what is a Smart TV?

[Brett Hartwig]

So i am looking at getting a new tv. Need some help with different terms though. What does "smart" tv mean? The one I am looking at is an LED tv- what exactly is that? FInally, with HDTV, do I have to have some special cable to take full advantage of this feature? I get confused between HDTV and 3D. any help would be appreciated

 

[Dean Kolar]

Almost every tv now is an HDTV. In order to take advantage of the HD you need a box from your cable company which will get you the HD signal. The LED is brighter and clearer picture than an LCD or plasma. The tv's that are 3D are already HD capable but once again need the box. The 3D tv's require you to wear glasses so that the picture "pops" out. I don't really think that would be desirable all the time but I hear there is an ability to turn that feature off. Lastly, a smart TV has apps similar to a phone or a computer where it can access the internet to stream photos or videos or movies off of Netflix. Sorry for the novel, but hope it helps.

Dean:haveabeer:

 

[DaninVa]

To connect HDTV to your box you generally need a HDMI cable....anywhere from $25 +/- for a 6 footer.

 

[Wes Davis]

A box from the cable company is not the only way to get HD tv. HD also comes from blue ray dvd players and game boxes and over the air antenna is now mostly HD. A smart tv generally and mainly means it has built in wireless internet capabilities for streaming movies and other internet related stuff.







/

 

[Richard L]

It just means that they WiFi Internet access with built in applications to allow your to stream movies, news and replay TV shows from internet sources like NetFlix, HuluPlus, etc and you do not need an additional box like a Roku ....Some of the sources are Free and others require a monthly subscription fee. I have NetFlix for only $7.99 a month and I can watch as many movies as I want, when I want. Not all movies are available for streaming on NetFlix but they probably have the biggest selection, and most TV shows are not available during the live network broadcast times, but some are available the next day



The nice thing with most of these streaming media like Netflixs, is when you pay your subscription you can even watch them on your laptop when traveling at the same time your wife and kids are watching a different movie at home on the Smart TV, All you need is an internet connection.



...Rich

 

[Les]

Smart TV = a TV that won't receive MSNBC and says Romney is the new President.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Freeport,



A primer:



- OTA - Over The Air as in television that you get through local broadcasters, free, by using a regular antenna (rabbit ears, roof mount, etc).



- HDTV: High-definition Television; in the U.S. that is synonmous with the standard employed when switch in OTA went from the analog standard used for over 50 years to the digital standard.



- LED: Light Emitting Diode, which for digital TVs means the technology used for back-lighting the LCD picture. An LCD TV has two major components that deliver the picture, the LCD screen and a backlight that projects light through the translucent LCD panel. LED is the new standard as it arguably provides better, more uniform, brighter light with longer service time until burn-out while the previous standard used was mini flourescent bars.



- 3D: Three-dimensional TV, just like a 3D movie at the theater. The program/movie being viewed has to support 3D and the TV on which you are viewing also has to support 3D, and you need to wear special glasses to get the 3D effect. Right now, very, very few movies, programs and channels are in 3D, and 3D is largely still a fad (not catching on with consumers) with the #1 reason given "I hate the glasses." Personally, I don't think 3D will ever become mainstream.



- 1080p vs 720p, etc: These are the veritical resolution (number of horizontal scan lines in the vertical), and the P defines that the scan lines are progressively refreshed (meaning the TV doesn't redraw a line then the next line, etc, but instead skips over scan lines drawing every-other one, thus allowing the entire screen to be refreshed in half the time via this visual "trick"). Smaller TVs, say under 40" and viewed from several feet really don't provide much of a better picture if 720p, while larger screens viewed a bit more closely will benefit from 1080p resolution for more clarity. Either TV resolutions support HD programs, but some vendors like to call 1080p HDTVs "true HD" tvs.



- Smart TV: Similar to a smart phone, this is a TV that has apps installed and can access the Internet either wired or wirelessly (via home wireless network). The apps provide access to streaming services like Pandora (free music), Netflix (subscription videos), Hulu, Amazon, and TV-version of popular web apps/sites like Facebook, Youtube, eBay, etc.



Now, with that said, you *DO NOT NECESSARILY NEED* cable service and a cable box to get a HD picture. If you live in a suburban or metro area you will likely get a dozen or more HD channels OTA for nothing. To find out what kind of signal strength you will get OTA in your area, see the website below:

 

[Brett Hartwig]

so, hypothetically, I get this Vizio 65" LED tv- if I also purchased a Vizio Blue Ray player with built in Wifi, that would get me what I need to access all the features?

 

[Dean Kolar]

In our town at least and I believe in most areas we are required to have a box because they switched from analog to digital so no longer can u just buzz in on a signal...yes it will get you the features but I'm almost 100% positive you need a box from the cable company to receive HDTV otherwise it can't be used to its full potential

 

[Robert Thomas]

Smart TV deals strictly with the remote. When you press the mute button on the remote then your wife stops talking.



Then the fight started.

 

[Richard L]

Smart TV's know exactly what you want to watch and automatically switch to that channel. :grin:



Dean, Smart TV's have nothing to do with cable TV service...They connect to the your wired or wireless internet connection in your home (if you have internet access) and allow you to download and stream various movies and TV programs from the internet. There are boxes like Roku, some DVD players and game consoles that will allow you to access these special programming websites and watch them on your TV...a Smart TV does not require any external box as long as you have internet access.



