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MVC and Amazon Paperwhite Wireless Connection?

DJensen

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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In August we were at Mountainside (Park City) and now at Ocean Watch Grande Dunes - both locations having trouble to get our Amazon Paperwhite to connect to the room wireless to download new books for the week. Anyone else have this challenge? Any suggestions?

In Park City we went to the MVC_Lobby wireless and had better luck, maybe will try this here at Myrtle Beach too. I guess there is always McDonald's with free WiFi!!
 
I had the same issue at Waiohai last week and used my phone as a hotspot to download a couple books.
 
In August we were at Mountainside (Park City) and now at Ocean Watch Grande Dunes - both locations having trouble to get our Amazon Paperwhite to connect to the room wireless to download new books for the week. Anyone else have this challenge? Any suggestions?

In Park City we went to the MVC_Lobby wireless and had better luck, maybe will try this here at Myrtle Beach too. I guess there is always McDonald's with free WiFi!!


The problem with McDonald's is that you can no longer go inside to sit down as the in person dining is closed for now in most parts of the country. Hopefully you can pick up the WIFI signal in the McDonald's parking lot.



.
 
So is the problem getting the browser to come up to authenticate your device on the network?
 
So is the problem getting the browser to come up to authenticate your device on the network?
There is not much of a browser in the Paperwhite. Even at Mountainside, when hitting the lobby wifi it was a bit.of a challenge
 
Just went to Marriott Hotel/Resort lobby next door to pick up the free lobby WiFi. SUCCESS!
Will plan on downloading enough from home next trips!
 
There is not much of a browser in the Paperwhite. Even at Mountainside, when hitting the lobby wifi it was a bit.of a challenge
I suspect that is the problem. Without a browser, there is no easy way to authenticate with your name and room number (or passcode). You need truly open WiFi.
 
In August we were at Mountainside (Park City) and now at Ocean Watch Grande Dunes - both locations having trouble to get our Amazon Paperwhite to connect to the room wireless to download new books for the week. Anyone else have this challenge? Any suggestions?

In Park City we went to the MVC_Lobby wireless and had better luck, maybe will try this here at Myrtle Beach too. I guess there is always McDonald's with free WiFi!!
I also sometimes travel with an Apple TV 4 and it does not have a native browser though there is a hack one that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. They can authenticate the item manually if they will but I've had 2 successes and 2 times they refused saying it was a violation of their contract with Marriott. So I use always carry a travel router with which I can sign in to the wifi then anything connected to the router also has wifi access. It also allows me to bypass the limitation on the # of items that some resorts impose like Bluegreen and Wyndham often do.
 
I feel that Marriott needs to switch their attitude about Wifi. Wifi has become a right and not a privilege at a hotel or resort.
 
I must have been lucky, I have always been able to either connect myself or ask the local IT team to do whatever necessary for any device I want to use - Apple TV, Android TV, Google Chromecast...
 
We are now finding that many of the televisions have built in apps. We can easily connect to Prime or YouTube directly on the TV. Built in app for Netflix too. No need to connect up a separate Firestick.
 
We are now finding that many of the televisions have built in apps. We can easily connect to Prime or YouTube directly on the TV. Built in app for Netflix too. No need to connect up a separate Firestick.
Except a lot of those systems only allow so many Connected devices. I think Netflix kicks the oldest one off but Disney+ won’t allow more than 10 unless you delete them.
 
We are seeing problems with connecting external devices (Firestick, etc) at Marriott properties. They now seem to be using external control boxes (connected to the back of the television, along with the televisions with no external volume controls. This may be the systems that they are putting in all remodeled units as we are seeing them just about everywhere.

The problem is that the HDMI inputs on the external boxes suck. These are the same connections they use to connect the Blu Ray players. The color through these HDMI inputs is awful and washed out. I tried connecting the Firestick directly to the television instead, but the problem there is that there is no volume control on the television itself. All volume is controlled through the external box. So any audio from the Firestick is BLARING LOUD and unwatchable. I can't control the volume through the Firestick. The remote that is provided is for the external box, not the television. So it is either watch very loud television direct through the TV or watch a horribly washed out show thorugh the external box.

Here are some photos to show the difference in color and quality.


Through External Box
Direct to TV Connection
ViaBox_Small.jpg
Direct_Small.jpg
 
We are seeing problems with connecting external devices (Firestick, etc) at Marriott properties. They now seem to be using external control boxes (connected to the back of the television, along with the televisions with no external volume controls. This may be the systems that they are putting in all remodeled units as we are seeing them just about everywhere.

