So, I was looking through Amazon's Best Selling TV's List, as you do when it's a Wednesday
and you're feeling kinda, under the weather.
And what I found out is that, 9 out of the 10 top best selling TV's on Amazon are Smart
TVs.
Seven of those are Roku TV's, sold by TCL.
Now, we'll get to all those in just a second.
Now there is one more, there's the one that's not a Smart TV, that's a Specter, I want to
say, and it's the cheapest 40 inch TV that I think, I've ever seen in my life, so that's
probably why that's on the list.
But, why are 9 out of 10 Smart TVs?
Well, that's what we're going to find out today.
So, I'll hope you'll stick with me.
Make sure you subscribe below because we're going to be coming at you every single Wednesday
with a new topic.
Kind of finding out if the new big thing is worth it for you.
Now, I know what you're going to say, "Smart TVs are not a new thing."
That's true.
But they are kind of, marching their way toward ubiquity.
So, I figure it's worth questioning now, whether you should jump in and join the Smart TV trend
or if maybe, you should hold off for a while and stick with your old dumb TV.
Let's find out.
Now, we really should start with the most basic of basic questions, what is a Smart
TV?
If you feel like you're already up to speed on this, then just go ahead and skip ahead
in the video to like, right there or wherever it is, a few minutes ahead.
If you feel like you'd like a little primer on exactly what Smart TVs are and how they
work.
Then stick with me, we'll go check it out right now.
Now, a Smart TV is basically, just a TV with an operating system.
This by the way, not a Smart TV, we just thought it looked cool.
Anyway, think of it a bit like your phone.
Your phone is still a phone because it makes phone calls, which makes it a phone.
But, your phone now also has apps that lets you play games, do your banking, browse the
Internet, play games or you know maybe, play some games.
Whatever you want to do on there, it can now do.
Your TV works on a similar principle.
So it is still a TV, it does everything that the old TV can do.
But the Smart TV now, is run by apps.
A Smart TV works much the same way, expect you don't carry it around in your pocket.
Except, I guess, you kinda do nowadays, huh?
That's kinda wild.
But anyway, the principle is the same.
When you turn on a Smart TV, the interface that you see there is the operating system.
But what really matters are the apps that you have in there because, those apps are
how you're going to actually, you know, watch stuff.
So you can use your cable or your satellite subscription just like you used too.
But where Smart TVs really shine is with cord cutting.
Now, cord cutting is where you take those old cable and satellite subscriptions, get
rid of those, and just start streaming all of your content.
Everybody's heard of Netflix, Hulu, doesn't matter.
Point is, with all of these things you can stream your content to your heart's content,
or your wallets content, anyway.
So, the question is, how do you actually get these apps on your TV?
Well, with an old TV, what you would do is, just grab something like this Apple TV or
like a Chromecast.
You plug this into your old, dumb TV and suddenly, it becomes a lot like a Smart TV.
It runs all these apps and let's you watch content.
So the question is, why wouldn't you just get a $30.00 Chrome Cast and plus this into
your old TV, if it can do everything that a Smart TV can?
Why am I even talking about Smart TVs today?
Why don't you just grab one of these and make your old dumb TV a Smart TV?
It's a good question.
And the answer is, maybe you should just do that, honestly.
It's not a bad idea.
These are great little devices.
The Apple TV, I like quite a bit.
It's very slick, I like the interface.
If you're an Apple person, these are great.
But the only problem with these is that, you can't get an Apple Smart TV.
This is not built into any TV's, and we'll get to why you might care about that in just
a moment.
If you are getting a new TV then, you will probably just consider going with the Smart
TV, for a couple of reasons.
First of all, most of the new TVs out there are Smart TVs so you may not have a lot of
choice.
But, if you do and you want a couple of reasons why this is a good idea.
Here are a couple.
First of all, let me tell you, I've got two TVs in my house.
One is a Smart TV, it's a Roku TCL TV.
The other one is an older Samsung that I've plugged a Roku device into.
Now, when I use the older TV, I've got two remotes to work with.
I've got the Roku and the TV remote.
On the Smart TV, it's just a single remote.
Does that sound like a big deal?
Well, it's not.
But, day in and day out, it can get annoying to have to deal with two remotes.
I'm sure we've all worked with many remotes at one time, and it gets annoying after awhile.
The other thing to consider is HDMI ports.
On an older TV, you usually have fewer HDMI ports to begin with.
Maybe one or just two.
Let's say you've got two, and I've got to plug that Roku device into one of those.
Suddenly, I only have one HDMI port left.
And if I've got a DVD player and game console that I want to plug in.
Suddenly, I'm constantly changing out those HDMI connections.
And that's going to get annoying after awhile, believe me.
Believe me.
Ultimately though, either way you go.
Whether it's with one of these little devices that you plug into an older TV or if you get
a new Smart TV, you're going to have a much more modern experience capable of doing the
streaming that people are doing nowadays.
So it's going to be better for you either way.
So, is there any reason why somebody purchasing a new TV would not get a Smart TV?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
There are a couple of reasons that I can think of.
First of all, a Smart TV ... Like I said, it's a TV with an operating system built in.
