[Icyhot1966]

I live in a very rural area where there is NO home internet. All we have is our phones as hotspots. I bought an Apple TV 4th gen, thinking I could Airplay my Amazon Prime video to my TV, but unless I connect Apple TV and my phone that I’m trying to use Airplay with to the same network (another phone hotspot) I can’t get my Amazon Prime video to show on my television. I can show my PERSONAL content no problem. Just not Amazon (and maybe others I’m unaware of). I even downloaded the program I wanted to watch to my phone but unless there’s a WiFi connection, it won’t show on my television. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for any input!

[Tartarus]

Download the Amazon Prime app on your TV, use your iPhone as hotspot for it and watch the movie directly via the app. You don’t need to use AirPlay.

[Icyhot1966]

Yes I know. But my hotspot data is limited and once it’s gone, I have to wait until the next billing cycle. My smart TV actually has the Amazon app as well. I thought by getting the Apple TV I could Airplay it and it would only count as data from my phone. I’m trying to avoid using my hotspot data, as it is limited. Phone data is not.

[Tartarus]

Yes I know. But my hotspot data is limited and once it’s gone, I have to wait until the next billing cycle. My smart TV actually has the Amazon app as well. I thought by getting the Apple TV I could Airplay it and it would only count as data from my phone. I’m trying to avoid using my hotspot data, as it is limited. Phone data is not.

Ow, I see. Since I’m in Europe, we don’t have any kind of limits for Hotspot vs. phone data.

I hope you will find an ISP soon with enough coverage for your situation.

[Icyhot1966]

Thanks. I’ve lived here 8 years and still no ISP. I’ve given up hope.

[Icyhot1966]

Do you know if there is a way to change the video quality of Amazon video on Apple TV? Maybe if I could manually change it from HD to SD it wouldn’t eat up so much data.

[Tartarus]

Do you know if there is a way to change the video quality of Amazon video on Apple TV? Maybe if I could manually change it from HD to SD it wouldn’t eat up so much data.

I couldn’t find any Settings to change from HD to SD.
I guess it’s just not an option.

[Icyhot1966]

Thank you for checking!

[Tartarus]

No problem.

Did you check this option:
https://www.reviews.org/internet-ser...net-providers/

[Icyhot1966]

Yes. 50GB for $100 for 2 years then it goes to $130. Ridiculous!!

[Icyhot1966]

Hell I just took my Note 8 and screen mirrored it to my Samsung and it worked like a charm. Had downloaded an episode off Prime and then put phone in airplane mode and it still worked. Why Apple, why....

[Tartarus]

I’m glad you found a solution for your situation, albeit not for the TV.

[Apple Dude]

Surely you might go into settings???? And then search.

[dcoke22]

Do you have a WiFi network in your house? I know that you only have a cellular internet connection via phones, but you can have a local WiFi & ethernet network without an internet connection. In a situation like yours, I would have a local network and put things like my Apple TV on it.

Presumably you occasionally travel to places with an internet connection. When in the presence of an unmetered connection, I'd download things I wanted to watch. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201460820 I'd download as much as I could hold.

Then, when I got back home, and my device is on my local network with my Apple TV I would use AirPlay to watch my downloads on my TV.

I think this or something like this is what you're trying to do. I think the missing component in your mix is a wifi router. My experience with using my iPhone as a hotspot is that its functionality doesn't extend past simply allowing a connected device to use the phone's cellular internet connection. I haven't even been successful in allowing two devices connected to my phone to share data locally without using the cellular connection.

Things like Home Sharing allow you to share stuff in your iTunes library (for instance, videos in iTunes on your Mac) with your Apple TV over your local network. The only complicating factor is all the devices have to be signed into the same Apple ID. Which implies that things like your Mac and Apple TV will occasionally need an internet connection, although not much data will be required to be sent.

Most wifi routers are intended to have their internet connection come in through the wired WAN port. A setup where the internet connection comes via a wifi hotspot (like a phone in hotspot mode) is possible, but a bit more complicated. It might require a fancy open source firmware for the router like https://openwrt.org/ or Tomato by Shibby. Something like the ASUS RT-AC56U is both well supported by open source firmware and supports plugging in a 3g/4g modem to use as the internet connection.