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Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world

kratoz29 @lemm.ee

1y ago

Brought my Chromecast with Google TV to a Hotel, TV is framed.

Fuck my prior preparation day with the Chromecast with Google TV before the hotel checking....

I don't travel too often so my Chromecast needed some tweaking (AKA updating system and apps etc), I like to take it as a travel companion and found out this shitty frame around the TV.

It is the first time it happened to me, I can see this being annoying for frequent travelers.

Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world

kratoz29 @lemm.ee

1y ago

Brought my Chromecast with Google TV to a Hotel, TV is framed.

88 22

85 comments

Pull the bottom drawer out, there might be a set top box or something else connected to the TV via HDMI that you can unplug and use the cable from.
I travel with a Fire Stick and bring a female to female HDMI coupler for this reason.
- Never thought about bringing a coupler, good idea!

Call front desk and politely ask if they have a unframed / spare TV you can use. If you’re nice enough and they’re willing and able, they might just drop one by your room.

Marriott hotels have custom firmware on their TVs to prevent you from changing inputs.
- That's some fucking garbage.
  Not to sound like I'm going full r/hailcorporate for Hilton but I've not seen them pulling shit like that yet.
  
  I was at a Courtyard by Marriott and they had a fully accessible TV that allowed me to connect my SteamDeck and play from the bed. I will definitely stick with Courtyard for my business travel just for this alone.
  
  I stayed at a Hilton in Vegas that had a TV with unchangeable inputs.
- Probably not custom. Many brands allow the tv to be put into hotel mode. If you have your own remote (or an IR blaster) then you can take them out of it.
  
  The software was labeled with their brand.
- It's hospitality mode.
  https://travelseason.com/hotels/unlock-hotel-tv-hospitality-mode/
  https://www.lgtvguru.com/how-to-unlock-lg-tv-from-hotel-mode/

I gave up on this a long time ago. Phone screens are big enough, or a laptop if you own one, and ear buds. Done.
- Definitely the fastest workaround, overall if you go alone.
  
  Burn
- Yep, between fixed mounted TV's with zero space behind the TV to reach the HDMI ports or the TVs that have the weird cable box firmware/software that blocks you from accessing the tv inputs it was doomed from the beginning.

Chromecast doesn't work on most hotels WiFi anyway. At least it won't work if they have a page to sign into the WiFi after connecting. Pretty much have to use a HDMI cable in most cases
- I also always travel with my travel router, another headache solver.
  
  100% recommend this. Setting it in repeater mode with the captive portal is great. I have a Slate and a Brume.
  
  I should upgrade my crappy TP-Link TL-WR702N actually.
  Any idea why the Slate AX router costs more than the Beryl AX, which has better specs?
  Edit
  I've done a bit of research and the Beryl is twice as fast over 5GHz. It's slightly smaller and lighter. It has one less Ethernet port, but the WAN is capable of 2.5Gb. The Slate has an SD card slot for file sharing. It also has a quad-core CPU, so is faster when connecting to a VPN (550Mbps over 300Mbps of the Beryl).
  I actually prefer the black colour of the Slate over the light blue Beryl, but with the slower VPN speed and lack of an SD, both of which are not really a problem for me, the Beryl looks like it's the one I should go for.
  If anyone in the UK is interested, you can make quite a saving in the UK from Amazon. Normal price is £119 but if you tick the £20 off and 16% off voucher you end up paying £79.96. A saving of £43.53.
  
  Some projectors are about this size too, and are surprisingly powerful for their size. But then the new issue is finding a blank section of wall
- You can use your phone as a wifi hotspot to connect
  
  Infinite free wifi loop hack
- The newer Chromecasts work fine since you can just log in using the remote.
  For older Chromecasts, you can set up a wifi hotspot on your phone. At least on my Samsung Galaxy S22, you can share any wifi network that way. It's also a good way to bypass restrictions that only allow one device to connect to the wifi network, as they'll only see your phone on the network.
- Google TV works because you can click through with the controller. But getting it plugged in is the first challenge 😃
- I ran into the same issue with the chromecast. So when I travel I always bring a roku, because that will let you access the login page.
- A Travel Roku is the real pro tip.
- You can call the hotel’s IT and get your MAC address whitelisted to avoid all that captive portal bullshit. Once you have one device whitelisted you can just have others spoof that MAC if you are able.
  
