Tech Guys (or gals) (or whatever you identify as)

[femurphy77]

I have a plasma big screen tv that we haven't used for years and I was thinking about installing it in the shop. We have a wireless connection to the house and I'm wondering if there is a way to hook up an hdmi tv to the wireless receiver in the shop? The wireless receiver doesn't have an hdmi connection on it but does have an extra cat 6 connection.

Or is this a good excuse to tell the wife I need one of the new 80" QLED smart tv's?

 

[WanderingSol07]

You need something like a Fire Stick or Roku that will connect to the HDMI port on your TV and connect to your home network via WiFi. This may not get the channels you want, such as over the air local stations. But you may be able to get them by connecting an antenna.

 

[Brandon]

You need the 80".
Has the connections you need with out degrading the quality of your picture.

 

[VostocK]

You need the 80".
Has the connections you need with out degrading the quality of your picture.

This. Plus as you age its bad on your eyes to strain them by watching a small tv. The older you get the bigger the TV you need. I am pretty sure getting the 80 inch is a medical expense at this point.

 

[snapping turtle]

congratulations you have a nice older TV with 120 hertz refresh great for live sports. Reuse it.

FIRST STEP: Take the plasma to the garage. Mount it on the wall with a wall mount that allow you to turn it towards where you make be working (and allow you access to the connections in the back easy). Power it up and use a 4 way ac device that does some surge suppresson. (Garage has a tendency to be more surge prone) don’t drop the TV unless you really want the 80 inch OLED for the garage.

SECOND STEP: attach an antenna to the TV go ahead and get a nice one as this is a pay once and use forever setup no monthly payments. You now have local broadcast for Sunday football LOcal news ect.

you know have about 120 dollars spent. Mount antenna and surge suppressor. More or less. Mainly depends if you have a surge bar and how much you spend on the old antenna. PS to mount the tv a box of togglers in 1/4 20 lets you place it off the studs and still stay on the wall add 20 for the box but you will need 4 of them to hang it.

THIRD STEP: a garage is where you need the no so handy man’s friend YOUTUBE. Several ways to make this happen but you need internet to do this. I can say how much time YouTube has saved me on so projects when I get stuck taking something apart. Some times something as easy as a headlight replacement on a car. Time is money.

1: do you have WiFi from the house?
2: do you have internet for your phone?
3: do you have old PC or laptop or a laptop you daily drive.

second thing what eco system are you in as far as google apple ect.
you are going to want access to the internet in some way in todays world displayEd on the TV.

What I find as the best streaming device for content display reliability and ease of use is an Apple TV box at 100-120 dollars. It does wired internet at 1 gig and has a very good wireless device which will outperform all of the plug and goes. This is totally a you decision as to what you get. I use double sided sticky tape (3m scotch loc) to attach the box to the back of the tv. Surge protectEd power is there already. a short HDMI cable to HDMI 1 and set up the apple box.
Now you have reliable internet device for all streaming content.
cost here 140 dollars or so.

Step four: The dressing it all up part.
1: order two plastic remote hanging holders so you at least have a place where the remotes go. Now all you have to do is put them in the holders.

2: sound bar: let’s face it a man’s garage is the castle the wife lets us claim. Find a used sound bar from a reputable maker and add it to the setup. Those tv speakers work but take it a step above.

3: cable managemen: wire ties and panduit plastic cable management strip for ac/dc and possibly wired internet connection. Wired will relieve the bandwidth of the tv off the wireless bandwidth but I would not stress this much

4: second or third HDMI cables. Go ahead and get an extra HDMI in case you take the laptop or have say a pc on the workbench. Not needed really but I like to access my camera system from most monitors and I use an older pc for this often. I just use remote to change input to hdmi 2 and bam cameras up viewable.

good luck this is a nice easy weekend project you can do. If you don’t want to and are within two counties of Madison and have silver rounds Two tubes worth. I can set this up in a couple hours for you including the mount Apple TV remote holders and antenna.

 

[femurphy77]

congratulations you have a nice older TV with 120 hertz refresh great for live sports. Reuse it.

FIRST STEP: Take the plasma to the garage. Mount it on the wall with a wall mount that allow you to turn it towards where you make be working (and allow you access to the connections in the back easy). Power it up and use a 4 way ac device that does some surge suppresson. (Garage has a tendency to be more surge prone) don’t drop the TV unless you really want the 80 inch OLED for the garage.

SECOND STEP: attach an antenna to the TV go ahead and get a nice one as this is a pay once and use forever setup no monthly payments. You now have local broadcast for Sunday football LOcal news ect.

you know have about 120 dollars spent. Mount antenna and surge suppressor. More or less. Mainly depends if you have a surge bar and how much you spend on the old antenna. PS to mount the tv a box of togglers in 1/4 20 lets you place it off the studs and still stay on the wall add 20 for the box but you will need 4 of them to hang it.

THIRD STEP: a garage is where you need the no so handy man’s friend YOUTUBE. Several ways to make this happen but you need internet to do this. I can say how much time YouTube has saved me on so projects when I get stuck taking something apart. Some times something as easy as a headlight replacement on a car. Time is money.

1: do you have WiFi from the house?
2: do you have internet for your phone?
3: do you have old PC or laptop or a laptop you daily drive.

second thing what eco system are you in as far as google apple ect.
you are going to want access to the internet in some way in todays world displayEd on the TV.

What I find as the best streaming device for content display reliability and ease of use is an Apple TV box at 100-120 dollars. It does wired internet at 1 gig and has a very good wireless device which will outperform all of the plug and goes. This is totally a you decision as to what you get. I use double sided sticky tape (3m scotch loc) to attach the box to the back of the tv. Surge protectEd power is there already. a short HDMI cable to HDMI 1 and set up the apple box.
Now you have reliable internet device for all streaming content.
cost here 140 dollars or so.

Step four: The dressing it all up part.
1: order two plastic remote hanging holders so you at least have a place where the remotes go. Now all you have to do is put them in the holders.

2: sound bar: let’s face it a man’s garage is the castle the wife lets us claim. Find a used sound bar from a reputable maker and add it to the setup. Those tv speakers work but take it a step above.

3: cable managemen: wire ties and panduit plastic cable management strip for ac/dc and possibly wired internet connection. Wired will relieve the bandwidth of the tv off the wireless bandwidth but I would not stress this much

4: second or third HDMI cables. Go ahead and get an extra HDMI in case you take the laptop or have say a pc on the workbench. Not needed really but I like to access my camera system from most monitors and I use an older pc for this often. I just use remote to change input to hdmi 2 and bam cameras up viewable.

good luck this is a nice easy weekend project you can do. If you don’t want to and are within two counties of Madison and have silver rounds Two tubes worth. I can set this up in a couple hours for you including the mount Apple TV remote holders and antenna.

Thanks JM! Being tech illiterate, this is exactly what I need, step by step instructions. I'll be getting to work on it this weekend and let you know how it turned out. I definitely want to be able to access YouTube because it is a treasure trove of knowledge as you have said.

 

[WebSnyper]

Just keep in mind that Plasma is going to be heavier than newer TVs (I'm sure you are aware). Consider that when purchasing mounts, etc. Also worth checking what mounting standard/size your TV supports as you need that info when choosing a wall mount.

I think Plasma's handle cold fairly well, but not sure what kind of temps are experienced in your shop.