Apple TV for Travel?

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MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#201823 5-Sep-2016 13:52

I stay at hotels a lot for work and usually have good enough WiFi for Netflix and Lightbox.

I don't travel with a personal computer, and I leave the work one in the office.

Watching TV on a phone gets old fast (even faster as I get older).

I was thinking about getting an ATV (latest version)to connect to the hotel TV.

Any technical reasons not to? (I have physical security sorted).

My main concern would be how easy is it to set-up wifi access repeatedly.

Mike

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8312 posts

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#1623036 5-Sep-2016 14:24

What flavour phone do you have?

The reason I ask is that there is an appletv "remote" app for the ipone that makes entering wifi passwords and other strings much easier than having to chase round an on screen keyboard,

Another option is to "cast" or "airplay" content from the netflix app on your phone to a device ( appletv or chromecast) [ although on second thought, you would still require the device to be on a wifi network to do this)

davidcole

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#1623067 5-Sep-2016 14:58

There used to be a media player call the popcorn hour a100 - it was if nothing else, a great local network player....but it had internal mounts for a hardrive - so you can just take local media with you.

There's a possibility to look at something similar...or a raspberry pi with kodi and just plug an external hard drive to it.

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antoniosk

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#1624107 5-Sep-2016 16:18

I believe you can stream direct to an appletv from your widget now, but I don't know how good it's for high def movies etc

http://www.appletvhacks.net/2014/09/25/peer-to-peer-airplay-on-apple-tv-3/#.V8zyPOvvmrU

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MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1624375 6-Sep-2016 08:48

wellygary:

What flavour phone do you have?

Android

Mike

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1624377 6-Sep-2016 08:50

davidcole:

There used to be a media player call the popcorn hour a100 - it was if nothing else, a great local network player....but it had internal mounts for a hardrive - so you can just take local media with you.

There's a possibility to look at something similar...or a raspberry pi with kodi and just plug an external hard drive to it.

I want something that works out of the box and streams Lightbox and Netflix.

Mike

davidcole

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#1624382 6-Sep-2016 09:01

MikeAqua:

davidcole:

There used to be a media player call the popcorn hour a100 - it was if nothing else, a great local network player....but it had internal mounts for a hardrive - so you can just take local media with you.

There's a possibility to look at something similar...or a raspberry pi with kodi and just plug an external hard drive to it.

I want something that works out of the box and streams Lightbox and Netflix.

I would'n't have thought a hotel etc would have the bandwidth or the affordable data plans to allow you to stream.

shk292

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#1624387 6-Sep-2016 09:11

A couple of roadblocks to think about:

- Most hotel TVs are set to "hotel mode" which disables most inputs, so assuming there is a spare HDMI, you'll need to find out how to hack the TV out of this mode - usually achievable using Google and the standard TV remote

- Most hotel WiFi networks incorporate client isolation, so your if your phone and ATV are connected to the hotel network, they won't be able to see each other. The best work-round to this is to use a travel router (eg http://us.dlink.com/products/connect/wi-fi-ac750-portable-router-and-charger-3/) to create your own network, with an uplink to the hotel wifi. This also allows you unlimited devices connected to the hotel network, and means you only have to authenticate on one device

It is possible; I'm not an apple fan but I have successfully streamed Netflix and local content from a Nexus tablet to hotel TVs via a chromecast using above method

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davidcole

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#1624388 6-Sep-2016 09:15

shk292:

A couple of roadblocks to think about:

- Most hotel TVs are set to "hotel mode" which disables most inputs, so assuming there is a spare HDMI, you'll need to find out how to hack the TV out of this mode - usually achievable using Google and the standard TV remote

- Most hotel WiFi networks incorporate client isolation, so your if your phone and ATV are connected to the hotel network, they won't be able to see each other. The best work-round to this is to use a travel router (eg http://us.dlink.com/products/connect/wi-fi-ac750-portable-router-and-charger-3/) to create your own network, with an uplink to the hotel wifi. This also allows you unlimited devices connected to the hotel network, and means you only have to authenticate on one device

It is possible; I'm not an apple fan but I have successfully streamed Netflix and local content from a Nexus tablet to hotel TVs via a chromecast using above method

Doesn't a chromecast have a wifi direct mode? ie when it can't find a infrastructure wireless to connect to? But the question is then will your device (android I believe) push a video it's streaming to the chromecast.

shk292

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#1624390 6-Sep-2016 09:19

davidcole:

Doesn't a chromecast have a wifi direct mode? ie when it can't find a infrastructure wireless to connect to? But the question is then will your device (android I believe) push a video it's streaming to the chromecast.

