Smart TV

[Froggyman]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

The park we spent the night at last night claims they have the best internet connection in the country. Total, unadulterated BS. Had to use a iPhone hotspot to watch some tube. We are parked 100 feet from the parks repeater.

LOL... We're Seasonal at a place in CT. I sit at my table and can see the repeater in the tree. WiFi is "shaky" at best!

[Weatherman1]

We have non smart tv's (3) with roku sticks that have worked very well for the past two years.
Started out with a Amazon fire stick and after replacing it once changed to roku and have had no problems.
So if you had to get a TV the roku tv is what I would suggest

[nfd181]

We bought a LG smart TV and it works great especially connected to our router. Home models not made for RV life but no problems at all.

[pconroy]

It's getting harder and harder to find a dumb TV, or a dumb Blu-ray player. They're all sticking "smarts" in them.


That said, we ride the Smarts in the TV as far as it will go. Eventually, they'll become dumb, the smarts won't work. For those, we've got dedicated FireSticks and we're back in business.

[Greg58]

I’ve found that most RV parks limit the band width to the point that a smart tv or fire stick won’t connect for streaming movies. Some might be better but I haven’t camped in one yet.

[jetlag]

Originally Posted by Greg58

I’ve found that most RV parks limit the band width to the point that a smart tv or fire stick won’t connect for streaming movies. Some might be better but I haven’t camped in one yet.

So, if wanting to stream, do you use a hot spot off your phone?

[Weatherman1]

I use firewifi across country with no problems at 99 per month with 200 gigs
Streaming three TVs no problem

[jetlag]

Originally Posted by Weatherman1

I use firewifi across country with no problems at 99 per month with 200 gigs
Streaming three TVs no problem

Wow, never heard of it but will look it up. Thanks

[Greg58]

I have used my phone as a hotspot, I’m not too high tech so I’m still using a older iPhone, I just upgraded to a iPhone 7 which should stream faster.

[Weatherman1]

Firewifi.org

[joe w]

Originally Posted by jdd

We have a 2017 37TS and would like to upgrade the front tv to a smart tv. Any suggestions on a good "RV" smart tv?

Thanks,

We recently purchased a TCL ROKU 32" and paired up to our Verizon jet-pack is great for both relaxing and those days when the weather is lousy. We also purchased the 5 year extended warranty given that it'll be exposed to some bouncing etc.

[spark of insanity]

When our huge television with the tubes inside it finally died my daughter took me to Best Buy and we had a lesson on televisions. I told her to keep it cheap. She says anything under 200 works. But what you want is something called Smart Television ROKU. When you get it attached to an internet service or hotspot you can download the apps you want. And your television service provider if you have one. We needed one for the RV and she took me to Sams Club and I got one almost the same for 100. The daughter is the one to take old folk minded like me out of the stone age and into the 21st century. Just make sure it says smart television and ROKU you can't go wrong. We have a 24 inch for the RV because of the wall and a 32 for the house. Best Buy or Sams Club. Stay under 200 at Best Buy. Sams Club has ones for around 100. Still going strong. We are dumping comcast for Sling TV because 1 it is saving us a lot of money and 2 you get almost the same stations for half the price and we also just dumped comcast internet for ATT because we got a life time price for around 65. Will get rid of comcast television once we clean out the dvr. Daughter says they are all the same. Its the price and size you need to decide on. O we have Verizon and hot spot from the phone if the campsite internet sucks. Good luck.

[datadr]

If the TV is still good, just get a Roku or Fire stick. Smart TV operating systems quickly become outdated and they often retire features and apps from them. I have a 4 year old LG smart TV that can't take the new version of their OS and some of their apps are only available on the newest. I use Roku sticks to just avoid the issue.

[norty1]

We use a ROKU plug in to smarten up our old RCA TV. We use what is available. Sometimes the park wifi will work often not. We also have iphones with 4g hotspots and they are good as long as we are in a place with good cell coverage.

If not then we play Yahtzee!

[javamon]

Originally Posted by wiscampsin

We don't have a smart tv in our camper but have 2 Samsung's and an LG at home and both brands perform very well.

Good advice...I've had good luck with Samsung both as a replacement for my RV and at home. Stay away from the "Made in China crap". They tend to have poor quality tuners.

[GHen]

I very seldom get good enough wifi to stream videos. I have more success during the day than in the evenings when everyone else wants to stream also. I end up using the phone as a hot spot in conjunction with a cell phone booster (weboost rv).

With that said, I have 3 firesticks which are ok, but seem to have connection problems if too far from the router.

We also have Dish Network at home and have a receiver and dish in the rv. When we set it up We get a great connection about 75% of the time. Trees can block the signal. The dish seems to be the best option for us. Many parks will tell you which sites have better satellite signal so we reserve them. We even use it Boondocking, power usage is not too bad running off a 500 watt inverter.

[Jerrypd]

I can personally vouch for a firestick!
Moves seamlessly from tv to tv.
When on business I use it in my hotel room.
Remembers all subscriptions and logins.
Just connect it to a wireless and you are golden!

[VeloWheels]

AT&T offers an unlimited plan that when paired with a hotspot option, does allow unlimited streaming.

Originally Posted by repeach

tricky.... ATT will allow hot spot on your phone, but for only 10G. after that you are done for the rest of the month.

I use a tethering software that allows me to tether my phone to my laptop. That does not count against any of my "unlimited" data.
Then I turn my laptop into a wifi hotspot. Then stream my firestick from my laptop. There is one serious caveat.... Windows 10 kills the wifi hotspot every 20 minutes, but I leave my laptop open and just click start again.

I have looked at getting a myfi or some other wifi/cell service, but why add the extra $50 a month when all I have to do is click start 3 or 4 times during a movie.

[mrmom]

Something to think about: We use our rooftop antenna and watch a lot of our the air broadcasts. We just downgraded our TV to 720p from 1080p. Seems most 1080p TVs do not handle "native resolution" well and either put the picture in a little box in the middle of the screen or distort it. 720p TVs are much better at dealing with over the air broadcasts.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by mrmom

Something to think about: We use our rooftop antenna and watch a lot of our the air broadcasts. We just downgraded our TV to 720p from 1080p. Seems most 1080p TVs do not handle "native resolution" well and either put the picture in a little box in the middle of the screen or distort it. 720p TVs are much better at dealing with over the air broadcasts.

I think you might have something else going on. I too watch a lot of OTA broadcasts. I have several 1080p TVs. All display 1080i OTA broadcasts in full 16:9 mode, no letter boxing.

Bear in mind that many station subchannels (e.g. 4.2, 4.3...) are broadcast in 4:3 480 and will letterbox on you.

My older 2002 Mitsu RPTV had problems with >some< OTA broadcasts - they'd letterbox on that TV and be ok on the others.