  I have yet to call a hotel IT department that was competent enough to even know what a MAC address is. Last time I called one, the lady on the phone didn't know the difference between megabytes and megabits.
  
  Doubtful many would have access to that without calling a different company.
  And doing that would be a security risk regardless, if they just randomly whitelist devices… holy fucking shit, no wonder everything is getting “hacked”.
  
  Mac filtering is slowly dwindling for newer technology that works better.

The mildly infuriating part is that you posted it back to back on the same community 20 minutes apart
- What the heck?
  Thanks for letting me know.

I read a post (back on Reddit a few years ago) someone had the same situation they ended up buying a TV at the local BestBuy to place in front of the Hotel’s TV and returned it before leaving.
- That seems like a huge hassle for something completely unnecessary
  
  Yes but that is very petty so I’ll allow it.
  
  You stole my thoughts.

Ask the desk if it's not an option, I'd leave a negative review.
- Fill out the individual sections please. My staff gets a bonus based on the staff service portion and I can guarantee you none of them played a part in how the building was designed.
  
  Absolutely! I was thinking on Google maps or Yelp or something, but definitely condemn the design specifically. Don't need to get any hotel staff in trouble!

Is it possible it had an access panel with input ports somewhere around it? I've seen that in hotels in the past. On the side, or underneath, or in a drawer.
- It is all sealed, if a wire catches fire I'll be the last one to know it (?).
  
  If its completely sealed it’s likely if you just yank it evenly from either side (using light force) the outer frame should click off

The tv will pull out or the frame will pull out with a good tug. Make it happen don't be afraid, worst case you just tell them it fell off and hurt your foot and you get a upgrade

With a ton of effort, we got our Chromecast plugged into the TV screwed onto the wall at the last hotel we stayed at, only to find that the WiFi signal wasn't strong enough for the Chromecast to pick it up.

What is their financial gain from doing this? They really hoping I’ll get their shit pay per view?
- Looking at it they most likely just were concerned about aesthetics
- Dude, the TV isn't even Smart TV, and the quality is ass, I think it is 360p or some shit.
  
  Seriously doubt it's an SDTV. I don't think those have been produced for a while now.
- Hdmi ports aren't meant to be used over and over. Plug in and leave be. Then again I guess they could just have an hdmi cable sticking out of it that cannot be removed and is being held in place by the frame. But why not just cast it?
  
  I recently went to a hotel that had something like that. A breakout box with HDMI in and RCA Video in even. They also had a special Netflix app that you could connect to your account temporarily with your phone or credentials.

Most hospitality systems have a "channel" set up to receive HDMI1 or HDMI2. The front desk will tell you how to connect, if you can find a port.
Sometimes you have to find the box and override it, if the display is framed like this.
- This, the don't just rip off framing every time they need to replace it. There will be some way to access it. When I traveled for work, I had a tool bag for a few things, chiefly the thermostat.

i hate when they do this shit, so obnoxious
- I wonder if it’s because people keep breaking them trying to access the ports.
  
  Yes. I work in hospitality design and everything is meant to be tamper proof.
  
  Man ... That shit just makes me want to do malicious shit to their ports.
  
  Or they just don't want to provide support when people start plugging in incompatible devices.

I usually take mounted tvs off the mount in hotels to plug in my Chromecast w/Google tv, but this one looks tough!
- I don't think it is possible to achieve this without proper tools 😂

I don't understand the rational
- Sometimes I don't either...
- Maybe it makes it harder to steal the tv.
  
  Couldn't they just anchor it to the wall?

That's not even that bad sometimes the remote is locked to basic functions so even if you could access the HDMI you might no be able to switch to it.

A lot of good hotels have Chromecast built in to their TV system these days. I know Hyatt and Disneyland hotels definitely do, and I think a few of the other large chains have it too.
- This is not a good hotel, seems like the TV is not even smart, despite the remote to have streaming service buttons 😂

85 comments