Updated My TV to be "Smart"

old guy wrote:
I''m sorry but the devil made me say this, "What did you do send it to electronics school?"

No. I donated them to the Getty Museum as addition to their antique collection. Those young kids at the counter don't even know what they are for. They thought everything worked wirelessly before they were born--just like their cellphones. =)

JoeChiOhki wrote:

Walaby wrote:
I've got the Amazon fire stick, but haven't taken it with me, because my AT&T hotspot data plan is only 5GB, and that would be gone in a weekend. I probably ought to test a CG Wifi at some point, but where I have used it, it barely worked for browsing, much less tv show/movie watching.

Definitely interesting!

Mike

The antennas in the small commute sticks are small, and are not meant for long range pickup.

If you want to use them with a park's wifi, you'll need to get yourself a repeating unit and an external antenna, then you can pipe the wifi from any part in good and strong :).

The stick operates on Bluetooth technology and not meant to capture signal for images on the TV. There is no need for any antenna or repeater.The hotspot does this job. Doing so (antenna and repeater) is like going back twenty years.That's what makes this technology leave cable and
satellite providers in the dust.

Walaby wrote:
I've got the Amazon fire stick, but haven't taken it with me, because my AT&T hotspot data plan is only 5GB, and that would be gone in a weekend. I probably ought to test a CG Wifi at some point, but where I have used it, it barely worked for browsing, much less tv show/movie watching.

Definitely interesting!

Mike

Time Warner offers unlimited data and a hotspot they call Intelli-Go. They have a 200Mbps package that's more than enough bandwidth to gain independence from puny CG WiFi.

Walaby wrote:
I've got the Amazon fire stick, but haven't taken it with me, because my AT&T hotspot data plan is only 5GB, and that would be gone in a weekend. I probably ought to test a CG Wifi at some point, but where I have used it, it barely worked for browsing, much less tv show/movie watching.

Definitely interesting!

Mike

The antennas in the small commute sticks are small, and are not meant for long range pickup.

If you want to use them with a park's wifi, you'll need to get yourself a repeating unit and an external antenna, then you can pipe the wifi from any part in good and strong :).

I've got the Amazon fire stick, but haven't taken it with me, because my AT&T hotspot data plan is only 5GB, and that would be gone in a weekend. I probably ought to test a CG Wifi at some point, but where I have used it, it barely worked for browsing, much less tv show/movie watching.

Definitely interesting!

Mike

My devil asks what that has to do with camping?

I''m sorry but the devil made me say this, "What did you do send it to electronics school?"

That's right. Use your own Hotspot device and you're good to go without having to rely on CG Wifi. Amazon Fire TV and Stick are the ones I use for both home and on the road. Just make sure your TV is HDMI capable.
No more sat TV antenna, co-ax cables, adapters etc. You can park your RV without having to worry about blocked reception and cloudy days.
I'm happy with it.

Walaby wrote:
Cool... Does it connect up to the internet via wifi?

Only problem is the high use of data. If you have an unlimited data plan that you can connect to the internet, great. Otherwise, streaming video's/movies is gonna eat your bandwith like no other. But this more than just another source of video's/movies. Looks like it's basically a mini computer with your HDTV screen.

From my experience use of campground provided wifi is inadequate to stream movies, but could work with browsing etc..

Amazon Firestick does movies and stuff, but this is more than that. Nifty gadget.

Mike

it has Wifi and Bluetooth. The Wifi is b/g/n so up to 150 MB/sec. I have actually disabled it and am using a BearExtender to get a Wifi signal. I will be using it this weekend in a campground (we will see how that goes). I can also use my Verizon hotspot, but that will use a lot of data. I added an SD card to the ComputeStick to add another 64GB of data - for music, movies, picture, etc. We can watch those movies without Wifi...

Now, all you need is a NUC and a USB Media Fire hard Drive enclosure for a personal plex server :).

Walaby wrote:
Cool... Does it connect up to the internet via wifi?

Only problem is the high use of data. If you have an unlimited data plan that you can connect to the internet, great. Otherwise, streaming video's/movies is gonna eat your bandwith like no other. But this more than just another source of video's/movies. Looks like it's basically a mini computer with your HDTV screen.

From my experience use of campground provided wifi is inadequate to stream movies, but could work with browsing etc..

Amazon Firestick does movies and stuff, but this is more than that. Nifty gadget.

Mike

The Intel ComputeStick is exactly that, a micro-PC. They come with either Windows or Linux options, and basically allow you to turn any TV into a mini PC.