Samsung Smart TV <?>

Dolby

Dolby

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I bought a Samsung BD-5500 (or something) a while ago in order to use Plex and my library of movies and music. After getting it, I didn't actually like it (slow, laggy, etc) and ended up buying a HP Microserver anyhow - which I love!

I was curious and popped to a Samsung store today and notice marketing 'Dual Core' etc and was wondering what the latest Smart TV is actually like? Are decent? XBMC still superior I'm guessing?
 
I too saw the dual core blah blah :-) but I think one has to question how much of the 'smart' functionality one actually uses. I for one couldn't wait to get me hands on a smart TV and have barely used it.

Having said that, the new models do look brilliant with the narrow bezel.
 
The apple TV's and rokus still do it better

If you can save 2k and buy a non smart tv you can get a apple tv for 1k.
 
Apple TV? *shudder* ;)

Nah - more than happy with XBMC. I was curious whether the Smart had got better in the later models compared to the E.

Surely getting a cheaper TV without Smart, you lose other features as well? The difference between a 5 Series and 6 Series is more than the Smart?
 
Dolby said:
Apple TV? *shudder* ;)

Nah - more than happy with XBMC. I was curious whether the Smart had got better in the later models compared to the E.

Surely getting a cheaper TV without Smart, you lose other features as well? The difference between a 5 Series and 6 Series is more than the Smart?
Click to expand...

I also said roku, there's an app called plexconnect works just like plex on the apple tv.
 
I like it, currently using Plex on my server and the TV. Is a crap load better than the XBMC HTPC setup I had. Also I have no problems with the Hulu or Netflex apps on it.
 
What everyone should do:

1. Get a plasma, as big as you can afford. Don't go for "smart" features, go for size. buy samsung.
2. Buy a PC to use as your media centre. Sure it's not as compact but you can fit a lot of drives in and upgrade as you want with any 3D Card/CPU/etc. (Don't buy a HP PL MS).
3. Add your drives, and install XBMC. Hide PC in you wall unit or stand cupboard. Put IR-remote dongle on the outside. (Now you've got something even smaller than an Apple TV on the outside)

Why Plasma?
- Your SD content will look better, and full HD stuff, you won't notice a difference unless you 2cm away from the screen.
- Glass is easier to clean than LCD, which do get dirty and LCD can indeed get scratches easily.
- Deeper blacks.
- Don't worry about Full-HD, or LCD, or LED even, go Plasma. forget about "smart features" as your XBMC will be doing that job a lot better. this saves you money to get the bigger screen.

Why a PC?
- Lots of storage space. Sure 1080p will work via network cable/wifi, but it's just better to have it on the device itself.
- Use the PC as your media storage unit. now you don't need an expensive mobo that can handle 8 drives as you can have 4 in that PC and 4 in your own PC.
- You can add SB/CP/SAB onto it, to download stuff - not all "prebuilt streamer/media boxes" can do this. Connect via cable/wifi so everything is accessible on your Home PC as well.
- a PC is cheap. prebuilt media boxes that can run XBMC is usually expensive, and have maybe 1 HDD slot. cheaper devices won't run XBMC and you're stuck with a crappy GUI and limited firmware upgrades.


Hope this helps someone out there.
 
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... the plasma part is optional ;) You've seen the debates here - seems to really depend on the individual.

Anyway - just though they'd made some progress on speeds and functionality with the extra marketing they seem to be doing, dual core etc
 
Dolby said:
I bought a Samsung BD-5500 (or something) a while ago in order to use Plex and my library of movies and music. After getting it, I didn't actually like it (slow, laggy, etc) and ended up buying a HP Microserver anyhow - which I love!

I was curious and popped to a Samsung store today and notice marketing 'Dual Core' etc and was wondering what the latest Smart TV is actually like? Are decent? XBMC still superior I'm guessing?
Click to expand...
A PC will always have more processing power and sw flexibility than an embedded device like a SmartTV. But at the end of the day all that capability is used for one thing, presenting a metadata rich navigation UI, it doesn't really do anything for the content itself.

