Do cabin TV's have ports?

[TwoBeAtSea]

On my upcoming Equinox cruise, I would like to be able to hook my laptop to the TV to watch movies either stored or streaming.   
Does anyone know if the cabin TV's have usable HDMI ports? 

I was on Princess recently and the cabin TV had zero HDMI ports. 

 

Or if the TV's support casting that would work as well.  

 

[davekathy]

There are TVs in the staterooms. 😂

Edited February 7, 2023 by davekathy

[mahdnc]

11 minutes ago, TwoBeAtSea said:

On my upcoming Equinox cruise, I would like to be able to hook my laptop to the TV to watch movies either stored or streaming.   
Does anyone know if the cabin TV's have usable HDMI ports? 

I was on Princess recently and the cabin TV had zero HDMI ports. 

 

Or if the TV's support casting that would work as well.  

 

 

Yes, there are HDMI input ports on the stateroom television.  Successful access to these ports vary from ship to ship.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by mahdnc

[TwoBeAtSea]

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yes, there are input ports on the stateroom television.  Successful access to these ports vary from ship to ship.

An HDMI cable does not take up much luggage space so I'll pack one and see what happens. 
Thanks for the reply. 

[m8zenblue]

On the subject of connecting various devices to cabin tv I have a question.

My wife and I like to watch a nice movie at night when we retire for the day.

Is there a way to connect an external hard drive to tv ?

I have heard of people doing this but was hesitant to ask others until now after our tv service had numerous interruptions on last cruise on the Silhouette.

[mahdnc]

9 minutes ago, m8zenblue said:

On the subject of connecting various devices to cabin tv I have a question.

My wife and I like to watch a nice movie at night when we retire for the day.

Is there a way to connect an external hard drive to tv ?

I have heard of people doing this but was hesitant to ask others until now after our tv service had numerous interruptions on last cruise on the Silhouette.

 

I believe you need a USB port on the television to connect the hard drive to for starters.  I don't recall seeing USB ports on our stateroom television although we have not sailed on the new Edge class ships with newer televisions which may have a USB port.

Edited February 7, 2023 by mahdnc

[AKN]

Don’t know about hook-ups, but wanted to tell you that we just got off Celebrity Solstice, a veranda cabin, and the TV was not moveable. It could not be angled toward the bed. If not sitting in front of TV, you cannot see what’s on the screen. We were told it had become a safety issue so they put rods into the wall brackets so they cannot be moved. On Celebrity Silhouette veranda cabin in October…those were still moveable to angle toward the bed. I hope it’s just an anomaly, but fear it may be “a thing.” —Paula

[NutsAboutGolf]

Was recently on the Solstice, in AQ they had a Samsung TV with HDMI ports and an USB port.  I have never tried the USB port on X's Samsung TV.  My home TV 15 years had a USB port which would not play video, audio only so I wouldn't solely rely on a hard drive.  Simply move your files to your computer and connect it HDMI.  Also, you MAY be able to connect it to a computer wirelessly, we were unsuccessful connecting but didn't put much time into it since we had a HMDI wire we just connected, YMMV

[MissP22]

.

[PTC DAWG]

3 hours ago, davekathy said:

There are TVs in the staterooms. 😂

I use it for the navigation route…and other info.  Fascinating sometimes to see the sea depth. 😀

[mandream]

The HDMI ports on the wall mounted TVs are often a PIA to reach - but you CAN get there.  Helps to have small hands.

 

@Jim_Iain has a good tutorial on how to switch inputs.

 

 

 

Good luck!

 

Mike

[Jim_Iain]

Yes all the ships have HDMI cable.   Access is usually pretty easy in rooms from SS down and the back in accessible.   The suites can be a pain as the are often mounted inside wall boxes and getting your hand in can be difficult.    The larger TV's usually have the HDMI and other ports about 1/3 of the way in.  

 

Just follow the instructions someone posted above.    I've found them to work on about 8 ships across all classes since they changed to a new technology.   The TV's now work more like a computer monitor and the main menu page is actually a URL address. 

 

From the same input menu you can select Casting and control a soundbar which many of the suites have.

[TwoBeAtSea]

1 hour ago, mandream said:

The HDMI ports on the wall mounted TVs are often a PIA to reach - but you CAN get there.  Helps to have small hands.

I'll pack an extra pair of those...  

[Jim_Iain]

37 minutes ago, TwoBeAtSea said:

I'll pack an extra pair of those...  

