I really want a low power Apple TV dongle

[BootLoxes]

So I am unsure if many people know but Apple has been doing a lot with the education scene between apps and discounts for schools. Our current school is set to give each teacher an ipad and each school gets a few apple tvs.

I have been using my iPad Air 3 for some time now along with my own apple tv. The issue is that in Japan, teachers do not get their own classroom. Instead they change rooms every period. Myself I work at two schools depending on the day of the week. I do all of my work on my ipad

The issue here is the apple tv. Unplugging and setting it up each class period becomes very troublesome. It has gotten to the point where I just use the hdmi dongle and cable half the time since its a much faster setup. However I am now tethered to a physical cable which makes teaching a bit troublesome.

If there was a low power dongle that just plugs in via hdmi and I can mirror my ipad, that would be amazing. It would also be good for home too since I dont need all the gaming power for netflix or youtube. Like an A12u chip that is super low power and capable of doing 1080p video. I would honestly buy around 3 of them if that happened.

 

[Michelasso]

If you just need just to mirror your iPad screen you may want to try a FireTV Stick with the app AirReceiver. As long as the iPad and FireTV are on the same subnet it should work fine. At home I can even airplay from my iPhone 4K HDR movies with Infuse (but they play as SDR 1080p, obviously), but only mirroring the screen from the Control Center, not directly from Infuse. The downside is that the last time it drained the iPhone battery very fast.

I am not sure about setting the TCP/IP, though. The FireTV should use DHCP like anything else, and for your purposes there should be no need for authentication if you are behind a proxy/firewall (the mirroring is local), as long as the FireTV gets a local IP address. It must be tested. If you have a FireTV Stick already or if you can borrow one the app is quite cheap.

Oh, and you can power the FireTV from the television's USB.

 

[Longkeg]

Would airplay be an option? Check with your IP people to see if this option is available. I know some institutional networks disable the ability to airplay but wireless is how I would hope to do this.

 

[BootLoxes]

If you just need just to mirror your iPad screen you may want to try a FireTV Stick with the app AirReceiver. As long as the iPad and FireTV are on the same subnet it should work fine. At home I can even airplay from my iPhone 4K HDR movies with Infuse (but they play as SDR 1080p, obviously), but only mirroring the screen from the Control Center, not directly from Infuse. The downside is that the last time it drained the iPhone battery very fast.

I am not sure about setting the TCP/IP, though. The FireTV should use DHCP like anything else, and for your purposes there should be no need for authentication if you are behind a proxy/firewall (the mirroring is local), as long as the FireTV gets a local IP address. It must be tested. If you have a FireTV Stick already or if you can borrow one the app is quite cheap.

Oh, and you can power the FireTV from the television's USB.

Can it be done without wifi? Currently I mirror with an apple TV without internet.

 

[Michelasso]

Can it be done without wifi? Currently I mirror with an apple TV without internet.

Are you sure your ATV isn't getting any IP address via WiFi in the local subnet? I am not sure Airplay could work without one. Unless it's using WiFi Direct or an Apple similar version of it. I never dug much into this.

 

[BootLoxes]

Are you sure your ATV isn't getting any IP address via WiFi in the local subnet? I am not sure Airplay could work without one. Unless it's using WiFi Direct or an Apple similar version of it. I never dug much into this.

Airplay does work without wifi, however certain apps like youtube and nextflix do not work.

However I just mirror my ipad and display documents and images/videos stored locally on my ipad which play just fine.

 

[Beerstalker]

Now that Apple is allowing the Apple TV App, and Airplay 2 to be implemented by TV manufacturers I don't see them ever bothering with a low cost HDMI dongle.

 

[BootLoxes]

Now that Apple is allowing the Apple TV App, and Airplay 2 to be implemented by TV manufacturers I don't see them ever bothering with a low cost HDMI dongle.

Dont crush my dreams you stalker of beer

 

[Michelasso]

Airplay does work without wifi, however certain apps like youtube and nextflix do not work.

However I just mirror my ipad and display documents and images/videos stored locally on my ipad which play just fine.

Hmm. No, sorry. I have just disconnected my ATV (it's wired so I simply unplugged the ethernet cable and it has not stored any credential for my home WiFi). The ATV goes totally connection-less. It doesn't appear on the list of devices when mirroring my iPhone screen. As it shouldn't, unless Airplay was using bluetooth as well or else.

Couldn't it be that at your school (like where I work) the WiFi AP is open, so it automatically connects to the LAN (getting a school's IP address), but then to go to the Internet it needs the proxy/firewall authentication (usually via a Captive network)? That would explain why locally it works but Netflix, YouTube etc. won't.

Any dongle should work in very similar ways, so I am not really sure how one would help. Unless it's a pain to plug the ATV each time to the power supply, which some, maybe, are far away. Still even with an USP powered dongle, if the TVs are mounted on the wall, you must hope that they all have an available USB port on the side. Otherwise I am not sure what's your main issue using the ATV.

 

[BootLoxes]

Hmm. No, sorry. I have just disconnected my ATV (it's wired so I simply unplugged the ethernet cable and it has not stored any credential for my home WiFi). The ATV goes totally connection-less. It doesn't appear on the list of devices when mirroring my iPhone screen. As it shouldn't, unless Airplay was using bluetooth as well or else.

