SlideLobsterOption 1: A photo on a USB stick
Design your menu as an image (or photograph a chalkboard), save it to a USB stick, and plug it into the TV's media player. Cost: nothing but your time. The catch: every price change means redesigning the image and physically visiting the TV. Fine for a menu that never changes; painful otherwise.
Option 2: PowerPoint or Google Slides
A step up — build the menu as a slide and loop it on the TV via USB or by screen-mirroring a laptop. You get animation and tidy layouts, but updates still mean editing a file and getting it onto the TV, and a mirrored laptop is a laptop that can't do anything else.
Option 3: Casting from a phone or laptop
Cast a browser tab or your screen to a Chromecast or Fire TV. Quick to try, but the menu disappears whenever the casting device sleeps, leaves the building or takes a phone call. Not something to build a business day around.
Option 4: Cloud menu board software
The TV opens your menu as a web page and keeps it there permanently. You edit items and prices from any phone or laptop and the screen updates itself. No USB sticks, no casting, no laptop sacrifice. SlideLobster does this for free for one screen — add a £30 Fire TV Stick if your TV can't browse the web by itself.
- Update prices from behind the counter in seconds
- Schedule different menus for breakfast, lunch and evening
- Add photos, QR codes and allergy notes
- The screen keeps working even if your internet drops
Which should you choose?
If your menu changes less than once a season, a USB stick is honestly fine. If you change prices, run specials, or just never want to climb behind the TV again, cloud software is the only option that stays convenient — and with a free plan, it costs no more than the USB stick.
Try it on your own screen.
SlideLobster is free forever for one display — no credit card. Works on any TV browser, Fire TV Stick or Chromecast.