SMART TV interface with BT box

[dfl1]

I'm planning to buy a smart TV for the first time (Samsung Q60D). Will I still need the BT box to access eg NOW and Netflix? The shop assistant said TV channels will all be accessible via apps on the TV but if I don't connect via the Box will I still be able to record, pause and rewind shows? Thank you

[Weerab1983]

You can rewind and pause, but you can't record Now channels without the BT Box.

You can watch the box sets though. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@dfl1 

Have you got a working TV aerial? If so, fine, and you will get all the TV channels via the EPG on the Samsung.

If not, and you are trying to reproduces the EE TV IP experience, then yes, all the channels that EE IP provides are available in the Player apps, but they are siloed by broadcaster, so you have to hop from one app to another to go from BBC to itv, or Channel Four, or My Five.

As @Weerab1983 says, you can’t record the Now Channels from the Samsung; but even recording anything else that you can record involves plugging a hard drive into the TV, only being able to record one thing at a rime, and not being able to watch anything else on the TV while you are recording.

The benefit of a new smart TV to an EE TV Pro box user is the likely superiority of the new TV over the existing one, as regards picture and sound; being able to get apps that Samsung supply and EE on the Pro box doesn’t; and maybe finding that apps that EE do have are available in better and possibly faster versions from Samsung.

You will likely still be using your Pro box most of the time.

[gomezz]

My view is that it is better to buy a TV for its picture quality.  Any "Smart" functionality it comes with will age rather quickly as streaming services come and go and can be provided more flexibly and stay current by the addition of a relatively inexpensive add on such as a Chromecast or Firestick dongle.