# Tv Wi-Fi Dongle



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Big M bought a new tv but to get the extra features such as catch up tv it needs a dongle which the sure enough the guy tried to sell one to her but at Â£75 which to me seemed a lot for what they are. Anybody know anything about them, does it need to be one from the manufacturer of the telly. It's a Panasonic.


----------



## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Is the connection proprietary or simply USB?

Later,

William


----------



## joeytheghost (May 26, 2011)

Hey bond I think you mean a WiFi dongle which contains a sim card an uses 3g to access the internet an generates its own WiFi. They are about Â£75 but my phone has the same capabilities an continues to function as a phone simultaneously!! My phone is Sony xperia an Samsung galaxy and iphone4 an htc desire all have the same function. Or just use the WiFi in your house.

Hope that helps.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

William_Wilson said:


> Is the connection proprietary or simply USB?
> 
> Later,
> 
> William


No idea :lol: :lol:

I assume it's a USB type like a computer ???? It gets delivered in a week or so I'll have a look then. I just wondered if there was anything I could pick for when it arrives. Failing that she'll just have to bite the bullet and buy their one.


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

BondandBigM said:


> Big M bought a new tv but to get the extra features such as catch up tv it needs a dongle which the sure enough the guy tried to sell one to her but at Â£75 which to me seemed a lot for what they are. Anybody know anything about them, does it need to be one from the manufacturer of the telly. It's a Panasonic.


Sign up to Virgin cable.....TV,(with 'on demand'..same as catch up) Phone and Fibre optic broadband all in one.....job done!


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

joeytheghost said:


> Hey bond I think you mean a WiFi dongle which contains a sim card an uses 3g to access the internet an generates its own WiFi. They are about Â£75 but my phone has the same capabilities an continues to function as a phone simultaneously!! My phone is Sony xperia an Samsung galaxy and iphone4 an htc desire all have the same function. Or just use the WiFi in your house.
> 
> Hope that helps.


Ok I never thought of it that way round, both my phone and Big M's has the wi-fi hot spot thing, it's all we use these days to get on the internet.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Roger the Dodger said:


> BondandBigM said:
> 
> 
> > Big M bought a new tv but to get the extra features such as catch up tv it needs a dongle which the sure enough the guy tried to sell one to her but at Â£75 which to me seemed a lot for what they are. Anybody know anything about them, does it need to be one from the manufacturer of the telly. It's a Panasonic.
> ...


Wouldn't give them the money, Virgin Media are possibly one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with, we don't even have house phones these days.


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

BondandBigM said:


> Roger the Dodger said:
> 
> 
> > BondandBigM said:
> ...


Very strange...never had a problem with them, and very reasonable charges too...my monthly outlay about Â£35...and that's with two sons, the 710 and me all on 'puters all night.....


----------



## vortex89 (Jul 4, 2011)

It's not a wifi hotspot!

It's simply a wifi dongle that will allow the TV to connect to your existing network.

I believe that you can buy a regular wifi dongle but I think it's best to have a google with the name of your TV model and see what comes up.

There is no need to buy a wifi dongle that you plug a sim card into, that will cost you lots more in the long run, the TV companies are relying on the consumer not to trust a generic wifi dongle to work on their TV to access the Internet.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Roger the Dodger said:


> BondandBigM said:
> 
> 
> > Roger the Dodger said:
> ...


We have unlimited internet on both our mobiles, it's obviously not as quick but that's not really an issue for us. I had Virgin cable in my last house and it was rubbish, all sorts of problems with the box freezing up, intermittent internet and then when you got on the phone to them.................................. :wallbash:


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

BondandBigM said:


> Roger the Dodger said:
> 
> 
> > BondandBigM said:
> ...


Ah, well....horses for courses....


----------



## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Yep, they are proprietary because the TV software is embedded and you wouldn't be able to install drivers for a third party WiFi dongle.


----------



## blackandgolduk (Apr 25, 2005)

Bond,

Recently bought a Sony Bravia with SMART functionality as yours. The dongle allows the TV to connect via Wi-Fi to your internet connection. I have Sky, but the catch up and internet connection is pretty useful. The Sony also needs a separate dongle, but rather than shell out a fifth of the cost of the TV I simply moved my router next to the TV and hard-wired it.

If you don't have a fixed internet connection and rely on a mobile hotspot you may have difficulty using the features - data downloads would be big I would guess...

