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Watching our own movies on the Explorer


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Is there a way to watch our own movies in our Penthouse suite on Explorer.

 

I can bring dvds but I don;t think there are dvd players in these cabins.

 

I can copy the movies to a thumb drive but I don't know whether the tv system will accept and play thumb drives. On the Mariner the system would recognize that the thumb drive was there but the tv remote in the room wouldn't play the movies on the drive. In a much earlier thread, someone suggested finding out what kind of tvs are in the suites and, if available, bringing that brand of remote from home.

 

Any thoughts?

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Two thoughts;

1-The tv's in the new renovated suits and the ones on the Explorer have HDMI inputs just like yours at home. The problem is how to select them. So your thought of using the manufactures remote is one that could work. Just need to find out the brand, sorry I don't remember. Or you could bring a cheep universal remote and pray. I am sure someone on board could look at the brand and model # of the TV for you.

 

2- If I remember correctly the built in system has a place to select a DVD player which actually does NOT exist but the system provides for one. So you could trying to select " DVD " with the Regent remote and then try to find which HDMI input is active. OH don't forget to pray.

 

Now that I have completely confused myself I will hope you find a way because I would like to do the same thing.

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Is there a way to watch our own movies in our Penthouse suite on Explorer.

 

We were on the Voyager earlier this year in one of the seven seas suites. I brought my surface laptop with DVD RW, a power USB hub, and a USB to HDMI cable. I tried many times to play DVDs but the TV would not see the player. I asked the butler to find out what the problem was. He asked the techs and they told him they block the HDMI input on the TV as the techs wanted to secure their network?????:confused: Now I am not sure how a hacker would comprise the network (ships') through the use of an HDMI interface but. :rolleyes: I tried numerous times but could not get the TV to see either the movies on the laptop or the DVD player.

 

Now I realize the ship has a number of movies available but I always have some newer releases.

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Hi

 

We're doing Japan via Mariner in 2019. Our second Regent cruise after doing Alaska a few years ago. Generally we've been cruising Azamara. On Azamara, I've been able to use a universal remote control (set to their tv brand) to access the various tv Inputs. We've used HDMI connected to a laptop but if we put some movies on a USB, we'd have been able to access that too, although it would have been dificult plugging in the flash drive in the back of the to. You can set a universal remote to any major brand so that might overcome your problem. I find it hard to believe they can "block" the HDMI connection. Probably more a case that their remotes only access the internal tv system, like in hotels and other cruise ships. Good luck.

 

Tony

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The Samsung TVs are in "hotel mode". This inhibits most auxiliary functions.

The remotes are not Samsung ones and don't have the buttons to select other inputs.

They are on a different wifi network to the guest network so screen mirroring will not work.

You can "borrow" the proper remote from a launderette, you can then see the crew chanels!!

Or install one of the many free apps on your phone for tv remote, they cover all tv makes.

The promised DVD player will likely not exist but as has been suggested ask for it, I dont know if it uses HDMI, used to be component.

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We were on the Voyager earlier this year in one of the seven seas suites. I brought my surface laptop with DVD RW, a power USB hub, and a USB to HDMI cable. I tried many times to play DVDs but the TV would not see the player. I asked the butler to find out what the problem was. He asked the techs and they told him they block the HDMI input on the TV as the techs wanted to secure their network?????:confused: Now I am not sure how a hacker would comprise the network (ships') through the use of an HDMI interface but. :rolleyes: I tried numerous times but could not get the TV to see either the movies on the laptop or the DVD player.

 

Now I realize the ship has a number of movies available but I always have some newer releases.

 

That is really good information. Regent blocks many things in terms of their Wi-Fi so I isn't surprising that they would block HDMI input on the television. The only thing I've tried to do is watch movies on my Kindle and it doesn't work.

