smart tvs, apple tv and streaming cornell hockey

About 2 months to live Cornell Hockey.
I'm seriously considering upgrading my parents TV and looking at smart tvs (1080 v. 4K) and ways to stream certain video content without having my macbook hooked up to the tv via HDMI cables.

My two areas of interests are 1) streaming Cornell hockey and 2) NFL.com/game pass all 22 film so my dad and I can play armchair QB and dissect the Giants O-line and secondary woes on a weekly basis.

What I'm finding out is that the smart tvs (looking mainly at Samsungs, but still not decided) do not have an NFL.com app pre-installed, likely because the NFL hasn't created one. Gamepass is supposed available via Apple TV, chromecast and on an iphone, ipad via AIRPLAY. Has anyone tried that with any of the preseason games?

Does IVY League sports/cornell's streaming service play nice with apple tv? Or will I have to connect my laptop to the tv via hdmi cable? I'm trying to minimize devices that would be connected to this new tv and the thought of having to bring out my laptop to connect to the TV seems to be defeating the purpose of getting a smart tv.

Can you get IVY league sports to play via a smart tv with a built in webbrowser? The tv salesperson said there might be compatibility issues.

If apple tv will address both these issues, I don't mind adding that on, but if I need to prop my laptop up and use the tv as a second monitor, then might not be worth it.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
Rita

Rita
About 2 months to live Cornell Hockey.
I'm seriously considering upgrading my parents TV and looking at smart tvs (1080 v. 4K) and ways to stream certain video content without having my macbook hooked up to the tv via HDMI cables.

My two areas of interests are 1) streaming Cornell hockey and 2) NFL.com/game pass all 22 film so my dad and I can play armchair QB and dissect the Giants O-line and secondary woes on a weekly basis.

What I'm finding out is that the smart tvs (looking mainly at Samsungs, but still not decided) do not have an NFL.com app pre-installed, likely because the NFL hasn't created one. Gamepass is supposed available via Apple TV, chromecast and on an iphone, ipad via AIRPLAY. Has anyone tried that with any of the preseason games?

Does IVY League sports/cornell's streaming service play nice with apple tv? Or will I have to connect my laptop to the tv via hdmi cable? I'm trying to minimize devices that would be connected to this new tv and the thought of having to bring out my laptop to connect to the TV seems to be defeating the purpose of getting a smart tv.

Can you get IVY league sports to play via a smart tv with a built in webbrowser? The tv salesperson said there might be compatibility issues.

If apple tv will address both these issues, I don't mind adding that on, but if I need to prop my laptop up and use the tv as a second monitor, then might not be worth it.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
Rita

I've always had to hook up my laptop for hockey. Though my TV isn't super smart. Cornell commented on twitter a long while back (2013?) that a roku app was in process for "immediately" or "near future." That doesn't seem to have happened.

Rita
About 2 months to live Cornell Hockey.
I'm seriously considering upgrading my parents TV and looking at smart tvs (1080 v. 4K) and ways to stream certain video content without having my macbook hooked up to the tv via HDMI cables.

My two areas of interests are 1) streaming Cornell hockey and 2) NFL.com/game pass all 22 film so my dad and I can play armchair QB and dissect the Giants O-line and secondary woes on a weekly basis.

What I'm finding out is that the smart tvs (looking mainly at Samsungs, but still not decided) do not have an NFL.com app pre-installed, likely because the NFL hasn't created one. Gamepass is supposed available via Apple TV, chromecast and on an iphone, ipad via AIRPLAY. Has anyone tried that with any of the preseason games?

Does IVY League sports/cornell's streaming service play nice with apple tv? Or will I have to connect my laptop to the tv via hdmi cable? I'm trying to minimize devices that would be connected to this new tv and the thought of having to bring out my laptop to connect to the TV seems to be defeating the purpose of getting a smart tv.

Can you get IVY league sports to play via a smart tv with a built in webbrowser? The tv salesperson said there might be compatibility issues.

If apple tv will address both these issues, I don't mind adding that on, but if I need to prop my laptop up and use the tv as a second monitor, then might not be worth it.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
Rita

I spent about 70 seconds fiddling with my Samsung TV's web browser to realize it was useless. I found that a Google Chromecast is my answer for ILDN broadcasts. You have to use the Google Chrome browser with the Chromecast plugin, and it essentially does the same job as an HDMI cable, mirroring your browser window, wirelessly. Hit the full-screen button, and it works fine. I think I tried to do AirPlay to an AppleTV, but it didn't work for reasons I'm not remembering right now. (Maybe the ILDN stream doesn't have an AirPlay option? Also, I have an older Macbook that doesn't have that capability, but I could use my phone/tablet.)

As for NFL, good luck: [www.digitaltrends.com]

Edit: According to this thread, others have had success using AirPlay.

I've also found Chromecast to work very well, for streaming, browsing and you-tube as well. Agree that Smart TV browsers aren't yet a ripe technology. Also someone needs to make a compatible and functional keyboard to make it easier to deal with this not-ready-for-prime-time feature. The on-screen keyboard with arrow keys is brutal.

Rita - We have one each Panasonic, LG and Samsung TV with streaming claimed on the box. None of them are anywhere near as good as an external box or a laptop despite the clunkiness of the laptop as an external device. That's right, Cornell did promise Roku support. Maybe Cornell is holding out for the integrated Apple TV.

The ideal streaming system would cache your logon info and also seamlessly reconnect if, for some reason, the Cornell webcast ever lost its connection.

Thanks everyone for the input.

I did get the google chromecast doo-hickey last night and got it installed on the 27 in tv, which is soon to be mine which will do double as an external monitor for work-at-home days and back up for when I do not get the big tv for Cornell hockey. Pretty easy installation and tested it out with some youtube videos and MLB.tv free game of the night. Last year, I recall getting better video using Chrome rather than Firefox or Safari.

I've settled on a Samsung J6200 series TV/1080. Very good for sports which is the main focus. We aren't into video gaming or movies.

Supposedly NFL.com GamePass will play nice with Chromecast. Unfortunately, NFL.com do not have a built in app on the smart tv (like MLB.com). If Chromecast, doesn't work well, I'll do the wires/HDMI cords. I know I won't get live games, but supposedly you get a different take watching the all-22/coaches film which is availble mid week after the game. My Dad is happy being able to watch the Giant's preseason games live rather than getting up at 3 am to catch it on the NFL network rewind or figuring out the dvr. And if Dad is happy, all is good .

Chromecast is a good choice because if it didn't work out, you're only out $30 and the time you invested.