Useful Discovery - iPad location for Movie watching

Dibz · Apr 23, 2013

You may have already discovered this, so apologies if this is 'old news' but while away last week I found I could hang my iPad so we could watch a movie in total comfort.

I have the Apple Smart Cover, and wasn't sure if the magnets would hold, they are pretty strong so I figured it was worth a shot, and sure enough it worked! I slid the cover in between the 'roof lining' and sliding hatch cover on the bed base so that the pad hung down from the roof (with the bed down) and we could sit on the bench seat and watch at a great angle.

calikev · Apr 23, 2013

Good picture this is also my solution I have it plugged into the 12v socket by the fridge :thumb

steviej · Apr 24, 2013

That looks a good solution thanks. It's probably a stupid question and I a new to camper vaning, but what are you using to watch the movies on your iPad! I have Netflix on mine, do camp sites have wi-fi and if so is streaming successful.

beardie · Apr 24, 2013

Quite a few campsites do have wifi. You can also stream over 3G if you have unlimited data.

I have just signed up for unlimited data and tethering for an iPhone5 with 3. Create a wifi hotspot and then stream iplayer etc to the iPad. Service is good enough to watch an hour long program with only a couple of pauses for buffering.

Would double check your data is really unlimited as data use age is high doing this

AndyStatham · Apr 24, 2013

Top tip - like it. But what about Audio? I've tried connecting the iPad to the Parrot hands free system, but that has a lag on the audio, so visuals don't match up. Any simple solutions to streaming audio through the internal speakers from an iPad / iPhone?

HistoryBob · Apr 24, 2013

beardie said:
Quite a few campsites do have wifi. You can also stream over 3G if you have unlimited data.

I have just signed up for unlimited data and tethering for an iPhone5 with 3. Create a wifi hotspot and then stream iplayer etc to the iPad. Service is good enough to watch an hour long program with only a couple of pauses for buffering.

Would double check your data is really unlimited as data use age is high doing this

Would you mind telling me how much unlimited data and tethering cost with 3 ? Is it a contract that includes the phone or did you purchase the phone separately?

I'm just about to upgrade from my iPhone 3 and a separate Internet dongle and it would be useful to have both in one device.

Have Fun
Bob

jamesC · Apr 24, 2013

I have a three "value" prepay mifi, which sits in my glovebox, and an iPhone on the O2 network, this gives me double chance of some decent signal while i'm away!!

The three mifi, with 3 months or 3gb data was about £50 on amazon, and to top up with another 3 months is about £20!!

beardie · Apr 24, 2013

iPhone 5 16G with unlimited data and tethering is £36 a month with £49 down with 3's one plan 24 months (the only plan that officially supports tethering) I am told that with the other plans tethering does work but could be turned off if 3 decided to

A sim only contract as above (which would work with an iphone4) was £25 a month. So for an extra £11 a month I got a new shiny thing! Over 24 months that adds up to less than the cash price of the iPhone.

beardie · Apr 24, 2013

AndyStatham said:
Top tip - like it. But what about Audio? I've tried connecting the iPad to the Parrot hands free system, but that has a lag on the audio, so visuals don't match up. Any simple solutions to streaming audio through the internal speakers from an iPad / iPhone?

I listen to the audio straight out of the iPad. You could try a newer low latency Bluetooth speaker solution (a2dp). I know vanilla bluetooths latency is a problem ie lip sync. The low latency solutions are used in Bluetooth surround sound systems where phasing is important. No idea if any car audio solutions support this or not.

HistoryBob · Apr 24, 2013

beardie said:
iPhone 5 16G with unlimited data and tethering is £36 a month with £49 down with 3's one plan 24 months (the only plan that officially supports tethering) I am told that with the other plans tethering does work but could be turned off if 3 decided to

A sim only contract as above (which would work with an iphone4) was £25 a month. So for an extra £11 a month I got a new shiny thing! Over 24 months that adds up to less than the cash price of the iPhone.

Thanks. That's got me thinking :thumb

beardie · Apr 24, 2013

HistoryBob said:
beardie said:

iPhone 5 16G with unlimited data and tethering is £36 a month with £49 down with 3's one plan 24 months (the only plan that officially supports tethering) I am told that with the other plans tethering does work but could be turned off if 3 decided to

A sim only contract as above (which would work with an iphone4) was £25 a month. So for an extra £11 a month I got a new shiny thing! Over 24 months that adds up to less than the cash price of the iPhone.

Click to expand...

Thanks. That's got me thinking

Go on!

Dibz · Apr 24, 2013

I'm going to get some small but decent speakers to improve audio. I don't want to run it through the van head unit as that runs off the engine battery but I could just run a 3.5mm jack to jack audio cable to the aux in and there would be no delay. I tend not to use wireless solutions if it isn't much trouble as they need powering and will introduce some delay.

For films I downloaded them to the pad before going away but I have successfully tethered to my iPhone in the past as long as you have a half decent 3G signal and are prepared for the data. (In a week I used 1gb of data without streaming anything!!) I have watched F1 live via Sky Go previously and it was great

David Eccles · Apr 25, 2013

I'm lo-tech....and just watch views out of the window! :lol:

sidepod · Apr 26, 2013

Movies pre-loaded at home prior to trip.

Audio via a chain of these. Sound quality is awsome so good for music too.
Rechargable via USB .

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electro ... tails.html

S.

peregrinus · Apr 26, 2013

I use something like this to connect my laptop to the head unit via the aux input in the glovebox and then change the radio setting to aux. Instant cinema.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Shielded-3 ... B003PU4N1E

You could use this from the Ipad's headphone jack. The head unit switches off after an hour so you need to push the on button again.

MKRW · Apr 26, 2013

On advice I got a wireless portable hard drive. You can share with up to 5 mobile devices. All movies go on that and then you can share to different devices.

Children watch a film upstairs whilst we can watch a different one downstairs...

No need for expensive data plans.