I am happy to have won a Toshiba 50L4300UC, a 50 inch LED smart TV.
I was never a TV guy and will never get cable. Besides, winning a prize shouldn’t cost you a monthly cable fee should it?
This TV is internet ready and yes I have the internet.
Here are some important questions that I need answers to.
Does anyone know where I can get a manual? It didn’t come with one.
I watch a lot of streamed sports and would especially like to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs from a CBC.ca feed. Why does that not work on this TV. Do I need a player? Can I download one to the TV?
Can I connect a mouse to the TV so I don’t have to use the stupid scroll keys on the remote? How do I do this?
Congratulations! Now you won’t have to waste your time watching TV any more. It will watch it for you (though you may find it is reluctant to watch Fox).
The “C” or whatever is usually a slightly different model adapted for another country’s specifications (here in Aus it’s usually an “A”, so presumably the “C” is for Canada).
The smart part of the TV is usually streaming video from online. Is your TV connected to your Wifi? I don’t have Wifi, I connect mine directly to my modem with a network cable.
Smart TVs, IME, are generally criticized for the fact that no one uses the added webcam and social media features. Sure, they seem cool, but who the hell wants to use Facebook on a TV?
If there’s no native way to browse the Internet to a CBC feed, your best bet is a cheap laptop, and an HDMI cord. But then you don’t need a smart TV for that.
I’ve found “smart” TVs are like “smart” phones without the added benefit of a browser. You need apps for everything. If your TV manufacturer doesn’t have an app for it, you’re SOL.
The TV is pre-programmed with where to go online to find the manufacturer’s apps. You can watch YouTube, but you need to download and install the YouTube app from your TV manufacturer. Then you have to launch the YouTub app to actually watch it. When you go back to regular TV or a DVD or something, the app closes and you have to re-launch it to watch YouTube again. Same for Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, etc…
Most TV manufacturers try to have the more popular apps like Netflix and Hulu and such available to attract customers. They tend to assume that you have some other way of watching broadcast networks, either OTA, cable or satellite.
There isn’t much to bridge the gap except a laptop with an HDMI output or Chromecast (I’m assuming you have Chromecast available in Canada - but you know what they say about assumptions*). Chromecast is only about $35 here in the U.S. Since the TV was free, it is not a wholly exorbitant amount to spend, especially if you compare it just one month of cable or satellite bills.
Agreed. I have this Sony smart HDTV and I haven’t even plugged in the ethernet cable, nor am I likely to. I have it hooked up to my home theater system which links it to my HTPC, roku, bluray, DVD, DVR, cable, etc. If I want to watch something on Amazon (fuck Huluggie and Netfux), I’ll use the ancient Roku player which, though it was their first model, still works perfectly.
See those HDMI ports on the back? You can connect any recent (last 5 years) desktop computer, and many laptops, directly to those ports. It’s pin compatible with DVI, so if your computer uses either, you can plug it right in.
Sometimes there are settings you need to adjust to avoid overscan and other issues, check the manual and on-screen menus of the TV.
That’s what you should use it for (or sell it), it can be quite practical to browse the internet/play games/work on projects on a 50 inch display.
And to be honest, even the newest sets seem to be designed to be used with a home theater receiver since they don’t have that many HDMI ports. My old Sony which was a projection SXRD set only had 2 HDMI inputs and so does the new one. But I have about 6 devices I need to connect. Granted not all use HDMI but almost all do and were it not for the Yamaha receiver doing the heavy lifting, I’d shoot myself rather than swap cables or have to deal with a switch box.
The other nice thing about using a receiver is the fact that you can forget about ever having to use a sound card for you PC as long as your viewing things on the HDTV through the receiver. You’ll need to tell the computer which playback device to look at, but apart from that, you can get pure digital sound from the video card over the HDMI cable. Plus any decent receiver will allow you simulate 7.1 channel sound from plain old stereo.
The only downside with a home theater that I’ve found is that you often find yourself having to use multiple remote controls. But that’s only because I’m too lazy and cheap to try to find a decent universal remote and program it so I end up using the tv’s built-in speakers most of the time just for the convenience. But someday . . .
Yup. And there’s rumours I’ve read through privacy law journals that they can be hacked from online. Some evil shadowy nerd could spy on you in your living room…
If you have wireless Internet, you can browse it. You could sign up for something like Netflix, but if you don’t want to pay, your Internet can take you to abc.com, etc.
You’ll need a new antenna, but, as a bonus, broadcast station all have subchannels that show other things. MeTV had a lot of great old TV shows, for instance.
There will also be some other free viewing options as well as Pay-per-view.
You don’t need wireless internet. You can run an ethernet cable right to the TV. More reliable this way. You can do ethernet->computer->TV or do ethernet->tv interface box->TV, with other computers on the same LAN acting as fileservers.
A lot of people hate wires, which I can sort of understand. Personally, I don’t like the potentially security vulnerabilties since you know there is virtually no protection for them - like that UPnP problem last year. I can’t remember if that also turned out to be a gateway issue as well, but it’s not the sort of thing I would want to chance. I would rather have everything have to go through my VPN and then the multiple layers of security on my PC and/or browser.
I’m not even using a wireless router any more as my primary. I’ve gone to a dedicated hardwired router and plan to hang either another router or some sort of wireless gateway/access point off of that. I’ll probably end up committing seppuku first, but hey, no guts, no glory. OK, maybe not the bet choice of aphorisms there.
Plug the network cable in, go into setup, configure the network, test the network using web browser. And with the internet, firmware update (in advanced settings, or “about tv” or somewhere…) may bring in a more capable firmware.
Did you get free to air tv working ?
It can play what it can play… Unless a firmware update solves it, or there are applets to download ?
I was using a smart tv that could detect the presence of a NAS on the network and provide various indexes into the videos on that NAS. (home library of videos… all legal …well no one died in the collecting of them and thats all I am saying )
Mouse and keyboard ? you’d think that would be a smart feature.
Perhaps toshiba sell more tv’s if people buy a new tv when the remote control is worn out…
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