Has the in-cabin TV show/station selection improved?

[Lorey2007]

23 minutes ago, Ashland said:

RCI TV is HORRIBLE !!!!

On our last two cruises on Freedom (southern caribbean) and Vision (Med/Greece) we were able to use our Firestick and watched Netflix & Amazon Prime on our cabin TV...thank goodness !!!

I would be interested in this.  I would imagine you need to purchase a internet package of some sort. Please explain how. 

[Plum Happy]

4 minutes ago, mcgore83 said:

I am interested in knowing how to do this also!  I like watching tv at night.

 

I know that you will need Voom Surf & Stream.

 

I did it via my laptop, plugged in the HDMI into the Computer & TV.  You will need to change the input (use a remote control such as a RCA Universal Remote Control (get it from Target or Walmart) that has an INPUT button on it (I didn't program it to the TV).  I picked up the one that said Streaming, but I didn't use the button.  Don't forget to get batteries if you buy it before the cruise.

 

Change it to HDMI 1 or 2 depending on which plug you put the HDMI in on the TV,  wait a few seconds until it matches what is on your laptop.

 

Maybe someone can explain using the Roku Stick or Fire Stick and how you go about getting it to work on the TV.

 

There is also a FREE streaming channel PLUTO which you can view over 100 streaming channels from movies, old tv shows, news, travel, MTV, etc. to old Travel Channel programs & old HGTV shows (warning: they do have commercials like regular TV),   you can download it from the App Store for your iPad, there are more channels available using your laptop than the APP.  Also, PLUTO is available on Roku and Fire Stick.

 

 

[mcgore83]

27 minutes ago, Plum Happy said:

 

I know that you will need Voom Surf & Stream.

 

I did it via my laptop, plugged in the HDMI into the Computer & TV.  You will need to change the input (use a remote control such as a RCA Universal Remote Control (get it from Target or Walmart) that has an INPUT button on it (I didn't program it to the TV).  I picked up the one that said Streaming, but I didn't use the button.  Don't forget to get batteries if you buy it before the cruise.

 

Change it to HDMI 1 or 2 depending on which plug you put the HDMI in on the TV,  wait a few seconds until it matches what is on your laptop.

 

Maybe someone can explain using the Roku Stick or Fire Stick and how you go about getting it to work on the TV.

 

There is also a FREE streaming channel PLUTO which you can view over 100 streaming channels from movies, old tv shows, news, travel, MTV, etc. to old Travel Channel programs & old HGTV shows (warning: they do have commercials like regular TV),   you can download it from the App Store for your iPad, there are more channels available using your laptop than the APP.  Also, PLUTO is available on Roku and Fire Stick.

 

 

 

[mcgore83]

Thank you Plum Happy.  By the way, I love your screen name!

[alexkrn46]

My last cruise was  on celebrity.plenty of on demand movies  for free and a few pay movies.

[Merion_Mom]

4 hours ago, johnjen said:

Looped, repetitive, and having to hear the endless drivel from the CD and his annoying assistant who'd repeat everything said in Spanish. We just kept the TV off after hearing it.

 

Thank you for your openminded and welcoming attitude.

 

How DARE anyone not speak English!!!  😮 

[Lorey2007]

21 minutes ago, alexkrn46 said:

My last cruise was  on celebrity.plenty of on demand movies  for free and a few pay movies.

Yes our last cruise on NCL & Celebrity had on demand & PPV movies. Waiting to hear if Symphony has either. I hope so sometimes I like a movie in the evening.

[rimmit]

28 minutes ago, alexkrn46 said:

My last cruise was  on celebrity.plenty of on demand movies  for free and a few pay movies.

Not anymore sadly. they nixed that this last week or so.  =(

 

Over on the celebrity forum everyone is emailing celebrityonetouch@celebrity.com in hopes in the future they will reinstate the free movies.  Please don't hesitate to email if you enjoyed those on your last cruise.  There weren't a ton on the Summit in August, but there were at least 20 or so relatively recent movies.  Enough to put on while you were getting ready for dinner or for 30 minutes at night. We loved it. 

 

Hopefully with enough complaining they may bring them back. Unlikely, but in the past if enough passengers complain there have been rare occasions of reversals.

 

 

[zepp914]

The last few times I was on Grandeur, they had a cartoon channel that played REALLY old cartoons like Top Cat, Wacky Racers, Magilla Gorilla, Bull-Winkle, etc.  My son LOVED it.  I didn't mind watching it either.   

 

We went on Harmony this year and there was Blues Clues and terrible teenage dramas to pick from.  It was awful.  I think he preferred watching the "your next cruise" channel instead.  My guess is that is that all a part of RCI's diabolical plan.

[jerseyjjs]

I was on Symphony in late March and they were showing March Madness  basketball on both ESPN channels.

[fredflint]

I just bring my devices with some shows offline from Netflix, Amazon and my  Dish account so I don't need to worry about streaming.  Netflix and Amazon both have offline viewing, my laptop has HDMI out and I use a long cable and I picked up 10 or so HDMI angle adapters so no matter where the port is I can have a cable running out from it.

 

We go on Transatlantics and usually spend at least 2 hours each day watching TV doing nothing if there are no activities going on and we have already had enough sun for the day.

 

We watch and record more TV than most people but I really don't care my SO like to watch TV and I like spending time with her.

[Coralc]

WAY WORSE. On the last 2 cruises, we haven't even bothered to turn the TV on. 

[Ashland]

6 hours ago, Judyrem said:

How did you do it?  I am tech challenged, in fact I know less than my 10 year old granddaughter.🙄

See what I mean about being tech challenged...darn the double post glitch 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Ashland

[Ashland]

6 hours ago, Judyrem said:

How did you do it?  I am tech challenged, in fact I know less than my 10 year old granddaughter.🙄

We are also tech challenged compared to many...but found a YouTube (someone on a RCI ship posted it) and DH figured it out..he hooked up our Firestick directly into the TV...And yes we did have the Voom Surf/Stream one device to be able to do this.

 

What a difference being able to do this has made on our recent cruises...We enjoy watching movies at night in our cabin, as we're long past being interested in most of the onboard nightly activities...Been there done them too many times at this point in our cruising history. Just our humble preference.

[Bloodgem]

7 hours ago, zepp914 said:

The last few times I was on Grandeur, they had a cartoon channel that played REALLY old cartoons like Top Cat, Wacky Racers, Magilla Gorilla, Bull-Winkle, etc.  My son LOVED it.  I didn't mind watching it either.   

 

We went on Harmony this year and there was Blues Clues and terrible teenage dramas to pick from.  It was awful.  I think he preferred watching the "your next cruise" channel instead.  My guess is that is that all a part of RCI's diabolical plan.

I feel your son's pain. We loved watching Cartoon Network but on our last 2 cruises there was no more Cartoon Network and we had to choose between repeats of Doogie Howser MD or Dora the Explorer.

[Iamcruzin]

14 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Agreed.  They took away TCM and TNT, which were the only channels we had on while we were getting ready.  Now the TV does not even go on, except maybe to look at the map.

 

And while we are complaining about the TV, they should stop with the constant messages.  There are so many advertising (spa, casino, art, etc.) messages, that we don't even look at them anymore.  If they sent us anything important, we would not see it.

The Map. That was our channel of choice. There is an entire thread on the Celebrity board moaning about how they no longer show movies anymore. I guess crappy TV is across the brand. 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Iamcruzin

[Iamcruzin]

10 hours ago, zepp914 said:

The last few times I was on Grandeur, they had a cartoon channel that played REALLY old cartoons like Top Cat, Wacky Racers, Magilla Gorilla, Bull-Winkle, etc.  My son LOVED it.  I didn't mind watching it either.   

 

 

1960's- 70's Saturday morning TV. I would't have left the room if Flintstones and Jetsons were playing.

[Judyrem]

6 hours ago, Ashland said:

We are also tech challenged compared to many...but found a YouTube (someone on a RCI ship posted it) and DH figured it out..he hooked up our Firestick directly into the TV...And yes we did have the Voom Surf/Stream one device to be able to do this.

 

What a difference being able to do this has made on our recent cruises...We enjoy watching movies at night in our cabin, as we're long past being interested in most of the onboard nightly activities...Been there done them too many times at this point in our cruising history. Just our humble preference.

I am looking at Amazon fire sticks and I don't know what to order.  I don't have a DH anymore and he knew all things TVish.

 

I even read firesticks for dummies and they need to dumb it down even more for me!

My group of lady friends are around the same age, very well educated but can't do squat when the TV is on the fritz!

 

You should see us when we have a movie night with wine and things go wrong, it could be on the world's funniest videos!🤪

[rimmit]

6 hours ago, Ashland said:

We are also tech challenged compared to many...but found a YouTube (someone on a RCI ship posted it) and DH figured it out..he hooked up our Firestick directly into the TV...And yes we did have the Voom Surf/Stream one device to be able to do this.

 

What a difference being able to do this has made on our recent cruises...We enjoy watching movies at night in our cabin, as we're long past being interested in most of the onboard nightly activities...Been there done them too many times at this point in our cruising history. Just our humble preference.

 

Glad to hear the stream part of the surf and stream worked for you.   We have found the “stream”  marginally reliable at best.  Works great some days.  Useless with endless buffering on others.

[orville99]

12 hours ago, Plum Happy said:

 

I know that you will need Voom Surf & Stream.

 

I did it via my laptop, plugged in the HDMI into the Computer & TV.  You will need to change the input (use a remote control such as a RCA Universal Remote Control (get it from Target or Walmart) that has an INPUT button on it (I didn't program it to the TV).  I picked up the one that said Streaming, but I didn't use the button.  Don't forget to get batteries if you buy it before the cruise.

 

Change it to HDMI 1 or 2 depending on which plug you put the HDMI in on the TV,  wait a few seconds until it matches what is on your laptop.

 

 

Tried this on Harmony, but it didn't work. The Universal Remote brought up the screen on the TV that showed the HDMI Ports, but the ports themselves came back with an error message that they were not connected when I selected them with the remote. We gave up and just watched everything we wanted on our iPads

[Drock20J]

Symphony and Harmony both use Cat5 to get their TV feed, instead of using HDMI ports.

 

What this means: There will be open HDMI ports on the back, but what I have found, either they are disabled OR the remote will not allow you to change inputs.

 

On Oasis, they still use HDMI to get the feed, so it is VERY possible to remove that HDMI cable and put your choice of service in that spot. The downside... IF you want to watch the RCI feed, you will need to unplug your device and replug in the ship's cable.

[ReneeFLL]

 

12 hours ago, rimmit said:

Not anymore sadly. they nixed that this last week or so.  =(

 

Over on the celebrity forum everyone is emailing celebrityonetouch@celebrity.com in hopes in the future they will reinstate the free movies.  Please don't hesitate to email if you enjoyed those on your last cruise.  

Done.

 

Anyone have any luck with something like this on the Brilliance? Would really like some shows on a TA.

[CruisinShips]

13 hours ago, Plum Happy said:

 

I know that you will need Voom Surf & Stream.

 

I did it via my laptop, plugged in the HDMI into the Computer & TV.  You will need to change the input (use a remote control such as a RCA Universal Remote Control (get it from Target or Walmart) that has an INPUT button on it (I didn't program it to the TV).  I picked up the one that said Streaming, but I didn't use the button.  Don't forget to get batteries if you buy it before the cruise.

 

How did the remote change the input if it wasn't programmed to the TV?

[Plum Happy]

A follow-up from my earlier post, if you have a Samsung Universal Remote at home, you can bring it and use that instead of buying one,  the input on Royal's remote will not work.  

 

There are several YouTube videos you can watch that can help you set up this as well, one is by Justin C and another by Gary Davis who has several different connections going on.  Also, if you do not have Surf & Stream, but downloaded videos to your device you can watch them via, the HDMI connection.  Make sure the cord is long enough (8-10) ft because the newer ships such as Anthem or Ovation do not have power for your device to sit upon.  

 

Newer laptops by Apple will not have the HDMI input, so, you will need an adapter that has the USB-C/HDMI port connection such as Kingston that has multiple ports on the device.  You can find several on Amazon if you don't find them at Target or Walmart.

[Plum Happy]

11 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

How did the remote change the input if it wasn't programmed to the TV?

the remote that Royal has in the room will not allow you to change the tv to input, so the universal one will allow it.  The RCA one that I purchased said Samsung ready.