Watching iPad on tv on HOTS

[inar]

HI. I am not a techie at all. I like to watch a movie on my iPad before I go to bed at night. Is there a way to hook my iPad up to the tv on the Harmony to watch a movie downloaded to my iPad?

[Biker19]

Yes, the TVs generally have an available HDMI port, but accessing the port and being able to choose that input on the TV varies. Bring the necessary cables to make the connection and hope that your cabin TV can support it.

[Clarea]

Some ships have now have TVs that will change to the HDMI port when selecting channel 3.

[colocop004]

The only way I can imagine is to take an Apple TV with you. But a lot of times the connections on the TVs are disconnected. You would also have to have two separate internet packages because you can only have one device at a time logged in.

 

My guess is that it would be cheaper to just pay for the movies through the tv.

 

That being said, I am not even sure you can connect an Apple TV to VOOM on RCI. Let us know if you figure something out!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Biker19]

You would also have to have two separate internet packages because you can only have one device at a time logged in.

The OP is simply attaching an iPad (with content already on it) to a TV - no internet needed.

[inar]

I’m sailing on the Harmony on the 27th in a balcony cabin so I will report here when I’m back. The movies are already downloaded. I have the HDMI cable and the iPad connector thingy to the HDMi. Hoping it works.

[johnnyb78]

I’m sailing on the Harmony on the 27th in a balcony cabin so I will report here when I’m back. The movies are already downloaded. I have the HDMI cable and the iPad connector thingy to the HDMi. Hoping it works.

Does the iPad even support video out via the lightning port? I never realized that.

[inar]

Does the iPad even support video out via the lightning port? I never realized that.

Yes. Apple sells the lightning to HDMI connector cable.

[jamesr3939]

Does the iPad even support video out via the lightning port? I never realized that.

 

Yes, I have done it several times on the ship and hotels. The only trick is getting the TV to switch inputs and getting to those inputs. On the Oasis we had an OS and one TV I could get to the inputs the other I couldn't. Bob, is correct about it being easier to switch the inputs or at least that's what I found in October 2017 (Oasis) vs October 2016 on Allure.

[TBone2K]

On Anthem the TV mount has extra pieces on it that block access to the HDMI ports. Obviously there are ways to get in there for maintenance, but required tools to get to it. So please let us know how it goes.

[budman1000]

Recent trip on Independence of the seas, HDMI ports were accessible. The only problem we had was changing the inputs, could not find a way to change them on the remote or the TV set.

I did not know about trying channel 3 on the TV. Thank you for that tip. I will try that the next time on Indy.

Next trip is on Brilliance, any advice on how to change inputs would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Biker19]

Welcome to CC. A sure way to control the TV is to bring a universal remote. Many have reported channel 3 working as the HDMI input on several ships.

[londongal796]

We have successfully used our iPad with the lightning to HDMI converter w/ an HDMI cable input into the Samsung TV onboard on our past two cruises (July and December). I can't remember for the July sailing but at least for the December one, our remote actually let us change the input without any trouble. Please note: these were both on older ships, Grandeur and Vision, which do not have connections to the Room Service / other onboard menus. (And subsequently no Pay Per View was available!)

 

Historically, we have been able to use HDMI cables (in the past hooked up to a laptop instead of an iPad) but we've had to bring a separate remote in order to change the input on the TV. Fortunately we have a Samsung TV in the house and we've not had any trouble using our own remote, but we've also brought along a separate Universal remote (just in case!).

 

We absolutely love to watch our own content while on board and will sometimes skip the evening entertainment and opt to watch a movie in the comfort of our own cabin.

 

Best of luck but it should work okay if you are prepared with all the kit you could possibly need!

[sjalex20]

Last March on Harmony we easily hooked up an iPad to the cabin tv in the way you are wanting to. The TV swung out away from the wall on its tv mount so it was easy to plug in the hdmi. We did have a universal remote to change the TV input. In august we hooked up the iPad the same way to the tv on the Liberty but we had to unplug the phone jack input on the back of the tv to get control of the tv input with the universal remote. On Indy in October I could not get my universal remote to change the input at all. None of the “tricks” I read online worked. I will have to try channel 3 next time!

[budman1000]

Thanks for all the responses, I really appreciate it. I will start to assembly my TV kit today. Sounds like each ship will need something different. Thanks for all the advice.

[HolisticDeveloper]

I just returned from a sailing on Harmony. I didn't have any luck with getting the provided remote to change inputs -- neither approach of using the input button nor entering channel 03 worked, even when unplugging the network cable from the back of the TV.

 

However, I did connect my Chromecast and that worked fairly well. The Chromecast uses a technology called CEC which allows it to signal the TV to switch inputs once you start casting to it. Switching back to the normal feed was accomplished by turning the TV off and back on.

 

The Chromecast does require an internet connection to start the apps. (I used a travel router from HooToo to create a local network for my devices including the Chromecast.) Depending on the app, you might be able to cast offline content. For example, I was able to cast movies that I had previously synced to my device with Plex. YouTube, on the other hand, doesn't cast downloaded content (with YouTube Red) but will instead try to stream it directly.

 

Hope this helps.