No matter which brand you choose for your outdoor TV, many offer excellent 4K UHD resolution with HDR support to give you crystal clear detailing and rich color volume, making everything from the latest releases to old favorites look their best. If you want to connect soundbars, streaming devices, or game consoles to your new outdoor TV, each model features a waterproof compartment around the HDMI and USB inputs to protect them and your connecting cables from the elements, ensuring years of reliable entertainment. All of these features and the weather protection does come at a price, so be prepared to spend a good chunk of change, but it’s a worthy investment if you host multiple parties, barbecues, or family holidays throughout the year. We’ve gathered up our top picks and broke down their features to help you decide which outdoor TV best suits your needs. You can connect your iOS or Android mobile devices via Bluetooth to take advantage of the Tap View and Multi-View features, which allow you to quickly and easily mirror your phone or tablet screen with a simple tap and while simultaneously watching sports, movies, or the news. The QLED panel produces up to 2,000 nits of brightness, allowing you to enjoy your outdoor TV even in full sunlight; perfect for cookouts and watch parties with family and friends. The Terrace includes the Base-T receiver for connecting all of your devices to your new outdoor television without an unsightly tangle of wires, and a soundbar is available for enhanced audio. The Vava utilizes patented ALPD 3.0 laser technology for 4K UHD resolution with HDR-10 support for lifelike images and fuller color saturation. It also features a 3,000:1 contrast ratio for enhanced picture sharpness as well as deeper blacks and brighter whites. The lamp bulb is rated for 25,000 hours of life, meaning you can watch up to four hours of your favorite movies and shows a day for 17 years without needing to replace anything. For sound, the Vava has an integrated 60 watt Harmon Kardon soundbar with Dolby Audio support for more immersive audio. The projector runs on the Android 7.1 operating system, allowing you to download your favorite streaming apps directly to the machine. The TV has a built-in digital tuner for watching local, over-air channels so you can watch the news or local sports without a cable or satellite subscription. The built-in V-Chip allows you to set up parental controls to block certain program ratings so your kids won’t be able to access inappropriate shows. You can set up a “favorite channel” list so you can quickly access sports, news, or movie channels during get-togethers. You can set up parental controls to keep little ones from accessing inappropriate shows and movies as well as captions so everyone can enjoy sports and movie watch parties. A sleep timer function ensures that your TV won’t play to an empty backyard once the get-together winds down for the night. It has 3 HDMI inputs, composite and component ports, and a USB port, allowing you to connect everything from game consoles and soundbars to streaming devices like a Fire Stick or Roku device for access to thousands of on-demand shows and movies. With Bluetooth connectivity, you can connect your mobile device or wireless audio equipment for more ways to share music and videos or create the ultimate outdoor theater. A weatherproofed compartment protects the input ports from the elements, keeping your connections in perfect condition. While this isn’t a smart TV, you can connect streaming devices to access apps like Hulu, Disney+, and Netflix so you can watch thousands of on-demand shows and movies. If your deck or patio is on the small side, you can mount this TV to the outside wall of your house or from the ceiling of your sunroom to free up floor space and make sure everyone can have a great viewing angle. The TV has a built-in V-Chip, which allows you to set up parental controls to block your children from accessing inappropriate programming. And with a built-in TV tuner, you can access local channels for news and sports without a cable or satellite subscription. Dual, 5 watt speakers give you great, space-filling audio, but if you want even better sound from your new outdoor TV, you can use the HDMI ARC port to connect a weatherproof soundbar. While it isn’t a smart TV, you can use the other HDMI inputs to connect streaming devices so you can access apps like Hulu, Disney+, and Netflix to binge-watch shows and on-demand movies with friends and family. Jeremy Laukkonen is tech writer and the creator of a popular blog and video game startup. He also ghostwrites articles for numerous major trade publications.
The Ultimate Outdoor TV Buying Guide
Whether you’ve got a nice cozy cottage getaway or simply a back deck, it’s nice to have the option of watching your favourite shows and staying up to date on the latest news and sports while lounging around in the great outdoors. Unfortunately, most of the premium TVs you can buy aren’t exactly suited for this purpose. You might be okay with moving them outside temporarily for short periods of time, but who really wants to lug a 55-inch TV around all of the time? In the very least it’s awkward, and at worst you may damage your set by moving it around, especially with the relative fragility of modern ultra-thin screens. On top of that, what might make for a great picture indoors isn’t necessarily going to cut it when the sun is bearing down on your deck, so a TV that you plan on using outside has to be able to offer really high brightness levels so you can actually enjoy what’s on the screen, as well as being durable enough to survive the elements, whether it’s heat, humidity, or even actual rain.
Screen Quality
Let’s face it, if you’re setting up a TV outdoors, chances are you’re not looking for movie-theatre quality anyway, and that’s a good thing since realistically you’re not going to be able to take advantage of modern OLED screens—they just won’t get bright enough for an outdoor setting, leaving your screen looking dim and washed out. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a great 4K UHD TV, but it does mean that you’ll most likely be relying on the more traditional LED screen technology that offers significantly better brightness, and even though you’ll get lower contrast levels than OLED, this isn’t something you’re going to care about unless you’re planning on watching it in the dark of night. Also be sure to think about where you’re going to put the TV, as you’ll need a lot more screen brightness in direct sunlight than you will if you’re able to keep it on a shaded deck, and this is where anti-glare screens and anti-reflective coatings will be crucially important.
