Best Smart TV to work w/ 3tb WD My Cloud?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Hi everyone,

I just purchaased the 3tb WD My Cloud. What woud be the best compatible smart tv for my 3tb WD My Cloud?

I want a 32" Smart TV with a budget of $250. My internet connection is TIme Warner with a max speed of up to 300 mbps.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DREW

2

IME, ‘smart TV’ is a bad idea, and you’re better off with an HDMI TV and an external media box.

Smart TVs generally have very limited app support, apps aren’t updated regularly, and often use proprietary GUIs that are bizarre.

You can get quad core plain vanilla android media boxes for about $50: that’s how I’m browsing now; a CS918 box and a Celcus 40" full HD TV. Total cost £215.

3

I don’t want that. I want to consolidate to one single network (3tb WD My Cloud) that operates in different rooms and on laptops, ipads etc.

I have a gigabit router but with only 4 ports. I’m guessing I need to purchase a gigabit 5 port switch then daisy chain it to the exisiting gigabit router. Connect 3 separate 100ft cat 6 cables to go to the designated rooms connecting to the smart tv’s rather than doing it wirelessly with the exception of my macbook airs, macbook pros and ipad mini’s… correct?

I am using a Touchstone Data Gateway DG1670 router.

4

You missed my point, I think: ‘smart TVs’ with an integrated media player are a bad idea for the reasons I gave.

My suggestion is to buy a ‘dumb TV’ and make it ‘smart’ by adding a cheap android box, one per TV.

I was not suggesting using an android box as a media server (although you could).

I have all my media on a MyCloud, and use its Twonky media server to stream media to a number of cheap media or audio renderer boxes around the house, which are Android or Linux based.

The Android media box on my 40" TV also gives me email, Facebook, browser and other functions, acting like a large-screened tablet.

5

Agreed with cpt_paranoia. If you don’t need a shiny brand new smart tv, media box is the way to go. But if I got what you meant that is you want less connected appliances, I would say go for Samsung smart tv as so far I could dump most media especially mkvs that other brands tends to have problems supporting it via dlna.

6

Not just if you don’t need a shiny new smart TV. Smart TVs are at a price premium much higher than the cost of a plain vanilla Android box. An Android box is likely to have access to the full Play Store; smart TVs rarely do, so app choice is limited. Ongoing support for old models is poor, so you won’t get updates. For instance, a mate has an LG smart TV. He could use the old BBC iPlayer to get BBC radio stations. Then the BBC spawned a new iPlayer Radio app. The iPlayer TV app updated, but no radio app appeared. So now he can’t get BBC radio on his smart TV.

When my Android box goes obsolete, because I can no longer upgrade OS or apps, I’ll just buy a new one, for about the same price. And, with a bit of luck, the TV will still be working fine. What are you going to do when your smart bit goes obsolete? (A: the same as me; buy a new Android box and forget the internal smart bit).

7

I’d stay away from ‘smart’ TVs as well. I started with a Samsung one and it was rubbish. It would randomly disconnect media. It would only play certain formats and it was sluggish. I bought an Intel nuc and installed Xbmc on it last year and haven’t looked back since. It will play everything I throw at it and flawlessly.