Carver Owners Forum

It seems older smart TVs are not as quick or do not have as many features/choices like the newer units do. Problem is a 5 or 6 year old 4k or even 1080p tv will probably last the lifetime of the boat except the smart TV part seems to get outdated in form and function just like a cell phone.

I did a little homework and ended up with an Amazon Fire TV stick ti update the smart tv part of the television, cheap and fast with all the goodies anyone could ask for. The only issue is they need to be powered but the good news is it is 5v USB. The original USB wall charger that comes with the Fire Stick has a rated output of 1a so really not power hungry at all. That being said, the unit is small enough to velcro to the back of a small TV or if the inputs are parallel to the screen the stick will most likely just pop into place without interference.

Here is the cool part. No need to buy a smart TV as the stick will do the job. No need to buy a special 12v TV as a small dedicated 150 mini inverter works perfectly as this is what I have been using in the aft cain for several years without issue. Simply cut off the 12v socket end on the inverter and spliced into the existing 12v leads to the original TV. The little inverter does have a USB plug incorporated so really convenient to plug in the Fire TV stick for its power. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01H2U9DE4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yep, there are smart TV’s and there are even smarter TV’s. We bought one for our boat 4 years ago and last year when we cut the cable and went to YouTube TV, we couldn’t access it on the boat TV. Asked my son about it and he suggested hooking up a Roku stick to it. Problem solved.
Just bought a cheapie $89 TV for the aft cabin as we have an extra Roku to hook up to it. Didn’t even look at smart TV’s…just looked for the cheapest one we could find.

You'll also find smart tvs are limited in what streaming apps can be loaded on them. They will do the biggies but even a new tv can be easily out of touch with new apps in no time. A firestick or roku each have their goods and bads and are the way to go fot sure. imo.

I got one of them once.....it seemed to watch me for a while then suggested I should read more ?????

buster53 wrote:Source of the post Yep, there are smart TV’s and there are even smarter TV’s. We bought one for our boat 4 years ago and last year when we cut the cable and went to YouTube TV, we couldn’t access it on the boat TV. Asked my son about it and he suggested hooking up a Roku stick to it. Problem solved.
Just bought a cheapie $89 TV for the aft cabin as we have an extra Roku to hook up to it. Didn’t even look at smart TV’s…just looked for the cheapest one we could find.

That's cool:)