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Streaming TV Question

jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
So, am I correct in assuming that if I subscribe to, say, Sling TV and I’ve downloaded the Sling TV streaming app onto my iPhone, I can then stream certain tv shows onto my smart tv?

Or am I limited to streaming shows only to my iPhone?

i was told that I can stream to my tv without having wi-fi by doing the above. 

Comments, anyone?  Thanks for your input..... 👍

Comments

  • peter4jcpeter4jc Posts: 16,502 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My best non-techie-guy answer is to say you'll need something like a Chromecast to get what's on your phone over to your TV.  

    https://cord-cutters.gadgethacks.com/how-to/use-your-chromecast-without-wifi-0162938/

    I just bought a TV that has what they call screen mirroring and I think it does that same thing, but I haven't played with it because I don't need it.  If your TV has that function you should be good.
    "I could've had a Mi Querida!"   Nick Bardis
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think I recall some mention of mirroring somewhere in my searching. I’ll look deeper into that. 

    Thanks a heap, @peter4jc.... 

    Anyone else?
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The problem with mirroring is that you are streaming video to your phone which then has to stream it to the TV which can lead to degraded video quality.  You'll see better quality if you can stream to a device connected to your TV like a Roku box or using the built-in channel on your smart TV.
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  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Fire tv will stream Sling.
    When you subscribe to Sling, it will allow 2 devices and one phone, tablet or PC at a time.
    I will watch TV on my phone, then switch to my laptop. It will allow you to do that.
    We can watch TV on 2 Fire TV and a phone all at the same time.


    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • NorCalR1NorCalR1 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Apple Lightning to Digital AV... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WHV3BM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share


    You can can also use this and use an HDMI cable to your TV

    If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience :D
    If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....

  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You can buy a Fire stick or Roku cheaper.
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  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    @Yakster
    @0patience

    Thanks guys. The primary question is - can I do either of these things without wi-fi?

    Tony, I’ve been having trouble making Fire work on my tv. First, the remote that came with the unit wouldn’t work so I bought another remote. The next one killed batteries about as fast as I could replace them. 

    So then I bought one of the original remotes - the kind with buttons on it for Amazon, Netflix, etc. About all this one will do is turn my tv on or off and change the channels I’m getting on cable but still nothing from Fire. 

    So I gave up. Now I’m just trying to find a way to stream without having wi-fi. If I pay for wi-fi AND a subscription to some streaming outfit I may as well stick with cable - I don’t see much difference in cost....
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You can stream on your phone without wifi.
    We stream Sling on my phone for Little Tree when we are at the store and she gets bored.

    Like @NorCalR1 said, you should be able to get an "Apple Lightning to Digital AV Adapter" to go from your phone to the TV.

    What TV do you have?
    If the TV has Mirrorcast or what ever it's called, you might be able to mirror your phone wirelessly. 
    But the TV has to be set up for it.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I believe the tv will do that. I’ll look further into it. 

    Many thanks, guys. It’s appreciated. 
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Which TV did you say you have?
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  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019
    BTW, Wi-Fi is not something that you necessarily need to pay for monthly.  There's three ways that this could work.

    1. If your phone plan includes the ability to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot, you could turn that on and configure your TV to connect to the Internet through your phone via Wi-Fi connection. Your Phone acts as the Wi-Fi gateway in this method. You may be charged for mobile data if you're not on an unlimited plan.

    2. If your TV supports ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) mode, you could turn this on and then connect your phone to the TV this way. This probably won't work because the phone will expect to access the Internet over the Wi-Fi connection to the TV and not use your mobile data plan.

    3. If you buy an access point, you could connect the TV and the Phone to the access point to talk to each other without an Internet connection on the access point. This probably also won't work since the phone will be able to talk to the TV via the access point but will probably stop using your mobile data connection to connect to the Internet.

    Like I said, you've got one option for Wi-Fi. :D
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  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
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  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Chris, I have an iPhone 7 and I’ve used the hotspot thingy to put my laptop online so I could do some online banking. My thinking was that the signal was coming through my phone service instead of through wi-fi and would be safer from being hacked. 

    But it I also learned that it didn’t work to print a bank statement because my printer operates on wi-fi so it wasn’t getting the signal from my laptop to print the statement as long as I was on my hotspot. 

    And when i’m streaming videos from Amazon Prime I believe the signal is coming from the wi-fi provided by my landlord even though I pay for unlimited data. I suppose I could try turning off the wi-fi (in settings) and just stream from LTE. 

