How can I watch videos on my laptop in the shower?

June 9, 2009 5:24 PM

Trying to watch movies on my laptop in a steam shower. How can I see my laptop through a foggy shower door, and how can I hear the sound if the same door is sealed?

I'm living with a cousin for the summer, and the room I'm in happens to have a steam shower. Basically, it means I can hang out in the shower comfortably (like a sauna) for longer periods of time without wasting water, and without getting the bathroom all steamy (the glass doors seal shut to preserve the steam). This is a two part question. I have a laptop that I can use in the bathroom. Steam is not an issue because of the sealed shower.

The two issues are sound and video. The video question is: how do I keep an area of the glass window/door from fogging up so much that I can't see the laptop screen? Is there some kind of film that I could buy in 14" squares or so to stick on the window?
The sound question is: how do I hear the movie? The sealed glass means that turning up the speakers won't do anything, and will annoy my cousins in the next room over. I can't use anything wired because of the sealed door. My thoughts were either an Olympia Soundbug (but I can't seem to find a way to buy one anymore), or some kind of waterproof bluetooth headset (which I also can't seem to find online anywhere).

posted by zinge to technology (16 comments total)

Looks like a device like this (YT) will turn any window into a speaker.
posted by nitsuj at 5:31 PM on June 9

I wonder if perhaps you can instead find a way of completely enclosing the laptop in something airtight, ans bringing it in with you? Risky, I know, but maybe there's a type of material. that would work.
posted by ORthey at 5:31 PM on June 9

For the de-fogging of the glass, perhaps you could use the old tricks of either your own spit rubbed on the glass, or the cut surface of a potato? You should do two patches side by side next time you shower, and record notes on waterproof paper. In the name of Science.
posted by emyd at 5:35 PM on June 9

Airtight laptop won't work as it will overheat without any way to vent from the fans.

I'll try the spit and potato next time I jump in the shower and update you on which works best.

The glass resonator is basically what a Soundbug is. The Olympia Soundbug was a cheaper version that you could attach to any surface to turn it into a resonator. The sound quality wasn't great, but as long as I can hear and understand dialog, that would be ok. The problem is I can't find the Soundbug being sold online anywhere (ebay included) and Olympia's Soundbug website no longer exists. I'm trying to keep within the $30 range for any sort of speaker purchases, since this is only a temporary solution while I'm here for the summer.

Thanks for the quick responses!
posted by zinge at 5:53 PM on June 9

Apply some Rain-X on the shower glass. If it keeps water off car windshields it should work for a shower.
posted by Frank Grimes at 5:57 PM on June 9

It's a little out of your price range, but here's a wireless bluetooth headset.
posted by nitsuj at 6:07 PM on June 9

More Amazon and Google -fu has finally turned up this. Same idea as the Soundbug I was talking about and definitely in my price range. The problem is that they don't come with a built in amp, just speaker wire attachments. So does anyone know a cheap (~$15) portable/smallish amplified that accepts bare speaker wire?

I looked up that wireless bluetooth headset, and while Amazon claims that it is waterproof, its really just water-resistant, and not suitable for a shower/steam-filled room.

I'll look into the Rain-X idea as well if the potato doesn't work. Thanks.
posted by zinge at 6:21 PM on June 9

Perhaps you could use an RCA to speaker wire connector, along with an RCA to 1/8" stereo jack, and hook that to the Dayton thing you linked to above.
posted by nitsuj at 6:28 PM on June 9

Seconding the spit option to keep the fog off the glass, or go to a SCUBA shop and buy a cheap tube of de-fog. Divers use it all the time, but spit works in a pinch.
posted by matty at 6:40 PM on June 9

Since the Dayton things don't have any power source, they need an amplifier; use RCA to speaker wire and RCA to 1/8" plugged into my laptop headphone jack won't give enough power/volume to actually head anything out of them unless I put them up to my ears like headphones.
posted by zinge at 6:43 PM on June 9

Is the audio out from a laptop completely powerless? It might be lowish, but it at least has some, right? I'm really asking -- I don't know.
posted by nitsuj at 7:27 PM on June 9

Not completely powerless, but headphone level. External speakers all have batteries or a power plug which act as a built in amplifier.
posted by zinge at 8:42 PM on June 9

You could switch the subtitles on for the movies you're watching. Works for me when I don't have headphones and need to keep it quiet.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:40 AM on June 10

This is more of a theoretical answer, so not sure how useful it is.
The steam is condensing as the glass is at a lower temperature than the air. Maybe you could have a heating element attached to the section of the glass to keep it sufficiently warm, like the heating methods in car-rear windows?

I've no idea if such things exist for domestic use, but I saw a repair kit for old rear-car windows that had a liquid metal you could paint on to glass. It was successful in mending the heating element in our family car, but it is somewhat permanent.

A less glass-damaging method could be to have a fan blowing a jet of hot air at the glass (from the outside of the shower) to warm the glass sufficiently so that moisture is not condensing on the other side.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 7:12 AM on June 10

What about one of those FM transmitters like you use to listen to an iPod on a car radio, in the laptop's headphone jack, and one of those waterproof shower radios? Maybe it'd create a lag, though, I've never tried it with anything other than just audio.
posted by lampoil at 7:14 AM on June 10 [1 favorite]

FM Transmitter is probably the best idea, although its a little more than I wanted to spend. But it doesn't look like there is a *cheap* way to do this.
posted by zinge at 10:31 PM on June 10