Smart TV?

[Ryanb-72]

Saw the thread on laptops this morning which led me to thinking about a smart TV. Our 21C was ordered without any hookups for cable or antenna. My idea was to use a smart TV instead and use wifi or cell phone data to either you tube or some tv subscription. I guess there will be times with little or no cell service and or wifi but those should be few and far between. My wife and I rarely watch TV, it would likely be for those rainy or cold days when we don't want to go outside. We could use a laptop or something similar I am sure but there is something about watching a movie on a TV and not a computer for me. Long story short what are the folks out there using? Anyone using a smart TV like described or are there better options? Thanks for any input.
Ryan

[Shearwater]

We ordered our 5.0 without TV accommodations. I just picked up a 24" LG smart TV, 120v. Our plan is to use an HDMI cable from our phone to stream downloaded content. So we didn't really need the smart aspect but it is an option for the future. We will also likely pick up a cheap blue ray player and bring a few movies along just in case. Having said all that, we expect our only TV watching to be on cold, rainy days

[azjack]

We ordered our 5.0 with no tv antenna, just wired and cable ready. We use one of the flat antenna set in the area next to the bed and we are able to watch TV over the air or hooked up to cable. I use a switch to change from cable to antenna.
AZjack

[Brian B-P]

Anyone planning to stream video over a mobile internet connection clearly hasn't tried to get adequate service here, or pay for it. I'm sure it works in many areas.

[John in Santa Cruz]

any TV that has HDMI input, get a Google Chromecast pod, and you can 'cast' from your phone to it (might need to enable a wifi hotspot on your phone to make this work), but as Brian said, streaming over cellular ain't so hot when you're in the boonies, and if you are on a metered data plan, gets expensive fast.

if we really feel the need, I'll load up a bunch of movies, tv shows, as .MP4 files on USB sticks, and play them on my wife's laptop via a HDMI cable (this assumes your laptop has HDMI output, of course, but many newer ones do, others you can get a USB C to HDMI adapter dongle).

most of the time, I'd as soon read a book and listen to soft music on a rainy night.

[jennykatz]

We bought an older style tv 8years ago it has built in DVD player Nothing smart about it We do have the full Escape set up we usually get about 20 channels about 50 miles south of Chicago we’re we stay for the Summer . We have about 200 DVD I got when flying to China in my former life We usually start Day off by watching News and weather then we’re off After dinner we might watch a movie or some old TV reruns on one of the channels we get I also download newer films on my iPads so there’s always something to see Jim W

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

if we really feel the need, I'll load up a bunch of movies, tv shows, as .MP4 files on USB sticks, and play them on my wife's laptop via a HDMI cable (this assumes your laptop has HDMI output,

That's our most common use for the TV. I'm a news junkie but sadly many of the remoter areas that we end up in don't have OTA reception. I'm not likely to go the satellite route. That'd be overkill for our TV needs.

Ron

[Hancock]

Our 21C came cable-ready. I then bought a swing arm mount and a 22" standard tv. I already had a Roku stick hat then made the tv "smart." It can connect to a wifi network from the rv park or my phone hotspot or my T-mobile dedicated hotspot. What I mostly do is stream a movie from Prime or Netflix on the phone and cast it to the Roku stick. That way I am not burning data on the hotspot. It works very well. On my Android casting is through Smart View. Not sure what the iPhone app is called.