Name: Raspberry Pi 5 setup for a simpler TV, snags and all
Uploaded: 2026-10-15T00:00:00.000Z
Duration: 59 s
Description: A $190 CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5, the snags the instructions skip, and a TV that turns itself on with one tap on a big-button tablet remote.

One tap on the BoomerOS remote, on a tablet for now, and the TV across the room turns itself on and switches to the Raspberry Pi. That's where this is heading. It started with a box of parts.

The kit is the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 Essentials Starter Kit, about $190, and there's no step-by-step sheet in the box. The only guide was a small diagram on the cooler's box, which I missed. A tiny cover sat over the fan's socket on the board, and nothing mentions it.

Then the setup snags: updating the memory card, finding the TV setting that lets the Pi turn the TV on and switch inputs (HDMI-CEC; Vizio just calls it CEC), and working out which HDMI port the Pi was in when the labels are tiny. It was HDMI-5. The TV's own remote mostly works with it.

By the end, the BoomerOS screens are up on the TV, showing what's on now in big, plain words. This is our test TV; Dad's is next. The goal is a box that plugs in and works. The whole build, snag by snag, is in the story.

Transcript

Let's go watch TV, watch football.

Let's tap this and let's see it.

Look at that.

So this is the CanaKit.

So I figured it out. There's actually a little guide right here that kind of shows me. I'm kind of stupid, I didn't see that.

Okay, so I finally figured out. You see that little piece right there? That was covering it. Yeah, the directions don't tell you about that.

Is this supposed to get stuck? Can I only go in one way?

Oh, there is this thing called CEC.

Oh my God, I can't read. Can you read that?

Ooh, cool. Something loaded.

Ooh, play seemed to work.