Nerdy awesome shit we want

[old.user4556]

In my opinion, 4K is only worth pursuing if you've got a large screen (upwards of 60") and sit quite close. The difference over 1080p in those circumstances is very good indeed.

 

[ECA]

I think I saw recently a side by side review of a 4K Blu Ray vs Netflix 4K and they were not all that close. That is why I am not sure 4 K is worth worrying about? There are 4K TV's in my price range.

Yup, thats why I bought a new TV a little while back and just got a 55" 1080p and chucked a chromecast on it.

 

[DaGaffer]

You'd be better off getting a decent 1080p hudge screen and sticking a chromecast in it.
All the smart tv stuff is still shit for the most part.

I find Chromecast quality to be terrible, even with it streaming from a few feet away. I've never got it to work well.

Whilst I'd agree that 95% of the apps I have on my smart TV (Samsung) are junk (and even more so in Ireland than the UK where we don't have iPlayer/4OD apps etc.), the one thing that does work pretty well is Plex, and is more format/codec tolerant than Plex via say, a Roku or other streamers.

 

[soze]

I cast my phone screen using a ChromeCast and nothing else. I use a remote to watch TV not my phone. I have never managed to get into that habbit.

 

[soze]

I am thinking of this.

I have just realised that the TV I got my uncle about 3 months ago is this exact model. We saw it in John Lewis as an Ex Demo and he did not have a card on him so I put it on mine. I took a pic of the model number / serial number and it matches lol. I have watched a few films on it and it is a fine TV so this will do me. 4K is not for me yet. I have a small gaming machine I ran up which will not play anything at 4k so 1080p is the right move for me this time.

 

[Trem]

I kind of want a 4K but in a smaller size, 42" or around that, just because it fits where I want it. Are there any decent options around that size? Are Samsung still the one's to go for or LG or any others? I currently have a Panasonic Viera GT plasma and it is very good but I want that in the other room and a 4K in our sitting on our arse room........because you know, I went back work today and I always get a new TV when that happens (if anyone knows my wife, most of you probably she's a tart, please don't mention I'm asking about a new TV).

 

[Raven]

I paid £1100 for a Panasonic 32" CRT in 2000

Likewise, weighed as much as a small car. Was horrific getting it up the stairs to a flat we lived in at the time.

I will be buying a 4k monitor in the next year (when I see a bargain) but the TV can wait a while, there isn't enough content to warrant one yet. Unless the TV blows up and needs replacing. Inlaws have a Samsung one and even 720/1080 content looks sexual. Was watching the golf and it might as well have been a window. Oddly I found it a little distracting on watching a film on it though, the picture was somehow too good.

 

[Tom]

I doubt you'd see the benefit of 4k resolution on a 42" screen.

 

[Trem]

I doubt you'd see the benefit of 4k resolution on a 42" screen.

Tom, Tom, Tom it matters not if I will benefit, this thread is your thread and you know the title. It isn't called 'nerdy awesome shit we should get that will benefit us' is it?

 

[Tom]

Anyone here got Philips Hue? Any good?

 

[old.user4556]

Depends, what are you looking to do / get @Tom ?

 

[Tom]

Just a few lights to go with this Nest stuff. I fancy one behind the telly to do colour things, one next to the computer to look nice and light up when I'm not home, and one in the hallway to make it look as though someone's in when I'm not.

 

[DaGaffer]

Anyone here got Philips Hue? Any good?

I'm looking at Hue at the moment for our kitchen extension. Nice but not cheap, but back in the day I had a Philips Ambilight telly and it worked incredibly well.

TBH if you're just looking it for security rather than aesthetics, there are probably cheaper options.

 

[old.user4556]

Do you need colour? There are other options of you don't need colour.

Last time I looked at Hue, their light output was a little on the low side so went with LIFX bulbs instead. Another thing is that the coloured modes are generally even dimmer than the white output modes. IFTTT integration is nice but a bit flaky

 

[ECA]

Got a lifx for messing around with.

Holy tits it's bright if you max the brightness, like can't even look at it bright.