Couldn't it be that at your school (like where I work) the WiFi AP is open, so it automatically connects to the LAN (getting a school's IP address), but then to go to the Internet it needs the proxy/firewall authentication (usually via a Captive network)? That would explain why locally it works but Netflix, YouTube etc. won't.

Any dongle should work in very similar ways, so I am not really sure how one would help. Unless it's a pain to plug the ATV each time to the power supply, which some, maybe, are far away. Still even with an USP powered dongle, if the TVs are mounted on the wall, you must hope that they all have an available USB port on the side. Otherwise I am not sure what's your main issue using the ATV.

Nope. All the school networks are password locked. Only school supplied devices can get on the networks and my ipad and tv were purchased by me. They have never once supplied me with a password or network, and it works just fine. Outside of the initial setup which was done in my home via ethernet, it has never been connected. It sits in my bag most of the time.

Before purchasing the device I made sure it would be capable of mirroring without internet since I knew the school had no network for me to use. I researched into it and after multiple sites confirmed it was possible, I made my purchase and its worked fine.

Oh and the reason the streaming apps like Netflix and Youtube dont work is because when you send a video it switches from your mobile device to the TV app and since that isnt connected to the internet, it fails to play. Though netflix dropped support for that anyways.

Also just to make sure we are on the same page. I use it strictly for mirroring my ipad to show content stored locally on the device. Not to go on the internet. Now with that said, I am going to provide multiple links from the first page of google saying it is completely possible.

https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/b51gkf/airplay_without_internet_connection/

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/5uulst/can_you_airplay_from_iphone_to_apple_tv_without/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7871158

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8wyopp/can_i_stream_to_an_apple_tv_without_wifi/

The issue is I have with the current TV is that I have to plug it in and unplug it every hour when I relocate to a different classroom. Some classrooms are easy to setup while others have TVs with hard to reach power strips. I like to use with HDMI cable and dongle for Jr high school classes, but for elementary school classes I cannot have a long cable in the class as it is a safety hazard for them.

Though I did hear that Roku is getting mirroring so if it runs well on the Roku stick I might just go for that instead. It would fix all my issues (assuming it runs mirroring well and works in Japan since roku technically is not supported here)

 

[Michelasso]

@BootLoxes Ahh. Ok, I see it now. I had to enable "Allow Access" to "Everyone" in the ATV Airplay settings. Before it was set to "Same Network". So yeah, I suppose the ATV sets up a hidden peer to peer wifi connection between itself and the other Apple device. My fault, I didn't think about this option.

About Netflix & C we were on the same page. Although I am not sure how Infuse manages to Airplay a movie with the ATV totally disconnected. YouTube and Prime Video instead show the media player but then they stay blank, with the gear spinning.

Well, I believe my solution with the Fire TV Stick and AirReceiver won't work at this point. I doubt it would manage to setup a WiFi channel between the Fire TV and the iPhone. Actually I am not sure the FireTV would work at all without first connecting it to a WiFi AP.

 

[Abazigal]

So I am unsure if many people know but Apple has been doing a lot with the education scene between apps and discounts for schools. Our current school is set to give each teacher an ipad and each school gets a few apple tvs.

I have been using my iPad Air 3 for some time now along with my own apple tv. The issue is that in Japan, teachers do not get their own classroom. Instead they change rooms every period. Myself I work at two schools depending on the day of the week. I do all of my work on my ipad

The issue here is the apple tv. Unplugging and setting it up each class period becomes very troublesome. It has gotten to the point where I just use the hdmi dongle and cable half the time since its a much faster setup. However I am now tethered to a physical cable which makes teaching a bit troublesome.

If there was a low power dongle that just plugs in via hdmi and I can mirror my ipad, that would be amazing. It would also be good for home too since I dont need all the gaming power for netflix or youtube. Like an A12u chip that is super low power and capable of doing 1080p video. I would honestly buy around 3 of them if that happened.

While I too would kill for a airplay stick, I am not sure it takes that long to set up an Apple TV. I too am a teacher, and have 3 Apple TVs in school. This year is a bit different where I find myself bouncing between more classes due to my teaching load, and I find I am able to set it up in under a minute (my Apple TV with power cord and HDMI cable is kept in a small bag, and I just need to plug it into the projector patch panel and the power outlet, then brief my class while it is powering up).

A hassle yes, but I got used to it after a while.

 

[BootLoxes]

While I too would kill for a airplay stick, I am not sure it takes that long to set up an Apple TV. I too am a teacher, and have 3 Apple TVs in school. This year is a bit different where I find myself bouncing between more classes due to my teaching load, and I find I am able to set it up in under a minute (my Apple TV with power cord and HDMI cable is kept in a small bag, and I just need to plug it into the projector patch panel and the power outlet, then brief my class while it is powering up).

A hassle yes, but I got used to it after a while.

Yeah my tvs suck. The hdmi is on the back under a panel that you have to lift up to get to them. Then the power extension is in a narrow area so I have to reach a bit to get to them. Its not a big deal to be honest, but just having an hdmi dongle would make life so much easier.