Buying a New TV

[Larry N.]

I've been happy with Onn Roku TVs from Walmart.

I made the mistake of buying a Westinghouse ROKU TV from Best Buy. ROKU controls all operation of the set and the operation off the air is awkward and confusing, difficult to get into the off-the-air mode each time it's turned on. Picture and sound are fine, and many features are fine, but the OTA operation is miserable, though it's just fine once you get to the channel you want -- it's just tough to get to those channels.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

Good for you Judy. Enjoy

Larry, I agree 100% on the ROKU. We got one in our Adventure Room (pics on the wall of places visited in our travels) for free when we bought the DW's Kia in my signature. We cut the cord years ago so use it for antenna, Netflix, Amazon, etc. What a pain at times trying to get normal local over-the-air channels.

 

[JudyJB]

Well, I am at Best Buy, and the 40" TV I bought there does not fit--mainly because part of the screen would be hidden behind a cabinet and also because it hits something else. So had to drop down to a 32" tv, which is fine since I sit so close to it anyway.

 

[jymbee]

Well, I am at Best Buy, and the 40" TV I bought there does not fit--mainly because part of the screen would be hidden behind a cabinet and also because it hits something else. So had to drop down to a 32" tv, which is fine since I sit so close to it anyway.

Wasn't that long ago when a 32 inch Sony was massive and near top of the line. Weighed a ton as well (ask me how I know). Last 55 inch set we bought weighed only a small fraction of what that 32" Sony weighed.

 

[CharlesinGA]

I started out with a 34 inch Toshiba Fire TV in the shop, on the wall above the tool boxes. It got zapped and I installed a 43 inch Best Buy branded Fire TV (note the progression here) and this summer when it too got zapped, I got a 50 inch Toshiba 4K Amazon Fire TV for $199, which was the cheapest TV yet. Due to the VESA screw pattern on the back I ended up ordering a new wall mount which is good to 99 lbs so I won't outgrow this one. I mostly watch stuff on Nebula and Curiosity Stream to avoid the ads on Youtube since I am listening and working at the same time.

I think the trailer had a mount but it has been removed, only the strap is still installed. I don't watch TV when I am traveling, sometimes use the laptop to watch Youtube.

Charles

 

[JudyJB]

The 40" TV was $149 and the 32" was only $139. I remember that a color TV in the 50s cost almost as much as a car! Installation was $119, and they had to drill two new holes to use my electric arm. Works OK, but they left a terrible tangle of plugs and wires. I fixed them a bit, but it was hard on my left shoulder, so my son will do some more organizing when I get to Napa. Works good, but I really liked the size of the 40" one!

 

[RedForeman]

I made the mistake of buying a Westinghouse ROKU TV from Best Buy. ROKU controls all operation of the set and the operation off the air is awkward and confusing, difficult to get into the off-the-air mode each time it's turned on. Picture and sound are fine, and many features are fine, but the OTA operation is miserable, though it's just fine once you get to the channel you want -- it's just tough to get to those channels.

I've had the opposite experience. Maybe Westinghouse just did a poor implementation of the Roku interface vs onn? When I power up the sets, the "antenna TV" icon is top left. Click that and I get the guide. If it's a new location, go to that icon and hit * to do a channel scan. The only negative I've seen is if you're in a market with 100+ channels, you will have a lot of guide to scroll thru. I have a usb stick plugged into the one I was using on the truck, so the pause/rewind feature works.

About half the time, if I have good internet, I'll use the Plex app instead and stream OTA from my home Plex server (ATL broadcast market 100+ channels). The home screen in Plex has a row of 6 recent channels, so it's a snap to get right to what I want to watch. The Plex (free) streaming lineup is not bad either, I'd use the app even if I didn't have a server/DVR set up at home.

For a sub-$100 TV, I can't complain. That said, the 40" Vizio in the camper living space sucks and will get replaced some day when I get tired of dealing with it. Watching paint dry is faster than the channel scan, and the O/S is constantly pushing streaming content I don't care about. The scan regularly finds about 25-50% fewer channels than the onn TV as well. To be fair that could be a longer cable run inside. When Vizio designers sat down to build the OTA features, the goal must have been: "What can we possibly do to make this slower with a mostly empty guide and more inconvenient so users will give up in frustration and watch our streaming content instead?"

 

[Oldgator73]

We have a 65” Vizio in our den and an 85” Samsung in the bedroom. The Samsung has a better picture.

 

[Tom_M1]

I recently replaced my TV with a Hisense 32" that I purchased at Costco for $99 plus tax. It has a native 1080P display. Picture is great. It is a smart TV that uses the Google interface. I haven't been on the road yet so time will tell how well it will hold up.

 

[Tileman1]

Except I don't plan to do any streaming at all because I do not have enough bandwidth. I am just going to use this TV with my DISH service and occasionally play DVDs. I want something that will survive with a lot of driving and constant bumps.

Someday, I will be off the road and in a permanent home, so can stream then, but it will not be with this TV.

 

[Tileman1]

Almost every campground has Wifi. It's never strong, but you'll be able to stream anything on your new smart TV.

 

[jymbee]

Almost every campground has Wifi. It's never strong, but you'll be able to stream anything on your new smart TV.

In 6 years of traveling I've never found even one campground with sufficient WIFI speed to be able to stream anything. Mindful that we stay at public parks only (State, COE, etc.) and private parks might be a different story.

 

[JudyJB]

Almost every campground has Wifi. It's never strong, but you'll be able to stream anything on your new smart TV.

I almost entirely stay in federal, COE, state, and county campgrounds, and they almost never have free internet. However, I get all the TV I want on DISH and have been happy with their service over the past 12 years. I get my internet connection through two Verizon hotspots that I have left over from my years of teaching online while on the road, so even the few times I do stay in a commercial campground with internet, I prefer to use my own access because it is more secure.

 

[rvlifer]

I have had mixed experiences with campground wifi. My wifiranger helped a lot. FMCA offers cellular internet on AT&Ts network. That worked better than any other cellular internet that i ever tried and worked well for streaming as long as you could get a decent signal to AT&Ts network. It was substantially cheaper too and comes with unlimited data.