What you see is not the same programming that you normally see on your cable TV system, nor is it necessarily live when the network broadcasts it. If you have time, go to Hulu on your computer and you can see the type of programs that you can watch, and they are often for the previous season of shows.





...Rich

 

[Robert Howell]

I find LED TVs make the movie look fake, I personally like the look of plasma much better. Am I the only one who find this?

 

[Richard L]

Holleyman,

Nobody else seems to be responding, so it must just be you. :grin:



...Rich

 

[Robert Howell]

Must be me then. Have a 60" Pioneer Elite plasma in the entertainment room and love the picture as we don't watch TV, only HD movies. I got a 42" LCD for the upstairs room and hated it, tried to adjust the settings but couldn't get it to look real, turned off auto motion plus, played with refresh... nothing. Got my money back and am still looking for a new upstairs TV.



Bring a favourite movie with you and watch before making any decisions.

 

[Bob McDonald]

You don't always have to have a box from your cable provider. Of course, That statement may not hold true for 'every' cable provider. In my case, Time Warner, I have a box for my primary TV but not for my secondary TV's.



On my primary TV, I see all the channels I have signed up for in whatever package they are in and have to put up with the channel numbering scheme the cable provider chooses.



With my secondary TV's, I am able to see all of the local OTA stations that the cable has captured and transmit down the cable. I notice that as the TV scans for available channels, some are digital and some are still analog since some station are still transmitting in analog. I believe the change over to digital was not mandatory for 'ALL' locations and think that was supposed to ease the financial burden for the smaller markets. But, I do see that some of major companies (CBS, NBC, etc) are still broadcasting in both analog and digital in my large market area (L.A. basin).



By the way, Tom,



Not an TV expert by any means, but I was under the belief that your description of the raster drawing every other line was the way it worked for 1080i and that 1080p did draw every line.

Have I been under the wrong understanding all along?



Bob

 

[Bill V]

Dean, freeport, the switch from analog to digital was a couple years ago now, nationwide. It has nothing to do with your town. To receive over-the-air (antenna) signals, if you have an analog TV, then you need the converter box. But any newer TV is going to have digital tuning capabilities--which means that if you're getting your stations via antenna, you wouldn't need a box. And that includes for HD--most major stations broadcasting over-the-air these days are broadcasting in HD, with no box required.



If you're getting your TV via a cable provider, then what you need depends on your cable provider. Some absolutely require a box. Some, there's no need for one at all. For some, if you have a TV or other device which is compatible with CableCards (I think that's what they're called), you just need to insert one from your cable provider and you're then good to go. For full details of what you need, talk to your provder.

 

[Richard L]

As Uncle Bob and Bill V said

You do not necessarily need a cable box but it also depends on which package you are getting from your cable company.



Cable companies have many packages that give you the channels in analog, digital, or HD. The old analog channels are converted from digital back to analog and broadcast for people who have not purchased a digital TV. The cable companies will often include some digital cable channels that have been converted back to the old analog broadcasts...just to fill out the package for people with old analog TV's



Digital channels include the OTA broadcast from your local stations as well as many of the cable channels....The OTA channels will usually be broad cast on a different channel then their OTA broadcast and may or may not be in HD. You often need a cable box to see receive all the channels because they are broadcast on channels that your TV tuner cannot access.



Finally there is HDTV which most cable companies sell as an extra cost option. That is were most but not all channels are broadcast in HD. You also need a cable box to receive these HD Channels and pay the HD fees.



The need for the cable box is where the cable company has you over a barrel...because they charge you extra for the monthly leasing of the cable box, and if you have a cable company DVR, you will have to pay and additional DVR service fee. The fee for each cable box can run from about $8 to $12 a month and in a 3 bedroom house the box rentals can easily exceed $40-$50 in addition to the package you buy....and the cable companies have a fee for everything like Franchise Fees, Service Fees, Recovery Fees, etc, etc, etc. These fees are like taxes in that the government permits them, but the cable company does not have to charge you for them...but most charge you for all the fees they can milk you for.:fire:



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Uncle_Bob, yes my description was off. Both i and p (interlaced and progressive) deal with even and odd horizontal scan lines.



For a better description consider:

In 1080i each frame of video is sent or displayed in alternative fields. The fields in 1080i are composed of 540 rows of pixels or lines of pixels running from the top to the bottom of the screen, with the odd fields displayed first and the even fields displayed second. Together, both fields create a full frame, made up of all 1,080 pixel rows or lines, every 30th of a second.



In 1080p, each frame of video is sent or displayed progressively. This means that both the odd and even fields (all 1,080 pixel rows or pixel lines) that make up the full frame are displayed tog

 

[Robert Caffyn]

A smart TV? It knows more than all of you put together!!! :bwahaha:

 

[Gavin Allan]

Our cable system (Mediacom) switched to digital last month in our town. You do not need a box to watch the basic package on TV's with digital tuners. However, if you have an older TV, you need a digital to analog box to watch anything, as nothing is transmitted via analog on our cable system. If you want to watch premium channels, pay per view, etc., you have to have a different kind of cable box for any type of TV so that the premium content can be decoded.



I have one box to watch premium content on my main TV, and all the other TVs are newer so I don't need any boxed on them to get the 70+ basic channels that are now broadcast in digital.



Older TVs are a dime a dozen in this town now, as folks do not want to mess with the digital to analog converter boxes (and yes, the fees for using them), so folks are buying new TVs like mad since the conversion.