    My ultimate goal is to be able to stream channels other than Prime on my tv to watch football games, news, etc without having to pay for wi-fi.....  

    Oh, to answer your question, I have a Vizio E32-D1 tv....  
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Looks like using the Vizio SmartCast app on your phone would be the way to go for Sling.

    https://support.vizio.com/s/article/Pairing-a-Smart-Phone-or-Tablet-to-your-VIZIO-SmartCast-Device?language=en_US

    Your TV does support Wi-Fi, so you could use the Wi-Fi signal provided by your landlord for Vizio supported channels and apps like Netflix.
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  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yakster said:

    Your TV does support Wi-Fi, so you could use the Wi-Fi signal provided by your landlord for Vizio supported channels and apps like Netflix.
    That looks great, Chris. I’ll pursue that further. 

    This is all in anticipation of my upcoming move. I’ll be moving to a new apartment at the end of this month and I’m hoping I won’t need wi-fi after that because the new landlord doesn’t provide it. A major reason for the move is to cut expenditures and the cost of wi-fi would be less than helpful. 

    @NorCalR1 as well. I really appreciate the input. 

    Oh, I think I forgot @peter4jc. Thanks to you, too Pete. 
  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Oh, and if you hotspot your printer as well as the laptop (or use Bluetooth) you should be able to print.
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  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yakster said:
    Oh, and if you hotspot your printer as well as the laptop (or use Bluetooth) you should be able to print.
    @Yakster

    Hmmm. Okay. Another thing to research. Cool. 

    You guys are a real fount of knowledge. I doubt I’d have gotten as useful an answer to these questions had I gone to some IT oriented forum or website. You’re amazing. 

    Thanks again for your help. 👍


  • YaksterYakster Posts: 27,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I did a small amount of web searching and it seems that if you have an Android that two clients connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot on your Android phone should be able to see each other, but if you have an iPhone it looks like the Wi-Fi hotspot feature provides Internet access but includes client isolation so that the two clients wouldn't be able to see each other directly.

    If this turns out to be the case, you may need to set up your printer on AirPrint or Google Cloud printing.  You'd use AirPrint of your using a Mac laptop and Google Cloud if you're on a PC. You should be able to see from your printer what cloud print services it supports.  This way the laptop and printer would have Internet access and you'd be able to print via the cloud.  You could also look at printing over Bluetooth, but that has a shorter range.
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  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Found a free TV with a ton of channels.
    history channel and a bunch I haven't really figured out.
    It's called Xumo.
    For free, not terrible.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    @0patience

    Hey, thanks Tony. There’s bound to be a pearl or two in the lineup. If nothing else, it’s at least a way to p iss away some idle time.....  😎
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019
    So here are the apps I have found for free TV channels.
    All of these are free.
    Some ask for you to register to personalize your viewing, but I haven't.

    Tubi
    Movies only, some TV shows. Not a terrible selection either.
    A person can sift through and find quite a few good titles to watch.

    Xumo
    Quite a few channels.
    History channel most notable.
    Good streaming and nice interface.

    Popcorn flix
    Fair movie selection.

    Sony Crackle
    Pretty good movie selection.

    Pluto TV
    A lot of channels. Good guide, good streaming.

    Classic UHF
    Old shows. Fair selection.

    Freeform
    Quite a bit of stuff, asks you to register and if you have pay TV. I just click on skip.
    Streaming on this one takes a little time to load the show, but seems to work ok, once show has started.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ^^^^^. Thanks again, Tony. More goodies for me to sift through. 

    My my ultimate goal is to be able to stream some tv or maybe cast it from my iPhone to my smart Vizio and be able to do this without paying for wi-fi. I already pay for unlimited data and it seems to me that, with the right collection of streaming sources and other apps I should be able to watch the few channels, videos, and sports like NFL football without paying for wi-fi. 

    I may may have to pay for a source such as Hulu but coupled with the cost of unlimited data it ought to still be less expensive than cable. At least, I hope so....  

    Then all I’d have to figure out is how to operate my printer without wi-fi.....  🙄
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2019
    @jlmarta
    A couple of those have sports and I think one has Fox Sports.

    With all the free tv, we still have Sling, Amazon Prime and Netflix, but mostly because Sling has some channels I like and the kids watch the hell out of Netflix. Plus All of it combined, doesn't come close to what we were paying Direct.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • CharlieHeisCharlieHeis Posts: 8,524 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Check to see if you can send to your printer via Bluetooth. 
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Check to see if you can send to your printer via Bluetooth. 
    Interesting thought. I’ll look into that. Thanks a bunch, Charlie. 
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