Updated My TV to be "Smart"

bobbolotune wrote:
I have not attempted streaming while camping for the reasons already discussed (it would require more hotspot bandwidth than I want to pay for, or campground WiFi probably won't be fast enough). I think streaming is more practical when you are at home with your own fast WiFi and near enough to your WiFi modem, not for camping.

What I have ended up doing is that my Comcast Xfinity DVR at home allows downloading (including remotely, you don't have to be at home to download) recorded shows for offline viewing on my Android tablet. I can also set the DVR over the Internet. So I would set up recording shows (over the Internet, while camping) then when I was someplace with decent WiFi do downloads for offline viewing. Start the download before going to sleep, which also happens to be when public WiFi speeds up because other people are going to sleep. I managed to download enough to watch TV an hour or two a way, which is all I wanted.

The Comcast app can be a little flaky. One time it completely crashed and I lost all my downloaded shows. After that I had pretty good luck. Something I discovered that seemed to help is you need to turn off the tablet display going to sleep before starting a long download (it is an option in Android options).

I intentionally bought an Android tablet with an HDMI port so I could plug it into the TV, but actually I have never gotten around to doing that because I find it fine to watch TV on the 10" tablet (with a separate bluetooth speaker, $20 to $30 at Walmart, good sound quality as long as you are sitting near the speaker).

If you don't have cable capable of this I understand that Amazon Prime also allows similar download for offline viewing that could be done the same way, with many free shows. Or newer shows have a cost but reasonable cost and much less than hotspot bandwidth. Probably Amazon Prime would work on a wide variety of devices including the Windows device the OP talks about. For me it is because I am already paying for cable and the DVR at home I might as well use that service while camping also, otherwise Amazon Prime might be a good choice.

This is why I stated I am using a BearExtender instead of the Wifi card in the ComputeStick. I get great range with the extender. In addition, I have added 64GB of memory to the stick for movies, music, and pictures.