To TV or not to TV?

Maybe - he read a LOT of reviews and this one, Boulanger’s own, got good reviews.

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Note that your UK Firestick probably will not work in France without using a VPN (or similar) service which makes it look like you are back in the UK as far as the internet is concerned.

Always a slightly tricky question to answer. A > 10 year old plasma screen will be bulky and power hungry compared to a modern set and will be likely to have suffered image degradation even if you haven’t noticed it.

New TVs are generally cheaper in the UK and if you buy a “smart” TV it will have the UK apps on it (but see the point about the Firestick not working without a VPN, that applies to the TV as well).

A UK TV will receive French broadcast TV without any problems but the EPG might not be understood so you won’t necessarily get the standard channel mappings 1 = TF1 etc

If you take a UK TV over and it goes on the blink (not so likely with modern stuff, but possible) it might be difficult to make a warranty claim.

Finally, if you actually want French “smart” apps on the TV you will need to buy one in France.

Out of interest, what model is your old plasma set?

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Your fire stick will work but only for French versions of the Apps. You’ll need a vpn to get all your UK content. If you have also bought digital media (films, programmes, etc), make sure you keep the fire stick linked to your UK account or you’ll lose access.

No need to buy a “smart TV” as the Firestick turns a “dumb” TV into a “smart” one. Also the apps on the Firestick are probably updated more regularly than they are for a smart TV.

I’m with Mr PJ on the soundbar. I find it hard to hear people talking clearly using the inbuilt speakers. Having a soundbar (or the 2.1 speakers we’ve got) makes a huge difference for me as the speakers are better quality and are forward-facing instead of pointing towards the wall behind the telly.

As usual, almost everything in this thread has gone right over the top of my definitely non-techie head. For instance what is a plasma tv?, what is a Sky Glass?, what is a Firestick (apart from the 1 metre long white plastic wrapped with a red top that was one of my Twin Firestick CB antennae, only usable on a lorry as cars aren’t wide enough)?, and much more.

Please don’t answer those questions, they are rhetorical, but what I am interested in is this, to me mythical, Soundbar. I have great difficulty in separating voices on TV so it has set me thinking. That is a question I would appreciate an answer to. :wink: :grinning:

Bit of kit that sits in front of the tv to give better quality sound.

https://www.amazon.fr/Samsung-Soundbar-HW-Q600A-ZF/dp/B091Q78F49/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?crid=2E352VW659WUT&keywords=soundbar&qid=1652080816&sprefix=%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-11

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Most have bluetooth capability so you can play music via your phone/tablet etc when not being used for tv.

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Worth trimming the cruft from Amazon URLs

https://www.amazon.fr/Samsung-Soundbar-HW-Q600A-ZF/dp/B091Q78F49

Is all that you need.

Yes, a sound-bar can help make the dialogue clearer, not only because the speakers can fire the sound forward to the viewer but also many TVs do a poor job of downmixing the surround sound channels to two stereo channels and don’t give enough prominence to the central speaker channel through which most of the dialogue is presented. Feeding the soundbar via HDMI or Bluetooth means it gets all the sound channels and can do a better mix.

Oh - I know David said not to translate but…

Plasma TV = old flat screen technology before LCD and LED
Firestick = Amazon widget that gives you Internet “smart” TV apps like iPlayer
Sky Glass = TV with built in Sky TV decoder.

Soundbar - what @Corona said.

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If you want to use headphones with your new Smart TV, please, please buy one with a headphone socket.

Bluetooth headphones cause noticeable audio delay, especially when using streaming services such as Netflix (have been engaged in work-around for 3 different Smart TVs sans headphone socket so far).

Thank you, sounds just what I need, I think, but that price blew me away, almost €300. :astonished:
But then I saw another one at over €800. :astonished: :astonished:
Even more bizarre is the one which is only €50 odd. :rofl:

The TV I have is flat screen and quite large, 2nd hand from a friend for €25. It works quite well but is temperamental and I am not sure it would work with a soundbar so probably best to stick with what I have.

@billybutcher now you mention it I do know what Sky Glass is because I have seen the advert and, along with the Firestick, do not feel the need. :slightly_smiling_face: I have no idea what category our large flatscreen or small flatscreen fall into, before them the last one we had a rounded screen and a great big ‘bustle’ behind. :rofl:

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If it was made before about 2010 and is 4" or more thick and weighs a ton, probably plasma.

If 2" thick or less, probably an LCD

If 2nd hand for 25€ from a friend, probably not OLED :slight_smile: (unless you have some very good friends).

These days we find the catch-up and on-line services (specifically Prime which is the only one I actually pay for) indespensible because there is naff all on otherwise.

Agreed. Our Samsung Smart TV (which often has a mind of its own) plays YouTube quite well and connects seamlessly with our Synology NAS where we have a number of .mp4 videos stored for our own selection of viewing.

And there was me thinking the question was about ditching televison or not. :stuck_out_tongue:

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The big one (€25) is just under 4" and was given to us by a friend who didn’t want it, she only suggested money when we pressed her to.
The smaller one, bought here in France some years ago is 2.5 inches thick. It is more modern but is unused these days as it is much smaller.
We do not have a need for catchup. Very rarely if something is on too late that I don’t want to miss (the longer repeat of HYGNFY where the subtitles actually sync with the speech (I can’t follow the original with people talking at the same time)), I switch from Manhattan to Humax and set it to record. Only problem is that the TV seems to object to being switched off when everything else is running and throws a hissy fit in the morning in refusing to switch on. :roll_eyes: I now have the answer, kindly provided on here, take the batteries out of the remote, press 0 and OK at the same time for a few seconds then try again with batteries replaced. No idea why but it seems to placate the delicate soul. :rofl:

The only reason I can think of that might explain why that works is that the battery contacts are unreliable, and the act of removing & replacing them makes the contact again for a while.

The Humax remotes have a Multi-Code function where they can control other AV devices such as TVs. The problem is that implementation of this feature is a bit sketchy and the Humax remotes can forget which IR code they should be using to control the Humax box itself.

Batteries out > 0 + OK > Batteries in : issue cleared

Ah, that explains why taking the batteries out and re-inserting them might help.

Not sure what the 0+OK business is about - unless, it makes the remote’s electronics wake up and try to light the IR LED, thus ensuring that any supply smoothing capacitors are discharged and a full reset occurs.

In which case any button should do.

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As you say, it’s to discharge all energy stored in the Humax remote’s circuitry to ensure a full reset.

Highly likely that other key combinations might achieve the same result, I just quoted the combination I found on the Humax forums that worked for me.

OK, there’s a lot of random stuff on the 'net though of people claiming such and such works with 0% idea why.

Most remote store the codes to allow fresh batteries to be put in without the need to add all the codes again, usually like Sky remotes etc need to have new batteries within 5-10 minutes. Must be some stored energy but if a simple button press would discharge it then a lot of people would have to re-code their remotes.