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TV without wifi - how do I upgrade it?

applepansy

By applepansy
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applepansy

applepansy

Posted
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My sweet son bought a TV on Black Friday for my husband for Christmas. He sent it home with me because they are trying to sell their condo and don't have room for it.

I was looking at the box and it doesn't have WiFi. I've googled and come up with Roku or Chromcast.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What is the differences? Is there something better? Less expensive?

Finrock

Finrock

Posted
Posted
My sweet son bought a TV on Black Friday for my husband for Christmas. He sent it home with me because they are trying to sell their condo and don't have room for it.

I was looking at the box and it doesn't have WiFi. I've googled and come up with Roku or Chromcast.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What is the differences? Is there something better? Less expensive?

What exactly are you trying to do? Are you wanting to add WiFi feature to your TV?

-Finrock

Dravin

Dravin

Posted
Posted (edited)
My sweet son bought a TV on Black Friday for my husband for Christmas. He sent it home with me because they are trying to sell their condo and don't have room for it.

I was looking at the box and it doesn't have WiFi. I've googled and come up with Roku or Chromcast.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What is the differences? Is there something better? Less expensive?

Another option is various Blu-ray players have Wifi ((be careful, some require dongles for Wifi which is an additional expense*) and will do applications like Netflix. Chromecast is probably the cheapest but it requires you have an Andriod device (if I understand correctly, and your TV needs to handle USB) and you'll probably tie up the device while using it to stream so that is something to consider. If you have a laptop and it has HDMI you can get away even cheaper by just buying a HDMI cable and hooking it up to the TV, but you still have the issue of tying up the device while using it with the TV.

*Speaking of dongles, it doesn't hurt to see if your model of TV has a dongle that adds Wi-fi capability.

Edited by Dravin
applepansy

applepansy

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Another option is various Blu-Ray players have Wifi ((be careful, some require dongles for Wifi which is an additional expense) and will do applications like Netflix. Chromecast is probably the cheapest but it requires you have an Andriod device (if I understand correctly, and your TV needs to handle USB) and you'll probably tie up the device while using it to stream so that is something to consider. If you have a laptop and it has HDMI you can get away even cheaper by just buying a HDMI cable and hooking it up to the TV, but you still have the issue of tying up the device while using it with the TV.

what is a dongle?

it sounds complicated. :( I was hoping there was something to just plug in and it would work... like an antennae. We don't have any android devices

Dravin

Dravin

Posted
Posted (edited)
what is a dongle?

it sounds complicated. :( I was hoping there was something to just plug in and it would work... like an antennae. We don't have any android devices

A dongle is just a piece of hardware you plug into a PC or the like (such as a TV or Blu-Ray player) that enables additional features/capabilities (If you have a wireless laptop mouse you're familiar with dongles, you just probably don't think of it as a dongle). There are also copy-protection dongles but that's not applicable here. The point being, if you were to buy a Blu-Ray player to enable Wi-fi connectivity make sure it doesn't require you to drop another $50 on a doohicky to plug into the back of the player to actually be able to use Wi-fi but has everything it needs out of the box.

it sounds complicated. I was hoping there was something to just plug in and it would work... like an antennae. We don't have any android devices

At minimum any device you purchase will have to be set-up to work with your Wi-fi (or a tethered device such as Chromecast but that's probably pretty painless) with the exception of simply buying a HDMI cable and plugging a computer into the TV (in which case the TV simply acts like a monitor).

BTW, why exactly do you want Wi-fi? Is it for something like Netflix? Amazon Prime Video? Watching Youtube? There are many devices out there that will connect your TV to the internet but some of them do particular things better. For instance, not all native applications are available on all models of Blu-ray players, our Blu-ray player doesn't have a native Amazon Prime Video application which forces us to hook a laptop up to the TV when we want to watch something on Amazon Prime Video on the TV.

Edited by Dravin
pam

pam

Posted
Posted
what is a dongle?

it sounds complicated. :( I was hoping there was something to just plug in and it would work... like an antennae. We don't have any android devices

That reminds me of a British monologue I saw on facebook. :lol:

applepansy

applepansy

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
A dongle is just a piece of hardware you plug into a PC or the like (such as a TV or Blu-Ray player) that enables additional features/capabilities (If you have a wireless laptop mouse you're familiar with dongles, you just probably don't think of it as a dongle). There are also copy-protection dongles but that's not applicable here.

At minimum any device you purchase will have to be set-up to work with your Wifi (or a tethered device such as Chromecast but that's probably pretty painless) with the exception of simply buying a HDMI cable and plugging a computer into the TV (in which case the TV simply acts like a monitor).

aw... so a dongle is an antennae?