Laser TVs
If you’re looking to go really big, however, there are some premium outdoor TVs that have adopted an older idea that you’ll rarely find on traditional indoor television sets: front projection. This was actually a very popular way of building large screen TVs back in the 1980s, and while it’s been superseded by the much better LCD, QLED, and OLED display technologies, big-screen outdoor TV manufacturers have developed it in light years beyond its more primitive beginnings to the point where you can now get short-range laser-projected screens that offer bright and bold 4K UHD resolutions in cinematic sizes. You don’t need a lot of distance in front of the screen either as most of these laser TVs will let you put the projector less than a foot away from the screen. You’ll pay a massive premium for this technology right now, but if you’re looking to set up a home theatre in your back yard, a laser TV might just be worth the investment.
Screen Size and Resolution
The other question that can be tricky when dealing with larger outdoor spaces is exactly how big of a TV you should get. With indoor TVs you’ll always be constrained by the size of the room you’re in, but when you’re outside, you could easily be 20 feet or more away from your screen. If you want to be able to view it from longer distances, you’ll obviously need a bigger screen, but this is also where the decision between 4K UHD and the more common (and more affordable) 1080p HD sets comes in. Unless you’re willing to shell out for a really large screen, you’re going to have to be fairly close in order to benefit from a higher 4K resolution; otherwise you’re just wasting your money. The rule of thumb is that for a 4K UHD set, the optimal viewing distance is anywhere from 1x-1.5x the screen size. Any closer than that and you’ll see too much detail, and any further away and you won’t see enough. This means that for a 55-inch set you should normally be viewing it from around 4.5 feet to 7 feet, so if you’re almost always going to be sitting further away than that, either buy a bigger set or consider simply getting a 1080p HD panel instead. For 1080p HD this ratio increases to 2x–2.5x, which means for a 55-inch screen you’ll be good at anywhere from 9–12 feet away. Of course, these numbers are rule of thumb approximations, so your experience may be slightly different, but it’s still worth taking the viewing distance into account when choosing the optimal screen size and resolution for your outdoor TV. There’s no point in spending money on 4K UHD if you’re not going to be able to actually see it.
Sound Performance
Much like your screen needs to be bright to be viewable in outside light, you’re going to need to ensure that the speakers can get loud enough to be heard, especially if you have a lot of other ambient noise to deal with such as car or boat traffic or even just nearby streams. This is of course somewhat subjective, and it’s difficult to know for sure whether a TV will be loud enough without checking it out first, but you can usually also add external speakers, provided you make sure to find a TV that has the necessary outputs available for them. In fact, some TVs even now offer Bluetooth support, which will let you hook up a set of wireless headphones for private listening, or even a wireless speaker which can help provide better quality and volume of sound, while also saving you the trouble of having to run wires from your TV. As one last caution, however, note that while some TVs do offer “virtual” surround sound, you’ll probably be disappointed if you’re expecting to get much out of this in an outdoor environment. The spatial audio technology behind these sound systems is designed to work in enclosed spaces and relies on having enough walls around to reflect the sound, so most of this soundstage will be lost when listening outdoors. If you truly want surround sound for your outdoor TV, be prepared to invest the time and effort into deploying actual physical speakers around your deck.
Durability
There’s more to an outdoor TV however than simply making sure it looks and sounds good, since you’re also going to need it to last, especially if you plan on permanently mounting it outside. This means not only water resistance but also the ability to withstand heat and even direct sunlight, since unless you have a perfectly shaded area, you’ll likely have the sun beating down on your set during at least some periods of the day. A screen that’s not properly designed to withstand direct sunlight can deteriorate more over time, losing some of its colour quality, and the sunlight can also cause the outer bezel and casing to discolour or fade. Also, your outdoor TV will in the very least need to be plugged into a power source, but it will also likely have several other ports, and even if you’re just streaming over Wi-Fi and not using any other ports, you’ll want to make sure that it offers proper seals to protect them when not in use, since they become ingress points for moisture and dirt that can damage the TV’s electronics.
Smart TV Features and Streaming
Outdoor TVs are a special breed, so none of the mainstream brands offer models that are suited for use outdoors. As a result, you’ll find yourself turning to manufacturers that specialize in building rugged TVs for outdoor use. This means that you’re unlikely to get all of the bells and whistles that you’d find in most smart TVs, so if you’re buying an outdoor set for streaming, you might need to add a Roku or an Apple TV set-top box to the mix as well, but since these aren’t designed for outdoor use, you’ll need to consider purchasing a weatherproof case to keep the set-top box in if you plan to leave it near the TV. Alternatively, you could also keep your set-top box indoors and run a longer HDMI cable out to the TV; the Apple TV and higher-end Roku boxes use Bluetooth remotes, so direct line-of-sight isn’t necessary to operate them. Keep in mind also that you’ll need a strong Wi-Fi connection to stream content, and that can be challenging outside of your home, meaning you may need to pick up a longer-range router or Wi-Fi extender to get the kind of reach you’ll need.
