Poll: Did you buy an internet connected HDTV?
By Richard Lawler 
posted January 24th 2010 5:00PM
posted January 24th 2010 5:00PM
posted January 24th 2010 5:00PM
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Yeah, I bought a Panasonic TC-P42G10 with VieraCast, and I use it as my primary Amazon VoD device.
I think the idea needs to mature before it's worth buying preinstalled into a TV. If the TV maker decides to discontinue updates, then you're back to an external device anyways if you want a new feature that's not available in the newest update. As it is, I think a game system may be a better way to do it in the long term than have the cost of extra hardware embedded into the TV.
i'd rather have a monitor that displays very well and a external box that does everything else very well - not sure you can have both on a connected tv. besides, who wants tweeter messages popping up while you trying to watch the game. thats why i have a laptop!
FiOS allows much of the same internet connectivity regardless of the television. You should include FiOS as a poll option. I personally don't see the need for internet connectivity at all.
Internet content standards need to settle (start?) before I'd consider integrating it into my television. Sure, they're upgradable, but they'll stop upgrading your firmware after about a year.
Not really interested as there are other ways to gain that content. Verizon's FiOS boxes have Twitter, Facebook, etc. An Internet-connected TV would be useless add-on for me.
On another note, is that WGAL-8 out of Lancaster, PA?
Got a HDTV which just so happens has an internet connection. It would be hard to buy a newly released TV that is not.
One thing that made limited sense with Blu-ray (and probably HD DVD players as well) and now these connected TV are the lack of built-in wifi or at least available wifi dongles. My Sony BDP-S350 can't do wifi even via it's USB port and players are just now coming with it baked in. My friend just got a Samsung TV (not sure which model) but it does have an ethernet jack. Outside of my parent's house which my nerd father wired a while ago with RJ-45, I know no one with a wired home network. Start baking in wifi to all these devices like the Insignia BR player I got my brother for Christmas and then we can see about the usefulness of these "widgets".
-Brian
It's bad enough having the network and local station "ID bugs" in the corners of the screen and advertisements for upcoming shows in the lower third, let alone widgets blocking the HD picture on my expensive HDTV. I also have NO use for Skype or any other VOIP program on my TV, beyond the Caller ID function as exists already from my DirecTV receiver. I have a netbook that sits on my lamp table for Twitter, Skype, widgets, etc and am quite happy with that.
I keep my Samsung plasma connected, but only for firmware updates. Widgets that provide Yahoo, Blockbuster, etc. are nice to have but take forever to load; I rely on Vudu and Netflix for streaming. Amazon VOD was cool when it worked, but for some reason it's still broken on my set. If anyone knows why this is, I'd love to know. Sounds like a contractual issue, but Samsung's reps never give me a straight answer.
And the refs helped the Saints big time last night. I wanted a Manning/Favre Super Bowl, dammit! :)
The only "connected" option I would be interested in is Netflix... and since my PS3 works perfectly fine for that, I don't really have a need. If my next TV happens to support it, fine, but it will not be on the list of requirements.
As for Twitter and Facebook on your TV.... WTF? There's a point when you're TOO connected, I think.
Bought the Panasonic TC-P42G15 42" 1080p THX certified plasma (for $686 @ ABC Warehouse woo hoo!) with VIERA Cast and enjoy having YouTube & weather at a touch of a button. That plasma looks better than any of my friends LCDs for twice as much money.
I want MONITORS. All I want is a tv that displays what I send it. I want only one cable to the tv, the hdmi (okay, and the power cord).
I'd prefer to have recievers that contain all the other stuff, even the atsc tuner and video scaling options, that way I can just upgrade the reciever for new features. You know more features will come and/or some features will become obsolete within a couple years even though the tv works perfectly fine. This is why monitors are the way to go. You can upgrade the reciever for new features without having to get rid of a perfectly good tv.
I was looking for a just-above-bargain basement priced 40"-42" LCD (That is, no store brands like Insignia). Internet connectivity that would have saved me buying a Roku HD or HDXR is naturally worth about $100 to me, but when I looked, those features were only available on TVs priced in the mid-to-high range of models, at least $300 more than the $650 LG I bought. Plus, the actual features were all over the place: some just had widgets, some had widgets & YouTube, while others added some IPTV through the YahooTV service. So now I can either buy Roku for $129 or even an Xbox 360 for $249 and still stream my Netflix, which is really all I wanted to begin with.
So the lesson for manufacturers is: Everyone should come together and offer as much content as possible, but make those content providers subsidize and bring down the cost of the connected TV? That's what I would do if I ran an electronics manufacturer.
My tv only few feet away from my computer. If i need my twitter updates, then I'll just use the computer.
@Booya Agreed, although in my case I'd use my netbook, which I just take everywhere. My phones crappy so it pays to have a device that connects me to all my files and the internet etc. How many phones can VPN into your home network?
I recently bought a "new" TV. A 40" 5 Series Samsung. £399 at RS in their boxing day sale. It's the series that's being phased out, so no ethernet. But the only thing I'd use if it did would be firmware updates. (I'm a bit of a fanboy for keeping stuff current)
So yeah, you might think what am I doing on E-HD? But I'm 15 and as much as I love tech and movies, especially combined, I just don't have the money to splurge out on a my home theatre (aka, my bedroom) one day... So I spend a lot of time working out how to get the highest quality for prices I can nearly afford, then beg borrow and err.. work for, to get it. 40" 1080p for £399? I don't think that's bad at all.
maybe to check the weather but not much else