One Data Point - Silver Dawn WiFi and TV

[canderson]

For the techies out there, I'm posting a few notes of my experience on Silver Dawn over the past days.

 

First, the controller for the TV is truly minimalist - not even a mute button!  These Samsung televisions aren't just in 'hotel mode', they have no external buttons at all, therefore lacking a 'source' button. 

 

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our monitors would automatically respond to a live signal on the unused HDMI port.  You'll want a 'straight' cable, not one with a right angle connector as is true in some situations with wall mounted screens, since the connector panel in the rear runs cables parallel to the screen.  Plug the HDMI into a live source, the monitor detects it, and voila, you're in business. 

 

 

Moving on to connectivity:

 

I had a couple of choices for VPN service, and we've all heard about the issues that some have had with these, depending upon the protocols available and what's being blocked by the ship's IT dept.  To my additional surprise, I have Nord working on my notebook using the "Open VPN (UDP)" option, and I'm using a Denver server (choose whatever is needed for your purposes) to connect.  To manually select, you'll want to turn the "Auto-Connect /  Choose a VPN server and protocol automatically" = off, then set the "VPN Protocol" to "OpenVPN (UDP)". 

 

Mind you, with the VPN running, you will NOT be able to use the MyCruise.com shipboard site on your notebook.  For that, you'll need to turn the VPN off.  If you don't, you will get some weird support page in Dutch - that's your clue.  You may need to restart your browser after shutting off the VPN to access that site.  However, there's nothing there that doesn't show up on the TV if you need that information.

 

I had zero success using either Nord or Tunnelbear VPN apps on my Android phone.  Wasn't able to find a protocol setting in either of those that would get me past the ship's server.

 

 

[canderson]

As for speed, Ookla has been reporting 10mbps d/l pretty much all the time since we left Lisbon on our way across the Atlantic, with latency around 66ms, which is good considering the Starlink satellites are having to hand off data from one to the next to reach a ground station on one side of the Atlantic or the other.

 

FWIW, I have the 'premium' plan that comes with the suite, so can't say whether the 'regular' plan is offering comparable speeds.

[Brad1185]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

For the techies out there, I'm posting a few notes of my experience on Silver Dawn over the past days.

 

First, the controller for the TV is truly minimalist - not even a mute button!  These Samsung televisions aren't just in 'hotel mode', they have no external buttons at all, therefore lacking a 'source' button. 

 

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our monitors would automatically respond to a live signal on the unused HDMI port.  You'll want a 'straight' cable, not one with a right angle connector as is true in some situations with wall mounted screens, since the connector panel in the rear runs cables parallel to the screen.  Plug the HDMI into a live source, the monitor detects it, and voila, you're in business. 

 

 

Moving on to connectivity:

 

I had a couple of choices for VPN service, and we've all heard about the issues that some have had with these, depending upon the protocols available and what's being blocked by the ship's IT dept.  To my additional surprise, I have Nord working on my notebook using the "Open VPN (UDP)" option, and I'm using a Denver server (choose whatever is needed for your purposes) to connect.  To manually select, you'll want to turn the "Auto-Connect /  Choose a VPN server and protocol automatically" = off, then set the "VPN Protocol" to "OpenVPN (UDP)". 

 

Mind you, with the VPN running, you will NOT be able to use the MyCruise.com shipboard site on your notebook.  For that, you'll need to turn the VPN off.  If you don't, you will get some weird support page in Dutch - that's your clue.  You may need to restart your browser after shutting off the VPN to access that site.  However, there's nothing there that doesn't show up on the TV if you need that information.

 

I had zero success using either Nord or Tunnelbear VPN apps on my Android phone.  Wasn't able to find a protocol setting in either of those that would get me past the ship's server.

 

 

Great info for both the hdmi and Nord vpn for our upcoming cruise. Thanks for sharing the info. 

