Internet-capable 46-50" TV for the 'rents

[accelerate]

I'm looking on giving my parents their first HDTV, going from a 36" CRT. Picture quality is of secondary importance, since anything from a CRT will be a vast upgrade, and they don't need any of the 3D stuff. But I definitely want a TV with Internet connectivity through WiFi (the router is upstairs, the TV will be downstairs, so WiFi-ready is a must). A TV capable of streaming videos or playing videos straight off a flash drive would be a huge plus.

I prefer to stay under $1000, but can be convinced to go over.

Any suggestions will be most welcome.

 

[Sephire]

Those Samsung Smart LCD are great and reasonable value. If you have Fry's you may get them at steep discounts.

 

[alent1234]

get a dumb TV and a Roku/Apple TV/nice blu ray player. cost is going to be the same and the little box will always get better and faster updates than having it built into the TV

 

[jhansman]

get a dumb TV and a Roku/Apple TV/nice blu ray player. cost is going to be the same and the little box will always get better and faster updates than having it built into the TV

This is what I am understanding as well. Something like a Roku device is portable, so it can be moved to another TV. More than one in-store salesperson has told me that "internet capability" on a TV is more or less just a sales feature.

 

[alent1234]

my in laws bought a LG internet TV last year. netflix and youtube is OK, but everything else is like watching grass grow. especially yahoo apps which are almost unusable. the internet part also take a while to start up.

it was also buggy with the out of the box version being unusable over wifi and it had a huge software update over the last year making it better. but i would still get a separate box. they are usually cheap enough that if a new one comes out it's not a big deal to buy it