Bringing your own equipment with you while on the road often requires some planning ahead. If you plan to use an AppleTV while traveling you might want to bring some ethernet cables or a WiFi router along with you:
Since I travel a great deal, I have been wondering if there is a way I can use AppleTV and the hotel’s WiFi network to stream video from my laptop to their television. In looking at the Apple Support Discussions, it appears that a similar question has been raised by those in college dorms.
I realize that this requires a HDMI cord and port on the television. But is there a way that the Mac can then “talk” to the AppleTV?
Thanks, Bill
Hi Bill,
My initial thought is that this should work fine. As long as the Mac and AppleTV are on the same WiFi network, you should be able to use the Home Sharing to enable AirPlay from the laptop to the ATV and stream away. Have you tried this and found that it doesn’t work? What is the gist of the Apple Support Forums discussion?
Adam — That was my supposition as well, but not what I experienced. Here is an example of the Apple Discussions:
I live in a college apartment and am thinking about getting an Apple TV so we can watch all of the movies/tv shows that are in my iTunes on our tv. Our campus wireless network is not password [protected], but requires a login page be filled out (much like a hotel, or panera bread). https://discussions.apple.com/message/9855093
Ah, I see what’s happening. The setups you reference require a username/password login to the network. Unfortunately there’s no way to enter login info from the AppleTV directly.
This might change with a future software update, a similar feature is promised for iOS 5. Here’s one possible workaround: connect the laptop to hotel WiFi, then share the connection to the Ethernet port and connect the AppleTV and Mac via Ethernet cable. Or use the hotel’s wired network (if available) and bring your own WiFi router with you, like an Airport Express, which you can use to create a separate network your AppleTV and laptop can connect to.
