Lots of us jumped on the HD bandwagon the moment HDTVs became available. The advantage of being such an early adopter is that we got to enjoy the benefits of HD content right from the get-go. But as is usually the case with bleeding-edge technology, the early equipment needed to watch HDTV was quickly made obsolete by better performing, more attractive, and smarter products.
Early HDTVs were just that—high-definition televisions—nothing more, nothing less. Modern HDTVs, however, are essentially all-in-one computers, with the ability to run apps, access the web, play games, and do all sorts of other cool stuff.
If you've got an older HDTV without any "smart" features and can't afford or just don't want to upgrade to a newer, more capable set just yet, there are alternatives: devices that can add smart features to an existing set, and some of them are quite cheap.
Cast away
Google's Chromecast HDMI dongle ($35) is a very affordable way to add some useful capabilities to a TV. It doesn't actually add any smart features to an HDTV all on its own, but you install the Chromecast app on an iOS or Android device to send content from supported streaming sources—Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Pandora, Google Play Music & Movies, and a host of others—up to an HDTV. Users can also send content from the Google Chrome browser on Mac or Windows systems to a Chromecast device, provided the free Google Cast plug-in is installed.
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