Smart TV Upgrade: Fire Stick or Fibe?

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR Summary

I already have Bell Fibe and a smart Tv in the living room that runs Rogers Cable. I want the bedroom dumb TV to use the same Fibe.

I hear about these Fire Sticks but is that overkill, since I already have Fibe?

 

[russ_watters]

I'm not totally clear on what you have and want (partly because I'm unfamiliar with the companies...). Googling Bell Fibe and Rogers Cable; their websites imply each is a cable TV provider. And being a "smart tv" is different from being connected to a cable tv service. The answer may simply to be to contact Bell Fibe and have them send you a receiver box for a second TV if that's the service you're after extending.

A smart Tv is stand-alone, and connects to your WiFi. If the TV itself is dumb, yes, a fire stick, chromecast, Roku, etc. would be how to give it "smarts".

If you want both, the cable box may have smart tv functions too, but I'm not sure.

 

[anorlunda]

With a smart TV, you can view Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, IMDB, and many other sources of video.

To use something like a Fire Stick, your dumb TV needs an HDMI port like this.

It also needs a WiFi connection.

 

[phinds]

With a smart TV, you can view Netflix, Amazon,

That's a misleading statement. Yes, you can watch them but ONLY if you pay yearly for the subscriptions. Netflix and Amazon [Prime] are not free just because you have a smart TV.

 

[russ_watters]

That's a misleading statement. Yes, you can watch them but ONLY if you pay yearly for the subscriptions. Netflix and Amazon [Prime] are not free just because you have a smart TV.

I don't think it's misleading at all (I think it is self evident), but I'll generalize: the primary purpose of a smart TV is to connect to/watch streaming media services.

Aside: some such services are "free" and some you have to pay money for.

Aside, aside: I put "'free"' in quotes because nothing is truly free. Even for the "free" ones that you don't pay money for, you are giving them something in exchange for being able to watch.

 

[DaveC426913]

With a smart TV, you can view Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, IMDB, and many other sources of video.

To use something like a Fire Stick, your dumb TV needs an HDMI port like this.View attachment 280715

It also needs a WiFi connection.

Really, all I want is to watch regular cable in the bedroom. Currently, the bedroom TV uses a cable box, but Rogers cable boxes are complete crap - they stop working and have to be rebooted regularly.

 

[russ_watters]

Really, all I want is to watch regular cable in the bedroom. Currently, the bedroom TV uses a cable box, but Rogers cable boxes are complete crap - they stop working and have to be rebooted regularly.

I don't think there is a way to extend the capability with a 3rd party device; it need its own "tuner" and the ability to communicate with the cable company. The best you could do otherwise would be some sort of splitter that enables watching exactly the same program on both tvs at once.

 

[FactChecker]

I don't think there is a way to extend the capability with a 3rd party device; it need its own "tuner" and the ability to communicate with the cable company. The best you could do otherwise would be some sort of splitter that enables watching exactly the same program on both tvs at once.

Right. A cable box will decode the signal specifically for that cable company. They do that so that people can not snoop on their service without paying. You will have to contact the cable company for another cable box or for multiple boxes. Even if you can split the box output, you will not be able to control the box in another room.

 

[DaveC426913]

The crummy cable boxes are the trigger for me wanting to change. These are little boxes, the size of a fat paperback, next to my dumb TV. They are nothing but trouble and heart ache.

 

[Mark44]

The crummy cable boxes are the trigger for me wanting to change. These are little boxes, the size of a fat paperback, next to my dumb TV. They are nothing but trouble and heart ache.

Is it possible for you to buy an equivalent cable box? If your cable/ISP is anything like mine, I have a cable box (made by Motorola), for which I pay $10 or so every month forever (grr!), and a wireless modem. At first, I paid a monthly fee for the wireless modem as well, but wised up and bought the same thing for about $80 maybe 5 years ago, thereby eliminating that fee.

We've had the cable provider's cable box for 15 years, and it gives us very little trouble. The wireless modem is a Motorola Surfboard, now a bit long in the tooth, but it works fairly well. Our cable provider is also our ISP, so the modem is used in wireless mode for two laptops, and also by hard-wired ethernet cable for two other computers. Once in a while the wireless side of the modem craps out and I need to power it down for a minute, then everything is fine.