[BanziBarn]

Hi There

I'm thinking of going for a Samsung UE32D6510.

The main reasond I want the TV is to allow me access to on-demand TV over WIFI.

I know there is a app for I-player and I believe channel 5, but I can't find any information on 4od or ITV in demand.

PLease can someone tell me if these apps exist, and if not, will the TV's Web browser allow me to watch these services?

Thanks in advance!

[kyliesfanclub]

I took delivery of the 40 inch version of the same TV just a couple of days ago and I'm frustrated as hell,and quite disappointed.

I wanted it for exactly the same reasons as you, on demand viewing. The bbc i player works ok, but there's no app for any other channel. I didn't see this as a problem as like you I thought you could just pull up 4OD for example in the web browser and watch it that way, think again. First of all it will take you half an hour to get to the 4OD website, imagine the slowest computer you've ever used, and trying to type in an address through the remote is like texting (no problem) except there is a big delay after every function/letter you press. Press "4" wait a few seconds, press "O" wait a few seconds.....etc etc.

Then you finally get to the page and select your program, you press enter, the whole thing comes to a grinding halt, the status bar says "playing now" but you've got nothing. My first thought is that it's the internet connection, so I try it on my lap top and it works first time. I hope someone else reads this and can unlock the secret but at the moment this smart tv thing seems like the biggest gimmick going. Most of the apps available are useless silly games that people have on their mobiles. Tetrus etc...I bought the TV to watch TV, but it seems anything other than BBC on demand just isn't possible. The TV seems to have much more problems with internet connection than my computer ever does. Computer is a macbook.

So don't know what to say really, it looks great, and maybe I'm premature with my comments, but it's not looking good. I paid £736 on Amazon, John lewis is doing the same model in black (6530) for £1100 so shop around.

I'm hopeful that as updates and upgrades are available they will be free to download and hopefully the whole thing will get better, but as for now it seems poorly thought out and executed, and hard to navigate.

Good luck.

[BanziBarn]

Thanks very much for your reply! That's a very interesting read.

I'm now in two minds.

I may switch back to my old idea of getting a cheaper TV and an ASUS transformer tablet and connect that via HDMI.

Decisions decisions!

[cuke2u]

Hi, I doubt very much if samsung support the playing of od website based video, as this might require browser add ons to play correctly. Neither have they said that the apps would be available, and I'm not sure if it is a Channel 5 app. I guess it pays to research more thoroughly...
Chris

[kyliesfanclub]

I would have thought the add ons that it uses to play bbc iplayer programmes would be the same that it needed for any other on demand tv no?

I'm really not good with technology, and if I'm to be honest it was more the look of the thing that drew me to it, but having read about all the wonderful things it could do I find that my expectations went through the roof and that the reality wasn't as sensational.

The solution for on demand for other channels may be to play in on my lap top and connect it (via cable of course, because the all share doesn't work with Apple - it just gets better!). Does anyone use PC's these days? haha

I'm sure I'll figure it out a bit more, hope this makes sense, I'm dog tired and off to bed.

[Dogz]

I've posted a similar question i'm trying to watch thai tv streamed from a UK server.....i visited a shop with this model on display and attempted to log in to my wifes dootv server with my password & login and it failed to display anything, it just continually showed a sort of timer type icon. The assistant was inferring the shop had poor internet connection but the BBC I player streamed fine....
looking at the replies above i believe now that these smart tv's are incapable of displaying streamed content properly without an "app" of some sort. Furthermore it was a nightmare to type in the web address, log-in, password etc....took ages.
I would add it was the D7000 smart tv that i was trying it on

[kyliesfanclub]

Cheers Dogz, the 7000 is meant to be the beez knees so it's reassuring to know its a Samsung thing rather than just my model. I thought the same as the guy in the shop with regards to the internet connection, but I think you've hit it on the head, you need an app. So why no 4od app I wonder? I'm sure ch4 couldn't give a monkeys, the more you watch the better, as the more ads you watch! I'm hoping it's just a matter of time until more useful apps are added, and software upgrades are available. In the mean time it looks good, and after buying the £100 quid camera/mic the skype feature is good. Still need 3d glasses (none in box - nice) 3d blue ray player, and surround sound system. Those kids at Samsung ain't stupid.

[BanziBarn]

Can't remember the site now, but yesterday I found comments on another forum which said the guy went to John Lewis and saw 40d playing with no problems on the TV!

The mystery thickens!

Think I'm going to buy it anyway - at £600 it's an OK price for an LED with freeview HD and (at least) Iplayer.

I've also defo read about a channel 5 app - but you can't always believe what you read on the net!

