WiFi Help

[Prior22]

Would like to bring my Roku streaming device to a friends house to use. However he doesn't have Wifi access. I'm curious a good way to go about paying for a wifi account I can use so I can stream to TV's away from my home. Thanks.

 

[Luckkill4u]

Why don't you use your smartphone as a mobile hotspot for the Roku box? Assuming you have a smartphone with a data plan.

 

[Prior22]

Why don't you use your smartphone as a mobile hotspot for the Roku box? Assuming you have a smartphone with a data plan.

No smartphone unfortunately. Just an old slider. I suppose I could buy one down the road though. I was just hoping there was an alternative to the method you suggested (so I wouldn't need to buy a smartphone and the expensive plan which comes with it).

Edit: Just realized my mother has a smartphone and data plan through Verizon. If I were to buy something like a Verizon Jetpack I could just use her account. In order to stream apps like MLB.TV and Amazon Video would she need to have an unlimited data plan to avoid any extra charges?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

No smartphone unfortunately. Just an old slider. I suppose I could buy one down the road though. I was just hoping there was an alternative to the method you suggested (so I wouldn't need to buy a smartphone and the expensive plan which comes with it).

Edit: Just realized my mother has a smartphone and data plan through Verizon. If I were to buy something like a Verizon Jetpack I could just use her account. In order to stream apps like MLB.TV and Amazon Video would she need to have an unlimited data plan to avoid any extra charges?

You can get a cheap smartphone (or even a mobile hotspot like a mifi) that will do the job.

Streaming video uses a lot of bandwidth, so you'll probably want an unlimited data plan.

 

[Prior22]

You can get a cheap smartphone (or even a mobile hotspot like a mifi) that will do the job.

Streaming video uses a lot of bandwidth, so you'll probably want an unlimited data plan.

"With the new Verizon Plan Unlimited, you get a 15 GB allowance of high-speed 4G LTE data for Mobile Hotspot and Jetpacks each billing cycle. Once you've used the 15 GB of 4G LTE data, your Mobile Hotspot data speed will be reduced to up to 600 Kbps for the rest of the billing cycle. Data will continue to be unlimited while your Mobile Hotspot is reduced to up to 600 Kbps."

An hour of a baseball game, in HD, is 3 gigs in size. Those 15 gigs aren't going to last long. Anyway around this 15 gig maximum for hotspot access?

Also any other WiFi recommendation possibilities besides Hotspots? The hotspot method seems less than ideal for streaming video over a significant period of time.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

"With the new Verizon Plan Unlimited, you get a 15 GB allowance of high-speed 4G LTE data for Mobile Hotspot and Jetpacks each billing cycle. Once you've used the 15 GB of 4G LTE data, your Mobile Hotspot data speed will be reduced to up to 600 Kbps for the rest of the billing cycle. Data will continue to be unlimited while your Mobile Hotspot is reduced to up to 600 Kbps."

An hour of a baseball game, in HD, is 3 gigs in size. Those 15 gigs aren't going to last long. Anyway around this 15 gig maximum for hotspot access?

Also any other WiFi recommendation possibilities besides Hotspots? The hotspot method seems less than ideal for streaming video over a significant period of time.

Not with Verizoff, I think. T-Mobile is one of the only US providers that actually have unlimited data (last I checked)
600 kbps should be just about enough to stream SD content.
You could download videos to a USB HDD before you go there and plug it into the Roku (assuming it's able to play stuff from a USB drive)

 

[Prior22]

Not with Verizoff, I think. T-Mobile is one of the only US providers that actually have unlimited data (last I checked)
600 kbps should be just about enough to stream SD content.
You could download videos to a USB HDD before you go there and plug it into the Roku (assuming it's able to play stuff from a USB drive)

Downloading videos from streams to an external drive....been thinking about that for a while. Is it possible to download streams from amazon video or MLB.tv?

In addition to a Roku I have an android based Shield TV. I figure this would be the better device to consider downloading streams from, as android based devices allow for installation of a huge variety of apps. Any apps which would allow for the download of streaming videos from the services I mentioned above?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Downloading videos from streams to an external drive....been thinking about that for a while. Is it possible to download streams from amazon video or MLB.tv?

In addition to a Roku I have an android based Shield TV. I figure this would be the better device to consider downloading streams from, as android based devices allow for installation of a huge variety of apps. Any apps which would allow for the download of streaming videos from the services I mentioned above?

There might be some way to rip streams but it's easier to just find a torrent of it.