Smart TV

HowieB · 03-23-2019, 07:46 PM

We have a 2014 Sightseer 35G. Has anyone switched out the living room TV for a smart TV? What brand? Size? Problems? Satisfied?

Oldchinahand · 03-23-2019, 11:00 PM

We went with TCL. Great picture quality. Excellent price. Roku built in. At home, we put a 32" in our den, 42" in our family room. In the Journey we put a 32" in the main cabin, 24" in bdrm.

DirecTV drives all except for when we stream through Roku apps.

Everyone has different wants/needs. Although we are very happy with the TCL's, for us, the "smart" part is way over kill. For us, a little evening news (ha!), a Hallmark Christmas show then off to bed. Something is inherently wrong with watching TV while the sun is shining.

Since we primarily frequent state and fed parks/lands in the Journey, we can count on the thumbs of one hand how many places we've stayed with wifi sufficient to make use of the streaming feature.

But, at home, our grandaughters stream the TCL's often.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

PennBruce · 03-23-2019, 11:32 PM

Plus 1 on the TCL.

Bruce

Jim_HiTek · 03-24-2019, 08:01 AM

I'd agree with Oldchinahand about the 'Smart' part of the TVs not being very useful or necessary for RV'ers. It's rare where I can park and find speeds that allow streaming, and the internal TV Wifi antenna can't be turned towards the source so it's often hard to get a good signal.

And the TVs tend to be so focused on monetizing every moment of TV viewing that for me the smart features are too restrictive and focused on getting users to sign up for another service. Maybe that's changed now and TVs have become more like a tablet where you can navigate to any URL you want, I haven't checked for a few years.

HowieB · 03-24-2019, 08:25 AM

Thanks for the info. I work remotely 3-4 hours a day 2-3 days a week. I will be using a hotspot through verizon for work. When the weather is bad I planned to stream movies with Netflix.

BobC · 03-24-2019, 05:34 PM

In general, I don't think smart TVs make any sense. You're much better off with a separate Roku box or the like. They tend to be much more functional than the built-in functions of a smart TV and can be updated/upgraded as necessary:

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/smart-t...view-2111.html

My MH came with a smart TV the PO installed but I just use my Roku box with it. The smart TV's user interface is terrible.

HowieB · 03-24-2019, 06:14 PM

I appreciate the opinions and I now agree. I'm going to keep the standard TV. Thank you all.

BobC · 03-24-2019, 07:01 PM

Since smart TVs are becoming the rule rather than the exception, if you need a new TV, don't worry that all the ones you find are "smart", just use a Roku in lieu of its built-in functionality.

grumpytoo · 03-31-2019, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowieB

We have a 2014 Sightseer 35G. Has anyone switched out the living room TV for a smart TV? What brand? Size? Problems? Satisfied?

My 2014 came with a Panasonic Smart TV, DON'T buy a Panasonic TV. The TV works OK, but Panasonic has stopped supporting some of their apps, like YouTube. So now I have to use a Roku, or some similar device to watch a Youtube. Otherwise Smart TV's work fine, if you have Internet. Don't count on being able to stream on an RV parks Internet. That very rarely works.

Rossi6998 · 03-31-2019, 06:33 PM

Interesting... I don't disagree with the above posts; however, I did replace my 32" TV with a 40" Samsung smart TV. The main reason for the replacement was size and not the smart features. This was also the largest size I could fit in the area, or I would have gone larger (trust me)...

Having said that, I do use the smart features (Netflix and Amazon Movies) and find it to be very convenient. I have a Mobley, so streaming is not an issue.

peggwn · 03-31-2019, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldchinahand

We went with TCL. Great picture quality. Excellent price. Roku built in. At home, we put a 32" in our den, 42" in our family room. In the Journey we put a 32" in the main cabin, 24" in bdrm.

DirecTV drives all except for when we stream through Roku apps.

Everyone has different wants/needs. Although we are very happy with the TCL's, for us, the "smart" part is way over kill. For us, a little evening news (ha!), a Hallmark Christmas show then off to bed. Something is inherently wrong with watching TV while the sun is shining.

Since we primarily frequent state and fed parks/lands in the Journey, we can count on the thumbs of one hand how many places we've stayed with wifi sufficient to make use of the streaming feature.

But, at home, our grandaughters stream the TCL's often.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

We too have a 32" TLC ROKU TV; it fits perfectly in the spot where the meteorite/ship anchor/Goodyear blimp tie-down (pick one) used to be. We have a 55" TCL ROKU at home that we use for the smartness. However, when in a CG we only use the "antenna" choice so we can check local weather and news. At a friend's home we were able to use their Wi-Fi connection for the smart features (streaming). We can only hope that technology will soon find ways to provide better remote streaming.

skyking · 04-01-2019, 01:00 PM

I have replaced two TVs in our motorhomes with smart TVs. The two points I can make, from those experiences, concern ease of installation and use of smart features.

I like using the Roku integrated with thee TV, but the suggestion of using a separate Roku plugin box sounds like a good choice, with no TV changing difficulties. Replacing the TV involves research to get one with connections that are the same as the old TV. Also, one must verify that the TV mounting holes are the same or compatible with the mount. I had to fabricate brackets on the rear of the new TV to be able to attach it to the 10 year old "Televator" mount. (TV rises out of cabinet). Yours would likely be easier, being newer, but you must consider placement of connections (R or L side) and type of connections.