With all that big beautiful software that's included in that, are big beautiful opportunities
to crash.
What does that look like on a Smart TV?
Freezing apps, randomly resetting the TV, that sort of thing.
It can get pretty annoying after a little while.
Spotify had an app on Roku, they took it away so that they could fix it and now it's back
and it's better.
But, for a long time, I knew that if I clicked on the Spotify app, it would start to load
and then it would crash.
Take me back to home screen.
And then I would have to go do it again, and it wouldn't work the second time.
I don't know what that little bug was and I'm glad they fixed it.
But those are the little things that can, kind of, ruin that day-to-day experience with
your Smart TV system.
Now the second reason you might not get a Smart TV is, if you're just really, really
resistant to change, I guess.
If you're really satisfied with the way all of the old stuff works and you just want to
hang onto that cable subscription, go for it.
A dumb TV can do that for you.
But, I would just caveat that by saying that, a Smart TV can do everything that an older,
dumb TV can do.
But it can do so much more.
Yes, you can play games on there.
But you can also do screen mirroring or integrate voice assistance like, Alexa or Google Assistant,
things like that.
So, the Smart TV ... Like I said, it can do everything else the old one's can.
And ever so much more.
So I do really recommend it.
Now if it feels like I am giving you a hard sell on these Smart TVs, don't worry, it's
only because I am.
I'm here at Best Buy to kind of illustrate the point because, check this out over here.
This is a 55 inch, 4K UHD TV for 350 bucks.
350 bucks, this isn't exactly rocket science here.
Think of it this way, in the year 2000, to get the same amount of screen real estate,
you'd have to pay $9,000.00, and that's for crappier picture quality.
Crappier technology, crappier everything.
So yeah, it's kind of a no brainer these days to go with the Smart TV.
So, if you've decided to go for a Smart TV, congratulations.
Smart choice, first of all.
But now the question is, which one?
So, let's talk about the 800 pound elephant shaped gorilla in the room, TCL.
Now, not every single TV on this row is TCL, but a good chunk of the are.
Like I was saying, with the top 10 Amazon Best Sellers, seven of those top 10 are TCL
Roku TVs.
It's got shockingly good picture quality considering its $350.00 price tag.
And why, is Roku that great?
Well, in a word, yeah.
It kind of is.
TCL is simple, it's easy to use for a beginner.
Plus, one of my favorite things about it is that it's brand agnostic.
Meaning, if you're searching for something to watch and you're not sure which platform
to use.
It's not going to favor Google or Amazon or anyone else.
It's just going to tell you where you can watch that thing for cheapest.
IF you want to step it up even further from there, because like they say, "You get what
you pay for", you can get some premium level ... Premium quality TVs.
Think Samsung, LG, Sony they sell TVs in the $1,500.00, $2,000.00, $3,000.00 range.
These are the really, really nice picture quality TVs.
One thing to know with those is that they'll often have a proprietary operating system.
And so, it's not going to be the same thing as an Amazon Fire TV or a Roku TV like we've
been talking about.
Their operating systems work great though.
Often, they work on a Google platform, but they kind of, make them their own.
If you are all in on a platform, though.
If you're all in on Amazon, you can get an Amazon Fire TV.
They actually sell a lot of those at Best Buy, if you want to run and grab one of those
at a Best Buy near you.
You'd think they'd sell better on Amazon itself, but whatever.
Or if you're into Google, you use that Google ecosystem almost exclusively.
Then yes, there are Google integrated Smart TVs out there.
The only exception to this would be Apple, like I mentioned earlier.
The Apple TV is fantastic, I love it.
But there is no Smart TV with the Apple ecosystem integrated there.
So you've gotta get a box like this and plug it into an existing TV.
That $350.00 TCL TV, that 55 incher.
That is their 2016 model, it's perfectly acceptable, I think for most people.
Most of us are going to have a good experience with that.
If you do want to step it up though, in terms of picture quality.
You can actually just spend about 100 bucks more and get their 2017 or 2018 models.
Those are going to be a step up from that older 2016.
Yes, you do pay a little bit more, but you do get more if you're concerned with that.
With those TCL things, one last note on that.
How do they make their TVs so freakin' cheap?
Well, in a word, sound.
They have crappy sound.
So you may want to add a $75.00 sound bar to your Amazon order if you're purchasing
one of those.
Either way, I'll go ahead and link to a bunch of that stuff down below.
So make sure you go check that out.
I'll have links to all those TVs, a sound bar that we might recommend for you, as well.
So you can go get a new Smart TV setup that way.
If you still have more questions about Smart TVs, make sure you hit up the comments below.
Subscribe to our channel, of course.
Like I said, we're coming at you every Wednesday with a video just like this.
We're even coming at you on Friday's now, too.
Saby's going to be back on Friday with a video about Roku channels.
And so, if you do ... If you are thinking about that Roku TV, then she can let you in
on how you can actually use that to watch a bunch of content, for free.
That's going to be coming up, so watch out for that guys.
Thanks for watching.
Like I said, if you have any questions or if you have a recommendation on the best Smart
TVs out there, hit up the comments below.
We'll see you next time.