HTH.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Stan said:


> Yep, they are proprietary because the TV software is embedded and you wouldn't be able to install drivers for a third party WiFi dongle.





blackandgolduk said:


> Bond,
> 
> Recently bought a Sony Bravia with SMART functionality as yours. The dongle allows the TV to connect via Wi-Fi to your internet connection. I have Sky, but the catch up and internet connection is pretty useful. The Sony also needs a separate dongle, but rather than shell out a fifth of the cost of the TV I simply moved my router next to the TV and hard-wired it.
> 
> ...


It can be hard wired but like me she doesn't have the internet, looks like she'll end up having to buy the dongle unless there is some way to hard wire the phone to the tv ????. The 3G wi-fi on our phones is good enough for catch up tv on a laptop so I'm hoping it will work on the tv.


----------



## gaz64 (May 5, 2009)

vortex89 said:


> It's not a wifi hotspot!
> 
> It's simply a wifi dongle that will allow the TV to connect to your existing network.
> 
> ...


Sounds like there is no broadband connection to the house, it could connect via the mobiles but for streaming media I would expect the speed to be woeful


----------



## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

Sounds like it needs a 'wifi bridge'. Check what model the TV is then a google for 'Open Media WiFi Bridge' and the TV's model number.

I nearly bought one to go with our SkyHD box for the anytime+, but ended up using a wired connection.

You need a power adaptor or a powered usb port (or a cheap powered usb that you can plug it in to) to power the bridge, but it connects to the TV/whatever via the normal wired network cable socket and acts as a 'bridge' to your router (or your phone's 'Hot Spot').

I think you have to connect it to your PC/laptop first to set it up on your network, then connect it to the TV and leave it.

There are a couple on ebay at the moment 320884242659 or 150792414235.

When I read up on them people had used them with Xboxes, Sky boxes, TVs etc.

Like Gaz65 said though, if you use mobiles for broadband, you'll proably get lousy download speeds though.

Edit - have a look at ebay item 200525261959. They give more info on what it is and how it works.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Cheers boys, I'll have a look at the options when it arrives tbh she'll probably never use the full features that it has anyway. Not sure about Big M's phone but mine is all I use now for the internet, most of the time it streams iplayers, youtube and the likes without any problems.

It turns out this might be the least of her problems, I didn't realise it is also 3D have you seen the price of the 3D glasses  do you actually get anything in 3D anyway and her grandson has indicated that a pack of cards and scrabble isn't really top entertainment for visiting kids these days so when will she be getting the blueray & the playstation to go with it :lol: :lol:


----------



## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Right, think I can help here.

TVs now have "internet services" available. Typically this is stuff like iPlayer built into the TV.

What you require is a connection to your home broadband to enable this. There are a few options.

1) Wired. Connect the TV via ethernet cable to the router.

2) Wireless. Buy the wireless dongle from theTV manufacturer.

3) Wireless. Risk a wireless dongle by another manufacturer, but consider it may not work.

4) Wired... via homeplug. (Google it). An ethernet cable goes from your router, to a special plug. At the TV end, another plug goes into an ethernet cable and then into the TV. The internet signal is carried over the mains electricity in the house.

Personally I use option 4, and it works well. Heard some iffy reports about options 2 and 3 with reception issues.

Regardless of any of the above, you will need a broadband connection of at least 1.5MB. In an ideal world, over 3MB is required for HD.

If you need any pointers, let me know.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

It would appear that whilst all the above is as usual from you guys good information the main stumbling block is no main line internet connection. I'll suggest that she has a look at that first. To me in the overall scheme of things that's a backward step, the whole reason we both got rid of a house phone and wired internet was the advancement in the mobile set up. Why pay twice for something, freeview has enough channels to keep us going, our mobiles have more minutes than we can use in a month and unlimited internet all packaged in a small handy reliable piece of kit ( the iphone hasn't broken yet but it's early days :lol: :lol: ).


----------



## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Ah, no mainline internet means no internet TV.

I could probably work out how to use a 3G dongle, but the rate at which the TV would hoover up data would be quite alarming...


----------



## fatboyflyer (Mar 2, 2010)

I'm in the process of doing this with Sky Anytime+, with a Wifi bridge. If you think you might end up using a 3G Dongle, or tethering on your phone, I would first check the amount of data the TV would use. Even a relatively small amount could end up costing you an alarming amount of money! Your current contract with the mobile network may have separate allowances for tethering and use on the phone - check first.


