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Don’t buy a “connected” TV (yet)

November 11, 2011 - Filed under: Friday Fun,Information,products,Recommendations

If you know me you probably know that I dropped cable TV about two years ago.

My friends asked me how I was going to be able to see anything at all with just an antenna and an Internet connection. I had done my research, so I knew what I could get and also believed that it would only get better (and it has!)

The other day someone mentioned to me that “connected” TVs were now everywhere and asked if they should buy one. When I said no, they were quite surprised. I explained to him that connected TVs would work much like my current blue-ray player does and would only provide them with a tiny fraction of what is available on the entire web.

Sites would be available like Netflix and Hulu-Plus, but usually not regular Hulu and you would never, ever, ever get a site like tv-links.eu which is miles above Hulu-Plus, but probably not one the entertainment companies want you to know about.

I told them to get a regular HDTV, perhaps splurge on an LED model and take the savings to buy a small laptop with an HDMI port. Then just plug that into his TV. He would have the entire web at his fingertips. I also mentioned some other ideas I’ve written about before or wait until there’s a TV that’s also a regular web browser.

As an afterthought I mentioned that the players in the connected TV game were also starting to add more and more advertisements. I don’t mind a few ads, preferably something I’m interested in, but there seems to be more piling on every day. The media controlled sites like Hulu seem to be out of control. In the case of Hulu-Plus they want you to pay and still watch commercials.

I saw more evidence of all this today and I thought I would share it with you

Tremor Adds Connected TVs to its Online Video Network

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