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Hi We've used HDMI connected to a laptop but if we put some movies on a USB, we'd have been able to access that too, although it would have been dificult plugging in the flash drive in the back of the to. You can set a universal remote to any major brand so that might overcome your problem. I find it hard to believe they can "block" the HDMI connection. Probably more a case that their remotes only access the internal tv system, like in hotels and other cruise ships. Good luck. Tony

 

I agree with you Tony and I don't see how they can block HDMI since it is not going anywhere but into the TV. I probably asked the wrong person (butler) to find out. I will try again in February. I just remembered I don't think we could access the input selection drop-down (whatever) not sure. We were using the TV remote.

Thanks Tony more to ponder.

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It is very common for tvs in hotels etc to lock down the tv to stop users retuning, having the volume too high, altering picture settings, etc and including connecting devices to it. So the HDMI inputs are disabled, ie. blocked.

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It is very common for tvs in hotels etc to lock down the tv to stop users retuning, having the volume too high, altering picture settings, etc and including connecting devices to it. So the HDMI inputs are disabled, ie. blocked.

 

IMO, this is not a bad policy. Also, IMO, there is absolutely no need to watch your own movies on Regent. They offer so many movies (older - newer, etc.) that it would take several cruises to watch them all.

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IMO, this is not a bad policy. Also, IMO, there is absolutely no need to watch your own movies on Regent. They offer so many movies (older - newer, etc.) that it would take several cruises to watch them all.

Good to know - indeed that was our experience when we cruise Regent in Alaska. On Azamara, however, the TV/movie offerings are diabolically bad.

 

Tony

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Captainjohn.

Absolutely not, there is no need even for a wifi connection. You are thinking of such as Samsungs proprietary system for mirroring the screen and which includes remote function.

Look at apps such as universal remote control from powerir.net.

Its free, and will operate hundreds of different tvs as well as audio, air con, projectors recorders etc.

It is android only and requures your phone or tablet to have an ir port, which many do.

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Call me weird, but it's a lot for me if I watch even one movie on a 12-night cruise. I'm not a big movie buff anymore as it is, and to me, there's so much more to do on a cruise than watch flicks...obviously I'm in the minority, though.

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Call me weird, but it's a lot for me if I watch even one movie on a 12-night cruise. I'm not a big movie buff anymore as it is, and to me, there's so much more to do on a cruise than watch flicks...obviously I'm in the minority, though.

 

I don't think that you are in the minority. We don't even watch television onboard. If I want to watch something, I sit on the balcony and watch the waves, the sea, occasional flying fish, occasional ship sightings, etc. OTOH, I am guilty of being on the computer while onboard and understand that I am on vacation and should be enjoying other things.

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I don't think that you are in the minority. We don't even watch television onboard. If I want to watch something, I sit on the balcony and watch the waves, the sea, occasional flying fish, occasional ship sightings, etc. OTOH, I am guilty of being on the computer while onboard and understand that I am on vacation and should be enjoying other things.

While I have to bring a laptop with me on our cruises for work, I'll admit that when I'm logged on and have caught up with office stuff, I take a side trip to cruisecritic.com and visit a bit. Yeah, it's a minor addiction. :D

 

PS - I also log in and watch the kennel cams to see my dog (bandwidth permitting)

Edited by UUNetBill
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Captainjohn.

Absolutely not, there is no need even for a wifi connection. You are thinking of such as Samsungs proprietary system for mirroring the screen and which includes remote function.

Look at apps such as universal remote control from powerir.net.

Its free, and will operate hundreds of different tvs as well as audio, air con, projectors recorders etc.

It is android only and requures your phone or tablet to have an ir port, which many do.

OK-I was cumming from the Apple world and didn't think there was anything else:) Am sure you are right about android but as you say you need an IR transmitter.

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I started this thread and I don't want anyone to think we spend a lot of the time watching movies on a cruise. What we do enjoy is watching/listening to a half hour TV comedy (Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock) while we're getting ready for dinner or waiting for our excursion.

We just discovered we are going to have an extra sea day because of the hurricanes, so this cruise we may want to watch a movie one day as well.

As stated, the problem on Mariner was that the remotes in the room were not the original remotes for the TV. The idea of a universal remote does sound promising.

Does anyone know what brand of TV is on Explorer? We did have Samsung on Mariner. I think I'll ask this on a new thread.

Thanks for all of the input.

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