New telly

cheese_dave

cheese_dave

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I'm looking to get rid of my CRT TV which, though reliable and good enough, has had its day. So I'm going to get a big flat thing that looks like a PC monitor.

I'm thinking of LED over plasma or LCD, to be honest they all look much of a muchness, but the most important thing to me is this; I need the new TV to be able to display my holiday photos and videos, and not via a USB memory stick. These photos and videos are all stored on a PC running XP and connected to my wifi router. All my music is on the same PC and I stream the music via a Roku Soundbridge device which works great. I want to be able to stream photos and videos in the same way onto the new TV.

I can do wireless, I can do wired ethernet/LAN using Devolo plugs... any TSR experts got any advice?
 
I've just ordered a basic large plasma for the TV room and will end up attaching an Apple TV which will give me all the connectivity I need streaming from any PC, laptop or HD attached to the home network. In your case like the Roku for audio I also think you're better off investing in a dedicated media server for pics and video, it could be the ATV or something like this...

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/11166469/art/western-digital/wd-tv-live-wifi-streaming.html?srcid=11270&nopopup=1&gclid=CJC8roi7zbQCFcjKtAodRUkAow

http://home-media-servers-review.toptenreviews.com/

rather than rely on a TV whose streaming and connectivity capabilities may be more of an after thought and as it's your first flat screen it'll also free you up to buy a lesser spec TV if you choose to.

As for TV, a reputable plasma would still be my choice if it comes down to outright picture quality for video however they do have lowish picture brightness and quite reflective screens (neither of which is really an issue especially at night). If energy consumption and picture brightness are important and the TV will be situated in a bright multi-windowed room or you just watch daytime TV in your pants then LED/LCD may be a better option but you generally get better blacks, colour saturation and a full viewing angle with plasmas and no motion blur.
 
We bought a new Plasma last year 52 inch full HD. We love it, picture quality is superb.

One small problem, the screen is super shiny and reflective so we have had to put a blackout blind in the window that reflects to where my wife sits otherwise all she would see on the TV is a reflection of the house opposite.

It's a minor issue, but one we hadn't experienced before, or thought about. We do love the picture quality all the same.
 
cheese_dave said:
I'm looking to get rid of my CRT TV which, though reliable and good enough, has had its day. So I'm going to get a big flat thing that looks like a PC monitor.

I'm thinking of LED over plasma or LCD, to be honest they all look much of a muchness, but the most important thing to me is this; I need the new TV to be able to display my holiday photos and videos, and not via a USB memory stick. These photos and videos are all stored on a PC running XP and connected to my wifi router. All my music is on the same PC and I stream the music via a Roku Soundbridge device which works great. I want to be able to stream photos and videos in the same way onto the new TV.

I can do wireless, I can do wired ethernet/LAN using Devolo plugs... any TSR experts got any advice?
Click to expand...

If i was you id go for an affordable LED TV. Now the issue is you want alot of network functionality which honestly is beyond the scope of most affordable TV's. The reason is most manufacturers cater to the majority audience. I.e. folks who want a good tv at a good price so things like networking take a back seat. What you want to do involve a media extension... The cheapest way to do it honestly is to get an old laptop and just install software on to it the easiest way involves another piece of equipment like a gaming system, media player box, or other equipment...

I havent used this piece of equipment as I have an XBOX360 and an old laptop thats now functioning as my home-theater PC but i hear this one is quite easy to set up and easy to use.. Its made by Western Digital and also includes decent online streaming features like netflix etc..

Sigh apparently im not allowed to post links yet... well regardless

Search amazon for WD TV
 
Our Toshiba LCD packed up early last year so we replaced it with a Panasonic Plasma. It's by far better, a lovely picture.

Watch out for connections in to it, they never have enough. Mine has one scart and two HDMI. I have mine connected to a Blu Ray, DVD, Sky and a Mac Mini, so I had to get a three in one out HDMI connection box/switch. It's an auto switch so no hassle. It has a SD slot on the side and I also use the Mac to display photos. The Mac is connected to a NAS, most of it could be wireless but I prefer it all wired up via Ethernet Cables of course a few new tv's now require that connection too.

Must be plenty of bargains out there at this time of year. Have fun looking.
 
I would recomend one of the Samsung LED TV's. It does not need to be a SMART TV Version!
I have 3 now, they have great styling, super slim, reasonable costing and good features and conectivity & easy to navigate menu's.

My most recent was a 32" for the bedroom, 4 HDMI inputs, all the usual analogue inputs, digital optical out, USB socket that supports popular Music, Picture & Movie formats.
Also very important was a Ethernet socket that supports DLNA.

I have a MacMini plugged into it so I use the TV Catchup website for all my live TV, then you have all the features of a computer on a 32" screen. This will all work just as good on a windows pc of course.

I also have a NAS on my network where I keep all my media, the DLNA feature of the TV picks this up faultlessly and it's like have a DVD player without having to change disks:)

Really, highly recommend the Samsung LED's
 
I have the Samsung LED 40in and the picture quality is outstanding, my Mrs must be fed up hearing me forever saying to her, come here have a look at that picture simply amazing, especially when you have a HD box and put everything through HDMI cables, that's also something to think about HDMI ports and internet ports and USB ports, you can never have enough on these new TV's.

Jamie
 
cheese_dave said:
DLNA seems to be the magic word here. Well, magic initials.
Click to expand...

not quite... all DLNA is really is a pointless certification board... Its like if we all got togeather tonight and decided to make the DESA the Double Edge Shaving Alliance and we ran about certifying products we thought were great.. Now-a-days most technology products will "play nice" within the DLNA concept but in the grand scheme its just a "non-profit" out there that intends to make all technology products "speak the same language" so as to allow for maximum interoperability.
 
hunnymonster said:
DLNA (aka uPnP) is the way forward. Far from being pointless it means that stuff you think should interoperate does so. Rather than 837 competing but slightly incompatible products or being locked to a single vendor solution.
Click to expand...

uPnP both as a concept and as a practical architecture has been in existence long before DLNA (a sony begun initative mind you)

As is designed most components of home networking at this time and even prior to the start of DLNA (mid 2003 if im not mistaken) were already in compliance with the early uPnP standards. As the standards have gotten better the products making use of uPnP have increased in both number, functionality, and capability. By no means however, does this mean that everything is inherently just capable of being plugged in, booted up and instantly working over wireless without any input from the user as of course this would be horrendous for any sort of security standard. But none-the-less the entire premise behind uPnP as a whole as just for the devices to be able to understand and exchange data properly and effectively once connected to each other.

Particularly when it comes to DHCP and IP addressing most devices as it stands now are capable and within the standards for uPnP yet they are not neccesarily capable of say streaming a given (obscure) format of video that is still wholly and entirely on the manufacturer to both include CODECs and capabilities within their product that arent necessarily overed under the DLNA infrastructure, without knowing his specific file types we cannot simply suggest to pick DLNA certified and capable equipment and thus have to provide overarching suggestions.

To sum up. just because a device says its DLNA certified does not inherently mean it is capable of say easily streaming videos from a home pc which is acting as a NAS. The DLNA certification purely suggests a level of networking interoperability with other DLNA certified aspects of a "Home Media Infastructure". There is a basic set of media types covered by DLNA but not everyone strictly "obtains" media in the given format and short of converting everything the OP owns we must urge the OP to carefully research the equipment he is buying to ensure its capability not only within his networking infrastructure but also with his given media file structure. (That is the specifics types of movie and photo files he is using and the equipments capability to playback, render, decompress, and view said file type)
 
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