TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Roku or Amazon Fire TV

Does Amazon Fire TV work in SXM? I know some folks have Roku but I think it requires a US IP address. Is that correct? Is it also correct for Amazon Fire TV? Thx

I thought it only worked in the US but read the bottom of the page stuff:

Amazon TV

I might bring it to SXm in a couple of weeks and give it a try...but we RARELY watch Tv there....

I use Sling Box. Watch your home TV anywhere, even on my boat

Yup Sling Box works fine but is intended for watching TV over a mobile device (Tablet, PC, smartphone). To watch on a HD TV you would need a Fire Stick, Chromecast etc. anyway and then easily cast from your device to TV.

Other plus for the Amazon stick is that it has original content for viewing.

Both are fine....as are others.

I have Firstick and a smatr tv and it works great. I think you would need a smart tv in SXM <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/usflag.gif" alt="" />

I have fire stick and do not have a smart TV ( the one using the stick)...works great as it does in any other TV with an HDMI port.

A smart TV makes the TV internet capable so you can access sites like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube etc. without an additional device. Uses wifi directly rather than through the stick...or...uses the stick if input is changed

The TV in SXM is not the issue...the issue is Amazon seeing a International wifi IP and limiting what is available...I'm looking forward to giving it a go in 12 days

I use a 15' HDMI cable I got on eBay for $15. It's perfect. I can record, stop, pause, just like a home. My laptop has an HDMI port. You can buy an HDMI converter for iPad and such.

sail2wind-do you attach your laptop to the tv via hdmi cable? I looked into Sling but reviews are horrible. I am able to use the stick her in SXM and get Netflix. I can't get ABC (I think it's as someone else said, because of the IP address) Anyone agree? Any other ideas how to get live ABC?

We're wondering if anyone has successfully used Roku or Fire Stick at Club O? We have Slingbox, too, and it doesn't work so good at Club O.

I'm using my Amazon Fire Stick with lots of gliches. Still can't watch "live" tv.

Maybe I am missing something but there is no live tv on the stick. I assume you are on the French side so the tv is not to your liking

We got Sling tv about a month ago (to watch ESPN channels)and used our computer to show it on our tv (yes, we used an HDMI cable). We just recently got a new smart tv that uses Roku. Which beside Sling also allows access to Netflix and Amazon accounts and more. It's pretty nifty. Also, Sling tv goes month to month so we can cancel anytime we want. The biggest issue on SXM is internet speed (along with outside the US coverage by those services). It always comes down to the internet speed!

You guys are on vacation and trying to watch US tv live, is that the issue here?
Cause we had Dish and watched all the stations in the US live.
Granted we weren't supposed to but someone else dealt with that.
Just watch it on your laptop if it's that important to watch tv in your hotel room.
Or go to Pete's or a casino to watch live sports you couldn't get anyway.
I must be missing something. And yes, we got CBS, NBC and ABC. ESPN etc. We got all the channels.
???
irina

No, as I understand, the original poster is living on island, at least for the winter..

I have no idea why Slingbox would get bad reviews. I have been sailing the Caribbean for many years and never had any problems with Slingbox You will need at least 4G-LiTE to stream, most wifi's are adequate. Whatever is on my home TV I can watch on Slingbox. Yes, laptop to TV, go to input, and change to HDMI

thanks sail2wind. I think I'll try slingbox. I had dish from US, had my old one replaced only to find the new one is faulty so I can't get another until I go back to states in April. Gotta deal with it here. I'm not on vaca, here for the winter

Several Thoughts.

Sling BOX will usually really work anywhere in the world, because it is not necessarily a streaming a "service" like Hulu, Netflix etc... It is just taking your home TV signals and streaming to your device. I've used it and it works just about everywhere. Pretty slick.

Sling TV is different. It is a new Sling "service" that broadcasts live TV services (NBC, CNN etc...). The reviews I have read ARE bad. Its because of limited channel selection and poor streaming quality. (That will probably change as the technology matures and other services start doing the same ...see below)

Devices like Firestick, ROKU, APPle TV etc. Are used for their own proprietary "on demand" streaming services/programs and others services such as HULU, Netflix. They typically DO NOT provide live broadcasting services, but that is about to change in the years to come . I just read an article where HULU will offer live TV in 2017 as part of their streaming services...so stay tuned.

However...

Many streaming services do have licensing restrictions that will restrict broadcast outside the US/Canada etc. NOTE: SlingBOX works because its is simply taking what you would normally play on your home TV and streaming it to you and you only...the sling BOX does not care where you are or what your are watching)

There are ways around country restrictions. Warning geek stuff to follow: Restricted streaming services know you are in another country based on the internet (IP) address of your physical location. If say you plug in your Firestick and try to bring up service, and it slams the door its because the Firestick reported your IP address and subsequently its location is deduced to be in St Martin. Door shut. The thing is not all services work that way so while I was able to watch Netflix in SXM, the NFL network gets blocked.

