I have had a rush of calls from clients in the midst of changing over their internet to the NBN; many with grumblings of issues about the competency of their service provider and with hassles setting up the new modem and home network. If you are having troubles with the setup, give me a call, or talk to your local computer technician, because chances are they may be cheaper than the call out fee from one of the NBN service providers.
So what does all this mean to you? Well for many there is a definite speed difference in having the new digital service connected, but not all services are faster though. This is a common misconception I have found with varying results; from lightning fast to about the same speed as before. But with the new modems, many of them support a wireless network that provides a 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ signal and this is perfect for a Smart TV.
So what is ‘Smart TV’? Well they can’t make you coffee in the morning but I am sure that is just and upgrade away that! The benefits of these Smart TVs is that they provide internet streaming television for your viewing pleasure. Now I know some of you are thinking, ‘Yes, but how much is this going to cost me?’ Well, Netflix uses 1GB of data per hour for standard definition television from the internet. If you are connected to the lowest Telstra NBN plan you get 100GB per month, so that equates to 100 hours of movies and television or 4.1 days of nonstop, no toilet breaks, no sleep internet television. So if you watched 2 hours of Netflix per day you would still have around 40GB of data left for your month of surfing the internet and skyping your friends and family. So the data is usually not the problem under these new NBN plans but what about the cost? I will keep with Netflix as an example as it is very popular. You have a monthly subscription starting at $8.99 per month. Now for the thousands of programs and movies they have to choose from it is very good value, which means for around the same price as renting a DVD from your local store you have month round internet television, not to mention you don’t have to drive down the shops on a Saturday night to choose what’s left over on the shelves of the local DVD store. With a couple of clicks you can choose from an enormous range of shows from the comfort of your own lounge chair. You can even binge watch a whole series of your favourite shows back to back in one viewing if you feel so inclined.
Now if Netflix isn’t to your liking there is Stan and Presto at around the same monthly fee, if you have an Apple TV, then there is the iTunes library. You also have all the free on demand digital television stations to choose from, like ABC iView, or SBS on Demand, or Ten Play or SevenPlus or 9 Jumpin, so if you miss your favourite show you can go back and watch it when it suits you.
So if your convinced that this is for you and you are ready with a big bowl of popcorn and a comfy chair to settle in for the world of internet television, check to see if your TV is suitable. It first needs to be internet compatible, most of the TV’s manufactured in the last 3 years are smart TV’s and connect wirelessly to the internet, older ones will have an Ethernet cable connection at the back of the screen. If it doesn’t have either of these or you’re not sure, look up the make and model of your TV online by checking the model number on the back of the television and typing into Mr Google ‘Is my _____ a smart TV?’ and it will usually tell you. If you find that your TV isn’t ‘Smart’ it may be time to go down to the local Technology superstore and start shopping. If it is smart, then you may just need to connect it up to your modem. It is relatively straight forward, much like connecting your computer or tablet to your modem. If you have a wired connection you will need to run an Ethernet cable from you modem to your TV, then go into your TV’s menu/setup and find the networking settings. From here, you’ll need to enable wired internet and if applicable enter any passwords associated with your router. If you have a wireless connection, go into your TV’s menu/setup and find the networking settings. From here, you’ll need to find the settings for wireless internet and look for the 5GHZ wireless network. If you need to, enter the key or password for your network. This may be called the WEP or WPA key. Then start exploring these channels from your Home screen on your television. With the subscription channels, they will ask you to sign up and you can do this by following the prompts with your remote control.
If you have any questions, or are not sure about how to set up your Smart, TV, or if you need some help setting up your new NBN modem, please give me a call.