[cuke2u]

Originally Posted by kyliesfanclub

I would have thought the add ons that it uses to play bbc iplayer programmes would be the same that it needed for any other on demand tv no?

I'm really not good with technology, and if I'm to be honest it was more the look of the thing that drew me to it, but having read about all the wonderful things it could do I find that my expectations went through the roof and that the reality wasn't as sensational.

The solution for on demand for other channels may be to play in on my lap top and connect it (via cable of course, because the all share doesn't work with Apple - it just gets better!). Does anyone use PC's these days? haha

I'm sure I'll figure it out a bit more, hope this makes sense, I'm dog tired and off to bed.

Hi, whether od browser based videos work or not is based apon the browser that samsung uses, if any. On my samsung the iplayer is a app coded into the firmware, so it's not the same. http://www.samsung.com/uk/tvapps/apps.html
Haha, Apple's are PC's with an expensive logo...
Chris

[BanziBarn]

Right - I've ordered it so I'll tell you tomorrow if these services work!

[cuke2u]

Hi, well having checked both my TV's I've got Demand 5 on my Sony but not on my Samsung. I found this http://www.samsung.com/us/pdf/apps-a...duct-table.pdf whilst looking for demand 5 on my samsung tv and this http://www.samsung.com/us/article/ap...lt-for-your-tv Oh and this little snippet of information http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...od-tie-up.html Can you see it says this "Under the agreement between Samsung and Richard Desmond's Channel 5, a dedicated Five On Demand application will become available on Samsung's connected TV sets." The word application is used not web browser based.

Chris

[kyliesfanclub]

Originally Posted by cuke2u

apples are PC's with an expensive logo...
Chris

No-one who has owned both ever says that!

We need a definitive Samsung Smart TV forum/website. An online community that can share all their tips, hints, discoveries with the rest of us technophobes (I refer to me only, well and maybe the chap that thinks PC's are as good as apples!)

[cuke2u]

Hi, of course PC's are a much better fruit :-)

[kyliesfanclub]

Chris, despite your dreadful taste in computers I'm really grateful for all that info. Really helps.

[kyliesfanclub]

That article says I'm meant to be able to get blinkbox, any ideas? Can't find it.

Slowly discovering stuff, and enjoying the tv more now. From all the stuff I read online the smart tv thing is in its infancy, and there's a lot of stuff coming. Hope so. And hope I haven't bought the smart tv equivalent of the laser disc.

[cuke2u]

Originally Posted by kyliesfanclub

Chris, despite your dreadful taste in computers I'm really grateful for all that info. Really helps.

LOL, you're most welcome, see all it took was a 'PC' man
Chris

[BanziBarn]

Got the TV.

I tired 4od, ITV player and Demand 5 on the web browser and non of them worked (although the advertising on Demand 5 worked)

Like has been said, the Browser is a pig to use though, very slow to enter addresses and difficult to navigate round the page.

[kyliesfanclub]

Newsflash!

Downloaded TVmobili for free and can now stream from my Mac to TV using allshare. I'm assuming somehow I'll be able to play the 4od etc on my Mac and view on my tv. Will keep you posted.

I think there's going to be a way to do everything, it's just about figuring it out. Any other hot tips post them here.

Liking my tv more every day.

[BanziBarn]

Originally Posted by kyliesfanclub

Newsflash!

Downloaded TVmobili for free and can now stream from my Mac to TV using allshare. I'm assuming somehow I'll be able to play the 4od etc on my Mac and view on my tv. Will keep you posted.

I think there's going to be a way to do everything, it's just about figuring it out. Any other hot tips post them here.

Liking my tv more every day.

Very interesting! Please update when you work out how to do this

[kyliesfanclub]

Think watching 4 od through tvmobili might have been a bit ambitious, but I can stream things from my mac so that's nice.

I bought a 16gb memory stick to plug in the back of the tv to record on. The TV said the device was incompatible. I searched high and low for information on what a compatible storage device would be but no luck. So called Samsung help line. First response, read the manual. Very helpful!!!! Now I'm sure mine didn't come with a manual!!!! but anyway, I was given the following spec which makes no sense to me but hopefully someone will be able to help.

Must be...

USB 2.0
4GB minimum size
Read speed 20 mb/s minimum
Write speed 34mb/s minimum
HD - 5400 RPM

No idea what all that means, so if anyone can enlighten me why the USB stick (Sony Global - MICROVAULT) doesn't work and what would I'd be grateful.

Technophobe alert!

[cuke2u]

Hi, because it isn't quick enough?
Chris

[BanziBarn]

I can record to a USB stick? Can you set it to record via the EPG?

