Apple TV and WiFi

[roanmy]

I have a question regarding Apple TV's ability to function without a WiFi connection.
My impression is that it can work without a WiFi connection once set up.

However, assuming I bring my Apple TV from my house to, say, a hotel without a proper wifi-connection, will I still be able to use AirPlay from my iPhone? Without having to set it up on the new (non-existing) wifi?

 

[Mac... nificent]

It needs either Wi-Fi or Ethernet. If it doesn't have one or the other then it will not work. So if your imaginary hotel didn't have Wi-Fi, then you'd need to plug in Ethernet or it wouldn't work. Simple as that.

 

[winstars]

For the ATV to work in a hotel, your wifi address must be added manually by the hotel to their system. Simply joining the hotel network does not usually work. You generally need to know your wifi addy and give it to them to add, which they do by either calling in to their ISP or sometimes they can do it via a laptop that the hotel IT guy has access to their ISP.

 

[Poontaco]

I have a question regarding Apple TV's ability to function without a WiFi connection.
My impression is that it can work without a WiFi connection once set up.

However, assuming I bring my Apple TV from my house to, say, a hotel without a proper wifi-connection, will I still be able to use AirPlay from my iPhone? Without having to set it up on the new (non-existing) wifi?

Yes. If you create a hotspot with your iPhone, you can Airplay to the Apple TV.

edit; I should point out that you need to enable Airplay through Control Center. The Airplay icon doesn't show up in videos like it normally does when connected this way.

 

[winstars]

Yes. If you create a hotspot with your iPhone, you can Airplay to the Apple TV.

edit; I should point out that you need to enable Airplay through Control Center. The Airplay icon doesn't show up in videos like it normally does when connected this way.

So if you do that you can Airplay from your iPhone to the ATV anything that Airplay(able)??? So your ATV joins the hotspot created by you iPhone? Will the ATV then "work" using that hotspot?

 

[Poontaco]

So if you do that you can Airplay from your iPhone to the ATV anything that Airplay(able)??? So your ATV joins the hotspot created by you iPhone? Will the ATV then "work" using that hotspot?

.
Yes, it will. So beware of expensive mobile data usage.

 

[winstars]

.
Yes, it will. So beware of expensive mobile data usage.

Yes, thus what I thought. I travel very often and bring my ATV with me, mainly to play my music since most of the video apps don't work in other countries... Having your ATV's WiFi address added to the hotel system is done fairly easily although you need the hotel IT guy, not Engineering to do it...

 

[Rigby]

However, assuming I bring my Apple TV from my house to, say, a hotel without a proper wifi-connection, will I still be able to use AirPlay from my iPhone? Without having to set it up on the new (non-existing) wifi?

You can actually use Airplay even if neither the Apple TV nor the iPhone is connected to a Wifi network. Apple calls it "peer to peer Airplay" (see here). It works on the ATV3 RevA and ATV4 (I just tried it on my 4 to confirm). You need to enable Wifi and Bluetooth on both devices, since Bluetooth is used to discover the ATV (but a Wifi Direct connection is used to transfer the actual data).

 

[roanmy]

You can actually use Airplay even if neither the Apple TV nor the iPhone is connected to a Wifi network. Apple calls it "peer to peer Airplay" (see here). It works on the ATV3 RevA and ATV4 (I just tried it on my 4 to confirm). You need to enable Wifi and Bluetooth on both devices, since Bluetooth is used to discover the ATV (but a Wifi Direct connection is used to transfer the actual data).

Awesome, this was what I wondered. So you can just switch it on and use this function? And it works in the background on the iPhone?

 

[Poontaco]

You can actually use Airplay even if neither the Apple TV nor the iPhone is connected to a Wifi network. Apple calls it "peer to peer Airplay" (see here). It works on the ATV3 RevA and ATV4 (I just tried it on my 4 to confirm). You need to enable Wifi and Bluetooth on both devices, since Bluetooth is used to discover the ATV (but a Wifi Direct connection is used to transfer the actual data).

That's awesome!
I remember hearing talk about that a while back but never heard it was actually implemented.
Thanks for the info.
I'm going to go try that out now.

 

[sentiblue]

To make life simple for you... configure an Airport Express as an extender in your home wifi network.

When you travel, just take the Airport Express with you... when you are in the hotel, it's even best if you use an ethernet cable to link the Express to the ATV, then simply connect your laptop to that same Wifi connection and you're ready to airplay. Do keep in mind though that this option doesn't give you internet. You're only airplaying your laptop content to the hotel TV.

 

[winstars]

To make life simple for you... configure an Airport Express as an extender in your home wifi network.

When you travel, just take the Airport Express with you... when you are in the hotel, it's even best if you use an ethernet cable to link the Express to the ATV, then simply connect your laptop to that same Wifi connection and you're ready to airplay. Do keep in mind though that this option doesn't give you internet. You're only airplaying your laptop content to the hotel TV.

So to be clear, this is to use airplay from a laptop to a hotel TV via the Express and and an ATV when there isn't WiFi or any Internet available???
If the ATV had been already added to the hotel WiFi, would this method still work.

And having configured the Express at home as an extender, when you plug it in in the internet free hotel it would just see the ATV via the ethernet cable between them?