It’s cliché but true: Home is usually where the heart is. But it’s also where old tech (like that 720p TV set) goes to die.
Lots of older people like to stick with what they know. For example, that T9 flip phone your grandpa has had for 15 years that can send texts, but he doesn’t ever do that. That Luddite impulse comes for us all eventually, so I’m not hating. But it does mean that your parents’ living room might be a bit behind the times technologically, leaving you stranded with DVDs instead of Netflix, 1080p instead of 4K, and dial-up speeds in a 5G world.
Is it a little selfish to lavish your parents in gifts that make watching TV and movies better for you? Sure! But ultimately, it benefits everyone involved, so here are some of the easiest ways to spruce up your parents’ TV room.
Need on-demand entertainment? Get a Roku or Chromecast.
Credit: Roku
As a long-time cord cutter (going on six years now), I know I find the old-fashioned channel-surfing technique to be insufficient when it comes to entertainment. I don’t want to catch a TV episode or movie halfway through with commercials. I want to watch it from the start with zero interruptions.
Whether your folks have stuck to cable or are using streaming apps that come with a smart TV (something I recommend against for performance reasons), one of the best and cheapest ways to meet modern standards is by buying a low-end streaming device like a Roku Express 4K+ or a Chromecast with Google TV. Both of those devices cost $50 or less and will deliver 4K and HDR streaming with every streaming app under the sun.
More importantly, they’re both easy to use. I got my parents a Roku Express 4K+ last year and it’s been a godsend. I know they use it when I’m not there, but crucially, I use it a lot when I am there. Everyone wins!
Tired of 1080p? Get a 4K TV.
Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable
Remember how I said both the Roku Express and Chromecast support 4K streaming? Well, that’s not very useful without a 4K TV.
A lot of people aren’t very diligent about upgrading their TV because it’s expensive and, frankly, there are diminishing returns as resolutions keep getting higher and higher. The jump from SD to HD was a lot more noticeable to the layman’s eye than the jump from HD to 4K. But with services like HBO Max, Disney+, and Prime Video all offering 4K content for no extra charge, there’s never been a better time to hop on that bandwagon.
It doesn’t even have to cost you an arm and a leg to make this particular upgrade. TCL makes totally serviceable 4K TVs for less than $500. I use a 43-inch 4-Series every day and it’s never done me wrong. Trust me, once you spend enough time looking at 4K content, you’ll notice the difference as soon as you try to look at a 1080p TV again.
Sick of babysitting the volume buttons? Get a soundbar.
Credit: Roku
Stop me if you’ve been here before: You’re watching a movie with the audio coming out of a TV’s built-in speakers, and you have to nurse the volume buttons on the remote because dialogue is frequently much quieter than the sound effects, especially in action sequences.
Modern TV speakers, to put it mildly, suck. TVs are too thin for the built-in speakers to be any good, which leads to weird audio balance issues like the one I described above. While a full surround-sound system is always going to deliver the best results, they can be expensive and not every living room can accommodate that.
This is why soundbars are great. In fact, I just got one for my parents. They offer better sound quality and balance than TV speakers, and take up way less space than surround-sound systems. You can even kill two birds with one stone by getting the tiny $130 Roku Streambar, a compact (but powerful) little speaker that also has a 4K Roku streamer inside of it. There’s also a full-sized soundbar and subwoofer from Roku if you need a little more oomph.
Done with WiFi interruptions? Upgrade the router.
Credit: Google
Maybe your parents have all of the above, but the dang WiFi keeps cutting out. Sometimes the router is just too far from the living room, so signal drops are frequent and stream quality is lower than you’d like. This is where mesh WiFi comes in.
In case you aren’t in the know about mesh WiFi, it typically involves plugging in a special new router that’s built to beam its signal out to one (or more) auxiliary units placed elsewhere in the house, thus extending the signal further than one router could on its own. This can quickly get expensive if you need more than one auxiliary router, but if you don’t live in a mansion, one main router and one extender should be enough.
Google Nest WiFi totally fixed the crappy internet in my old apartment, so I can personally vouch for it. One router and one extender retails for $270, but Google currently lists it at just $150, which is a steal.
Again, all of this is intended to make your time with the ‘rents as painless as possible. If you gotta be stuck at home without all your usual gear and activities, you might as well make the best of it with the nicest tech you can provide.
