Cabin DVD Players?

I agree, Georgie562. I enjoy some lazy cabin time too. I hate to see the DVD players being removed. I had the new on-demand TV system on my last HAL cruise on NA, and found the programming offered lacking. I plan to take my portable DVD player on my next HAL cruise.

It was the same on the Westerdam. The tv was mounted across from th bed with no place tp put a DVD except on the floor with a fairly long cable. Even if that was possibe, you would run the risk of tripping on the DVD or stepping on it as there was not a lot of room between the bed and the wall.

Thanks this was EXTREMELY helpful, as we are sailing on the Westerdam in May ( Happy Mothers Day to Me ;p ), and were going to bring some DVDs. So now we will save space.

So since they are discouraging DVDs with the large TV mount, but still advertising, does that mean that they have On-Demand available for our sea days?

There are televisions which have the DVD slot on the side of the TV. Had HAL installed those sets we might have been able to have the best of both worlds.

I used to love watching some of those old, classic, movies in the DVD collection. But a but a bigger screen would have been an improvement.

This is one thing Oceania got right---they have TVs mounted flat to the wall, but you can easily watch a DVD.

See the above posts. On renovated ships that have the new, 2-way, on-demand 50" flat screens, bringing your own DVD player (or laptop with DVD built-in) will be a futile effort. The new TV's only accept ethernet input and 2 HDMI inputs. Very hard to access. But the remotes are special for these commercial TV's, with no provision to switch inputs. These are not your standard home TV's. They are in 2-way communications with the video server over the ship's LAN. If you start a movie and stop it to go to dinner, the movie will resume exactly where you left off. The video server is in constant communications with your cabin TV. If you could somehow switch inputs to HDMI (doubtful) you will probably get a visit from ship security asking why you are messing with their TV's. You would have to bring a universal remote and program it for the TV in your cabin. But these commercial TV's are locked, and only a special maintenance remote from the ship will allow access to the input selector. There are hundreds of movies of all genre on the menus.

Considering the lack of current information about the Volendam post-drydock, I'm betting we shall see when we get ON the ship. :')

I have no illusions that on Volendam we are going to see anything other than the decade old LG TVs.

Comments made otherwise are for any other HAL ships I may sail in the not too distant future.

See the above posts. On renovated ships that have the new, 2-way, on-demand 50" flat screens, bringing your own DVD player (or laptop with DVD built-in) will be a futile effort. The new TV's only accept ethernet input and 2 HDMI inputs. Very hard to access. But the remotes are special for these commercial TV's, with no provision to switch inputs. These are not your standard home TV's. They are in 2-way communications with the video server over the ship's LAN. If you start a movie and stop it to go to dinner, the movie will resume exactly where you left off. The video server is in constant communications with your cabin TV. If you could somehow switch inputs to HDMI (doubtful) you will probably get a visit from ship security asking why you are messing with their TV's. You would have to bring a universal remote and program it for the TV in your cabin. But these commercial TV's are locked, and only a special maintenance remote from the ship will allow access to the input selector. There are hundreds of movies of all genre on the menus.

Two things:

I am not interested in any of the hundreds of movies that are shown.

It is not futile to bring a portable DVD player. It just can’t be connected to the TV. I will still be able to enjoy MY programs before I call it a night.

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LOL! I think that poster was maybe suggesting you hook the portable device up to the TV. It sometimes can be done (depending on how the TV is mounted and whether or not the inputs can be switched).

I have tried to do that, but the TVs never have the red/yellow/white holes in which to plug the cable from my portable DVD player. Very annoying. Diana

I have tried to do that, but the TVs never have the red/yellow/white holes in which to plug the cable from my portable DVD player. Very annoying. Diana

I just posted on another thread... I got in working on the new TVs on the Westerdam.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=57110976&postcount=9

The old LG flat screens are small, and analog only. The HAL supplied DVD player uses regular composite video (yellow jack) and analog audio (red & white jacks) for inputs. The remote supplied with the TV's does allow you to switch TV inputs from RF to composite video. So, connecting an external guest supplied device is easy, as long as it has analog outputs.

The new 50" flat screens in veranda cabins are mounted very close to the wall, inside a shadow box. If you have a very skinny arm, you may be able to push an HDMI cable into the side mounted jacks. In some cabins, the TV's are, as specified above, are in a corner, allowing easier access to the HDMI jacks. As mentioned, the big problem is being able to switch the TV's inputs from Ethernet to HDMI. The supplied remotes do not have this ability. If you bring a universal remote and the list of codes for the TV's, you may be able to switch inputs.

We were on Zuiderdam in August and September on the Viking Passage, and thoroughly enjoyed the large-screen Samsung TV in our cabin, along with its programming. There were a fair number of movies that were either made or about (or both) the countries we visited, a pleasant surprise. There were also a moderate number of quality TV series (yes, all six seasons of Downton Abbey, including Christmas episodes). After disappointing TVs and content on Maasdam this spring and Volendam last June, we were happy to find that HAL had embraced 21st century technology.

I did load up our 12-inch tablet with a couple of dozen series episodes and movies from Netflix, and, after seeing what HAL had to offer, didn't watch a single one.

We usually take a Raspberry Pi with flash drive (about 70 movies) and have never had any trouble watching them on the cabin’s TV. This is our first time with HAL so maybe we won’t even need them. But we were happy to have our own selection to view on other cruise lines. :)

Does the Noordam have the old or new tv system?

Does the Noordam have the old or new tv system?

The cruise atlas 2019-2020 page 195 says Noordam has On-Demand TV scheduled for install in October 2019. I would post a PDF of the page but the iPhone won’t let me. I did post it under a different thread.

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