How to Watch TV in Your Vehicle with a Roku Streaming Stick

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Looking for how to stream live TV in your vehicle with a Roku Streaming Stick?

Please note: This post contains affiliate links so if you click on a link and make a purchase I will receive a portion of the sales from Amazon if you choose to buy the items needed to watch live TV in your vehicle… if your significant other is a tech junkie…you may even have some of this stuff on hand already.

This has been one of the most sought after articles on our website and since we originally wrote the how-to with the Amazon Firestick, we wanted to make sure we included a how-to article on the Roku Streaming Stick as well.

This who concept came from a 10 hour drive to the beach and anticipating a the kids would start to get squirmy on the journey, my tech-junkie husband connected streaming device to the video inputs for our DVD player in our van.

While we did create some vacation binders and have other in car activities to keep them busy, the TV, was definitely a help.

We have lots of DVD’s but over the many trips to grandma’s and grandpa’s over the years they have seen them…alot, so they don’t hold quite the stay power that they used to.  Plus, some of my son’s favorite shows now that he is almost 8 are not necessarily DVD’s that we own.

So, how did we modify the van for live TV?  It’s actually pretty easy once you get the right equipment.  Here’s how to add live TV to your car, van or SUV, that already has an entertainment system, using the Roku Streaming Stick.

Here’s what you need in order to use the Roku Stick to get TV in your Van or Car:

    1.  Roku Streaming Stick
    2.  HDMI to RCA Converter Adapter
    3.  Fast USB Car Charger Adapter
    4.  Composite Video Audio Cable

Once you have these four items then it’s time to get to work.  If you have a tech-savvy hubby like I do… he may have some of this already.

All of this should run you about $60, about the price of 3 -4 new DVD’s but will have a lot longer entertainment value on your next trip.

A couple things to consider…

Before anything else, you vehicle will already need to have an entertainment system built-in… I am sure they is someway to fanangle something if you don’t, but this tutorial is for those who already do.

You will also need a hotspot to connect to once everything is set up.  Streaming the show therefore will also run up your data plan so please make sure to account for this before deciding to create a set-up.  We watched the TV quite a bit on a 10 hour drive and back and used about 5 gig of data in the process.

Finally,  make sure to review the Roku manual to set up so you kids are spending money on on demand content while you are driving… hard lesson learned for us after our son chose 4 episodes of Star Wars Rebels to buy when we had this set up with the Firestick.

Luckily, he unknowingly only spent about 12 dollars, but still, didn’t make my husband or I really happy. So hopefully we can save you from the same fate. Roku allows you to set up a passcode and you usually have to sign into a sub-account (Disney+, Prime Video, etc) so it’s not as easy for their to be accidental purchases, that’s not saying that they can’t do that within the apps the run on Roku, but I am pretty sure a passcode prevents unauthorized purchases, do a test run before you set off on your journey and hand the remote over (comment on this article if you are able to confirm or share if you have had a similar experience).

Now that you have all that, let’s get started with the set-up.

Step 1:

First, you will need a power source.  To do this, plug the Dual USB Plug into a cigarette outlet.

Step 2:

Connect both the Roku Stick and the Convertor to the dual USB plug.

Step 3:

Plug-in the Roku Stick into the HDMI port in your vehicle.

Step 4:

Connect the Composite Cable to the vehicles entertainment system, making sure to match the colors on the cord to the colors in the entertainment system

Step 5:

Plug the other end of the composite cable into the converter, again, making sure to match up colors.

Step 6:

Turn on the entertainment system and then connect to your own personal hotspot.

Step:7

Connect to the personal hotspot, sign into your providers and your backseat passengers can enjoy live TV on the road!

Read more: How to Use Tech to Get Kids to Do Their Chores

This post is not promoted by Amazon.  Opinions are my own and if you click on a link to make a purchase I will receive a portion of the sale as am Amazon Affiliate.