[billc23]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our monitors would automatically respond to a live signal on the unused HDMI port.  You'll want a 'straight' cable, not one with a right angle connector as is true in some situations with wall mounted screens, since the connector panel in the rear runs cables parallel to the screen.  Plug the HDMI into a live source, the monitor detects it, and voila, you're in business. 

 

Thanks! Will a Roku stick plug straight in?

[jollyjones]

I believe the regular Wi-Fi is about a fifth of the speed of the premium, ie about 2 mbps rather than 10.  
 

And pressing the OK button on the controller is the mute button. 

[canderson]

Just now, billc23 said:

Thanks! Will a Roku stick plug straight in?

I can't think of a reason it wouldn't.  The space is certainly there, and as I noted, the monitors seem to autodetect the HDMI connection and switch sources automatically.  Not owning one, I can't speak for how the WiFi setup will go.  You'll want the higher end service for streaming. 

[canderson]

Just now, jollyjones said:

I believe the regular Wi-Fi is about a fifth of the speed of the premium, ie about 2 mbps rather than 10.  
 

And pressing the OK button on the controller is the mute button. 

Much appreciated!  Who'd a thunk?

[billc23]

2 hours ago, canderson said:

I can't think of a reason it wouldn't.  

Thanks! We met on the Celebrity Reflection TA last year in the retreat lounge. I still have a number of Celebrity cruises coming up but have pretty much limited my new bookings to Silversea and others. I have already booked past the 100 day mark on Silversea. How are you enjoying Silversea? 

[canderson]

15 hours ago, billc23 said:

Thanks! We met on the Celebrity Reflection TA last year in the retreat lounge. I still have a number of Celebrity cruises coming up but have pretty much limited my new bookings to Silversea and others. I have already booked past the 100 day mark on Silversea. How are you enjoying Silversea? 

Ah, right!  Should have remembered the handle.

 

Have really enjoyed our first SS cruise, and have nothing further booked on Celebrity.  That said, with the right itinerary and suite, we would still consider it, but I believe SS has become our first choice now. 

 

I've promised to take care of a major project at the Mt. Cuba observatory in Delaware this coming Spring, and have an ongoing government contract haunting me for just a little longer, after which I'll be retired (again!) and we'll get back to cruising more often.  Plan to start booking heavily starting Fall 2024, and the way cabins are disappearing, looks like I'd better get on that pretty soon.  Our preference for square feet on longer cruises (or B2Bs) puts us in a RS for Celebrity, and Silver for SS, and have found that those get snapped up pretty fast. 

 

[Winemaker_1]

On 12/5/2023 at 8:47 AM, canderson said:

Moving on to connectivity:

 

I had a couple of choices for VPN service, and we've all heard about the issues that some have had with these, depending upon the protocols available and what's being blocked by the ship's IT dept.  To my additional surprise, I have Nord working on my notebook using the "Open VPN (UDP)" option, and I'm using a Denver server (choose whatever is needed for your purposes) to connect.  To manually select, you'll want to turn the "Auto-Connect /  Choose a VPN server and protocol automatically" = off, then set the "VPN Protocol" to "OpenVPN (UDP)". 

This came up in a thread a while back.  Under the OpenVPN(UDP) or  (TCP) option, have you tried selected the Obfuscated Servers?  These should evade the VPN block.  It may take a few tries to find an appropriate country's server but this should work.  I'm curious to know.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Winemaker_1

[canderson]

4 hours ago, Winemaker_1 said:

This came up in a thread a while back.  Under the OpenVPN(UDP) or  (TCP) option, have you tried selected the Obfuscated Servers?  These should evade the VPN block.  It may take a few tries to find an appropriate country's server but this should work.  I'm curious to know.

No, having had luck with the UDP (not TCP, which didn't want to play nice) option, I didn't continue.  Didn't take time to play hunt and peck with various servers to see which of them might cooperate.  For my purposes, anything 'foreign' might have proved problematic anyway, since I needed a U.S. based server to get certain servers to cooperate (e.g., Comcast/Xfinity).  I stuck with Denver with no issues.