Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals

[Adam H]

Samsung Smart TVs seem to work flawlessly with my ecosystem. The DLNA works and Plex works, which solves 99% of the network issues. The USB port on these can both record and playback, which makes it a kind of hybrid freeview recorder.

The big draw in this instance is that my mother was 64 this year (on 24th) and trying to teach her to use android has been like trying to get details out of invincible. Teaching her to use a laptop, has been 100x worse. She's never worked a job which has needed a computer so its all alien to her. The fact it works flawlessly in my ecosystem along with the ease of use made it a no brainer.

I guess a smart TV is just a less complicated version of chrome cast. Anything more complicated, I have a laptop for, I personally can't see why I would need chromecast or roku, I have a smart tv which can access both dlna and plex and I have a laptop which can wireless beam to the tv, where does chrome cast fit in ?

Brought a 42" and 24" LG LED Smart Tv's today and have to admit the streaming and connection to every other device in the house is pretty impressive, stick some films , home video , pictures etc into a shared folder or my network harddrive and its flawless.

Bit stumped by LG's explanation of the playing of DivX though, tells you to register it using the device reg number ( which the TV provides) but when you register the device on divX.com it asks you to download a media file and play it on the device you are registering.............which you cant because its an unsupported file type.

It seems that both the tv is setup to support it , but i just havent figured it out yet.

Downloaded an App for the iphone called ZappoTV which is quite good for streaming phone photo's to the TV , videos and Audio. Costs 2.99 but cant find an app thats better yet.

 

[diablo]

I really am getting old. I don't understand what half this thread is about, but really wish I did! I'm like Skinner's Mum.

I'm planning the best way to get TV in a new house to a lounge, kitchen, and three or four bedrooms. All have aerial sockets, but there is currently only a standard aerial at the house (although I can add a dish).

I currently have Sky and Amazon Prime.

Don't know whether to get satellite TV (no cable) in the new house and / or Amazon Fire TV (sticks when they come to UK) or to get Now TV (or something else that means I pay for what I want to watch instead of paying a fortune to Sky every month) and use broadband instead of a dish.

Can anyone recommend a "best practice guide" website that I could look at to see the best way of getting the most choice of viewing to each room at lowest cost and with minimum set top boxes, etc., cluttering each room?

 

[murph]

All I know is it was a pain in the **** to get anywhere, traffic was crazy all day!

 

[chrisduggan]

ViewSonic TD2740 27

 

[accelerator]

Can anyone recommend a "best practice guide" website that I could look at to see the best way of getting the most choice of viewing to each room at lowest cost and with minimum set top boxes, etc., cluttering each room?

Try:

https://www.avforums.com

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/

Rgds

 

[denchomsky]

Got a 16gb iPad air 1 from John Lewis for £289, not a massive reduction but you get 2 years Warranty at JL.

Also got the Amazon Fire 7 HDX 32gb for £129 for one of the kids christmas present, £100 off. compared to the competition it has a far superior spec than any other tablet at that price.

 

[Skinner]

I'd say NetFlix or similar is a must. As I understand it, netflix can stream to 4 devices simultaneously, so assuming you won't have lounge, kitchen, and all bedrooms at once, it makes it about £2 per stream per month.

As you currently have sky, you could switch to freesat (unsure what is and isn't included).

You could achieve this with just a smart freesat tv, no boxes, no clutter, and minimum cost.

Along with the smart tv's functionality, you would get DLNA and potentially plex to stream from the home network. Assuming you had say a synology play nas device, which had perhaps family movies or other movies on it, and perhaps your itunes account for the family you would be able to stream these movies, and music to ALL the smart tv's on the network. Expanding your choice even further.

I don't use netflix nor sat, so not 100% sure what you would be missing or not missing, but I'd prob start with the above.

Just for reference, my mum picked up using her youview box with ease, and just about navigates plex, so should be easy.

I really am getting old. I don't understand what half this thread is about, but really wish I did! I'm like Skinner's Mum.

Can anyone recommend a "best practice guide" website that I could look at to see the best way of getting the most choice of viewing to each room at lowest cost and with minimum set top boxes, etc., cluttering each room?

 

[diablo]

Thanks accelerator and Skinner - will take a good look.

I do have Sky at the moment, but new house doesn't have a dish (yet anyway). So could change to Freesat easily enough. Not sure if the Smart TVs I have have Freesat or just Freview, but may upgrade anyway as one of them in six years old and could go in a bedroom.

Sky Go on a USB stick would be a good idea and am waiting for Kindle Fire sticks to come to UK for Amazon Prime.

It's an opportunity to start from scratch really so want the best set up I can get from the off rather than having to change it later.

I'm still getting used to catch-up TV instead of recording everything!

 

[Skinner]

Couple of SSDs

240GB Intel 730 at £94
http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=109102

480GB Intel 730s £164 at Scan.co.uk
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/480g...ite-450mb-s-86000-iops-retail?ProductId=94998

 

[chrisduggan]

If anyone comes across a good compact camera I may be tempted.

Samsung WB350F

I made the mistake of walking down Oxford street this evening to John Lewis, utter chaos. I could not get near the cameras, or much else. Silly idea, that was.

