Resort TV input

[xipetotec]

Has anyone hooked up their own HDMI to a resort TV? (Like for a gaming console or Chromecast). Is it possible or does it not let you?

 

[reddog21]

We do it every vacation and never had any issues, fire stick, Roku and Nintendo switch.

 

[supersnoop]

Has anyone hooked up their own HDMI to a resort TV? (Like for a gaming console or Chromecast). Is it possible or does it not let you?

I've been able to connect to most resort TV's, but ran into one problem this weekend. The television at Boardwalk worked great, but the Riviera has some fancy system that wouldn't allow it. I was able to get my device to display on the screen when I unplugged their device, but then I couldn't control the volume.

 

[monorailmom]

I've been able to connect to most resort TV's, but ran into one problem this weekend. The television at Boardwalk worked great, but the Riviera has some fancy system that wouldn't allow it. I was able to get my device to display on the screen when I unplugged their device, but then I couldn't control the volume.

We have noticed the same thing in the resorts with the newer tv's. It's incredibly frustrating!

 

[hmansionlover]

It only makes sense from a profit generating standpoint. Why let the little ones watch the things they know on other streaming services when what we want to be doing is getting the little ones exposed to shows that are exclusive to a Disney streaming service. May generate $$$ when little one gets home and wants to watch the stuff he/she watched at Disney and Mom or Dad has to shell out a couple more bucks a month to add Disney to their streaming services.

 

[TwoHeartsBeat]

I've been able to connect to most resort TV's, but ran into one problem this weekend. The television at Boardwalk worked great, but the Riviera has some fancy system that wouldn't allow it. I was able to get my device to display on the screen when I unplugged their device, but then I couldn't control the volume.

Dealing with this this very moment, while trying to get the Roku to work. (They upgraded the tv today at Saratoga Springs.) Did anyone have a work around? I was able to install the Roku without unplugging their device, but once switched to the Roku the remote no longer works. I had to restart the TV after removing the Roku to get it to work at all again. There are instructions for Chromecasting, so bring a device to do that if you don't want to use your phone.

 

[monorailmom]

We just got back from VWL last night. No luck getting a Roku to work, but had an easy time casting from an iPad. The only thing we couldn't cast was Youtube, but Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ were all easy to do.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

We never turn our TV on during vacations and it’s glorious!!!!

 

[DharmaLou]

I just used the built in chromecast to stream baseball at night from my MLBtv app.

 

[mom2missmous]

With a possible hurricane approaching during our visit (and providing we don't lose power or service ) this thread is making me wonder if anyone knows if you can hook up a roku or something to stream movies and such on the tv in the one bedrooms at Old key west?

 

[Chumpieboy]

We ran into this issue at AKV this past week. Talked to the front desk folks who claimed it wasn't a policy to disallow guests to use their own devices and sent up a runner to show us how to do this.

NB that the new TV setups do have an option to allow you to chromecast from an existing device to the new TV system. We didn't try it since the runner gave us the workaround.

The new TV system seems to be controlled by the phonejack cable that is also plugged into the back of the TV. The signal over this phone jack seems to provide a different "operating system" to the TV that overrides the normal menus that a Samsung TV has. Presumably that is also the data source that provides the new interactive features on the main screen ("welcome <Family Name>!") and the ability to view the guest folio and check out etc.

So if you unplug the phone jack from the back and remove the HDMI cable, and restart the TV with your own device plugged in, you can use the small button on the bottom back corner to control the volume and switch inputs, just like you could do before the upgrades. You *will* need to adjust the volume down, since it seems to be hardcoded to level 100/max volume when you turn it on. Since they removed the Samsung remotes in favor of the new system remotes, you will have to continually manually adjust the volume with the button on the back of the TV.

This is what the runner showed me, I didn't break any equipment etc. trying to figure this out.

If you're going to do this, please plug the room HDMI and phone jack back into the TVs when you leave so as not to make things difficult for the staff turning over the room to the next guest or to waste time for an AV runner to have to come up and fix etc. If you know what you're doing where these instructions make sense, please be a good guest and reset everything back to how you found it.

 

[mmbm1720]

We ran into this issue at AKV this past week. Talked to the front desk folks who claimed it wasn't a policy to disallow guests to use their own devices and sent up a runner to show us how to do this.

NB that the new TV setups do have an option to allow you to chromecast from an existing device to the new TV system. We didn't try it since the runner gave us the workaround.

The new TV system seems to be controlled by the phonejack cable that is also plugged into the back of the TV. The signal over this phone jack seems to provide a different "operating system" to the TV that overrides the normal menus that a Samsung TV has. Presumably that is also the data source that provides the new interactive features on the main screen ("welcome <Family Name>!") and the ability to view the guest folio and check out etc.

So if you unplug the phone jack from the back and remove the HDMI cable, and restart the TV with your own device plugged in, you can use the small button on the bottom back corner to control the volume and switch inputs, just like you could do before the upgrades. You *will* need to adjust the volume down, since it seems to be hardcoded to level 100/max volume when you turn it on. Since they removed the Samsung remotes in favor of the new system remotes, you will have to continually manually adjust the volume with the button on the back of the TV.

This is what the runner showed me, I didn't break any equipment etc. trying to figure this out.

If you're going to do this, please plug the room HDMI and phone jack back into the TVs when you leave so as not to make things difficult for the staff turning over the room to the next guest or to waste time for an AV runner to have to come up and fix etc. If you know what you're doing where these instructions make sense, please be a good guest and reset everything back to how you found it.

This is golden information. Thank you!!

 

[oldwash]

Thanks for all the good info. The key for me to the volume issue was removing the “phone jack cable”. I then went into my equipment settings on my firestick and “Changed TV”. It detected Samsung and I was then able to control the volume with the firestick.

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

Thank you so much for the solution unplugging the phone connection to the tv worked! My daughter brought her Nintendo Switch with her to Coronado springs resort and yes here in 2025 this solution still helped us

 

[Dug720]

This is why I've had problems watching the provided TV in the past. People messing with it because they don't want to leave things alone.

 

[Dave006]

This is why I've had problems watching the provided TV in the past. People messing with it because they don't want to leave things alone.

Yes it does tend to happen when the previous guest either forgot to put everything back to the proper configuration or just did not care. We also found an Apple TV stick, and a Roku stick and remote. We turned them in but who knows if the guests got their devices back.

Dave

 

[I Luv Disney Cruise]

This is why I've had problems watching the provided TV in the past. People messing with it because they don't want to leave things alone.

I totally understand what you mean. However, I am alway careful to put things back the way things were found when I arrived.

 

[Marshel]

I prefer using my laptop hdmi port, the apps seem to stream better, and I can direct the audio using the computer's audio controller wherever I wish including hdmi, the computer's speakers or headphone output for later night viewing without disturbing others.