Hotel TV

Hotel TVs are one of the artifacts of the past. No hotel probably even thinks of providing a room without a TV. Sure, you can have a room with a shared bathroom or without a window. But there is always a TS set.

I wonder who watches them. These days most people watch their personalized content. Typically they are just fine with the endless scroll on social media but some do watch YouTube or other paid (subscription) Internet-based video services.

And then they arrive at a hotel and do what? Watch the broadcast TV? I don't think so. At least I don't do it. Although it would be nice from time to time to watch something from a bigger distance and on a bigger screen (bigger than my 10" iPad).

Some time ago I added a nice 90-degree USB-C - to - HDMI adapter to the cable bag (other than that there have been no updates, and I'm very happy about the "cable" things have stabilized, mostly due to the USB-C all-capable standard). This adapter has two use cases. The primary use case: connect a laptop to a HDMI projector when presenting something. The secondary: connect the iPad to a hotel TV to watch some of my subscription content on the big screen. I follow tennis and Formula 1 in particular and it is so much nicer to watch a match or a race on a proper screen. Even (or especially) when on the road. This is sometimes possible if a hotel TV has a working HDMI port.

But all personal smart devices (tablets and phones) can stream video over WiFi. So why aren't hotels offering a Chromecast / AppleTV option in each room?

On one hand this idea seem to be very straightforward. Like most cars today offer Android Auto / Apple CarPlay. The answer is probably the limitation of hotels' WiFi systems. Typically they are weak, barely coping with delivering Internet to guests' devices. They would quickly collapse if guests started streaming video over the same infrastructure. But then why not offer a standard USB-C connection instead? It would work with most phones and tablets on the market today (a USB-C iPhone 15 is around the corner after all). This would definitely be a better use for the large dumb LCD screens installed in the rooms.