----------



## itsguy (Nov 16, 2009)

Sounds like this won't help you in the least since there's no internet to connect to as such - but I have exactly the same story here and came to the conclusion the ePlug was the cheapest way. I got a pair on Amazon for Â£35, which should arrive tomorrow. A big saving off a wifi dongle, and hopefully faster speeds too if it all works the way it should. BTW there are great deals to be had on last year's model of Panasonic TVs at the moment, the new ones just came out but that doesn't mean the old ones suddenly got any worse than they were last week... just Â£1k cheaper!


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

A bit of an asides from my initial question but if you stream iplayer or the like surely the amount of data or megabytes downloaded is the same regardless of what you view it on as in a TV or a laptop or am I missing something ????

And you are correct there are some cracking deals on the last generation Panasonics at the moment, the one Big M has bought is an all signing all dancing 2011 model 50" plasma for Â£600  I paid near that for my old CRT Panasonic about 7 years ago.


----------



## blackandgolduk (Apr 25, 2005)

The data required to stream a decent picture to an iPhone is less than it is to stream a decent picture to a laptop as the resolution required is much, much lower. Upscale the data required to stream a picture to the 50" and it is many, many times more.

I've been using the iPlayer on the new Sony - it can stream an HD picture, the sound and quality are both great, but I have an unlimited download package from Sky. I doubt you'll be able to get that amount of data across a 3G connection. As you'd be tethering the TV to the iPhone, I'd also expect the data allowance to be limited by your provider, so check first, but it may be worth a punt.

Even if you decided to sign up with 3 or someone for a high limit dongle (via 3G) it's going to cost Â£20 for 10 gig. Probably better off getting a landline connection with unlimited download for that kind of cash...

EDIT:

Just thought, the iPhone has a TV out - fire up iPlayer and the like on the 'phone, then see if you can get this to play on the TV. The picture won't be great and it's a bit of a messy work-around, but it may wrk and would be more reliable.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

The tv arrived and internet is the least of the problem, got it plugged in and the picture was rubbish, badly pixelated and virtually un watch-able. So phone the help line and a very nice girls got me to try a few things and it turns out nothing wrong with the tv but the full freeview signal won't be up and running in our area until September  At this point I asked why Big M hadn't been told this at point of purchase, turns out the girls was surprised she didn't have either cable or sky as most who bought these did.

So I'm sitting in waiting for a man in a van to turn up and fit a satellite dish and had to fork out for a box for her, it would have been cheaper just to go to the cinema now and then :lol: :lol:

Regarding the wi-fi when I spoke to the guy coming to sort out the dish he suggested in his experience the best thing all be it not the cheapest is to just buy the proper Panasonic plug in wi-fi gizmo, get the internet in and be done with it so I'll bite the bullet get her sorted with that later.What a carry on just to watch Corrie on catch up it's enough to drive you to drink !!!

:wallbash: :lol: :lol:


----------



## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

BondandBigM said:


> What a carry on just to watch Corrie on catch up it's enough to drive you to drink !!!


Should be a quick trip then. :lol:

Later,

William


----------



## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

BondandBigM said:


> The tv arrived and internet is the least of the problem, got it plugged in and the picture was rubbish, badly pixelated and virtually un watch-able. So phone the help line and a very nice girls got me to try a few things and it turns out nothing wrong with the tv but the full freeview signal won't be up and running in our area until September  At this point I asked why Big M hadn't been told this at point of purchase, turns out the girls was surprised she didn't have either cable or sky as most who bought these did.
> 
> So I'm sitting in waiting for a man in a van to turn up and fit a satellite dish and had to fork out for a box for her, it would have been cheaper just to go to the cinema now and then :lol: :lol:
> 
> ...


Did you get a FreeSat recorder (or Sky+), or just a basic reciever?


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Stan said:


> Did you get a FreeSat recorder (or Sky+), or just a basic reciever?


Just an hd freesat receiver, Humax was what the dish fitter recommended so that's what I bought and it can also be connected to the internet for catch up tv. Seems to work ok and a few extra channels over the old freeview box. That's enough without her recording every other sh!te in the attic program going. She's obsessed with all that sort of daytime crap as it is and she would sit and watch it all day and all night if she could. :lol: :lol:


----------



## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

BondandBigM said:


> Stan said:
> 
> 
> > Did you get a FreeSat recorder (or Sky+), or just a basic reciever?
> ...


Humax is good kit, it should serve you well.

There's a Humax forum at the Radio and Telly forum, if you get stuck they should be able to help.

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Stan said:


> Humax is good kit, it should serve you well.
> 
> There's a Humax forum at the Radio and Telly forum, if you get stuck they should be able to help.
> 
> http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl


Good call I'll keep a look out on that forum.


----------

