Jim Rossman: A few ways to extend the life of your old TV

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A few weeks back I answered a reader question about smart TVs and if their streaming apps would get too old to work well.

My advice was yes, older smart TVs can fall behind on their software updates, and my main advice was to bite the bullet and spend the money on a new TV.

I should have gone a bit deeper and made a few other recommendations.

I heard from another reader after that column ran and he rightfully scolded me for simply recommending people get rid of their older TVs without considering all the options for keeping it going.

Some older TVs may still show a very good picture, but their built-in streaming apps might be slowing down. So, recommending people dump those sets was a bit short-sighted.

You can keep an older TV going longer by adding a streaming TV device like a Roku, Apple TV or Google TV streamer.

In fact, my mother-in-law’s main TV is a hand-me-down from her nephew. It’s a 16-year-old Panasonic plasma TV that was a great set, but made well before the days of streaming apps or smart TVs.

The TV in her bedroom is an equally old Samsung LED that also lacks any streaming capability.

When she cut the cord, I bought Roku streaming boxes for both her TVs.

You can purchase a Roku streaming stick or box for less than $40, but there are models that are faster and offer 4K resolution that can cost up to $100.

Apple TV 4K will start around $150 while I’ve seen the Google TV steamer on sale for around $80 (the regular price is $99).

These boxes connect to your TV through an HDMI port. You connect the box to your home internet service through Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable.

With these streaming boxes, you’ll get a simple remote that includes volume keys and navigation buttons, but no number buttons. Most streaming services don’t have channel numbers (some do).

One thing you’ll want to do with these streaming devices is take some time and figure out how to make their remote control your TV.

My mother-in-law can turn on her TVs and control the volume with the Roku remote. If you can get all your TV functionality controlled by one remote, you’ll be a lot happier.

I also want to mention you can add an over-the-air antenna to bring in local channels if you live close enough to the broadcast towers to receive the signal.

My wife and I still use a TiVo for watching and recording over-the-air channels. The model is the TiVo Bolt OTA, but it’s no longer for sale. Tablo TV is an OTA receiver/recorder that a lot of cord cutters recommend.