Time to upgrade the TV, looking at a smart TV so I can have Netflix, BBC iPlayer & stuff. This house is hopeless for wi-fi, the broadband connection comes in the side of the house, and the only place I can get wi-fi is in the room where the router is or in the room directly above. Tried wi-fi boosters/repeaters in various locations, no luck. Too many walls.
 
So, the (potentially stupid) question  (because I'm tech dumb) - do most smart TV's have an ethernet port? I'm considering running an ethernet cable from the room where the router is to the lounge (it'll take about 30M of cable to get around door frames etc)

best thing to do James, in my opinion, is use a power plug thing to get an internet connection right where you need it, rather than having cable trailing all over the place.
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/netgear-powerline-500-essentials-edition-a72tc?cmpid=ppc&gclid=CKvh5vPJncwCFcQp0wodliQBGw
 
All of my smart TV's have RJ45 connections...

My setup is as follows:
 
Cable Modem/Router (4-port wired and wireless (disabled))
              |
Cat 5e/6 cable to second floor
              |
Router (4 port wired and wireless (older, but better than the Motorola box downstairs))
 
Downstairs, I have a 60" Samsung LED SmartTV, a TiVo STB and a Denon AVR or Oppo Digital Blu-ray player hard-wired to the router. The 4th port connects to the upstairs router. Upstairs, I have a 51" Samsung 3D Plasma SmartTV, my computer and printer hard-wired to the router. The 4th port connects to the downstairs router.
 
If I need direct access to the downstairs router, I disconnect the Oppo and connect a laptop to the port.
 
This setup works great. I have a 100 MB down/10 MB up internet connection now, but this worked fine when it was 40/8.
 
One note of caution: if you have a home theater system where you have an AVR driving 'x' number of speakers AND you're trying to use the Netflix app in your SmartTV, getting the audio back channel to work can be a real b**ch. There's some complicated routing that has to happen.
 
Cable/Satellite modem -> Cable/Satellite STB (set top box) -> AVR -> SmartTV -> audio back channel to AVR
 
I've spent good money on programmable remotes, but I'm back to using 4 of them (TiVo, TV, AVR, Oppo) regularly and 1 for my CD changer occasionally. I've only lost one to my Italian Greyhuahua. He decided the first one didn't taste so hot!
 
Note that some AVRs have the same or other apps as SmartTVs. Both could have Netflix; one could have Amazon Prime; one could have Hulu. Gets complicated. The only suggestion is to use the one in the AVR if it exists in both devices. Simpler routing.

synkrotron
best thing to do James, in my opinion, is use a power plug thing to get an internet connection right where you need it, rather than having cable trailing all over the place.
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/netgear-powerline-500-essentials-edition-a72tc?cmpid=ppc&gclid=CKvh5vPJncwCFcQp0wodliQBGw
 
All of my smart TV's have RJ45 connections...

That's a very good idea Andy, nice one.

TheMaartian
My setup is as follows:
 
Cable Modem/Router (4-port wired and wireless (disabled))
              |
Cat 5e/6 cable to second floor
              |
Router (4 port wired and wireless (older, but better than the Motorola box downstairs))
 
Downstairs, I have a 60" Samsung LED SmartTV, a TiVo STB and a Denon AVR or Oppo Digital Blu-ray player hard-wired to the router. The 4th port connects to the upstairs router. Upstairs, I have a 51" Samsung 3D Plasma SmartTV, my computer and printer hard-wired to the router. The 4th port connects to the downstairs router.
 
If I need direct access to the downstairs router, I disconnect the Oppo and connect a laptop to the port.
 
This setup works great. I have a 100 MB down/10 MB up internet connection now, but this worked fine when it was 40/8.
 
One note of caution: if you have a home theater system where you have an AVR driving 'x' number of speakers AND you're trying to use the Netflix app in your SmartTV, getting the audio back channel to work can be a real b**ch. There's some complicated routing that has to happen.
 
Cable/Satellite modem -> Cable/Satellite STB (set top box) -> AVR -> SmartTV -> audio back channel to AVR
 
I've spent good money on programmable remotes, but I'm back to using 4 of them (TiVo, TV, AVR, Oppo) regularly and 1 for my CD changer occasionally. I've only lost one to my Italian Greyhuahua. He decided the first one didn't taste so hot!
 
Note that some AVRs have the same or other apps as SmartTVs. Both could have Netflix; one could have Amazon Prime; one could have Hulu. Gets complicated. The only suggestion is to use the one in the AVR if it exists in both devices. Simpler routing.

Thanks John, I'll try and wrap my tiny brain around all that!

Smart TV used to be an oxymoron.
 

All of mine have RJ45 connectors, but none are hard-wired to the primary hub. Instead, I use these devices that modulate the network signal over my home's wiring. I have four of them: a sending unit next to my router and one for each of three televisions.
 
They work fine as long as the sending and receiving units are on the same circuit. Throughput is much lower than a wired connection, but still fast enough to watch TV. They require a reboot about once every other week, which merely consists of unplugging it and plugging it back in. They are self-configuring so for most situations all you have to do is plug 'em in.
 
 
 
 

James has time for TV?  
 
(I thought he was supposed to be recording tracks whenever he wasn't out in someone's yard...)

The A/C modulators can work pretty well - though I think you need to have them as the 'sole' unit plugged in to a socket (ie placing them on an extension lead or multi-block) may not work.
 
I have a Panasonic Viera 4k tv which has all those apps and works very well.  I also have a Marantz receiver for the blu-ray and other external things such as x-box and Freesat.  Works well as a bluetooth connection for Spotify as well. TV sound is routed back through the Marantz so you can get 5.1 (or PLII at least) from digital broadcasts, and a set of Mission M3 speakers.  It all works fairly well, though I can't remember the last time I watched any live terrestrial tv!

My 2p: buy the dumbest TV you can find (these days, this probably means a TV with an in-built freeview decoder, UK certainly).  There is no guarantee that the TV's smarts will keep up to date with interface/protocol/DRM/yadda changes, which means that it will most likely lose its smarts before long (I would say this is most certainly the case).  Better to attach a cheap laptop/phone/TV stick/'chromebook'-style 'puter via HDMI and let the computer device provide the smarts for streaming video from the internet (whether from youtube, BBC iPlayer, ITV player etc. etc.)
 
Also, for the money, you'll get a much better TV than if you bought a 'smart' one.  I went for a 'best picture, screw the sound as I'm using a hifi 42" dumb-as-possible' TV and it cost me £169.  Bargain.  The picture is really good and it's a perfect size for my room.   I'd guess smart TV's do have an ethernet port, as otherwise there'd be no other means to connect to the services which they wont be able to communicate with before too long ;-)
 
In slightly related news, the BBC have finally seen the light and have implemented an HTML5 interface - yay!  I can watch iPlayer programs again (Adobe Flash AKA let me drive a fleet of vulnerability trucks right through your house has been removed from every device I have).  C'mon ITV Player, get with the program.  In fact, everybody get with it and with any luck Flash will be relegated to the digital dustbin forever.