I recently used the free trial of "youtubeTV". I was very impressed that we could get most all the cable news channels as well as many other popular channels. Save any of them as a favorite and it will be recorded for you like a DVR. Watch the shows when you want and fast forward through commercials You do not need to be online to have the shows saved for you. They are saved on their servers. It's $40/month. The one drawback is that you need internet service to watch youtubeTV. Not too many campgrounds have enough bandwidth for that, so we use the "hotspot" feature on our phones. That works great, but you need cell service and "unlimited data".
I've already said too much, so I hope you have happy travels.
Richard

**creativepart** · 04-01-2019, 02:12 PM

We stream our TV programming at home and on the road. We've got 5 or 6 Rokus between those at home and the two on the RV.

We use Wifi when it's good - not all that often but getting better. And we have two cellular data Mifi devices, one with a Mobley unlimited data SIM card and the other with a Verizon grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan SIM.

When on the road for a month or more we use approx 150 gigs of data on each of these. A long weekend trip will use 20+ gigs easily.

We also have a Weboost Drive 4G-X cellular booster and a Wifi Ranger AC Elite package on the RV as well. Before I retired last year my internet business required access to lots of good fast internet when traveling. So, our motor home is all set up for it.

Pretty much any new TV you buy is going to be a smart TV, but we use Roku devices with those TVs too. Smart TVs are limited in the apps they have access to and updates are few and far between. For instance, when faster WiFi is introduced you can't upgrade your TV to the new standard. Where a new Roku is about $100 to have the latest and greatest.

Stella · 05-16-2021, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldchinahand

We went with TCL. Great picture quality. Excellent price. Roku built in. At home, we put a 32" in our den, 42" in our family room. In the Journey we put a 32" in the main cabin, 24" in bdrm.

DirecTV drives all except for when we stream through Roku apps.

Everyone has different wants/needs. Although we are very happy with the TCL's, for us, the "smart" part is way over kill. For us, a little evening news (ha!), a Hallmark Christmas show then off to bed. Something is inherently wrong with watching TV while the sun is shining.

Since we primarily frequent state and fed parks/lands in the Journey, we can count on the thumbs of one hand how many places we've stayed with wifi sufficient to make use of the streaming feature.

But, at home, our grandaughters stream the TCL's often.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Sorry for the dumb question, but what does TCL mean?

**creativepart** · 05-16-2021, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stella

Sorry for the dumb question, but what does TCL mean?

TCL is a brand of TV with Roku streaming built into the TV. I don’t think it stands for anything.

Jim_HiTek · 05-16-2021, 03:01 PM

It's a brand of Asian made TVs carrying 5 different brand names here in the US. So...just a brand?

I posted my comment in '19 on this thread and now more than ever I agree with myself. I haven't even tried using the built in wifi setup on my TVs for a very long time because like I said back then, even in RV parks with half way decent Wifi, I still often got a marginal signal. And at this particular RV park, I have to contact the park manager, tell him I'm going to use my TV to pick up wifi, then he sets it up so I can. And he's only in the office during the week, normal business hours. So if there's something you wanna watch on wifi on your TV you're outta luck on the weekend. When most games are.

So to overcome the limitations of having the wifi in the TV, what I did was buy a 15 foot and a 30 foot (I forget the actual lengths) HDMI cables. I routed one on the drivers side starting in the overhead satellite receiver cabinet through the bottoms of the overhead cabinets back and then down along the wall just in front of the slide wall (just behind the drivers seat). Then as an extension of that one, I routed another HDMI cable behind the couch back to my dinning room table (I have the table not the booth where I have my tower computer). Then I put a F-F adapter on the HDMI cable connector behind the drivers seat. This is so I can easily unplug the HDMI cable when I retract the slide. Of course if I forget to unplug, the F-F connector is there to allow it to unplug itself from the slide force.

On the passengers side, I routed another (flat type this time, just for fun) HDMI cable from the satellite cabinet (over the driver) behind the TV, then all the way around through the bottoms of the cabinets (those cabinets always have a false bottom so I was routing through the false bottoms), then dropped to the floor, where I have another tower type computer at the mini table that's just behind the passengers seat.

I did have to drill holes...job was mostly carpentry.

Then I bought an HDMI router that takes in 4 HDMI connections and outputs one. Has a mini remote, output goes to the Big TV. So I have the drvrs side computer, the passengrs side computer, the satellite receiver, and a small, high gain TV tuner that receives the OTA TV signal from my rooftop antenna, changes it to HDMI and I route that to the router, also has a remote and a channel setup just like the TV.

So after all that, I can watch 4 TV sources. Satellite, local TV, computer 1, computer 2. And I can use 2 different wifi sources on the computers. Naturally, I have standard HDMI to mini HDMI adapter so I can plug in and use any tablet to stream to the big TV too.

Haven't got to upgrading the TV in the bedroom to HDMI yet, it still only gets the new antenna box via the B.O.M.B. coax cable. Someday...

Pretty darn cool. I do NOT need a smart TV.

Here's a direct link to the ad free article I wrote about the setup: HDMI setup for TV.