For those with WIFI campgrounds

[RubenZ]

This is a must have to get some content to your TV's Amazon has it on sale.

[carsonizik3]

Might be a dumb question but what exactly does it do?????

[lindy]

rubin; have you bought this unit or not? read the consumer comments about it and over 50% rated it 1 star - Not worth buying due to the cost of subscriptions.

[3 Happy Campers]

I bought a slingbox from Amazon for a onetime charge of $150. No monthly fees.
The slingbox sits in the basment next to my router.
I connect my netbook to the camper TV with an HDMI cable & either use the campground wifi or use my droid pro as a wifi hotspot.
With this set up we get all our local TV line up while camping plus all the on demand programing. Again no extra monthly fees.

[wfmdfm]

Looks interesting but I would need some better reviews. I have just set up my Droid Tablet to feed into my TV video from wi-fi. With that set up we can watch Netfix. That device I think is capable of the same thing. I am not sure how the wi-fi tv works but it sounds cool.
Wally

[bodzcampers]

I have to admit to being completely confused here. I have cable, netflix, and a surround system with blue ray player at home. Every time I want to change applications from watching TV or down streaming from Netflix, or listening to the radio, I have to call my husband (if he's not home) to walk me through it. I can't imagine now adding another layer and transporting this mess to my camper! Kuddos to you guys who know how to interface all this stuff.

[House97]

I have the Roku XDS, and it is a fantastic device for me, because I don't have cable TV. If I did, I suspect it wouldn't be so great after all. But it does Netflix, and Amazon Video on demand if you're a Prime customer...
I've never taken it out in the camper. I've only turned the tv on in the camper when it's both cold and raining, and I keep a few DVDs in the camper to protect against that eventuality.
Finally, it depends on pretty decent Internet access. Better than anything I've experienced at a CG, or via my MiFi, but YMMV.

[essness]

The Roku and Logitech Review allow you to stream content from the internet to your TV.
I have the Logitech Review with Google TV and buy movie rentals from Amazon for 4.00 per rental. It also allows me to surf the web with Google Chrome on my TV as well as stream content from other computers on my home network, i.e.; photos, videos, and music that is stored on my desktop , netbook, notebook, tablet... etc.
Part of the reason for bad reviews associated with both these products was the price and lack of content associated.
The Logitech Review was selling for 180.00 just a couple months ago and now sells for 80.00-90.00. The content for these devices is improving as well.
I personally like the Review becase it comes with a full keyboard (wireless) and gives me the streaming capabilities from my local network as well as the internet. I also like haveing the web browser.
It also works on the "Android" platform and therefore has a familiar feel and function. You can get apps for it, but most are not all that good.

It also lets you surf and keep a picture in picture of your TV,

[RubenZ]

Originally Posted by lindy

rubin; have you bought this unit or not? read the consumer comments about it and over 50% rated it 1 star - Not worth buying due to the cost of subscriptions.

Are you looking at correct product? On Amazon only 28 reviews are 1start out of the 200+ ?

Its an awesome device that lets you stream web content to your TV. If you have a netflix account you can stream that to your tv plus it also has free content from crackle.com.

Go to crackle.com to see what you can stream for free. And if you already have Directv at home with HBO etc you can stream HBO to the device as well. NO EXTRA MONTHLY CHARGES for all that if you already have them.

[Nigels]

We have the slingbox and it works fine with a huge bandwidth, (like at home) the problem is finding a campsite that has enough bandwidth. Most campsites will cut you off if you are found using too much bandwidth, so we hardly ever got to use it, when we could the picture was poor and at peak times in the evenings impossible to use.

[3 Happy Campers]

Originally Posted by Nigels

We have the slingbox and it works fine with a huge bandwidth, (like at home) the problem is finding a campsite that has enough bandwidth. Most campsites will cut you off if you are found using too much bandwidth, so we hardly ever got to use it, when we could the picture was poor and at peak times in the evenings impossible to use.

We’ve only had our slingbox for half of this past camping season.
I guess we got lucky the three times we needed to use it everything was fine. We used it @ two CGs & once boondocking where I used my droid.

I’ve found over the past two years that wifi at campgrounds (at least in northeastern PA) is getting much better.
CGs are putting up more antennas, & increasing the available bandwidth.
I’m thinking that over the next 5 years you won’t find cable hookups at campgrounds anymore.
Everything will be wireless.

[Coops1]

Originally Posted by 3 Happy Campers

CGs are putting up more antennas, & increasing the available bandwidth.I’m thinking that over the next 5 years you won’t find cable hookups at campgrounds anymore.Everything will be wireless.

I wouldn't count on this happening with out an extra cost, the last campground we stayed at with wifi was charging 5 bucks a day to access their wifi plus it had a cap. Running cable is a lot cheaper for the campground once it's set up.

[3 Happy Campers]

Originally Posted by Coops1

I wouldn't count on this happening with out an extra cost, the last campground we stayed at with wifi was charging 5 bucks a day to access their wifi plus it had a cap. Running cable is a lot cheaper for the campground once it's set up.