[st3v13b0y84]

I read somehwere (think in the manual) that you cannot record to USB Stick, only to USB Hard drive, which is different. USB Sticks use flash memory, where as USB Hard Drives use a hard disk like in your PC/Mac.. You can pick them up really cheap nowadays, I got a 500GB Buffalo one for about £35-40 and it's great.

[Cryoman]

Kyliesfanclub - I'd be really interested in how you set TVMobili up to stream onto your Samsung TV - its driving me bonkers at the mo.
Of course, I'm a pc man so that might be the problem.....
Seriously though, I do agree that a forum for Smart Hubs would be a great idea, especially as its a fairly new thing and it seems a lot of people are having a lot of problems. I wonder how it would get set up.
Moderators - comments?

[st3v13b0y84]

Although this forum is aimed at developers, you may be able to get heard on here: Create with SAMSUNG D Forum

[Torscape]

Hi, does anyone know how you can check the signal strength for streaming skype/iplayer via upstairs rooter to downstairs tv, and whats the best rooter?

Thanks B

[jowie]

Originally Posted by kyliesfanclub

The solution for on demand for other channels may be to play in on my lap top and connect it (via cable of course, because the all share doesn't work with Apple - it just gets better!). Does anyone use PC's these days? haha

TVMOBiLi allows you to use Allshare on the Mac - A Free DLNA Media Server For Mac, Windows, and Linux

And to people moaning that the Samsung Smart TV doesn't have much video on-demand going for it... Have you seen the picture on these things? Buying a TV for its built-in apps is like buying a sports car just to drive to the shops... Or something what I mean is, the Smart TV is a way of luring you in and yes it is cool... WiFi on a TV is great for streaming content from other devices, and it's great that it has so many inputs... But the built-in software is a bit of fun, although iPlayer was a selling point for me. But seriously, if you want anything serious for on-demand TV, buy a separate set-top box such as Boxee, Apple TV or even a PS3.

Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, but for me the selling point of my Samsung was the *picture quality*

[gingin]

Hi all

I can confirm the Internet part is bad, I have the 3d app to show off the 3d but yet to see it.

Pic is great.

No good for the smart apps as they open when they feel like it,

B

[DickP]

I took delivery of a Samsung 6510 this week. I figured the web connectivity would be primitive and it certainly is, and I don't expect usable models to hit the market for a couple of years yet. God knows why TV development is so slow. Samsung puts Android on its phones, why not its TVs?
The apps are rubbish. The IPlayer app is passable but for some reason the response times and download times are much longer than my PC. I tried the 4od and itv players. Neither work in the samsung browser because the they require flash 10.3 min. There is no way of finding out what version of flash the samsung browser is running. We will have to wait for samsung to update the browser.
Internet browsing is almost unusable. The search feature is a bit better because it offers an onscreen qwerty keyboard, whereas the browser only offers a texting keyboard. Once you get your search results you can tab to the result of interest. Once you reach the target site things get worse. Tabbing across links is tedious, slow and sometime fruitless. The pointer feature is unusable. How can these manufacturers develop the TVs but not the remotes?
I was expecting all of that, but I assumed I could download a phone app to make things work. No luck yet. There are two samsung apps: remote and smartview. Smartview supports phone to tv streaming but turns out it only works with 7000 series TVs and above. Remote supports my model, but all it seems to do is to replicate the useless tv remote UI on the phone which seems pretty pointless. I can't download it anyway because it is incompatible with my Galaxy ace. I can't find any info specifying that as a requirement. The market only specifies Android 2.2 or greater. I can't see any reason why it should not work beyond bloody mindedness at samsung. I can download and run the tablet version, but app viewport size makes it unworkable.

[Cryoman]

I agree, the internet facility has been hugely oversold IMHO. Particularly the 4OD, which has been "coming soon" since I was wearing short trousers. I really think they are harming their reputation by dragging their feet so much. If it ain't truly "imminent" then keep shtum until it is. However, even taking those (hugely irritating) factors into account, I'm still really happy with my UE32D6530.
I guess it really depends on what you use it for.
3D - Disappointing, but always was a gimmick for me.
Internet - Disappointing - use your computer.
Apps - Not what I was led to believe, stuff has been promised but I guess its "in the post" so again - Disappointing
Media Streaming/Allshare - works OK I suppose, but a bit limited on music. You don't get ID3 tag info and artwork. Winamp do a "Winamp Remote" for pc's that does all of that. Now THAT would be an app worth having....
Sound - Surprisingly good given the thickness of the set
Picture - Absolutely stonkingly good. Both HD, normal, and upscaled.
Aesthetics - When it comes to physical looks, this set is head and shoulders above anything else in its price band, (and quite a way beyond)
Would I buy another one? - yes, but the next size screen up I think. The narrow bezel makes it seem less of a huge panel in the corner.
So you pays yer money......