Updated My TV to be "Smart"

With the size and frequency of software patches now days for all the connected devices, carriers will have to change their ways. I see a future when a carrier will be liable for insecure devices on its network due to their limiting of data resulting in being poor net citizens.

As far as being limited on my usage, I have provisions in my contract that tightly tie them to the original agreement with substantial recourse available to me if they attempt a unilateral change. I am not holding a typical consumer contract.

Bedlam wrote:
I am also on an unlimited cellular data plan and use this exclusively for Internet access whether at home or traveling. I use a cellular modem stick with an external antenna going to a WiFi router to get the best reception. There are times I cannot make a cell phone call but use the WiFi to make a VOIP call.

Video streaming is impractical for anyone that does not have an unlimited plan or has large cap. I suggest downloading content to memory sticks or to a portable media server or to some other device prior to your trip or anywhere you can public/private WiFi during your trip so you can watch the content at your convenience later. Amazon Prime does allow for this with their service and I am sure there are others.

If you have a grandfathered Verizon plan, be forewarned, they've gone into full ******* mode recently and are on their latest war path to get rid of the grandfathered unlimiteds, so watch your data usage, over 100GB a month flags you as an excessive user and will have your account disconnected at the end of August.

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

Ha. Similar to what I did. A Raspberry Pi, a 1TB external laptop HD in a USB enclosure, wifi adapter, and a cigarette lighter 12v USB source. It serves as a wifi hot spot which I can attach my iThingys to. I stream the music back to a BlueTooth adapter connected to the Aux1 on my camper's stereo.

Solves the problem of $treaming music over cellular, and also gives me music when I am outside of cell range.

-Eric

I am also on an unlimited cellular data plan and use this exclusively for Internet access whether at home or traveling. I use a cellular modem stick with an external antenna going to a WiFi router to get the best reception. There are times I cannot make a cell phone call but use the WiFi to make a VOIP call.

Video streaming is impractical for anyone that does not have an unlimited plan or has large cap. I suggest downloading content to memory sticks or to a portable media server or to some other device prior to your trip or anywhere you can public/private WiFi during your trip so you can watch the content at your convenience later. Amazon Prime does allow for this with their service and I am sure there are others.

i stream a game or two from time to time in the fall. It's not that much data since I'm on wifi almost always except for camping. The trick is to turn app updates, windows updates, email syncing, use an ad blocker,etc. Download movies, music at home or on wifi. Save the data for the streaming. During the week I use almost zero data with wifi everywhere. For long races, I tend to watch the end only.

Some apps let you choose the quality which does impact the data usage as well. However, I find my laptop better at handling buffering than Chromecast or Roku, and I think the compute stick would be good as well since it is running Windows.

I also use a Wilson signal amplifier.

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.

Kayteg1 wrote:
My devil asks what that has to do with camping?

Great question, this our evening or bad weather entertainment...

Any way you look at it Amazon is far more money saving. Considering the price I used to pay for satellite service I'm still ahead since I'm only paying less than half along with the freebies on Amazon Prime.

BTW, I have both Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire stick.The former I carry in my rv while the stick is what I use at home.I agree that hotspot eats up huge amount of data that's why I have 100G plan. The Fire TV is far more superior than the stick. Good reception,crisp colors and more setting options.

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.

happycamper002 wrote:

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.

By and large, unless you've got a 100GB a month plan on a cellular hotspot plan, they're mostly useless for much streaming, as even on the lowest settings a service like Netflix or Amazon Prime video goes, you'll burn through most of your data in a few hours.

That leaves using the park's Wifi to connect the FireStick, Intel ComputeStick, Roku Stick, WD Box, Roku 1-4, Samsung Smart TV, Apple TV, ChromeCast, etc... etc... to for most streaming services.

Now, if you're camping directly under the park's wifi mast, the signal inside your RV is going to be for the most part so-so to shoddy most of the time as most RV parks usually only have a couple of Wifi Antennas.

Your Roku, Firestick, Intel Computestick, etc... has a very small internal antenna. This isn't an issue at home where the access point's usually withing a hundred feet or so and the signal remains fairly strong, but in an RV park where most are running 2.4Ghz signal, which doesn't penetrate very well, your device may not be able to effectively communicate with the park's wifi.

To fix this, you need to use a repeater, which will connect with a good external antenna to the park's wifi and then pipe it directly inside your rig making it available via a wired ethernet connection (usually 100 meg or 1GbE) or simply repeating the signal.

Now, just to make things clearer an Intel Computestick > than a Chromecast or Firestick, as its actually a full PC on a stick, and works like a standard set-top Roku Box, but can do a great deal more as its actually a full PC, just on a very small scale.

Chromecast, you remote control the wifi connected device to stream stuff from a phone or tablet.

Firestick works the same as a Roku Stick, but like most Amazon products is horribly limited by Amazon's design.

Roku Stick works similar to a full-size roku, but isn't quite as powerful.

Intel Computestick = Turn any TV into a PC, add additional resources using Bluetooth, including Headphones, keyboards, mice, and any other bluetooth device you can think of.