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Streaming movies to Ody's RES screen via Apple TV (P2P Airplay)

30K views 27 replies 16 participants last post by  bigheadbobby 
#1 ·
Hello folks. I'm a newbie to this forum and this is my first forum posting after my Ody purchase. :)
I purchased 2015 Odyssey TE two weeks ago and I've been wondering if anyone tried using Apple TV to stream movies from iPhone/iPad to RES screen without WIFI connection.

For those who didn't hear about Apple's p2p airplay update, Apple TV now supports p2p airplay without WIFI connection. So you can mirror your iPhone/iPad's screen (and sound) to your RES via Apple TV.

See "Peer-to-peer AirPlay" section:
Use AirPlay to wirelessly stream content from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Stream to your friends' TVs: Apple bringing peer-to-peer AirPlay to Apple TV via iOS 8

I've tried to search some info/review of P2P airplay with Rear Entertainment System but I wasn't able to find any from the Internet.

So I decided to purchase an Apple TV and see how p2p airplay works with Odyssey's RES



Funny thing was that even Apple store's staffs didn't realize that there was a p2p airplay update. When I asked them about p2p airplay, a coupld of employees at Apple store told me "you must have a WIFI for your screen mirroring".
And after I showed them a couple of links from official Apple pages, they said "well, you could try and if it doesn't work you can always return within 30 days". So I just purchased and hooked up Apple TV in my ody.


In order to use/test p2p airplay, I had to go through a long long Apple tv's OS update and shutdown my WIFI router at home, but in a nutshell, it works great with my Ody RES.
So I just want to let you guys know, if anyone wanted to stream movies from your Apple devices without burning DVD hassles, this solution will work well with your Ody RES.
Good thing about this p2p airplay in a car is that, since it's "mirroring", you can see the exactly same screen as RES's at front seats. And you can control it wirelessly.


And here are a couple of things I experienced during p2p airplay test.


* Screen quality degrade
p2p airplay degrades screen quality a bit. Airplay mirroring via WIFI is showing more clear & crisp screen quality.

If WIFI's screen quality is 100%, I'd say p2p airplay is about 80%. I can notice this from my TV screen but I hardly notice this quality degrade from RES's screen since screen is small and it's already lower resolution than my iPad.



* Apple TV Shutdown
I don't know how bad shutting down apple TV by stopping Ody's engine/power is. I can safely shutdown Apple TV by its remote before stopping engine but since Apple TV's location is at 3rd row seats, it's hard to use remote control toward behind seats. So far, there was no issue with just power-off Apple TV.




I also realized that Microsoft is going to start selling a p2p mirroring device soon. It's cheaper and smaller than Apple TV and people can use Windows laptop and Android phone.
If this works well, I think this is going to be better option than Chromecast since it doesn't require specific Apps and WIFI.


Wireless Display Adapter | Microsoft Hardware
Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter review - CNET


I assume this'd work with Odyssey too.
 
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#11 ·
I run my hdmi under the carpet. I get the cable under the carpet using the third row seat belt hole and then it comes out under the front seats posts. I mounted my apple tv to the center console using 3m plastic velcro tabs. It is mounted where the trash can folds down. It is not visible from outside the van. I also bought an extra power cord and hdmi cable for mine. That way, on trips that include hotel stays, we just pop off the apple tv and leave the power/hdmi cables mounted in the van and use the extras to connect to the apple tv to the hotel TV. I will say that I am surprised that I have had no problems with the apple tv considering the extremes of heat and cold that it goes through. Other than hotel stays, it is in the vehicle 24/7.
 
#14 ·
Thank you for sharing! This is a similar setup to what I want to run. We have an upcoming road trip and I want to be able to control what gets played on the screen because my kids are too young to do it themselves. One question for you -- where are you tapping power for the Apple TV? Are you running it to the back of the van?
 
#12 ·
We did recently switch to the new apple tv. A couple of nice things about the new apple tv...The new remote is bluetooth so you don't need to point it at the device to make it work. We actually mounted our old apple tv in the front since we wanted the kids to be able to control it using the remote. The new apple tv can be left in the back if you want. The other item that is good on the new apple tvs, you can play video games on it. They even sell controllers that are similar to xbox controllers. My kids like to play the games on the apple tv.
 
#23 ·
This thread hasn’t been active in many months, but maybe somebody can respond to my question.

I have a 2016 Touring Elite, which means I have an HDMI port on the right, and a 110V AC power outlet on the left. No problem connecting to both to power up my Apple TV 3. So far, so good.