You can get around that restriction VIA your PC/Laptop if you connect it via a VPN to your work, home office etc. Thus the service thinks you are in the US and you can watch the Packer game :-). If you don't know what a VPN is... that's a whole 'nuther thread ;-)

Regarding cables etc. Most new PCs have an HDMI port or in my case I have MacBook and you can purchase a lightning to HDMI connector through Amazon, Monoprice etc...(not expensive) Remember to pack an HDMI cable.

Finally word of warning. Services and restrictions change almost daily, so I KNOW I am not 100% correct. SO feel free to politely correct me if I am wrong.

Excellent explanation. I just have a question about a VPN. Does it slow down data because of its being another step for data to travel through? Would an IP blocker/proxy server be faster and do the same?

...and it wouldn't be appropriate for the Amazon Stick because there it has to connect to the available wifi signal in the room unless you get REALLY complicated.

Another "Hmmmm":

I just remembered that on my internet provider's website (Comcast) there is an option to watch live TV. Always been there...rarely used it. Could this be used outside of my local area for live tv...and cast to any tv (Chrome browser/Chromecast stick)???

Another thing to try in 9 days <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Regarding VPns. It depends ;-). But theoretically yes. Technically there are more hoops, however Streaming through my employers VPN was quite reasonable and I was able to get a fairly decent stream displayed on a HD TV in SXM. But then again I work for a video streaming equipment manufacturer so that sort of traffic is expected ;-). Yes, an IP blocker can do the same, but you are only as fast as your weakest link so lots a variables so I can't speak which would be better....

However many corporate VPNs or corporate networks in general guard their bandwidth jealously so quality may be throttled, blocked or simply verboten.

In fact my wife and I both work out of home offices, but she works for a fortune 100 company. If she is on the VPN, its strictly business. She can't even send a personal email, Gmail etc... w/o disconnecting. In fact they have only started doing web video conferences literally this week.

Now as to the Amazon stick... One could turn their VPN connected Windows PC into a WiFi hot spot. Have the stick connect to the hotspot.... This is pure theory....never tested...don't try this at home...but if you.... do don't call me for support. ;-)

My Linksys router has the ability to create a VPN.
So does my Samsung Galaxy. I don't need it here but I would certainly enable it if I still lived in SXM.
Cheers
irina

wabid thanks so much for taking the time to explain now it's very clear and simple. LOL I'm using my "jail broken" firestick with lots of angst. Netflix works fine but the new stuff is marginal. Seems I just can't watch live tv. oh well, the us will have to live without my feedback.

Sling Box with Chromecast works great off my Samsung tablet but when we stayed @ Esmeralda the internet was so spotty I rarely was able to cast anything that wasn't on my tablet. With good internet service there shouldn't be any issues

I think that is going to be a challenge for all resorts and hotels in the next few years. With more and more bringing streaming services with them, firesticks, netflix, facetime etc... You an expect to the hotels to be caught flat footed. A true HD stream (720p at 30 frames per second) can take over 3.0 megabits per second of bandwidth. You multiply by that several guests hitting the same WifI router...trouble. And some of the older routers will dumb themselves down to the slowest device to ensure coverage...so all it takes is a laptop slightly out of range to suck the life out of the system. In short with some hotels, streaming services are going to be very spotty. True story...when staying at SBR recently I noticed the internet was very slow one evening. I gave up and walked out onto our deck. I looked down at the pool and saw about 6 tweenangers all with their heads buried in their phones/tablets... Problem spotted...shut the laptop ...poured a cocktail and chuckled.

You can try but I think you may get blocked. I have UVerse (similar to comcast) and the apps work great for streaming "some" live TV. However when I tried to get an NFL game through the Uverse *access denied* (Fist raised at Laptop) . Went to NFL.com and tried there **access denied *** (Middle finger raised towards laptop). Connected to VPN ...everything lit up. (Hands raised in victory). Either way. No harm trying. Good luck.

We are on the French side with only French language TV available in the apartment we rent. We use our SlingBox from home to get English TV. Even with the low internet speed in our unit (1.78 mbs per the speed test I did), SlingBox still works well enough to watch.

We also use a HDMI cable from the laptop to the TV and it works just fine.

[quote]boucharda said:
Another "Hmmmm":

I just remembered that on my internet provider's website (Comcast) there is an option to watch live TV. Always been there...rarely used it. Could this be used outside of my local area for live tv...and cast to any tv (Chrome browser/Chromecast stick)???

We had Brighthouse in Florida several years ago and they claimed you could watch TV "anywhere". Turned out "anywhere" was limited to TVs connected to the same router as your PC.

Trying to comprehend this the most simplest way!!! So I buy a Slingbox, plug it into my cable box at home (on a tv not used while we are away). Now I want to watch tv from home while on the island. It is NOT a smart Tv. I plug a Firestick, Roku, or Apple TV into the TV and get it hooked to the internet. Do I then go to an app or open the browser and sign into my slingbox??? Then control it with the remote from what ever streaming device I am using???