Enhancements for a Smart TV

Sure you could buy a great Samsung LED SmartTV from an online retailer like The Good Guys but there are accessories people may consider when purchasing a thin flat panel Smart TV.  Some of those center around media players, like needing a BD or Blu-Ray Player to go along with the Smart TV and the HDMI cables to make sure your equipment puts out the best signal possible as there is no point in having a 1080p capable TV and using connections that don’t support 1080p.

Also I have found that Smart TV alone has decent but not great sound quality, so if you have a big living room you may want to also get a full speaker system at least 5.1 or 7.1 and preferably with a receiver that can do HDMI video/audio as well.  If you have a very small room them you can consider a soundbar or soundbox as a perfectly valid option for boosting sound performance yet keeping your equipment footprint being minimal.  I personally love the Vox Z-555 soundbox which fits under a 55" LED Smart TV very well.

Finally there is the Smart part of the Smart TV, and I have found that every Smart TV I have tried has a relatively slow Netflix/Amazon/Internet browsing experience and none compare to the fluidity and simplicity of the Roku, especially the new Roku 3.  So even though I did get a 55" Samsung LED TV just about 5 months ago as an Xmas gift I spent the last few months adding some additional equipment to help get the most out of it which included a Blu-Ray Player, Roku, Vox Z-555 soundbar and an 5 port HDMI switch as I didn’t have enough HDMI inputs to accommodate my Xbox 360, Roku, Dish Receiver, Wii-U, Blu-Ray Player all at the same time, hence I needed an HDMI switch.  The only bad thing is HDCP isn’t supported by most HDMI switches so your cable or dish receiver needs to use an HDMI port on the TV not the HDMI switch.

So when I thought all I needed was the big flat screen TV, boy did I underestimate how many additional peripherals I needed to really optimize it and make better use of it!