The television has become a practical standard in our living rooms. Even someone like myself who barely watches TV, still feel the living room is empty without one. Smart TVs have become cheaper than ever. But maybe not everyone wants to chuck a perfectly good TV just because of a new shiny model.
A Smart TV is smart because it is connected to the internet. This means you can install apps, such as Netflix, directly on the TV. If your TV is old, or simply didn’t have that feature, there are ways you can work around it. All these ideas essentially work on the same principle. Connecting a device that can connect to the internet to do all the hard work.
Chromecast
Probably one of the more well-known ones on this list. The ChromeCast is slightly less sophisticated than the others, in the sense that it doesn’t really do much on its own. What it does is allow you to stream from any wifi connected laptop, tablet or phone. You can either screen mirror, or cast directly from certain apps, leaving your device to act as a sort of remote.
Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a great piece of hardware. It’s essentially a tiny computer that normally retails for around €70 for the full kit. You can easily set up operating systems such as OpenELEC to turn it into a full-blown media streaming centre.
Android box/Apple TV
What it says on the tin. It basically turns your TV into a giant tablet (minus the touchscreen). This is great because any app you can find on a phone or tablet, you can probably install and run on an Android box.
Roku
The Roku streaming stick looks like a rather large pen drive. All you’ll need to do is connect it to your TVs HDMI port and connect it to the internet. You set up a Roku account and you can start streaming.
Amazon Firestick
Essentially the same principle as the Roku streaming stick, complete with the voice remote. But, the main reason I’m including it, is that the Amazon Fire TV Stick includes Alexa, Amazons own digital assistant. This means that certain devices that also use Alexa can be controlled from this remote. You can even buy it bundled with an Echo Dot, a smaller version of Amazon’s smart speakers.
Now, with these devices, the streaming and downloading possibilities are endless. We trust that you will be using these devices for nothing that you don’t have the right to watch.
What device do you use to make your dumb TV smart? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
