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Old 07-17-2016, 01:32 PM   #1
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Question TLC Roku TV & Amazon

I just purchased a TV with Roku built in. This is a smart TV as well. I am a Amazon Prime user and have streaming videos available, mostly for free. When we are spending the night some where on the road, is there a way to access Amazon on the TV without using my hotspot on phone if there is no wifi available to watch a movie, etc.? I have searched this forum and so far have found nothing about Roku and Amazon. I'm not sure if this is even feasible, but thought I would ask.
I have a MacBook that I bring along and have watched movies on it using my hotspot, but wow, it uses lots of gigs.
Any help you could throw my way would be most appreciated.
Oh, I no longer have my Foretravel and was out of full timing for a number of years. Now have a Class C getting ready to head out to Alaska to full fill one of our bucket lists.
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Old 07-17-2016, 01:40 PM   #2
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Smart TVs need SOME sort of a connection to the internet to stream videos, whether it's Amazon, Hulu or one of the many others. Park wifi, tether to your phone (aka phone hotspot), use a Verizon hotspot (or whomever you cell phone service is with).
You'll need some way to pull data from the internet. Naturally if you're using either your phone or service provider hotspot then you'll be burning data on your data plan - so keep that in mind as you stream movies. It'll be pricey to go over your alloted GB.
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Old 07-17-2016, 01:47 PM   #3
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No .
The roku needs to get to the Internet ... Via wifi or directly connected via Ethernet .. You can use park / public wifi ( not likely it will be fast enough and if it is your fellow campers will not appreciate it !) Otherwise your cell plans access sent like you do from the phone or device .. One thing You can do is access the roku setting and in some cases limit the quality of the picture to save some gigs ( my roku is at home and I never tried to limit at as it wasn't important )
If you can get it down to 480p or less you can get it down to less than 1/2 Gig in a hour. At say 10 bucks a gig that's 5-10 bucks for a movie. Internet access is the biggest thing we wish we could get reasonably priced hopefully someday soon!
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Old 07-17-2016, 01:58 PM   #4
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Appreciate both remarks. Guess it will be the old hotspot and reducing the video down to a lower setting.
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Old 07-17-2016, 05:18 PM   #5
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Not sure what you would like to watch but you can download either movies or TV shows from your Amazon Prime account and watch the video later while you are offline. I do this using my Fire tablet which I connect to the television with a mini usb to hdmi cable I purchased from Amazon.
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Old 07-18-2016, 12:12 PM   #6
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Not sure what you would like to watch but you can download either movies or TV shows from your Amazon Prime account and watch the video later while you are offline. I do this using my Fire tablet which I connect to the television with a mini usb to hdmi cable I purchased from Amazon.
Thanks for that information; can you download the movies on the Fire tablet and then upload them from the tablet to the TV? Is this how it works?
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Old 07-19-2016, 04:39 AM   #7
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After doing some extra searching, it looks like the Fire Tablet needs internet service as well, so I would be in the same boat, so to speak.
Technology is moving so fast that something may be just around the corner for RVer's in the very near future! Let's hope anyway!
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Old 07-19-2016, 04:41 AM   #8
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Sorry, double post!
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Old 07-19-2016, 07:53 AM   #9
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Let me try to explain using more detail. I connect my Fire tablet to the internet anywhere there is a high speed connection, home, work etc... I open video tab on the Fire tablet and at this point am able to access all of the Amazon Prime video content. I download whatever movies or TV shows I like directly to the tablet. Disconnect from the internet and take the tablet with us. When in our RV I connect the tablet with no internet connection to the TV using a cable I purchased from Amazon built specifically for connecting to a TV HDMI port. The cable is a mini usb where it connects to the tablet and a HDMI where it connects to the TV. I once again open the video tab on my Fire and open the downloads. When I find the downloaded video of I use the Fire to it on the TV. The Fire Tablet I am using is a Fire HD7. Please keep in mind it is not a Kindle and I'm not sure all Fire tablets have this ability. Hope this helps. It seems it's always easier to do these things after you have been through it once or twice.
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Old 07-19-2016, 01:57 PM   #10
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Let me try to explain using more detail. I connect my Fire tablet to the internet anywhere there is a high speed connection, home, work etc... I open video tab on the Fire tablet and at this point am able to access all of the Amazon Prime video content. I download whatever movies or TV shows I like directly to the tablet. Disconnect from the internet and take the tablet with us. When in our RV I connect the tablet with no internet connection to the TV using a cable I purchased from Amazon built specifically for connecting to a TV HDMI port. The cable is a mini usb where it connects to the tablet and a HDMI where it connects to the TV. I once again open the video tab on my Fire and open the downloads. When I find the downloaded video of I use the Fire to it on the TV. The Fire Tablet I am using is a Fire HD7. Please keep in mind it is not a Kindle and I'm not sure all Fire tablets have this ability. Hope this helps. It seems it's always easier to do these things after you have been through it once or twice.
Thanks Silver; great explanation of this product. I am going to order one of these, as I believe it will work for us.
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Old 07-20-2016, 08:16 AM   #11
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I hope you enjoy it!
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Old 07-24-2016, 08:04 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by BillJinOR View Post
One thing You can do is access the roku setting and in some cases limit the quality of the picture to save some gigs ( my roku is at home and I never tried to limit at as it wasn't important )
If you can get it down to 480p or less you can get it down to less than 1/2 Gig in a hour.
AFAIK you can't use the Roku's settings to limit bandwidth, that's something that you control on the particular streaming "channel" you are using.

Netflix makes it easy control bandwidth (resolution) using settings in MyAccount but I'm not aware of Amazon (or any other channels) offering the same feature.

Almost all the major streaming channels utilize dynamic control of the streaming bandwidth. What this means is that the bandwidth will change (and your screen resolution) as the bandwidth of your internet connection changes. With a very good internet connection you can receive full 1080p resolution. This capability is why you rarely encounter delays for loading or rebuffering these days.

But, as a consequence of this dynamic capability, your data usage may go way up if you have a good internet connection. Recently, I was able to measure a usage of 2.1GB for one hour of HD-quality video.
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Old 07-24-2016, 08:59 AM   #13
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AFAIK you can't use the Roku's settings to limit bandwidth, that's something that you control on the particular streaming "channel" you are using.

Netflix makes it easy control bandwidth (resolution) using settings in MyAccount but I'm not aware of Amazon (or any other channels) offering the same feature.

Almost all the major streaming channels utilize dynamic control of the streaming bandwidth. What this means is that the bandwidth will change (and your screen resolution) as the bandwidth of your internet connection changes. With a very good internet connection you can receive full 1080p resolution. This capability is why you rarely encounter delays for loading or rebuffering these days.

But, as a consequence of this dynamic capability, your data usage may go way up if you have a good internet connection. Recently, I was able to measure a usage of 2.1GB for one hour of HD-quality video.
Thanks! All great information!
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Old 07-24-2016, 04:57 PM   #14
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When I find the downloaded video of I use the Fire to it on the TV. The Fire Tablet I am using is a Fire HD7.
Without any internet connection in the RV, you play on the tv your already downloaded content that's on the Fire HD7.

Can you take the downloaded content on the Fire HD7 and move it to another hard drive?
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