Panasonic (and other) Smart TV's. Can they replace myfreeview boxes?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Panasonic (and other) Smart TV's. Can they replace myfreeview boxes?

sxz

761 posts

Ultimate Geek

#204675 12-Oct-2016 16:14

New Panasonic 4k TV's have twin tuners, freeview plus, HDD record, TV Anytime (watch live TV on your mobile, or watch recorded shows on your mobile).

If anyone owns one of these TV's (or similar) I was hoping you could answer some questions:

Can you series link?
Does it work well enough to replace your old myfreeview box / mysky?
Does it work while the TV is off?

I can't seem to find any info online, and the guys instore aren't much help...

I would love to have one TV on the wall and not need my DVD or TiVo boxes anymore!

illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1652102 17-Oct-2016 08:52

Long story short - No.

I think you'll find that by "dual tuner" they mean it has a UHF tuner as well as a Satellite one for those in non-UHF areas.

You'll likely find the processor in the TV woefully inadequate for tasks such as recording also - most "smart" TVs are actually quite dumb and under powered (slow) for the features the are supposed to run.

Panasonic Recorders are the best overall out of the currently available brands

Spyware

3761 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1652131 17-Oct-2016 09:57

DX740's claim twin HD tuner with DVB-T tuner only.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

art3011

39 posts

Geek

#1652168 17-Oct-2016 11:00

I have a 2014 Panasonic that has HDD record but only one tuner. I can record a program while I am away and TV is off. However, I don't think it likes USB HDD that does not have its own power supply. I attached a Western Digital USB portable HDD on USB2, and I have random reboots (screen blinking for a few seconds). The moment I disabled HDD recording and detach the USB HDD from the TV, the problem went away.

You must search Panasonic USB-HDD for drive compatibility.

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1652466 17-Oct-2016 19:10

I think the answer is "sort of"

It depends what you want to do. Personally, I would still go with a stand-alone decoder (and, again personally, I prefer the Panny boxes to the offerings from Dish and suchlike - in terms of stability, usability, and features, and freedom from bugs).

If you just want to watch TV then it might be OK. But if you want to not faff around with external disks and have a trouble free experience (eg archive material to disk, view material across a network, use the TV independently of the recorder etc), then I would buy the unit purpose designed for that, rather than something that has had the functionality grafted on as an afterthought. Particularly as in many cases I have seen of features on smart TVs, it is grafted on as a "tick the box" selling point, and done so in a half-assed way.

In my view:

Minimum flexibility and functionality is to use a TV with these features in that way.
Best option for most people, in terms of balancing cost, flexibility and functionality, is a proper recorder.
Best option for someone who is technically literate (ie maximum flexibility) and doesn't mind quite a bit of tinkering is an HTPC with tuners.

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1652472 17-Oct-2016 19:35

Our Samsung TV is clever enough to know it's not that smart. App availability will be the other issue if you want to move to on-demand viewing. If recording live TV get a proper recorder, my TiVo is just about dead, and plan on replacing it with a Panasonic recorded.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation