TV Suggestions

Greetings everyone!

Cant think of a better place to post this. Looking to replace our living room TV with a new TV and so looking for recommendations. Its been 10 years since we've purchased a new TV and so a lot has changed. We currently have a Panasonic TH-42PZ700U 42" Plasma that we will be replacing. Looking for recommendations on type and then features and $500-$1,000 range and then over $1,000 range.

Thanks ahead of time!

Also if anyone knows of another forum that might help please let me know!

Thanks!

Just so we know how to answer this question. What does this have to do with your HA considerations or Indigo setup?

My current setup does little with the TV aside from my Apple TV. I have a Onkyo Receiver connected to Indigo but not much else in the way of TV.
Curious whats out there in the way of TV and HA.

I'd be interested in the responses to this question as well. Basically I'd like to know how to identify TV's that can be controlled (on, off, volume, channel) via network (not IR) commands which can be sent from Indigo. That way I can create an action "TV Viewing" that would adjust lights, turn on the set, draw the blinds, etc).

You can always get a iTach device and control all of your infrared stuff via Indigo regardless of make or model. I use several of these and the Cynical Cache plugin to send IR to my various devices. There are also plugins for Samsung and Onkyo.

If it were me I would just simply buy the best of what I wanted rather than try to tailor that to what Indigo supports since IR is IR and the very worst case scenario is that you get an inexpensive iTach device to handle it for you.

I also use Apple TV 4's throughout the house and it's actually made this process much easier since the ATV4 does most of the heavy lifting in this regard, but I still use the iTachs to do miscellaneous infrared tasks with my unsupported IR devices.

Several TVs out today can be *mostly* controlled from the network. I've been holding out on buying a couple of news ones because I haven't found any current-gen model that support everything you ca do with IR, for instance - most will allow you to change channel, volume, inputs, and even turn the TV OFF- but few will allow you to turn the TV *ON* via TCP, a pretty boneheaded move IMO. Sometimes you can get around that by turning on the TV through HDMI-CEC (turning on your HDMI-connected receiver, or set-top box will turn on the TV also, if HDMI-CEC is supported by both devices).

I think Panasonic MAY support all TCP instructions, and possibly some Sonys. Sharp used to, but they were bought last year by some other company and recent models I've bought at work do not


Terry.

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, I'm aware of the iTach devices. I would just prefer to do it over a network connection if I'm buying a new TV anyway rather than having to buy and integrate yet another device into Indigo.

What I'm hearing so far is that network control of even the latest TV's still isn't quite ready for prime time.

I would also recommend reaching out to a local integrator if one is available. There are some models available to the custom channel that aren't available direct to the public or from the big box stores (that sport different firmware which may allow for greater control).

Personally, I would also shy away from so-called "Smart TVs". In my experience, these TVs tend to be orphaned pretty quickly by the manufacturers and the smart part becomes out of date. My preference would be to spend my money on screen quality and then do the smart part with Roku (or whatever). Then, in a few years, I can easily drop $100 on a new Roku rather than live with an out-of-date display. We have several smart TVs and we never use the smart part anymore.

My holy grail is a dumb display with full IP control and no bells and whistles.

Personally, I would also shy away from so-called "Smart TVs". In my experience, these TVs tend to be orphaned pretty quickly by the manufacturers and the smart part becomes out of date.

+10

I've written integrations into my Samsung smart TV thinking "oh yea, I'll use Plex here instead of on my Roku (or now Apple TV)" only to find that not only has the entire Samsung plugin library gotten quite stale but Plex has all but abandoned the plugin on Samsung because so few people use it, opting instead to focus on their Mac/PC client and Apple TV/Roku clients.

I have a sharp Aquos that I spent a veritable fortune on that was "smart TV" and Netflix is pretty worthless on it and they stopped updating it a long time ago so it doesn't even work now.

I'd get a dumb TV and a smart HDMI appliance instead - and there are lots of plugins that support that.

Now I get that you want to control on/off/volume, etc but as already stated for some stupid reason they tend to leave these core things out of the TCP stacks they put in.

I think the "Smart TVs" running Android and possibly Roku are OK, since it's the same apps running on both the TVs and the streamer boxes. I have two Sony Android TVs, and the UI is pretty much the same as on my Android Nexus Player (connected to my projector). I'm very happy with both of them. We're about to buy a third one.

I have two Amazon Fire TV streamer boxes I'm not currently using, because I got them for PS Vue, and there's now an AndroidTV app for that. PS Vue was only on Fire TV and PS3/4 when it first came out.

The manufacturer specific systems (Samsung and LG specifically) are an issue because of the lack of updates on the apps.

Actually getting a high quality TV that isn't a "Smart TV" is hard to do. Just plan on also (eventually?) using an external streamer box.

HA aside, what about the different technologies available? When I last bought a TV Plasma was as good as it gets but they don't even make plasma anymore....

Pretty much all there is these days is LCD-LED and OLED. OLED is really expensive, but will eventually be the standard if they can get the price down. I don't think OLED needs a backlighting system, which is where the differentiation in LCD-LED systems are. Full backlight vs zoned backlight vs edge lighting.

FWIW, I have full control over both my Sony and Sharp televisions, thought they are a couple of years old now. The easiest way to determine their capabilities is often to look what others say about that model in the iPad control interfaces applications (they have sections for IP control). As far as I can tell (which is, granted, a small sample set), the various Sony models have been the most consistent in supporting the full feature set via IP commands.

Adam

The panasonic tvs that i have (4) appear to have full control apart from "on" from python. The code is on github, I just need to learn python to put it into a plugin (and open port 1900 is shared mode). "on" doest work, but i just use a plugin module anyway, as it avoids them sitting on standby most of the time.

The "smart" element seems to get updated now and again, and the oldest (three years) is still fully functional on netflix etc.

[jay (support)]

You might want to check out the htguys podcasts/site - they are very much into this sort of thing.

[MODERATOR NOTE] moved to a more general forum.