I beg to differ.
There are ongoing expenses with maintaining a cable network. Tree branches fall, amplification & distribution equip fail. Cable itself degrades over time whether aerial or underground.

A wireless network is far less expensive to maintain & upgrade over the long haul. Of course there’s added cost whenever changing technologies. And that cost is always passed on to the consumer. Campgrounds passed on an added fee when cable was first run.

Most of the campgrounds I’ve been to charged fees at first. Today if a campground tried to charge an additional fee I’d tell them what to do with that fee & use my droid as a wifi hotspot. Enough people do that & you see the fee go away. In the past year or two I haven’t seen any added fees for the use of a CGs wifi. At least in the Pocono region of PA & in the CGs I’ve stayed in FL.

Over Thanksgiving we stayed @ Otter Lake CG for the first time in years because they finally bit the bullet & installed wifi. They said they went kicking & screaming but campers are demanding it so they had to install it. (At no added fee to the camper)

Most likely campgrounds will just roll the wifi fee into the normal site fee. Instead of charging $5 a day everyone will pay $2 more per day for the site whether you use it or not just like cable now.

[House97]

3 Happy Campers:
Are you getting 4g service on your droid from a campground in the poconos? Could you share more? I often have to be available to my employers over weekends etc. when I would rather be camping. I've not found reliable 3G or 4G service at the places I've camped, but it would open up a lot more time to go camping if I found a place.

[3 Happy Campers]

Originally Posted by House97

3 Happy Campers:
Are you getting 4g service on your droid from a campground in the poconos? Could you share more? I often have to be available to my employers over weekends etc. when I would rather be camping. I've not found reliable 3G or 4G service at the places I've camped, but it would open up a lot more time to go camping if I found a place.

Negative on the 4G. I’ve gotten good 3G most of the time.
I’ve actually had good 3G on one side of a CG & roaming on the other side. You won’t find widespread 4G in rural areas for a while.

I too am expected to be accessible 24/7 365 for work.
I’ve been able to VPN into the network via my droid pro on 3G.
The only thing the sucks is as soon as a call comes in to the droid the VPN drops. Didn’t have that problem with my old blackberry but we all know where RIM is headed.

[Coops1]

3 Happy Campers, I'm really only talking about the bandwidth costs compared to the cable costs. If a campground wanted to give every camper the ability to stream Netflix the cost will much higher than supplying the cable and I really don't see this happening. Besides if this was the intent a wired backbone would be the way to go.

[3 Happy Campers]

Originally Posted by Coops1

3 Happy Campers, I'm really only talking about the bandwidth costs compared to the cable costs. If a campground wanted to give every camper the ability to stream Netflix the cost will much higher than supplying the cable and I really don't see this happening. Besides if this was the intent a wired backbone would be the way to go.

You are not forward thinking.
Technology is constantly evolving with more efficient use of bandwidth.
Look how far we’ve come in just the past ten years. My first cell phone was hardly mobile. Now you can watch netfix on your phone, use it as a GPS, camera, Skype, etc.
As wireless technology becomes more common place more companies join the field, prices come down. Companies feed off of each other’s advances & we progress.

You will see wired based communication services gradually go the way of the pony express, Morse Code & the 8 track.

[lindy]

Am I getting something wrong here? I thought the reason to camp was to leave the hussle and bussel of everyday life behind and RELAX. It sound like everyone is trying to one way or another to keep connected to the boob tube/internet/netflix/etc and not leaving the hussle and bussle behind. I know that some must keep connected due to job requiremts, etc, but how bout we just set outside with the neighboors and relax and communicate with each other the old fashioned way TALKING in person, or read a book, or more import just spend time with our spouses?

[essness]

Originally Posted by lindy

Am I getting something wrong here? I thought the reason to camp was to leave the hussle and bussel of everyday life behind and RELAX. It sound like everyone is trying to one way or another to keep connected to the boob tube/internet/netflix/etc and not leaving the hussle and bussle behind. I know that some must keep connected due to job requiremts, etc, but how bout we just set outside with the neighboors and relax and communicate with each other the old fashioned way TALKING in person, or read a book, or more import just spend time with our spouses?

I suppose that's the beauty of it...... everyone does it a little different. It would be kinda boring if we all did the samething, drove the same trucks, bought the same campers, went to the same cg.........

[RubenZ]

Originally Posted by lindy

Am I getting something wrong here? I thought the reason to camp was to leave the hussle and bussel of everyday life behind and RELAX. It sound like everyone is trying to one way or another to keep connected to the boob tube/internet/netflix/etc and not leaving the hussle and bussle behind. I know that some must keep connected due to job requiremts, etc, but how bout we just set outside with the neighboors and relax and communicate with each other the old fashioned way TALKING in person, or read a book, or more import just spend time with our spouses?

Not everyone here has their kids off to college and camps with just their spouse LOL. I just turned 31 and my wife is 36 and we have RV with our 2yr old and another planned in a few months. So when the weather is bad while camping or too cold for our little one we need to have her inside doing something. Usually I would just put netflix on a IPOD and have her watch something.