Helping Your Smart Device Live Up to its Name Did you get a new tech toy over the holidays? Congratulations! We trust that you have it properly mounted, installed, connected to Wi-Fi and all that. If not, now’s the time to call your grandchild or pay the neighbor kid five bucks to hook you up. Honestly, reading the instructions and following the process step-by-step is still the best way to go. It also pays to have a healthy supply of patience. Today we have ever-increasing number of choices of channels and shows, thus, an ever-increasing ways to receive those shows. Don’t have a Smart TV? Never fear! A streaming device, like Roku, Amazon Fire, or Google Chrome – along with Wi-Fi and an HDMI cable are all you need to get the PBS Video app. Plug the device of your choice into an HDMI input on the back of your digital TV and you’re set. The best news of all? You aren’t required to have any of this. If you have a digital TV and a properly oriented antenna you can receive dozens of signals free, over-the-air. SDPB offers four channels on TV (PBS Main, World, Create, and PBS Kids) plus both of our radio signals (SDPB Radio HD-1 and SDPB Classical 24).
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Learn. Dream. Grow.
If you have a new TV and you’re wondering how to make sure you receive all that SDPB has to offer, here are a few things you should know.
• Have a “Smart TV?” Smart TVs act much like a computer, tablet or smartphone – they connect to the internet and provide you access to a variety of streaming services, including TV shows. Most Smart TVs support such popular streaming services as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Pandora, and PBS Video. Some sets offer only a handful of apps that rarely change, while other models deliver several screens of offerings, ranging from MLB to Facebook to Stitcher.
• If you want to access PBS programming – in addition to
what we broadcast – make sure you have the PBS Video app (more on apps next page). If you have a Samsung Smart TV manufactured after 2017 the PBS Video app is included. If not, you’ll need a streaming player, like Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV.
• If you receive your TV via cable or satellite – or even an
antenna – you can connect directly into your Smart TV and follow the instructions to tune it to receive the signals.
Having trouble? PBS has a “how to” page with walkthroughs for setup on smart devices that can recieve the PBS Video app. For help with smart TVs, streaming devices, tablets, or phones go to help.pbs.org/support/solutions. NPR also has a setup walkthrough for smart speakers at npr.org. Search “how to listen to NPR on your smart speaker.” Prefer human contact? Call SDPB at 605-677-5861 and we will do our best to help get you connected!
