Watching Netflix / Amazon without Wifi

[craigdrabik]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

Note you can do all the same thing using a NUC or other small Windows PC as well (since Apple makes a Windows version of iTunes).
Here is an Intel NUC
There are a bunch of small barebones Windows PCs available for such a purpose.
(I'd probably go with one of these as I prefer the Windows environment over Apple's--I do have an older Mac Mini at home and it is a fine PC so I'm not completely biased LOL)

I've got more Macs than I'd like to admit My biases are also clear!

That said, if you are going to set things up the way I described, you should use whatever platform you use at home. The iTunes libraries aren't compatible across operating systems.

[craigdrabik]

That NUC is a neat little box. I race karts all over the northeast and I bought my Vegas so I could stay at the track instead of paying for hotels. It'd save me from having to use my Surface at the track to download data from the kart, since that software is Windows-only and I don't want one of my MacBooks getting grimy or stolen. I could hook up one of those little guys to the outside TV and work on a bigger screen.

Thanks for that tip

[ysmatute]

I use my iPad & download movies on to it before the trip. Then connect the.ipad hdmi out to my TV. We have 3 tvs on our rv. So I bought an hdmi multiplexer, so I can watch the movie from my iPad on any or all 3 tvs. I also have a Verizon portable modem, unlimited WiFi and an amazon fire stick. Just in case I want to catch up on a series or put on. A cartoons for the grandkids when it's raining and before I'm ready to get out the games.

[sage]

I've been a Mac fanboy sine 1986 and own several AppleTV devices now. But I've become convinced that Amazon's FireTV Stick is the way to go. At $40 each you can buy 3 FireTV Sticks for less than the current cost of a 4th gen Apple TV. And Apple lacks one big thing: Amazon Prime Video. Even if you don't have any other video streaming service Prime Video offers so much these days that you can justify to the cost of a Prime membership on this basis alone. Add Prime Music and it's a no brainer.

Plus the Stick is so small, supports 4K video for the future and offers Alexa, how can you go wrong. I have one plugged into the HDMI cable in the cabinet over the kitchen counter on my Vegas, using an HDMI splitter. The remote is RF so the cabinet door can stay closed when we're watching video.

For streaming I have a Verizon 7730L MiFi with unlimited data plan (which isn't really unlimited) that supports 15 connected users. That way all of our phones, tablets, Kindles and everything else work, even when we're on the move.

For the bedroom, I have an AppleTV that I already owned hooked up and if I want to watch Prime Video I use the Amazon Prime Video iOS app and use AirPlay to broadcast from my iPad to the AppleTV.

I also run the PLEX server on my MacBook Air to store my music and video library. There are PLEX apps for most tablets now so that you can use the hookups described earlier to get music and video to the RVs various TV sets. And any good BlueTooth battery powered speaker. I like Bose's SoundLink series.