Best way to play video to a TV on vacation?

[neilw]

I had a 30 pin -> HDMI adapter for my old iPad 3, but now I'm traveling with the iPad mini and would like to be able to use it as a video player while on vacation. I'll be playing my own videos, no DRM.

Is the Apple Lightning -> HDMI adapter the only game in town? I've been trying to figure out if there's any way to use some sort of streaming stick for this, but I can't tell if any have this capability.

Did the video quality of the lighting->HDMI adapter ever get improved? People were pretty down on it when it first came out....

 

[Goalieed]

I would think the lighting to HDMI would be easiest, but I think the latest Apple TV allows direct point to point streaming from certain devices, but could easily be more problematic and more costly then the corded adapter.

 

[sparksd]

Just came back from a stay in 3 different good hotels and while each had flat-screen TVs, none of them had HDMI inputs available, only the yellow-red-white cabling connectors. Out of the last 6 hotels I stayed in, only 2 had TVs with HDMI.

 

[neilw]

Just came back from a stay in 3 different good hotels and while each had flat-screen TVs, none of them had HDMI inputs available, only the yellow-red-white cabling connectors. Out of the last 6 hotels I stayed in, only 2 had TVs with HDMI.

Well, we ultimately decided not to spend the $40 on the Apple adapter just on the slim chance that we would want to do this, and so it never even occurred to me to check if the TV had and HDMI input.

Now I will be checking this whenever I'm in a hotel...

 

[sparksd]

Here was my solution to this: First, I put all the videos I want on a portable HDD. For hotel TV use while traveling, I use this:

http://www.amazon.com/Micca-Full-HD...pebp=1441218595915&perid=1YA192BY60YTY0Q2D37B

Works great using either HDMI or composite inputs to the TV.

For my tablets (Apple & Android mix in family), I can use the same HDD drive with this to stream video:

http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wire...pebp=1441218837284&perid=013E18FGD6B7C7MZ2Y95

 

[neilw]

Here was my solution to this: First, I put all the videos I want on a portable HDD. For hotel TV use while traveling, I use this:

http://www.amazon.com/Micca-Full-HD...pebp=1441218595915&perid=1YA192BY60YTY0Q2D37B

Works great using either HDMI or composite inputs to the TV.

For my tablets (Apple & Android mix in family), I can use the same HDD drive with this to stream video:

http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wire...pebp=1441218837284&perid=013E18FGD6B7C7MZ2Y95

Pardon my ignorance, but could you explain how you would use those two together to play video from an iPad to a TV?

 

[sparksd]

Pardon my ignorance, but could you explain how you would use those two together to play video from an iPad to a TV?

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. They are independent - the first is a way to play videos stored on a portable HDD on a TV, no iPad involved, the connection via HDMI or composite cables. The second is how I use that same HDD with my iPad and other tablets. The HDD connects to it and it provides a wireless connection to any device like an iPad, Android tablet, phone, etc.