 

[diablo]

Not many TV's come with Freesat built in but almost all come with Freeview (or Freeview HD) support. Sat-iP, with something like this could be a solution. Allows for centralised recording. I am not aware of the ability to get Sky Go on TV dongle style devices. Is your house wired everywhere for Ethernet or, alternatively, do you have very strong WiFi signal coverage everywhere including the peripheries? A couple of £10 NowTV boxes will give any TV with HDMI all of the terrestrial channel catch up services. They're WiFi only. I'm not going down the Smart TV route at the moment because although trying to have everything in one device is a nice idea they pale in comparison to what add on devices can do. Far better to try to hide an Apple TV/FireTV/Roku/ChromeCast combination around the back or near by each flat screen TV you have because IMHO the ability of even the latest Smart TV's will date very, very quickly.

Eyetv looks amazing. I feel like I've been living under a rock for the past decade and all this new stuff has hit the shops

One of the requirements is: 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (802.11n for Wi-Fi). What does that actually mean for me?

A combination of Freesat with Now TV / Amazon Prime could be the way forward for me. Gets me away from Sky subscriptions (I know Now TV is part of Sky, but it's a monthly payment thing so I'm not paying for Sky when I'm out of the country). And Now TV I can get via USB sticks ~(hopefully Amazon Prime soon too) so no need for extra boxes.

So many options!

 

[stellar73]

My only Black Friday purchase was an Amazon deal on this bluetooth speaker for £22.99.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Jukebar-Wireless-Speaker-Bluetooth/dp/B00CJQGN2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417420311&sr=8-1&keywords=trust+jukebar

It was a bit of an impulse buy and I was immediately annoyed at myself but I'm not now - the quality is insanely good, I cant believe just how good in fact. It's probably going to replace both my existing ipod dock and Creative Zen desktop speakers as its better than both of them, despite being tiny.

It's £27.99 now in black but you can get a red version for £25 - well worth it if you're looking for something like this.

 

[ChrisMM]

Picked up a pair of these for £32.50 incl delivery at 50% off.

http://m.reebok.co.uk/reebok-crossfit-lite-tr/M42786_580.html

Apart from that no other offers have really grabbed my attention - not for items that were already on my radar anyway.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[diablo]

I think Sky are exploring the idea of Sat-IP because ...

Many thanks for taking the time to post this information - really appreciated.

 

[accelerator]

My only Black Friday purchase was an Amazon deal on this bluetooth speaker for £22.99.

Thanks for this, that is a really good price for a Bluetooth speaker.

Rgds

 

[Skinner]

My prouducts started to arrive today.

Did anyone see the 65" 4k tv this morning ?

Lots of supplement and protein type sites are doing killer deals today. I £40 for 5kg of 82% protein is killer.

Zavvi has some good deals, boots has 1/3 off kids electronics.I just picked up a kidizoom smart watch for my sister's kid for £26.

 

[ChrisMM]

Lots of supplement and protein type sites are doing killer deals today. I £40 for 5kg of 82% protein is killer.

Where's that on mate?

 

[Skinner]

Its here http://t.co/npICRQDLwW. This could be an afflink, not sure as its straight from the email, some send ready built links some dont. So remember to use your own afflink or quidco or whatever if you buy

Unflavoured Pure Protein is £40 for 5kg.

The flavoured Chocolate Cookies pure protein at £49 for 5kg is awesome, it tastes exactly like when a maryland cookie breaks off in your drink and you get that mouthful of cookie goo at the end of your drink.

On the same 3 offer pages, I can recommend (and I use them) the complete protein coffee, no need to microwave just hot water>cup>powder>sweetener. I add in a half spoon of blue mountain with mine, 23g of protein in a cup of coffee. You can't beat that.

The complete fruits are a good product too, adds a little bit of sweetness to a dull shake. I use this in combination with myproteins complete greens, to top up my fruits and veg with each shake.

The highly branched cyclic dextrin is quite good for a prolonged energy source, and the medium chain trigycerides are good too. Both of these are relative new comers to the game.

Where's that on mate?

 

[nick-harper]

I have got the bulk powders unflavoured stuff at the minute, I only got it because I thought I could hide it in fruit smoothies and wouldn't notice. It really seems to take the flavour out of things as well as having no flavour.

I had some of the Bulk Powders green stuff also, had to hold my nose and down that and tried putting it in Omelettes but it went a bit funny.

Do you use a Nutribullet type thing for smoothies? How fruity are the fruits? I might get some for when I run out of actual fruit and don't fancy a flavourless smoothie!

 

[ChrisMM]

Its here http://t.co/npICRQDLwW. This could be an afflink, not sure as its straight from the email, some send ready built links some dont. So remember to use your own afflink or quidco or whatever if you buy

Unflavoured Pure Protein is £40 for 5kg.

The flavoured Chocolate Cookies pure protein at £49 for 5kg is awesome, it tastes exactly like when a maryland cookie breaks off in your drink and you get that mouthful of cookie goo at the end of your drink.

On the same 3 offer pages, I can recommend (and I use them) the complete protein coffee, no need to microwave just hot water>cup>powder>sweetener. I add in a half spoon of blue mountain with mine, 23g of protein in a cup of coffee. You can't beat that.

The complete fruits are a good product too, adds a little bit of sweetness to a dull shake. I use this in combination with myproteins complete greens, to top up my fruits and veg with each shake.

The highly branched cyclic dextrin is quite good for a prolonged energy source, and the medium chain trigycerides are good too. Both of these are relative new comers to the game.

Great info mate, im all over this!

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk