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Casting to TV's on the Odyssey

jeffporfirio01
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jeffporfirio01

jeffporfirio01

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I apologize if this has been asked before. I've searched and could not find a definitive answer.

Can I 'cast' from an android tablet to the TVs on the Odyssey? If the movies are preloaded on my tablet (ie not a streaming service), do I need the internet package?

 

Thanks to all for your replies and knowledge. 

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Biker19

Biker19

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1 hour ago, jeffporfirio01 said:

Can I 'cast' from an android tablet to the TVs on the Odyssey? If the movies are preloaded on my tablet (ie not a streaming service), do I need the internet package?

You should be able to. No.

Edited by Biker19
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Biker19

Biker19

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2 hours ago, jeffporfirio01 said:

Thanks. Should I bring my HDMI cable and universal remote to cast it to the tv if not planning on getting the internet package?

No, the casting should be able to be done wirelessly and does not rely on a Voom package. Bring the HDMI to ensure the connection in case the casting doesn't work.

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Ashland

Ashland

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5 hours ago, jeffporfirio01 said:

Thanks. Aside, do you know what brand are the TV's, as I'll also bring a universal remote

Ob RCI we've never seen any other brand besides Samsung. We bring our Firestick.

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jeffporfirio01

jeffporfirio01

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13 hours ago, Ashland said:

Ob RCI we've never seen any other brand besides Samsung. We bring our Firestick.

Thank you.

If you would not mind sharing two further questions:

- How do you connect the firestick to the ships wifi?

- Do you bring your own universal remote (which kind?) to change the tv's input source?

 

Again, thank you!

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RobInMN Great Review Rare

RobInMN

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10 hours ago, jeffporfirio01 said:

Thank you.

If you would not mind sharing two further questions:

- How do you connect the firestick to the ships wifi?

- Do you bring your own universal remote (which kind?) to change the tv's input source?

 

Again, thank you!

We have a universal remote we bring on all vacations. Any should work, but if you will only do this on the ship, a Samsung remote is likely good enough, you basically just need the Input button.

On older ships, just plugging into an HDMI port is good enough. On newer ships, you may need to disconnect the TV's ethernet cable and then unplug the TV, and plug it back in to completely reboot the TV. Then use the input button to change to the correct HDMI port.

As for the Firestick, you can connect it the wifi the same way you'd do your phone. To me, it's kind of a PITA, as you need to you a web browser and cursor type, and do that every time. For me, we have Android phones (T-Mobile if that matters), and so we are able to wifi hotspot the wifi connection. So we set up the Firestick to connect to our phones' wifi hotspot. It's easier, and a lot less typing, and we only had to do it once. We get the internet for both phones. Now, whenever we wanted to watch the Firestick, we'd enable the wifi hotspot on the phone, then plugin the Firestick. To enable the hotspot, airplane mode has to be off, but then I turn off mobile data, then turn on the wifi hotspot. When we leave we unplug the Firestick, turn off the hotspot, and put the phone back in airplane mode, or enable mobile data.

The other thing I recommend is a VPN. I use ExpressVPN, but any should work. I have it on our phones as well as the Firestick. I make sure that's enabled on both the phone and the Firestick. (I've had issues with YoutubeTV when only having the VPN enabled on 1 device). YTTV is very picky about where you are since it's live TV, and if you are out of your home area, especially out of country, it will lock you out of your live local TV (network broadcast) channels as well as anything you've recorded off of them. Something about licensing and crap. We forgot to enable the VPN once, and YTTV made us re-log in to our accounts/profiles and locked us out of stuff.

 

 

 

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RobInMN Great Review Rare

RobInMN

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1 hour ago, mmbtvs said:

There are universal remote apps you can download to your phone as well.

 

1 minute ago, carlosalonsor said:

But if your phone doesn't have an IR emitter (which most phones doesn't) it wont work...

I had the same thought (and mine does not), but apparently you can buy USB IR Transmitters that you you can plug into your phone's USB port for $10-15. 

 

Had neve really thought about this before. But a small IR transmitter is definitely smaller to pack than a remote.

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Biker19

Biker19

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2 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

But a small IR transmitter is definitely smaller to pack than a remote.

See above - the casting discussed here and in almost all instances happen via RF not IR - no need for IR transmitter.

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RobInMN

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1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

See above - the casting discussed here and in almost all instances happen via RF not IR - no need for IR transmitter.

Casting, yes.

But there's a side conversation about Firestick, which brought up universal remotes. @mmbtvs mentioned that there are Universal remote apps for Android phones, and @carlosalonsor mentioned that you would need a phone with an IR Blaster/transmitter.

I added that you can get an IR Transmitter USB dongle for phones that don't have one. You need a universal remote in order to change the input on the TV, as the Royal Caribbean supplied ones don't have one.

 

2 different conversations. 1 thread.

 

BTW, I'm not sure the older ships have TVs that support Chromecast, so there's that. Can anyone confirm? I've never actually bothered to look into it since I've been using the Firestick route.

 

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jeffporfirio01

jeffporfirio01

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Thanks to all. 

For our Aug. Odyssey cruise, I'm packing an android tablet with a massive collection of movies and series loaded into it, a usb to HDMI cable and a universal remote,

Again thanks

Edited by jeffporfirio01
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