Thor Forums

[DenverTransplant]

I have been spending some of my winter time getting my old Gen 3 Apple TV to work with my main TV. Hooking it up was simple enough - just an HDMI cable to the TV, but getting streaming to work was a bit more fun

First attempt was to use a small wireless router I have that I generally use to isolate myself from hotel WiFi. But I discovered that this would only work if I had an external WiFi network to connect to - but given the typical RV Park WiFi that was a non-starter. The only thing this set up is good for using AirPlay to display stuff playing on a Phone, Mac or iPad.

So I tried setting up the Apple TV to connect to my cell phone hot spot and found that this works like a charm, subject to having cell service. Then I discovered that I had to have the Apple TV outside of the TV cabinet to use the remote (line of site IR). So lets try to use the Remote App on the cell phone - no joy. The app said cannot connect to Apple TV. Apparently when the cell phone is acting as the network router, the Remote App can't find anything on the hot spot network.

What I did find is that when I connected my iPad to the hot spot in addition to the Apple TV, the Remote App on the iPad worked just fine. But now I have to have both devices fired up and connected. Now I'm pondering if it is worth the $20/mo that Verizon will want to reconnect my old 4G MiFi. I'm thinking not, and applying what it would cost to a cell phone booster and the unlimited plus data plan.