I'm often asked about home Audio setups and how to provide smart TV type capabilities to older TVs
Fist lets get some basics out of the way. No TV no matter what you paid for comes with any Smarts that are worthwhile. This is because
1) TV Manufacturers are electronics companies not software companies
2) The best software platforms are already built and available
3) TV Manufactures are in a race to the bottom to make cheap hardware look expensive.
So what can we learn from this?
If you want good audio buy decent speakers, amps and interconnects. Stick to studio grade kit. Its well made, robust and made to a standard good enough for broadcast audio!
If you want a smart TV buy one based on a strong vibrant platform. This used to be Windows Media Centre (for cablecard support) and MythTV, though Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) has been gaining traction.
When you get a TV buy one with a good picture, the rest is just candy.
I'm going to post some tips on how to build out a some good Kodi based home theatre and streaming options including some options for a very low cost PVR.