Need new dining room TV

[RogerC]

Well a visit to Richer Sounds and we came away with:

HUMAX HDR1100S 500GB freesat box.
SAMSUNG UE32J5500 TV.

Both covered by 6 yr warranty which from research/reviews/recommendations etc is pretty solid and on par with John Lewis offering and back up.

Screen in the diagonal is actually smaller than the 'overall' dimensions of out now defunct 28 inch aeons old JVC so alls well.........now just need the aerial fitter chappie to do his thing on Monday and we have lounge for sky and dining room for whatever else on freesat and pause/record/on demand etc on both. Oh I'm forgetting the freesat will probably be more interactive than Sky 'cause those theiving gits won't hand over an interwebby connecting wi fi gizmo without some of my hard earned..........so I'll do without and maybe even cancel Sky if freesat works out to be enough for us.

[jollyjoiner]

Sounds like a cracking deal you have there Rodger

[croweman]

(10-23-2015, 08:27 PM)RogerC Wrote: Well a visit to Richer Sounds and we came away with:

HUMAX  HDR1100S 500GB freesat box.
SAMSUNG UE32J5500 TV.

Both covered by 6 yr warranty which from research/reviews/recommendations etc is pretty solid and on par with John Lewis offering and back up.

Screen in the diagonal is actually smaller than the 'overall' dimensions of out now defunct 28 inch aeons old JVC so alls well.........now just need the aerial fitter chappie to do his thing on Monday and we have lounge for sky and dining room for whatever else on freesat and pause/record/on demand etc on both.  Oh I'm forgetting the freesat will probably be more interactive than Sky 'cause those theiving gits won't hand over an interwebby connecting wi fi gizmo without some of my hard earned..........so I'll do without and maybe even cancel Sky if freesat works out to be enough for us.

Good buy Rog in the specs it says it is app accessible check out kodi and you won't necessarily need the freesat box.

[Kingy]

Nice on Rog. Sounds a cracking deal.
Humax boxes do what they say on the tin. Good piece of kit.
Samsung are similar. Always look the bollocks too as they make belting designs.

... See - I told you a 32" screen would have similar footprint to an older 28" Believe it or not the 36" crt television I gave away took more space than the Panasonic 50" Plasma I replaced it with. Madness!

[RogerC]

I tried to tell Mrs C the new screens have less surround so are basically bigger screens but smaller overall......we both won our case. It's 1.5cm smaller on the diagonal due to loss of bezel width but 2cm wider in the horizontal due to accomodating the extra on the 32 inch diagonal but it loos smaller so we're both happy with it.

Regards the 'kodi'...thanks for the info on that...I'll look a bit closer when I have time and my brain isn't fried from all this TV wifi Humax Netflix LNB...control off the smart phone (aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh) etc etc stuff...but we wanted it so we could have the same functionality as the Sky+ box to pause, rewind, record etc. That way whoever is watching which TV can't complain they haven't got the same gadgets. Also if freesat works out to be sufficient for us we can kick Sky into touch......oh yes..... :-)

Cheers for the info guys...I'll report back once Mr TV fitter has been on Monday.

[RogerC]

Right....aerial guys came today. Cables run from sat dish to dining room.....Humax box connected...tv connected. Basic set up run, Humax connected to internet OK......tv good. Humax box does it's channel changing thing from remote control inputs BUT then, a couple of minutes later it starts searching up and down the channel list on it's own like a demented sheepdog searching searching searching and we can't stop it. Humax turned off, aerial guys thnik it 'might' be stuck button/switch so we try again. All fine for 5 minutes then off it goes again....anyway long story short, we went out for a couple of hours and on return tried again. Still getting undemanded searches so called Richer sounds and new box to be collected on Friday.

Now for setting up the TV 'smart' thingy connecting to the internet. As already said Humax connected fine but will the TV connect......will it feck. The only thing I can think of is the wi fi signal from the Sky router is so bloody weak that the TV can't get hold of it 'despite' when it searches it finds the Sky router. Whatever the reason I'm pi55ed off with it all now so have escaped to the workshop. Aaaarrrrggggghhh bloody teknology...........

[Kingy]

(10-26-2015, 06:56 PM)RogerC Wrote: called Richer sounds and new box to be collected on Friday.

Now for setting up the TV 'smart' thingy connecting to the internet.  As already said Humax connected fine but will the TV connect......will it feck.  The only thing I can think of is the wi fi signal from the Sky router is so bloody weak that the TV can't get hold of it 'despite' when it searches it finds the Sky router.  Whatever the reason I'm pi55ed off with it all now so have escaped to the workshop.  Aaaarrrrggggghhh bloody teknology...........

Humax box should be fixed with a replacement. Sounds like you are just unlucky and have one with a fault. 

If it might be wifi not strong enough which is the issue with the TV connecting then can you hard wire the internet straight to the tv? That would give the best quality internet connection. 
If your router is in another room there are two options. 

1) A long ethernet cable from your router to your tv. Cheapest option, but not always possible because of the cable routing required. 

2) Homeplugs. 
Buy a pair (£20 to £40 a pair depending on what spec you require*). 
Plug one in where the router is. Use the ethernet cable provided to go from the router to the homeplug. 
Then, plug the second homeplug into a socket close to the TV. 
Use the second ethernet cable to connect the homeplug to the tv. 
You now have wired internet direct from your router to the tv. The homeplugs use your electrical wiring to connect. Clever and works very well. I use them at home and have fitted them in family houses when putting boxes in for them. 

*Basic homeplugs are like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-PA411KIT...=homeplugs

Or, if you want AC passthough (so they can be 'plugged into' saving a socket, then : http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-PA402...=homeplugs

The second ^^ one has two 'LAN' ports, so could supply to two seperate pieces of equipment. Eg. TV and Humax. If you only wanted a single LAN port the homeplugs are a fiver cheaper at £32.93 for a pair.

[RogerC]

Ok report back time......been away doing some Uni work and got back yesterday. Spoke to Richer Sounds in bath....nice guys...listened to my tale of woe and pi55edoffedness and arranged my return to the shop with Humax box and TV. Got there this morning, got the Humax checked out...it's fecked. Got the telly checked.....internet connection no problem. What I can't understand is at home it finds the Sky router then asks for a password which we enter then it comes back with 'internet disconnected'. Now this is weird because the Humax box connected without any hesitation. So the TV finds the router then after it gets the password says 'disconnected'. Anyway we decided as the Humax is internet connected we will live with things as they are fo now and if we decide we need the TV internet connected we will try the Homeplugs Kingy suggested. I did consider getting them today but decided to wait and see how the 'reinstall' went.

So we have TV...nice picture, sound OK...not great but OK. Oh and 'sound'...volume. It's weird. If on standard channel (non HD) the sound is adjusted by the Humax remote. If we switch over to a HD channel the volume is only adjustable by the TV remote but needs the volume shown by the Humax box to be about mid strength. It's weird but we can live with it. I did look at doing the multi control thing with the Humax remote but gave up as there's loads of codes for the Samsung TV and I couldn't be bothered to work through until one worked.

So we got TV, we got Humax box internet connection and we got freesat with a few apps/iplayer type stuff...............enuff for now so all's well. If we decide we do 'need' the TV to be interwebby connected I'll give the eliktrikery thingy suggested a try.....

Thanks for the info and help along the way guys.......

[croweman]

Glad you got sorted Rog, check out the mature section for advice on apps if you want to go down that road.

[Kingy]

Glad you have pretty much got there in the end Rog.
Once you have caught your breath, as Martin has suggested - Apps are the way forward as that is where the 'smart' element comes into its won. (The TV, not you mate! )