My question is, when I play a youtube video or a movie, or anything at all, why does audio only come out of the front speakers? All the rear speakers from the middle row back fall silent. I’ve checked all the obvious things, like using the rear entertainment remote to ensure that I’ve selected HDMI, etc.

All speakers operate normally when I’m playing a DVD or using any other audio source, but not my HDMI and Apple TV setup.

I would appreciate any suggestions and input.
 
#25 ·
Thank you for the tips. I applied the first one regarding the rear source button on the front audio controls. Everything works normally now, as far as audio is concerned.

Somehow I found the extra money to spring for the $47 Apple Lightning Digital AVI adapter. I’ve tried it as well, as a comparison to the Apple TV set up. They both work reasonably well, though neither set up is entirely ideal. No matter which HDMI connection I use, both are kind of glitchy. The entire time I was testing both, the same question would run through my mind, “Will this work the next time I do this?”


By the way, NEITHER setup allows me to mirror or Airplay DIRECTV programming. Doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a movie or a TV show, I get audio but no video, or I get nothing at all. I have a feeling it’s a problem with the DIRECTV app, since all the other apps work pretty nicely.
 
#26 ·
I'm late to this party, but I'll ask here anyway. As with others, I have small kids who can't operate all the stuff in back. Even with dvds, it's frustratingly difficult to do anything from the front seat (I'm talking about the passenger who can focus on this task, you still have to stick your head back there to see what the heck is on the screen to try and select the right thing using the controls up front)-- anyway, so since getting my van (2013 TE) I've been wanting this- the means to take *downloaded* content, ideally stuff like netflix, amazon prime, and hoopla (I don't have a huge repository of ripped content I can stick on a hard drive and hook up or whatever, and this is the new age, right?), and stream it to the RES without using cellular data. I tried the fire stick, I tried the chromecast, and it appeared that what I needed was the apple TV. So I finally bought myself one, 3rd gen A1469- but I'm having difficulty with it.

I've tried setup at home first. On about 1/70 attempts, I've managed to get a hoopla downloaded movie to play on the TV via mirroring. I can not figure out which series of steps leads to success vs. failure. I've also accomplished this ~1/50 times trying in the van without any opportunity for an intervening router... I just tried going a little different route, setting phone up as hotspot, and for whatever reason it appears that amazon prime video is my highest success rate. Netflix will play content only sort of- the audio comes through, but no video. The hoopla just about never works in any fashion. I've also played a little with a game or two (datawing for instance), which will crash itself if I am already mirroring, but if I start the game first, and then begin the game it seems to work ok.

So I know a ton of that is appleTV problem and this has little to nothing to do with the odyssey. Still, if anyone has some real insight into my best shot at making this work, I'm interested. Will the newer appleTV work better? I'll keep playing with it. Maybe this is just a protocol that is too little desired and nobody is making it happen... in theory it seems like a device that would communicate over short range, ideally I'd think, using the wifi so there'd be plenty of throughput, just to mirror whatever is on the iPhone screen, if not in some instances in a more "true stream" way, wouldn't be undoable.

My only other option I think is that lightning to HDMI connector and run the cable all the way to the front, but then I'd have to charge the phone in between playing videos, find a good place to plug in, run the cable, etc.. it's not ideal.

thanks for feedback--
 
#27 · (Edited)
I have a similar goal. I have researched a lot about this dilemma, to watch downloaded content on RES. I have 3rd GEN odyssey and I will use RCA converter and Roku 3. I have chosen Roku 3 instead of newer versions because it has a USB port for data (movie files, photos, etc). Roku has a media player that can play most video files. I believe also using Netflix channel you can download movies to USB drive (you will have to downloaded with WIFI 1st, driveway?) Only drawback is, like you mentioned you cant see what's on RES. The solution is to do the DVD to NAV mod on Audio/Video Forum. The mod is difficult if your not comfortable with wiring.
 
#28 ·
I have an updated Apple TV 4K, Chrome cast, and Fire TV stick. Plugged all of it into my 2015 Elite one at a time into rear HDMI port and plugged power cord into outlet across the 3rd roll seat. None of them work. The only one that works is the Fire TV stick which i can see it working on the screen but there is no audio. It also glitches to black screen after 5-10 mins of use. Help. Nothing shows up on the screen except for the fire tv. Going on a road trip in a month and i can't figure this out. I thought it was plug and play. is there any youtube video on how to stream on 2015 elite.
 
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