Streaming Movies

The OP has not come back to respond but it seems that he is talking about doing this in his house - and with a broadband home internet connection this is very doable. The Wii can be updated for free to stream Netflix with a Netflix subscription. And a Roku can also do this - and the new Roku XS 3 can do even more including catch streaming from a PC with DLNA on the home wifi network.

Right now i am out of town for work, staying in a motel with terrible wifi. I tethered my phone to the computer and combine my internet with theirs to get more speed. I have unlimited data plan and use pdanet for the tethering. It cost $5 for the full version and I am able to stream from project free tv just fine. The program also lets you hide your tether usage, In case it violates your TOS. I know it violates verizon which is the carrier that my smarttalk phone uses but it doesn't violate straightalk TOS.

. . . or connect your DISH Hopper to a WiFi hotspot and download Video-On-Demand (VOD) movies. The movie you select downloads via your sat dish, not via the WiFi hotspot.

. . . or while you're in town, find a free WiFi hotspot, download a movie to your iPhone or iPad, and use Apple's built-in AirPlay to stream the movie to your RV's TV. (WiFi hotspot required + TV must be connected to an AIrPlay device like an AppleTV).

There are many ways to skin this cat besides using up umpteen GBs of your broadband data.

Yep, but again, not good if you are a mobile internet user. Unless you have some form of unlimited cellular internet, you are going to blow through your limits (or be blocked by campground Wifi) if you try to stream any of this stuff.
Now, if you have a Genie in your RV and you have a wireless router in your RV as well and the necessary Go Mobile unit then you can stream the TV from your Genie to your local equipment without involving the internet. That still requires a DTV subscription while in the RV eliminating the need to "stream" anything.

Just got a Direct TV Genie. It will stream all recorded DVR content to smart phones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc. IT needs to be connected to the internet and be authorized by the genie app to stream the content or you can download what you want directly onto the device and watch with no internet connection. My tablet has a HDMI output so I connect it to the tv I want to watch.

Our TV at home has internet capability (as well as our blueray player, Tivo, & Wii)... at home we use those to connect to Netflix or YouTube to watch video.

While camping we can (though normally don't) watch videos over cell by connecting my cell phone (Motorola Atrix) to the TV via HDMI. This is not practical for watching too much video, but for an hour or two a couple times a month it works with our data plan.

Our cable service (ComCast) also has an Android app which allows us to watch some video through our phones... not too much is available though. If you subscribe to movie channels, there are more video selections available.

Happy Camping!
John.

i have a Sony media player box, with HDMI output
i use it and MY computer for streaming video

the Sony will also connect to an external HHD or USB stick via USB port
so i can play saved video files from an external source with out using the laptop

the media player connects to internet via wifi and i can stream from my netflix or amazon accounts

My daughter used the Wii, rather than the Xbox, to sream Netflix, but got tired of waving around the controller at a clumsy on-screen user interface and bought a cheap BlueRay player for the task. A Roku or other streaming-only device may be less expensive than a BlueRay if you will never use the disks.

I find that my iPad, and my Windows laptop, are both superior to my BlueRay.player for NetFlix, in terms of image quality, maintaining aspect ratio, support of features like closed captioning, and the interface for finding shows and managing queues. This is about the qualty of the Netflix apps for iOS and the web browser vs their app for Java devices like the BlueRay player. This situation could be different for the apps for other services like Hulu or Amazon, but if you have a moden laptop with HD video and HDMI out, you might try it as your video streaming device. For non-HD, Wii or Xbox 360 can be adequate, if they support your choice of streamed TV.

You need to have a fast enough Internet connection, and a data plan that supports the volumes. I found 500 kbs to 1 mbs adequate for standard definition, 3 mbs will handle streaming at least one channel of HD and still save some room for other active, low volume connections on the same service. But your service has to sustain those speeds; some providers offer outrageously high connection speeds that are just burst speeds on their connection, not sustained, and not going that fast across the Internet to whatever services you are using.

docj wrote:

A 4G cell phone signal used either through a phone's hotspot or a device such as a MiFi can provide excellent video, but you will have to expect data usage to be at least 1GB per 2 hours of viewing.

Data usage depends on what video streaming speed you're using.

Netflix minimum required speed is 0.5 Mbit/sec (or 215 MB/hour).
Netflix recommended speed is 1.5 Mbit/sec (or 545 MB/hour).
However, Netflix can go up to 12 Mbit/sec (or 5 GB/hour) for 3D movies.

Also, the data rate is dynamic -- it will adjust as your connection speed varies -- so you could be streaming a lot more than 1 GB/hour if you're on a 4G network.

I travel for work and use this religiously when tv programming sucks or is not there.