tv via 3g

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Paddydog`1

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Rather than buy a omnidirectional tv aerial how about watching via a smartphone tethered to a smart tv. Are there any 12 v smart tvs for boats which I can tether to a smartphone with unlimited data usage such as offered by 3. what are the pros and cons of this rather than going down the aerial route
thasnks folks
 
The phone companies often (usually?) don't allow tethering and "unlimited" data often doesn't really mean unlimited. Streaming uses a lot of data, e.g. if you use a dongle with a laptop to view BBC iPlayer, you'll reach your data limit pretty quickly...

FWIW I bought a very small (10") Nikkai tv from Maplins & the aerial it came supplied with works fine on the coachroof under the sparayhood. It works well from 12v & might also fit the bill as a "smart" tv?..
 
I have a 17 inch laptop and use three's 'one plan' which is totally unlimited, tetherable internet. Tvcatchup.com handles the rest.

I tried using 'giffgaff' at 10er per month but it wasn't reliable enough in my area. The new H+ networks which are rolling out are more than enough for even high quality streams.

It will still drop out occasionally but i can live with that.
 
We have an "all you can eat" data plan with Three Mobile on my smartphone which has the option to turn it on as a "mobile wifi hotspot". This gives us wifi throughout the boat and Mrs Bob can watch Emmerdale in high res on her iPad while I work on the internet for clients with no noticeable lag. It's fantastic. This is £33 a month - and came with a "free" Samsung Galaxy S3 which is nice (I use it for work when away from laptop).

We also use the same setup and £5 ish a month with LoveFilm instant which gives us a choice of a lot of movies on demand.

Sometimes we're seeing speeds above 7Mb for downloads.

But Three have in the past penalised the top few % of their subscribers who really hammer the bandwidth, and we totally rely on good net (for work and evening entertainment etc) so we also have a Three MiFi which gives us 15Gb a month (for about £15 a month). We try to alternate using the Mifi or my phone so we don't push the limit too far and trigger any automatic throttling they might impose.

We've used mobile broadband all round the UK including 5 miles off the coast in Scotland with great success (BBC iPlayer streaming no problem).

Have had both Vodafone and Three all round UK and Three won hands down. Only once did Vodafone work where Three did not - can't recall where that was - but in A LOT of places, only Three worked at all.
 
Worth bearing in mind that there are large swathes of the UK that do not have 3g reception because the phone companies cannot be bothered to adapt the local transmitters!!
So great is you do all your sailing around the south coast but not much use in parts of Wales;rural NW England and of course here in the Highlands of Scotland unless in Fort William or Inverness!
 
Six week cruise this summer on the East Coast and everywhere had enough 3g to watch iPlayer and Netflix. We used the iphone as a hotspot and watched them on an ipad - could use a laptop as well. 3 has the iPhone at £34pm with all you can eat data plus calls, brilliant plan. iPlayer now allows 3g watching on the host device as well.
 
Great response folks. Thank you.

It seems 3G 'all you can eat' is the way to go. Can I tether my smart phone using this plan to a 12 v smart TV and using catch up tv for example thus make the need for conventional tv plus a dodgy omnidirectional aerial obsolete? If so does it need a cable connection or can you buy a wifi enabled screen about 23" for wall mounting? If so what screen would you recommend?

PS loved your blog Captain Bob. Very inspiring. You should publish it.
 
Paddydog`1 said:
Rather than buy a omnidirectional tv aerial how about watching via a smartphone tethered to a smart tv. Are there any 12 v smart tvs for boats which I can tether to a smartphone with unlimited nevada pools data usage such as offered by 3. what are the pros and cons of this rather than going down the aerial route
thasnks folks
Click to expand...

First of all tethering normally costs a ridiculous and outrageous monthly fee, plus out on the water like that I doubt you would receive optimal signal.
 
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ffiill said:
Worth bearing in mind that there are large swathes of the UK that do not have 3g reception because the phone companies cannot be bothered to adapt the local transmitters!! So great is you do all your sailing around the south coast but not much use in parts of Wales;rural NW England and of course here in the Highlands of Scotland unless in Fort William or Inverness!
Click to expand...

Not in our experience. We had good signal pretty much all the way around, including in remote parts of Scotland. We made use of the Three coverage map but often found that by hoisting up the mast we out-performed their predictions.

YachtMasta said:
First of all tethering normally costs a ridiculous and outrageous monthly fee, plus out on the water like that I doubt you would receive optimal signal.
Click to expand...

Not true. I think it was an extra £3 a month on my contract to allow tethering. And out on the actual water you often get better signal than on land. Nothing in the way!

Paddydog`1 said:
PS loved your blog Captain Bob. Very inspiring. You should publish it.
Click to expand...

Hehe thank you :D :blush:
 
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