Fun mag 2: Smart TV now in a pickle (1 Viewer)

[pandas]

Thanks to issue 2 of the Magazine, which I thought was very good, I now find myself out of my comfort zone with my TV. As suggested I bought an Amazon Firestick, plus then an additional accessory so it can be powered by the TV and not by an additional socket. Now looking up the manual of my Alphatronics SL-32+I in preparation for this gismo I am not sure if I need the firestick or not to be able to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime as its a 'Smart' TV that can evidently connect to my iPhone? Any thoughts - shall I return the Firestick?

 

[Pausim]

I was recently on a CL with a good wifi connection of about 10mbps. After a couple of days the wifi suddenly became feeble and intermittent. I scanned the network and found a Firestick had latched onto the connection. After three days a neighbouring caravan moved on and the Firestick disappeared and once again we had good wifi. I would like to add connecting Firesticks to shared wifi to the list of camping sins alongside grey waste dribbling and noisy generators.

 

[Theonlysue]

Busman dabhand
Might be worth investigating? ?

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[AndyPK]

If your tv has wifi/ internet connectivity, you will not need a Firestick as the set will allow you to download the various apps. (iPlayer, Netflix, etc) direct to its home screen.....

 

[Addie]

Some Alphatronics's TV's are 'Smart', however that doesn't mean that the smart bit is any good!

I had a good play with one at a dealer the other day and the Smart features seemed very clunky and slow. I could say the same for my fairly recent Samsung TV at home - but my user experience has much improved since adding a Firestick which is much faster and user-friendly by comparison.

There is also some incompatibility between certain streaming apps with certain brands of Smart TV, or you get left with old versions when new features are not supported. The Firestick is constantly updated, so it tends to be less of an issue.

The other benefit of a Firestick is it sometimes downloads further ahead than some Smart TV's meaning less chance of buffering a connection is dropped momentarily.

I'm not sure if you needed an additional accessory to power it, it should power from USB fine enough. Plus you can always use it at home to make an older TV or Monitor 'Smart'.

I was recently on a CL with a good wifi connection of about 10mbps. After a couple of days the wifi suddenly became feeble and intermittent. I scanned the network and found a Firestick had latched onto the connection.

If the Firestick was visible to you in a neighboring van (likely as DIRECT-Cf-Fire TV), that means it perhaps wasn't connected to the site network and the occupiers might have been using WiFi directly to send content from their phones. If the site has a captive portal (login page) firesticks don't cope well with those. But yes, streaming TV does put a lot of strain on campsite networks. It might have been anti-social in 2012 but in 2019 this is what the majority of people want a connection for and is perhaps just a sign of the times on many sites - hence the popularity of 4G as an alternative.

Smarty has Unlimited data presently for £22.50 on a 30-day start/stop basis or 100GB for £17 on the same terms. For Europe 100-110GB plans still exist from Vodafone/O2.

The Firestick is £19.99 on Amazon presently, but out of stock until December 22nd. It's also the same price on Currys, Very, Argos and Tesco.

 

[Wendo55]

My smart tv , which I've had for a few years, is now "not compatible " with apps such as iplayer and ITVhub which have all disappeared! Even the Samsung apps don't download anymore and god knows what's happened to the 3D facility I paid extra for at the time!
Anyone want any 3D glasses, I've 3 pairs unopened!

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[sallylillian]

I would like to add connecting Firesticks to shared wifi to the list of camping sins

WHY?
You will need to add gamers, any streamers, or indeed anyone who uses the WiFi you want sole use of perhaps? Site shared WiFi is what it is if it demonstrates good bandwidth then I will use it if not I will use my Vodafone data, simples.

 

[AndyPK]

Overall then it’s (probably) better to buy a ‘dumb’ tv (with no smart capability) which should be cheaper and then add a Firestick or some such device!!!

?

 

[sallylillian]

Overall then it’s (probably) better to buy a ‘dumb’ tv (with no smart capability) which should be cheaper and then add a Firestick or some such device!!!

?

Exactly what I did. I bought a HD PC monitor with HDMI and speakers.

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[Pausim]

If the Firestick was visible to you in a neighboring van (likely as DIRECT-Cf-Fire TV), that means it perhaps wasn't connected to the site network and the occupiers might have been using WiFi directly to send content from their phones.

I scanned the wifi network to see what was attached to it and could see a Firestick. The problem started with it’s arrival on the network and ended when it left. If they had been using their own 4G connection it would not have caused a problem for others. I doubt that any site wifi is currently capable of supporting multiple tv streams so it goes down on my list as inconsiderate. I now start to understand why the big clubs throttle their download speeds.

 

[dabhand]

Busman dabhand
Might be worth investigating? ?

Busman Dave can buy this time ?

 

[pandas]

Some Alphatronics's TV's are 'Smart', however that doesn't mean that the smart bit is any good!

I had a good play with one at a dealer the other day and the Smart features seemed very clunky and slow. I could say the same for my fairly recent Samsung TV at home - but my user experience has much improved since adding a Firestick which is much faster and user-friendly by comparison.

There is also some incompatibility between certain streaming apps with certain brands of Smart TV, or you get left with old versions when new features are not supported. The Firestick is constantly updated, so it tends to be less of an issue.

The other benefit of a Firestick is it sometimes downloads further ahead than some Smart TV's meaning less chance of buffering a connection is dropped momentarily.

I'm not sure if you needed an additional accessory to power it, it should power from USB fine enough. Plus you can always use it at home to make an older TV or Monitor 'Smart'.

Very useful thank you. I assume that plugging in the Firestick will not cause any issues with the TV's other functions. I will try the power into the usb.

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