The problem is that the HDMI inputs on the external boxes suck. These are the same connections they use to connect the Blu Ray players. The color through these HDMI inputs is awful and washed out. I tried connecting the Firestick directly to the television instead, but the problem there is that there is no volume control on the television itself. All volume is controlled through the external box. So any audio from the Firestick is BLARING LOUD and unwatchable. I can't control the volume through the Firestick. The remote that is provided is for the external box, not the television. So it is either watch very loud television direct through the TV or watch a horribly washed out show thorugh the external box.

Here are some photos to show the difference in color and quality.


Through External Box
Direct to TV Connection
If you unhook their box directly from the TV including the phone type connector, you should be able to control the volume with the fire stick itself. You'll just have to figure out how to change the input. I was able to do so but I'm not remembering how I did so. Someone suggested traveling with a universal remote for such situations.
 
If you unhook their box directly from the TV including the phone type connector, you should be able to control the volume with the fire stick itself. You'll just have to figure out how to change the input. I was able to do so but I'm not remembering how I did so. Someone suggested traveling with a universal remote for such situations.
My Firestick remote doesn't have volume controls. I swapped the remote with one that came from a FireTV Cube so we would have volume controls on a different TV where the Cube was connected. Looking at the television, there is a 9 pin (VGA type) that is labeled for control. I think it would take some type of universal remote to control the TV volume or having a Firestick remote that has volume controls on it and programing it to control the television.
 
Another issue with this whole setup is that the quality of DVD/Bluray is going to be real bad also since they are feeding through the HDMI inputs of the external boxes they use. I don't understand why those external inputs are so bad.
 
My Firestick remote doesn't have volume controls. I swapped the remote with one that came from a FireTV Cube so we would have volume controls on a different TV where the Cube was connected. Looking at the television, there is a 9 pin (VGA type) that is labeled for control. I think it would take some type of universal remote to control the TV volume or having a Firestick remote that has volume controls on it and programing it to control the television.
You could call Maintenance and see if they have any controls for the TV themselves. But you'll still have to completely unhook the TV system to control the volume on the TV itself. When I came across this recently I was able to control the TV (volume and inputs) with the remote in the room IIRC. We're at a Bluegreen resort right now with a similar issue. Almost all of the hotel type TV's have some type of way to control the volume and input on them but they're often hidden. One I had a few months ago had a small joystick on the back. The Samsun's I have in this unit have a small button directly under the IR receiver (Samsung Logo) which allows you to change the input, turn the power on/off, change channels and volume. But it's a single button and was difficult to figure out. You could also get maintenance to help you with the entire process, I can bet this is not the first time they've had this come up.
 
I did find the small joystick thing near the IR receiver on the TV. It doesn't seem to do anything though even with the controller connection removed. We are at Barony at the moment and were going to watch WW84 on HBO Max. It is Christmas Day, so I won't bother the maintenance staff. It will be streaming for 31 days, so we will just watch it when we get home.
 
I did find the small joystick thing near the IR receiver on the TV. It doesn't seem to do anything though even with the controller connection removed. We are at Barony at the moment and were going to watch WW84 on HBO Max. It is Christmas Day, so I won't bother the maintenance staff. It will be streaming for 31 days, so we will just watch it when we get home.
Try unhooking the entire TV system both the telephone type connector and the cable.
 
Try unhooking the entire TV system both the telephone type connector and the cable.
The only things connected to the television is the power, HDMI and a 9 pin type connector. I disconnected everything but the power and it didn't work. There isn't a telephone type connector. The 9 pin connector is plugged into an outlet labeled "Control".
 
The only things connected to the television is the power, HDMI and a 9 pin type connector. I disconnected everything but the power and it didn't work. There isn't a telephone type connector. The 9 pin connector is plugged into an outlet labeled "Control".
And when totally unhooked the control doesn’t control the TV instead?
 
And win totally unhooked the control doesn’t control the TV instead?
When I unplug the 9-pin connector, the remote no longer controls the television. Plugged in, I can control the volume. But when unplugged the volume is fixed, and loud.
 
When I unplug the 9-pin connector, the remote no longer controls the television. Plugged in, I can control the volume. But when unplugged the volume is fixed, and loud.
Unless you can figure out a way to get the control to work with the TV when the system is unhooked, it sounds like you’re stuck. The only alternative is to call maintenance.
 
Try the method in the following link


It has worked for me

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
This is basically what I have tried. After unplugging the control cable there is no way to turn the TV off and on again. There is no power button that I can find that actually works. Just the little joystick type control by the IR sensor, but it doesn't seem to do anything anytime.
 
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