Yes, but if the chromecast and tablet are in WiFi direct with each other, I think there is no way for the tablet to access Netflix etc

Using the travel router solves this problem, and others. If you do a lot of travelling with more than one WiFi device, it's the best $75 you can spend. Except perhaps noise-cancelling headphones

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1624392 6-Sep-2016 09:23

shk292:

A couple of roadblocks to think about:

- Most hotel TVs are set to "hotel mode" which disables most inputs, so assuming there is a spare HDMI, you'll need to find out how to hack the TV out of this mode - usually achievable using Google and the standard TV remote

- Most hotel WiFi networks incorporate client isolation, so your if your phone and ATV are connected to the hotel network, they won't be able to see each other. The best work-round to this is to use a travel router (eg http://us.dlink.com/products/connect/wi-fi-ac750-portable-router-and-charger-3/) to create your own network, with an uplink to the hotel wifi. This also allows you unlimited devices connected to the hotel network, and means you only have to authenticate on one device

It is possible; I'm not an apple fan but I have successfully streamed Netflix and local content from a Nexus tablet to hotel TVs via a chromecast using above method

Every hotel I stay in you can plug into an HDMI without any difficulty. As long as the ports are accessible, I've never had an issue.

I was planning to use the remote that comes with the ATV. Pretty sure my phone (Android won't work as a remote).

I'm generally not an apple fan either, but ATV seems like a good device and well supported by content providers.

Mike

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1624394 6-Sep-2016 09:27

davidcole:

I wouldn't have thought a hotel etc would have the bandwidth or the affordable data plans to allow you to stream.

It varies a bit by hotel and time of day. Generally you can get Lightbox to work smoothly just not always in HD. I'm new to Netflix but if it scales resolution to match bandwidth it should be fine.

As general rule: The more posh the hotel, the worse the WiFi and the less data you get for free.

Mike

shk292

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#1624397 6-Sep-2016 09:29

MikeAqua:

Every hotel I stay in you can plug into an HDMI without any difficulty. As long as the ports are accessible, I've never had an issue.

I was planning to use the remote that comes with the ATV. Pretty sure my phone (Android won't work as a remote).

I'm generally not an apple fan either, but ATV seems like a good device and well supported by content providers.

Sorry - I misunderstood and assumed you were going to do airplay but I guess with an ATV you can use the device's own app so you don't have to stream. That makes it much better than a chromecast for this purpose

I suppose hotels must vary. I had a bad run in USA/Europe where the HDMI ports were either physically blocked or disabled by hotel mode. Just wanted to point out that the latter is usually easily fixed

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1624400 6-Sep-2016 09:34

shk292:

travel router ... If you do a lot of travelling with more than one WiFi device, it's the best $75 you can spend. Except perhaps noise-cancelling headphones

How do you get sign a router into a browser based Wifi access portal?

Mike

sbiddle

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#1624403 6-Sep-2016 09:38

davidcole:

MikeAqua:

davidcole:

There used to be a media player call the popcorn hour a100 - it was if nothing else, a great local network player....but it had internal mounts for a hardrive - so you can just take local media with you.

There's a possibility to look at something similar...or a raspberry pi with kodi and just plug an external hard drive to it.

I want something that works out of the box and streams Lightbox and Netflix.

I would'n't have thought a hotel etc would have the bandwidth or the affordable data plans to allow you to stream.

Depends where you're staying. All the installs I do these days are all uncapped and give speeds up to 20Mbps.

Stay somewhere like an Accor and at lots you find you're rate shaped to 512kbps and find the internet totally unusable.

shk292

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#1624410 6-Sep-2016 09:49

MikeAqua:

How do you get sign a router into a browser based Wifi access portal?

The travel router has a web interface where you set up the details of the host WiFi network

Then, the first time you access a web page via the travel router, you'll get the normal hotel login screen - but you only need to do this once, from one client device because the login details apply to the travel router. Every other device you connect to the travel router doesn't need to be logged in

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