Smart tv upgrade

My original thought was to replace the main TV with a new modern smart TV with wifi connectivity. This ended up being harder than i thought based on the size of the current original tv. I just couldnt find a reasonably priced replacement that was a good fit. The factory TV measures 26" diagonal and nothing bigger seemed to fit the space well. I went thru the effort with a new 24" roku tv but the length of the factory cables were just a tad too short to reach and i had to fabricate a different piece of plywood to mount it up and left an unsightly gap all around. I opted to just go back with the original TV and a roku streaming stick and all original mounting. This worked well with 1 small issue. The placement of the power cord for the roku stick was too tight with the existing frame and i didnt want to cut up the frame for clearance so i used a 6 in HDMI extension cable to relocate the stick for the clearance i needed. Unfortunately i forgot to take a pic of the extension cable. For power i used the USB port on the side of the tv for the roku stick to eliminate the need of 120v power. While i was in there i replaced the original HDMI and fiber optic cables with new 10ft long ones. The originals were 6ft and didnt leave much slack. This allowed me to re-route those cables around the back of the wall in the cubby to the right of the TV opposed to right thru the middle as they were. IM happy with the install and results and was surprised that with the Roku remote it also controls the home theater volume since its working over the fiber optic cable.

Since i had a spare 24in TV now i mounted it to the back wall of the cabinet in the bedroom area so we can now watch TV in bed like we do at home as we wind down our day. PC had already put in a hole for the power cord underneath that cabinet to plug power cord into the outlet in that cabinet. The 24 in TV is the biggest that will fit in that space. It barely extends past the face of the cabinet

Hi Wildglide,

The 26" Samsung TV in your 2011 looks like the same one I installed in our 2007.  Back in 2007, Phoenix offered a smaller 3:4 aspect ratio TV so I ordered our PC without a TV, then installed a 16:9 widescreen for less.

Our 26" Samsung TV being old RCA red/blue/green video technology, works well with our original Executive 2007 head unit.  We are limited to DVDs, unable to play Blu-Ray.  Due to confinement against the fabric ceiling, the TV ran uncomfortably warm so I installed small computer cooling fans controlled by a POT to lower their speed for the sake of noise which made the TV operate nicely cool, but power consumption has always been significant, with or without the fans.

If I were to buy a replacement TV today, I would select a frameless 32" with an external power supply, not 120V direct.  Actual operating voltage is subjective to amps and watts, so upon bringing the TV home, I would immediately experiment with a car battery to determine if the TV will function properly from that power source.  Being LED technology today, power consumption will be greatly reduced compared to my 2007 26" Samsung which I believe is LCD/fluorescent that consumes a lot more energy than LED technology.

Naturally, TVs today are much more techie.  My favorite is screen-sharing a smart phone to the TV to watch anything off the phone, right on the TV.





Just FYI, also back in the day, I installed a Toshiba TV/DVD combo by the double bed.  Naturally, it is much easier on the house batteries.


Our PC has not kept up with technology, but we tolerate it fairly well.  If or when something dies, that would motivate an upgrade.