Yoi may have the faster N type router and the poster a G type, Even if you have a G type you can't equate your experience with others. If the poster has lots of neighbours with WiFi his connection may be much slower than yours (they might be able to select a clearer channel).

Only rarely will be the isp connection speed be an issue.

To see what local traffic you have download a copy of

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
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Old 22-04-2012, 23:48
c4rv
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Are you saying you can watch iplayer in HD & stream AVCHD or other HD content from your PC without any buffering ? You must have a super router & broadband speed . What router have you got ?

If its from your PC the router is the only determining factor if the PC is hard wired to the router .
Streaming HD from local source is not the same as watching HD from internet source. The highest bitrates I have seen for HD over internet are only a few mbps
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Old 23-04-2012, 00:12
call100
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Not true, Iplayer and netflix have a relatively low datarate requirement. The BBCi-HD iplayer service needs more speed.

There are two types of router the older G type and the newer N type. Yoi may have the faster N type router and the poster a G type, Even if you have a G type you can't equate your experience with others. If the poster has lots of neighbours with WiFi his connection may be much slower than yours (they might be able to select a clearer channel).

Only rarely will be the isp connection speed be an issue.

To see what local traffic you have download a copy of

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
Re read my post............It starts...'Not necessarily'...
Your post just states the obvious I know the difference between G and N thank you.
No one was trying to equate anything, merely pointing out that the poster who said only low bit rate could be streamed was not necessarily correct.
Again, obviously, the parameters of each individual set up differs and my experience may be different to someone else's.
I stream iPlayer in HD and anything else I have a mind to with no problems. If others have a problem, it doesn't make mine suddenly stop working....
I already have inSSIDer installed.
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Old 23-04-2012, 13:12
bazellis
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Excuse my ignorance, but do these TV's also allow you to plug in a USB stick and play movies/tv shows directly from there?
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Old 23-04-2012, 13:47
Helmut10
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bazellis
I have a Sony 24" internet enabled TV which has a built in Wireless Card (bgn standard).
It works through my Modem/Router/WAP(Linksys) Wireless G standard.
I use WPA2 with AES encryption on the Wireless G. The measured Broadband download speed is around 5.5-6.5 Mb/s.
BBC iplayer HD works perfectly OK as do other services like Demand 5. The BBC states that 3.5 Mb/s is required for iplayer HD and it does work on my system as is, not surprisingly.

The small screen Sony TVs don't have HD Freeview tuners, not that it matters at that size of screen, but as above you can view iplayer HD via the Broadband internet.

Out of the box there is rather too much picture processing, but it can be reduced/switched off by going thru all the display menus.

USB sticks, it does the firmware updates OK which is all I use the USB key drives for.

You'll have to look that up about movies on a stick, there will be limitations as always.
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Old 23-04-2012, 13:59
call100
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I have an external hard drive connected to my TV via USB and watch downloaded Movies via it. A USB stick will work just as well...
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Old 23-04-2012, 14:05
bazellis
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Thanks Guys
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Old 23-04-2012, 17:27
ibatten
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The BBC states that 3.5 Mb/s is required for iplayer HD
See here for the bandwidth consumed by watching an HD stream for 40 minutes followed by an SD stream for 80 minutes.
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Old 23-04-2012, 21:24
porkpie
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As far as I know all of them need specific dongles, which is fairly obvious really - it's not a PC, you don't have an internal HDD running it all that you could use to download and store load's of different drivers.
The official Panasonic dongle for my 3D LED is about £70.
I got a Netgear one apparently designed for Virgin Media from Amazon for £22 delivered and it works a treat.

My previous set had an ethernet socket so I used my sons old PS2 Wireless Adapter Network Bridge to connect that tv up ( that adapter also worked for getting an update to my Toshiba HD DVD player over 4 years ago)

Excuse my ignorance, but do these TV's also allow you to plug in a USB stick and play movies/tv shows directly from there?
My Panasonic tv has a USB input aswell as slots for sd cards.
You can display pictures and videos provided they are in the right formats
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Old 24-04-2012, 14:29
bazellis
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My Panasonic tv has a USB input aswell as slots for sd cards.
You can display pictures and videos provided they are in the right formats
Do you know what formats? Are AVI's usually OK?

Also do the TV's still come with SCSI ports?
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Old 24-04-2012, 14:39
chrisjr
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Do you know what formats? Are AVI's usually OK?

Also do the TV's still come with SCSI ports?
What formats a TV supports vary from set to set. There is no fixed standard. And since AVI is a container rather than a fixed format it is entirely possible for one AVI to play and another not to.

And I have never ever seen a TV with a SCSI port. Or do you mean SCART? Most TVs will have at least one SCART, but HDMI seems to be taking over on modern sets. So you might get 3 or 4 HDMI ports and only a single SCART. I can see a day when a TV ships with no SCART sockets at all.
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Old 24-04-2012, 15:51
bazellis
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And I have never ever seen a TV with a SCSI port.
Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. It's the socket connection that allows you to use your TV as a monitor for your laptop via a serial cable.
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Old 24-04-2012, 16:07
chrisjr
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Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. It's the socket connection that allows you to use your TV as a monitor for your laptop via a serial cable.
Errr very much the wrong terminology

What you are referring to is an analogue VGA graphics port which does resemble a serial port (which is something else entirely) but has more pins.

Some TVs do still have VGA ports but like SCART they are becoming less common. Possibly because DVI is more and more common on PC's. DVI is a digital graphics standard and is electrically compatible with HDMI. Therefore a simple lead with appropriate connectors each end is all that is required to interconnect the two.

However there is no such simple cable solution if you have VGA on a PC and only HDMI on the TV. And on laptops it is not unknown for even low end models to have HDMI. My own HP laptop is by no means the cutting edge of technology but it has HDMI (and VGA for that matter).
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Old 24-04-2012, 16:24
ibatten
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What formats a TV supports vary from set to set. There is no fixed standard. And since AVI is a container rather than a fixed format it is entirely possible for one AVI to play and another not to.

And I have never ever seen a TV with a SCSI port. Or do you mean SCART? Most TVs will have at least one SCART, but HDMI seems to be taking over on modern sets. So you might get 3 or 4 HDMI ports and only a single SCART. I can see a day when a TV ships with no SCART sockets at all.
2012 Panasonics have neither conventional SCART nor component inputs. Instead they have a weird converter cable to allow you to plug one SCART and one set of component cables into what appear to be multi-pole 3.5mm phono sockets. It looks flimsy and not intended for production use, but means that at least you can temporarily connect an old VCR if you need to.

Oddly, they do have a VGA connector.
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Old 24-04-2012, 16:35
Richardcoulter
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I'm thinking of buying this:

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop...=HP1&ID=180412

It says that it's not got Wifi, but that it has an internal dongle.

Does this, to the average non technical person, work just like a Wifi TV?
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