So if you like to keep content, with an aim of building a large well annotated library, then it has value. Alternatively if you're like me, who you just stores content temporarily to watch/listen to in the near term, the embedded DLNA media players in SmartTVs (& streaming apps e.g. Netflix) do the job well, fast and hassle free. No additional boxes, wires, remotes, noise or any other rigmarole.

That said, when I did use Plex on my single core 2011/2012 SmartTVs, I certainly didnt find it slow. I suspect they do have more power CPUs than the same age BD players.
 
The only thing I use there smarttv feature for is the plex client. No issues with lag once you're in but it takes a minute to start up, connect etc.
 
I use the plex client on my tv all the time. Other than the odd crash about once a week it works perfectly, starts in a couple of seconds and streams everything except 3d media perfectly. I also use the tv for the news apps like bbc and news24, as well as Netflix, tho the interface on the tv app is not as nice as on the Apple TV. I have yet to try the Hulu app tho I have heard that it works perfectly too.

Having a htpc is nice, but it just doesn't do the job for me. Transferring the media from my media server onto the htpc was a schlep and streaming media from another machine to xbmc was not as simple as I expected it to be. There where always conflicts in the libraries, or the htpc's library wasn't updated because the machine was off. That's besides the loud fan noise and the annoying blue light on the hp micro server.

Plex works. The library is always updated and if it could stream 3d properly then I would not need any other device other than my sound connected to my tv.
 
Madman88 said:
Plex works. The library is always updated and if it could stream 3d properly then I would not need any other device other than my sound connected to my tv.
Click to expand...
Plex should have no problem with (SBS/TAB) 3D, at least on Samsung SmartTVs.
 
I got me the Samsung UA55ES8000 and running plex on it. Started off using wifi but had stuttering with 1080p and 3D streaming. Everything was stored on my laptop in my study running the server. I laid some Cat6 cabling and that sorted out all my stuttering problems. Even 3D BD rips streams come through perfectly. Plex was just so much easier and simpler to setup for me.

Current setup

2 x WD My Book Live 3tb hooked up to a 16 port unmannaged gigabit switch. All media are stored on these.
HP laptop running plex server connected to switch
Samsung tv (Plex Client) connect to switch
Samsung BD player (Plex Client) connected to switch and LG non smart scarlet LCD TV
Plex clients on Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Flyer Tablet and compaq laptop.
All devices connected to the switch are with cat6 cabling. Bet thing I could have done and not as dificult as I thought it might be.

The main reason why I went with Plex was it was simple to setup. Basically just plug and play. The gigabit switch was mainly there for my IP cameras. If my space runs low I can simply plug in another WD My Book Live into the switch, map a network drive on my laptop and add the new location to Plex to scan.

I haven't tried XBMC so can't comment on it but I needed something that could simply install and run with minimal tweaking from my side to get it to do what I needed it to
 
Madman88 said:
Plex works. The library is always updated and if it could stream 3d properly then I would not need any other device other than my sound connected to my tv.
Click to expand...

3D streaming will not work when connected via wifi. The only I got this working was when I upgraded my network to a gigabit line with Cat6 cabling running throughout the house.
 
Roman4604 said:
Plex should have no problem with (SBS/TAB) 3D, at least on Samsung SmartTVs.
Click to expand...

It does. It wouldn't stream on the e8000 I had and it doesn't on the f8000 I have now, tho the plex app is much better on the f8000. Basically all my media is sbs.
 
signates said:
3D streaming will not work when connected via wifi. The only I got this working was when I upgraded my network to a gigabit line with Cat6 cabling running throughout the house.
Click to expand...

I'm running cat5. I can't see it being a big difference, besides the nic in the TV is not gigabit according to Samsung themselves.
 
Madman88 said:
It does. It wouldn't stream on the e8000 I had and it doesn't on the f8000 I have now, tho the plex app is much better on the f8000. Basically all my media is sbs.
Click to expand...
And you've added H-SBS within all the filenames? Worked for me on my E550 & D6000.
 
Roman4604 said:
And you've added H-SBS within all the filenames? Worked for me on my E550 & D6000.
Click to expand...

In the actual file name of the movie? Ie: Some.movie.H-SBS.mkv?

Most have just SBS in the file name, not H-SBS.

I'll give it a go and see.
 
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