A BetterSTR TV box has its own AirPlay receiver (for iPhone, iPad and Mac) and its own Cast receivers (YouTube’s Cast button and DLNA players). Out of the box both are on, and any phone on the property Wi-Fi can see the TV and cast to it. Casting & AirPlay lets you change that per TV, per group of TVs, or for your whole account: switch either receiver off, or require guests to scan a QR code on the TV before their phone can see it.
Why you might want this
AirPlay and Cast find TVs by shouting on the local network. In a home with one TV that is exactly what you want. In a hotel or apartment block where every room shares one Wi-Fi, it means every guest sees every room’s TV in their AirPlay or Cast list, and can cast to the wrong room. The QR option fixes that without changing your network: a TV only becomes visible to a phone that scanned the code on that TV’s own screen.
The three settings
Each receiver, AirPlay and Cast, can be set independently to one of:
- On – any phone on the Wi-Fi can see and cast to the TV. This is the default and how the TV has always behaved.
- Scan QR to enable – the TV shows a small “Scan to cast to this TV” QR code. Until a guest scans it, the TV stays hidden from that guest’s phone. After scanning, only their phone can see and cast to it.
- Off – the receiver is not running at all.
When either receiver is set to Scan QR, you also choose where the code shows: on the home screen (a small card on the left of the welcome screen, mirroring the phone remote card on the right) or on the Wi-Fi screen, to the left of the Wi-Fi code.
How the QR scan works for a guest
- The guest scans the code on the TV with their phone camera.
- A page opens with the property’s Wi-Fi details. The phone must be on the same Wi-Fi as the TV, so they join it if they haven’t already.
- They tap Allow casting on this phone (Android phones usually do this step by themselves). The TV confirms, and shows them where to find it: Control Centre → Screen Mirroring or the AirPlay icon for Apple devices, the Cast icon in YouTube for the rest.
- The TV now appears in that phone’s AirPlay and Cast lists. Other guests’ phones still don’t see it.
The phone stays allowed for the rest of the stay. Access is forgotten when the next booking checks in, and after a long idle period, so a guest who comes back the next evening may be asked to scan again.
Setting a default for all your TVs, or a group
- Go to Android TV in your BetterSTR dashboard and click Casting & AirPlay in the left-hand menu.
- Edit the All my TVs row to set your account default.
- Click + Tag default to set a different rule for every TV whose property carries a tag, for example a “Hotel rooms” tag with Scan QR on and a “Whole houses” tag left on.
A TV uses its property’s tag default first, then your account default, then the built-in “all on”. This is the same way screensaver defaults work.
Setting one TV on its own
- Open Edit on the TV and scroll to the Casting & AirPlay card. The badge shows which default it currently follows.
- Switch on Modify casting / AirPlay for this TV, choose the AirPlay and Cast settings and the QR placement, and save.
- Switch it off again to go back to inheriting the default.
The TV picks the change up on its next check-in, usually within a few minutes. When both receivers are switched off, the casting hint on the Wi-Fi screen disappears too.
BetterSTR boxes only
These settings control the AirPlay and Cast receivers built into BetterSTR TV boxes (and sideloaded installs of the BetterSTR TV app). A Google TV or Android TV running BetterSTR from the Play Store uses the TV’s own Chromecast built-in, which BetterSTR cannot switch off or gate, so the settings have no effect there.
Cast on a BetterSTR box means YouTube’s Cast button and DLNA players such as Plex. The Cast button inside Netflix, Disney+ and similar apps on Android phones needs Google’s own receiver and isn’t available on the box either way; iPhone guests use AirPlay for those.
Good to know
- Same Wi-Fi is still required. If your guest Wi-Fi isolates devices from each other, phones can’t reach the TV at all, with or without the QR. Ask whoever manages the network to allow guest devices to reach the TVs.
- Name your TVs by room. The TV appears under its device name, so “Room 214” makes it obvious which one to pick.
- AirPlay while someone is allowed. Once a guest has scanned, the TV has to announce itself for their phone to find it, so other Apple devices nearby may briefly list it too; they are refused if they try to connect. When nobody has scanned, it isn’t listed anywhere.
- Guest activity. With Guest activity switched on for the TV, each QR scan shows up in the TV’s activity feed as Cast QR.