I don't have a lot of money. So buying a computer to make the TV work with the router is out of the question. :( The Roku is out of range right now. :(

We do not have cable or satellite TV. Just an antennae so having the TV connect to the router wireless-ly has been a blessing. We can watch movies on Netflix. Or I can listen to Pandora while sewing in the bedroom.

Another issue is we need a newer digital antennae. We're having trouble with the ones we have. :(

This stuff costs too much! :(

Edited by applepansy
Vort

Vort

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aw... so a dongle is an antennae?

A dongle is essentially an adapter that allows your device to interface with something else, such as a TV set.

Dravin

Dravin

Posted
Posted (edited)
aw... so a dongle is an antennae?

No. It might be, in the case of something like a Bluetooth dongle, but it isn't defined as an antennae. For the purposes of players and TVs (and this conversation) it's just going to be something you plug into the back of the machine to make it have Wi-fi functionality, it might even be USB instead of proprietary.

I don't have a lot of money. So buying a computer to make the TV work with the router is out of the question. :( The Roku is out of range right now. :(

Well, none of us knows what your at home electronics situation is (if you have a laptop, tablets, where your computer is situated in respect to your TV (HDMI cables, even long ones are fairly cheap, that sort of stuff). Thus the shotgun approach to recommendations. If simply plugging in a computer won't work, and you don't have an Android device, then a Roku, which you can get the 1080P version for $50 right now, is going to be the cheapest way unless you can find a Wi-fi Blu-ray player cheaper than that or the TV in question has a Wi-fi dongle associated with it that is cheaper.

Edit: Looks like I was wrong about needing an Android device or Chromebook for Chromecast. There is a Chromecast application for Windows 7+.

Edited by Dravin
NeuroTypical

NeuroTypical

Posted
Posted
I don't have a lot of money. So buying a computer to make the TV work with the router is out of the question.
I like avoiding spending money too.

We have a subscription to Netflix, which can be accessed by the Wii, or our computers. Any of them can be hooked to the TV through either an HDMI cable, or an AV cable. A family in our ward gave us an outdated surround sound system several years ago, it will either plug into the TV (if we're using the Wii), or the computer.

TV doesn't need wifi.

applepansy

applepansy

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Well, none of us knows what your at home electronics situation is (if you have a laptop, tablets, where your computer is situated in respect to your TV (HDMI cables, even long ones are fairly cheap, that sort of stuff). Thus the shotgun approach to recommendations. If simply plugging in a computer won't work, and you don't have an Android device, then a Roku, which you can get the 1080P version for $50 right now, is going to be the cheapest way unless you can find a Wi-fi Blu-ray player cheaper than that or the TV in question has a Wi-fi dongle associated with it that is cheaper.

Edit: Looks like I was wrong about needing an Android device or Chromebook for Chromecast. There is a Chromecast application for Windows 7+.

Our home electronics situation is. One HDTV and blueray player in our bedroom. Hubby bought this last spring. Its all WiFi. But for regular channels we have a digital antennae.

A Windows 7 desktop and a Windows 8 Laptop. Very often someone is on the desktop and the laptop when someone (usually grandson) wants to watch something on TV in the family room. There is a router connected to the desktop which allows the laptop to connect to the internet. My daughter's computer is running off the router too.

Currently the family room has a dead projection TV (I need somebody to haul it to the dump) and an old 30 inch TV with a digital converter and antennae.

Now... my oldest son is giving us the flatscreen but its not WiFi so we will be unable to get Netflix in the family room. This is the TV I need to convert to WiFi without spending very much money at all. :( Roku is $100. Chromcast is $35. Prices according to what I googled this morning.

I just don't know enough about all of it. And I don't want to end up spending more and more and more and more to make it work. If I had an extra $100 I'd exchange the TV for one with WiFi. But that's not an option.

Roseslipper

Roseslipper

Posted
Posted
what is a dongle?

it sounds complicated. :( I was hoping there was something to just plug in and it would work... like an antennae. We don't have any android devices

you sound like me apples....haha

keep it simple...

Finrock

Finrock

Posted
Posted
According to the box, yes. But I have no idea how many.

You may want to investigate whether the TV is cable of accepting WiFi USB devices made for TVs. There are a few. However, they aren't going to be much cheaper than getting a Roku or some other such device.

I, personally, do not own a TV with WiFi. If I did I would immediately disable the WiFi functionality because of its inherent security and privacy risk. I'm not interested in a TV that is connected to the internet at all times.

-Finrock

applepansy

applepansy

Posted
  • Author
Posted
You may want to investigate whether the TV is cable of accepting WiFi USB devices made for TVs. There are a few. However, they aren't going to be much cheaper than getting a Roku or some other such device.

I, personally, do not own a TV with WiFi. If I did I would immediately disable the WiFi functionality because of its inherent security and privacy risk. I'm not interested in a TV that is connected to the internet at all times.

-Finrock

Even when they are turned off?

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