TV & Internet issues

[brezzo]

Hi Folks,

Not sure if this is exactly right place, but looking for some advice on buying TV and internet services.

We want to turn our spare room into a teenage boy friendly study, with a large wall mounted TV that they can play games on via PC. And we would like to be able to use it in the evenings, to stream movies from Netflix.

At the moment, we have a talk talk contract which has been ok, until our son bought a "game player" of a PC and it is as though it have used up all the WIFI capability in the house. So, I am wondering if we need one of those fancy BT boxes you see advertised on TV?

Now what do we do next? is there someone we can contact who can put all of this together for us, or do I go to Currys, and buy the TV, then find a contractor to fit it on the wall, then find a new internet service provider and then panic when nothing works?

Any advice gratefully received.

John

[campbellchris]

Unlikely to be the game playing, it uses comparatively little - if he's streaming video, that'll use up bandwith, though. It's far more likely to be interference from nearby routers at peak time. Try changing the channel on your router - they all come out of the factory on one of two main channels (you'll see Channel Numbers between 1 and 11 - most come out on 7). I had this problem in an office recently and changing the channel speeded things up x5!

http://blog.laptopmag.com/change-router-wireless-channel

If netflix works now, it'll work on your new TV. :)

Fwiw: I've had all of the ISPs at one time or another. Talktalk have terrible reliability and customer service, and I'd get someone, anyone who's not them. They have a very poor contention ratio - that's how many people in each area they let use each 'bit of pipe' for the internet. There can be up to 50 other houses on the same bit - it's much lower with Virgin, BT, etc. (This is why TT are cheap). PM me if you need any info.

Source: I'm a geek and work for a tech company.

[brezzo]

Thanks for that advice Campbellchris.

We don't currently have netflix on downstairs tv. When we first went with Talktalk they were pretty terrible, but up until recently the service has been fine.

i guess I am concerned with putting it all together - when I buy the big wall mount, presumably I will need an aerial guy to come and run a cable to new location, then after chaining internet provider, get someone else in to set everything up.

My kids say it is easy, but they don't seem to be volunteering to do any of the work!

[Otta]

I have a samsung smart tv. Netflix, iplayer, youtube and the like are all accessible with no need for any extra boxes (obviously you pay your monthly charge to netflix). And we stream movies from the PC. It comes with Samsung Allshare software, but I find that pretty rubbish and prefer serviio.

http://serviio.org/

We ised to have super fast broadband and never had any issues. Since moving and having to go back to standard broadband we do get the odd night where it will keep stopping, which is rather annoying. But all said I love my telly.

[campbellchris]

Well, you don't need an aerial if you're just using it for netflix, and we've just got a wall-coloured trunking section from the surround sound amp up to the TV, didn't get it channeled into the wall - can be fairly straightforward.