 

One thing I found recently that help are some HDMI extenders with a 95% angle.   I fond both varieties if you have more than one HDMI Attached.    The hardest part of many cables is to get enough pressure to insert with your cramped hand behind the TV

 

 

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

I use it for the navigation route…and other info.  Fascinating sometimes to see the sea depth. 😀

Kidding aside, I use the TV to check our onboard account. 

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Kidding aside, I use the TV to check our onboard account. 

 

You can do that in the App --- Real time -  LOL

[lylone]

We were able to hook up a Samsung galaxy s22 usbc to hdmi to TV on the Infinity in September.  Streamed a football game and watched videos.  It seemed like others had done the same as the top hdmi port didn't work on the TV but the second did.

[davekathy]

18 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

You can do that in the App --- Real time -  LOL

Agree. I had to use my phone on our March RC cruise. The stateroom TV didn't have the interactive TV option. On Celebrity I keep my phone in the safe. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by davekathy

[Maplemoose]

A more basic question. Is there a list of channels available? 

[DaKahuna]

I have a FireStick that will be making it's debut on our upcoming cruises. 

 

In the past, I have watched movies on my laptop and or tablet.  It really just depends on whether the wife wants to watch with me or not. 

 

She usually browses YouTube on her tablet/ 

[Jim_Iain]

This is a picture of the ports from a SkySuite on Solstice. 

I had 3 HDMI plugged into 1, 2 and 3.  I sometimes use USB to power a Roku or Firestick. 
 

the only other thing plugged in is a lan cable. 

 

[DaKahuna]

13 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

This is a picture of the ports from a SkySuite on Solstice. 

I had 3 HDMI plugged into 1, 2 and 3.  I sometimes use USB to power a Roku or Firestick. 
 

the only other thing plugged in is a lan cable. 

 

 

 

 Why, when I look at that picture, am I tempted to bring a travel router or a Ethernet switch and hook it up to that Ethernet cable.  Just wondering if the ship's IT department is using MAC address filtering or not?   I could think of a number of fun things to do if either of those worked 🙂  Unfortunately, I think it would be frowned upon as I have found us IT types have no sense of humor when it comes to people messing around with our systems. 

 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 hours ago, Maplemoose said:

A more basic question. Is there a list of channels available? 

 

On the TV yes; I'm not sure if channels are the same fleet wide.  Another issue is that not all channels are the same as the US.  Nat Geo for example has zero commercials and can show home design shows.  ESPN/ESPN2 show varying content, not the same feed as US-based ESPN/ESPN2

Edited February 9, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[Jim_Iain]

59 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Why, when I look at that picture, am I tempted to bring a travel router or a Ethernet switch and hook it up to that Ethernet cable.  Just wondering if the ship's IT department is using MAC address filtering or not?   I could think of a number of fun things to do if either of those worked 🙂  Unfortunately, I think it would be frowned upon as I have found us IT types have no sense of humor when it comes to people messing around with our systems. 

 

 

 

I've never played with that but I have a feeling it may  be an intranet connection.   One thing I noticed is that even when we have lost internet most of the TV Channels continue to transmit. 

 

On Summit in one room we had a problem that our TV would lock up and not allow us to navigate the celebrity page.   Neither I nor the Butler could get to the power to reboot.   He called a friend in IT and they were able to remotely reboot my TV.   Fixed it instantly.    Would happen sporadically and I would just call him and he would have them reboot it.

 

I once a bad internet connection in a RS.   IT came up and installed a Wifi Router in my room -   It was wifi but had an Ethernet port I could plug into.   I still had to log on with my credentials and the speed was about the same as wireless (pre-starlink). 

[DaKahuna]

47 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I've never played with that but I have a feeling it may  be an intranet connection.   One thing I noticed is that even when we have lost internet most of the TV Channels continue to transmit. 

 

On Summit in one room we had a problem that our TV would lock up and not allow us to navigate the celebrity page.   Neither I nor the Butler could get to the power to reboot.   He called a friend in IT and they were able to remotely reboot my TV.   Fixed it instantly.    Would happen sporadically and I would just call him and he would have them reboot it.

 

I once a bad internet connection in a RS.   IT came up and installed a Wifi Router in my room -   It was wifi but had an Ethernet port I could plug into.   I still had to log on with my credentials and the speed was about the same as wireless (pre-starlink). 

 

The Ethernet is more of a curiosity with me than anything else.  

 

I have been lucky in that we've had a good signal in our room on all our cruises thus far.  I have noticed some instances where it would be stronger in the room than on our balcony, the Aft Corner S1's on Reflection for example.  

 

My plan is to document what I find in our Sky Suite on Millennium on our upcoming cruise.  Will be included in the live blog I plan to do.