Get a truck load of stan & netflix on your next holiday
Netflix Holiday
Sometimes on a holiday you just feel like relaxing – having a good old veg out on the couch. In the old days you might have read an airport novel to achieve the pinnacle of mind numbing holiday relaxation.
Today, you are more likely to binge watch a TV series! 5 years ago, you may have purchased a box set (or 7) on DVD, then watched them one DVD at a time. Today, binge watching is usually done via a streaming service like Netflix or Stan. It is so cheap to subscribe to those services (around $10 per month for all you can watch) and the technology you need is ubiquitous and cheap.
With the switching on of the NBN in the Victor Harbor, Encounter Bay and Port Elliot areas, quite a few of our pet friendly holiday rental properties offer free hi-speed wifi.
Thats great, but you don’t want to sit around as a family and watch a great movie on an iPhone! So, we are rolling out Apple TVs to our NBN connected properties. There is some great free content on Apple TV, but we have set up PetLet accounts with Stan and Netflix so that our guests have a massive choice of TV Shows and Movies to watch free of charge.
How about Breaking Bad, MadMen, Weeds, Transparent, Stephen King’s 11.22.63, Twin Peaks, Deadwood, Homeland, Bloodline and loads more!
You Can Try This at Home
If you want to give this a try at home, get a refurbished Gen 3 Apple TV directly from Apple (currently at $89 delivered) or a refurbished 4th Gen Apple TV (currently $229 delivered).
What’s the difference between the two? Lots! The 4th Gen has an App store which means you can download a huge range of different apps like ABC iView, SBS, games, specialist TV (craft, business etc) and it has a new remote which includes voice commands (eg you can ask Siri to find you all the movies with Meryl Streep and it will do that – including searching the Netflix database).
But Stan and Netflix are available on both – so you can start with the Gen 3 and upgrade to Gen 4 later. Why refurbished? I always buy my Apple Kit refurbished – it looks brand new, it has a full Apple warranty, and it saves lots of money! The only difference is the box it ships in is nicer with the brand new gear. I can live without that.
BTW you will need an HDMI cable. Best place to get them is on eBay (for around $4 delivered).
Our Favourite Services on Apple TV (both 3 & 4 Gen)
Netflix – brilliant range of movies and TV series including its own hit shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black (no charge)
Stan – Aussie version of Netflix with excellent TVs and Movies (no charge)
TED – inspiring talks on wide range of topics from health and wellbeing to education and technology (free)
Radio – many different genres of internet radio stations (free). Feel like some New Orleans jazz?
Vevo – huge range of music videos – great fun to brainstorm old artists and bring up their 80s/90s videos (free)
Vimeo – huge range of videos – just like YouTube (free)
PodCasts – like on demand radio – for something super interesting and different check out Limetown and Serial (free)
TenPlay – catch up on your favourite Channel 10 shows (free)
How to Use Apple TV
1) Plug in your Apple Tv box, and connect the HDMI cable to a port on your TV (and note the no of the port)
2) Set your TV input/source to that HDMI port.
3) Press Apple Tv remote (and white light should come on the small black box)
4) Using Settings, enter the logins for your WiFi network.
5) Back at the main menu, choose which service (eg Netflix, Stan etc) you would like to view (use Select button). if it is a paid for service, you will need to create an account with them – it is much easier to do this on a computer than it is on Apple Tv (but you can do it if you need to). Enter your log in details. Prepare to be blown away!
4) Navigate through the various options until you find what you would like to watch. Press [Select] or [Play].
Troubleshooting
1) No light on the black box. Check that it is plugged in at the back of the box and into the power supply.
2) Nothing showing on the TV. Check that the HDMI cable in the back of the Apple Tv is plugged in securely, and that the other end is connected to HDMI 1 port on the back of the TV. Then check that the Source is set to HDMI 1 on the TV.
3) Error Message – [Stan or Netflix or Tenplay] is not available. Restart Apple TV. Press and hold [Down] + [Menu] for up to 8 seconds. If that doesn’t work, go to [Settings] icon, then [General], then [Restart].
4) Only two icons are showing. Most likely the internet is not working, so all of the Apple TV options cannot be downloaded. Check the internet for the property.
Apple Tv (Gen 2 and 3) Remote Control Basics:
Press the Up, Down, Left, or Right to navigate.
Press Select to choose an item.
Press Menu to go back.
Press Pause/Play to start or stop something.