 

[old.user4556]

They're very good, very bright but also very expensive.

 

[old.user4556]

Just checked the Hue spec:

806 lm @ 4000K
570 lm @ 2700K
342 lm @ 2000K
550 lm @ 6500K
80 lm/W luminous efficacy @4000K
>80 CRI from 2000–4000K

They're 806 lumens maximum, that's decent but too dim for me. The output drops off even more at the other colour temperatures.

 

[ECA]

The other thing w/ hue is you need a hue hub controller right? Where lifx has wifi onboard and just connects to your normal network.

 

[old.user4556]

The other thing w/ hue is you need a hue hub controller right? Where lifx has wifi onboard and just connects to your normal network.

That's right (unless the new Hue has done away with it).

 

[Tom]

So if lifx better then? For instance, can I make lifx bulbs turn on when nest enters away mode during certain hours?

 

[old.user4556]

Nest and LIFX integrate with each other, and LIFX have their own geofence and time based on / off should you desire.

 

[Tom]

Cool, where's the best place to buy them? I saw maplin do them for £80 which seems stupidly expensive. I'm off to Argentina next week, I wonder if it might be cheaper there.

 

[old.user4556]

Try Google Shopping, I think I saw them for about £60

 

[Tom]

Box.co.uk have them and according to trustpilot seem to be a good site. I'll order one and see what goes.

 

[old.user4556]

It's a good time to buy rather when I bought them over a year ago - the smartphone software was shite in the beginning but it's much, much improved now. They've also come down in price which is good, but they're still a long term investment so make sure you're happy with your lighting arrangement.

 

[Tilda]

We're slowly filling our house with LIFX, they're great.
Rather than Nest we have Tado and both have ITTT integration. So I can turn the heating on when someone emails me, while on a bike and flash the lights red...or something.
I also just bought some Flic buttons, which are great and I've been using them to control my Sonos. I wish Sonos opened up more and was ITTT compatible.

 

[old.user4556]

If I had to be really picky about the LIFX bulbs, it's that their beam angles aren't the best - standard bulb replacements have a decent beam angle where as the LIFX bulbs are more limited due to the "flatter" shape of the bulb.

It depends on your application, but again, may be a non-issue for you @Tom

Decent review here (although it's the older app, it's been updated since):


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isgdt07nB3o

 

[Tom]

Big fuckers aren't they.



Bit of a PITA to set up. The app kept insisting I had some kind of auto network switch enabled, that I must turn off. There's no such setting on my phone anywhere. Finally got it working though, the colours are very nice.

Hopefully inside the next few years they'll be able to fit one inside a standard GU10 downlighter.

 

[old.user4556]

Big fuckers aren't they.

View attachment 28729

You should see Jeremy Beadle holding one.

But yes, "OEM replacement" they are not.

 

[Tom]

The app is almost there but not quite. I put the bulb in, turned it on, and fired up the app, expecting it to do everything it needed to before I could play with it. It started giving me jip about that network switching bollocks, so I ignored that. Then the bulb disappeared completely from the list of wifi networks, leading me to believe it'd crashed. So I pulled it out, there's a reset switch, I flicked that and started again.

The best way (I found) is to ignore the app. Connect your phone directly to the bulb's wifi. Then start the app, let it do what it wants, and then let it connect to your home wifi network. Once that's done, you should have a bulb you can do things with.

What it doesn't tell you is that you have to "claim" the bulb to play with it away from the house, or to let other apps do things with it. You can update firmware in the app but this crashed, so I did it on Windows instead. Once that'd been done, you go to the bulb on the app and press "update". Once that's done, a "claim" button appears. Click that and the bulb is now "in" the cloud. So now I have it connected to Nest, so that when Nest thinks I'm away, it'll do things like randomly turn on and off when nobody's home (for security), etc.

Simple things like this can ruin a product experience. When I got the Nest stuff, I turned it on and bang, it was all up and running. So simple. But with this product, designed (you'd think) by computer folk, I had to resort to Google.