To date modern smartphones comparable in functionality to conventional personal computers, and very often users want to connect their phone to a TV, for example, for comfortable Internet surfing, or watching a video, this is especially in demand when a full-fledged computer is not at hand. However, at the moment there has not yet been created a standard for displaying images on a TV suitable for all devices.
We will try to help and tell you about the most common technologies.
Consider several basic options for connecting TV to mobile devices using the example of Samsung smartphones, which are very popular on the market and are used by numerous users.
In the first way, The easiest, not today, is to use the Screen Mirroring Assistant app. It can be easily installed with Google Play Market, in many models Samsung smartphones this software is already preinstalled.
Open the app. If in range wireless network If there is a TV that supports such a connection, then its name will be displayed on the phone screen, which you need to select.
After these steps, the image of the smartphone will be broadcast on the TV screen, the sound is also transmitted.
One of the most common and well-supported technologies is MHL (Mobile High-definition Link), which combines the capabilities of HDMI and microUSB standards, which can be used to transmit a high-definition signal and also charge the device.
In order to connect a smartphone to a TV, you need to have an additional MHL adapter, which on one side connects to the phone in the charging socket, the other end has an HDMI output and connects directly to a TV or monitor. It is also important to understand that for Samsung smartphones, manufacturers have developed their own type of MHL connectors, which differ in the use of an 11-pin connector, which allows additional use of peripherals that are not compatible with standard 5-pin connectors. Therefore, when setting up the connection of devices from this Korean manufacturer, consider this fact.
Second way connection is based on wireless transmission data via a Wi-Fi connection and is associated with the use of Miracast technology, therefore it is convenient to use and requires only a special adapter that connects directly to the TV in the HDMI connector, as well as a built-in Wi-Fi transmitter on your Samsung smartphone.
The standard used has a high data transfer rate and allows wireless connection smartphone to a TV, transmit Full-HD signal and 5.1-channel sound, and does not require the purchase of additional wires, which greatly simplifies setup. But the use of this technology will be justified for those users who need to constantly interact with a smartphone and often display an image on a wide screen (for example, for presentations or video reports).
Samsung smartphone owners also have a personal branded ability to connect their devices directly through a special software AllShare Cast, which is supported by all modern TVs of this brand.
The program has similar functionality to Miracast, but is a special standard only for the Korean electronics manufacturer.
I would also like to note that the company has already launched a proprietary HDMI adapter on the market, which allows you to easily connect your smartphone to a Samsung TV.
What can be said in the end. If desired, each user will be able to connect their smartphone with big screen TV or monitor. To do this, just read this article and purchase the necessary adapters.
Good luck with your settings.
Do you want to show photos or captured video with friends and family, but do not want to huddle in front of the small screen of your mobile phone? Connect your smart device with and enjoy a high-quality picture on large display. How to do it - read the article. We looked at 10 popular ways to connect a mobile phone to a TV screen.
Some methods are suitable for Android gadgets, some for iPhones. Read on to choose the right option. The article describes both connection methods that involve the use of both usb wires and wireless options.
This cord is another option that allows you to synchronize your smartphone with a TV screen. MHL is a combination of a function performed by HDMI (for example, ) responsible for carrying audio and video signal High Quality, and micro USB that feeds the smartphone battery.
Important: adapter must be selected appropriate, for example, MiniDisplay-Port to HDMI.
In fact, this is an interface standard designed to output a signal to monitors, known to the user as Display-Port. The prefix "mini" indicates that this is its reduced copy, which allows you to use the appropriate connector for mobile gadgets.
Slimport was offered to users of smart devices by Analogix, based on the development of DisplayPort.
This standard works according to the principle almost identical to the notorious MHL: support for 7.1 multi-channel audio, UltraHD and 4K playback. To connect to external image sources, DisplayPort or HDMI is used, a USB microslot on the user's gadget.
Important:direct connection mobile phone to the TV is not possible in all cases, so the user is advised to stock up on an additional adapter.
Individual features of the “slimport”:
Chromecast is a development from Google that allows you to display an image from a mobile gadget on a TV screen, for example, from.
What to do:
The advantage of using the Chromecast service is to increase the speed of interaction with the smart TV host.
DLANA is a technology for exchanging media data (between devices that support this technology), provided that the interacting devices are connected by a network connection.
Attention!To owners of smartphones released by , DLNA is known as "SMART SHARE". At Samsung, this technology is called AllShare, and they called this shell VAIO Media Server.
How to synchronize a DLNA service with a smartphone (for example):
You need to make sure that all devices have an Internet signal
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Launch "Gallery"
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Select any of the available files
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Press "more"
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Select a player that matches the brand or specific model TV.
After the actions performed by the user, the selected photo will appear on the television display automatically. This applies to any files stored in the smartphone gallery.
Note: if the task failed, then the user will need to download a shell that is compatible with the brand of the device. As a rule, the name of the shell is identical to the additional software.
Based on the development of Wi-Fi direct, Miracast is a great option for connecting smart devices to your TV without wires.
Peculiarities:
There were some drawbacks here: not every gadget supports miracast connections, moreover, this standard does not have compatibility with 4K quality, while “smart” mobile phones can make such images.
Although modern manufacturers of mobile gadgets strive to make the display diagonal of their products as large as possible, the most comfortable way to watch movies and photos is the TV screen, to which entertainment content can be transferred from the same smartphone.
There are many options for connecting a phone to a Samsung TV, you can use any of them yourself and enjoy watching a movie at home or even holding a business presentation on a large TV screen without any problems. On Smart-TV, you can not only transfer files, but also broadcast everything that happens on a mobile display: the second feature is perfect, for example, for games or web surfing.
A smartphone can be connected to a TV monitor as a removable disk: all you need is the bundled USB cable used for data connection of the communicator with a computer. After determining the cell in the system, the smart TV will launch the file manager, which will display all the documents stored on the mobile gadget. The user will only have to choose, using the remote control remote control, movie or open the desired album with photos, after which the content will start playing automatically.
USB connection does not require installation additional applications or buying expensive accessories, and is also supported not only by devices with Smart TV, but also by ordinary TVs - all this makes this connection method the most popular among ordinary users. The micro-USB cable costs a penny, it’s realistic to buy a copy up to 100 rubles. But there is a risk that the smartphone will not see a cheap accessory.
To get advanced features: for example, mirror duplication of content or output of online broadcasts of films, you need to use one of the methods, which will be discussed in the article later.
The advantage of the HDMI interface is the ability to broadcast any high-quality image (from Full HD to 8K) from a smartphone to a TV screen. The main disadvantage this method is that in order to connect devices to each other, it is necessary to have not only an HDMI cable, but also a special adapter for a mobile gadget. You can buy such an adapter in most retail stores, but before buying, be sure to make sure it is compatible with your smartphone. There are several types of HDMI connectors:
The HDMI connection algorithm is as follows:
For the convenience of using a large monitor, we connect a keyboard or even a gamepad to a mobile gadget, thereby turning the TV into a full-fledged computer running Android OS. Third-party user accessories are connected via the USB port.
To date, the most convenient and functional way to transfer media content to a television screen is to synchronize devices via home wifi network. This method does not require the use of any cables, and the quality of the broadcast picture is no worse than with wired connection. The only thing you need is to install special utilities on both devices.
The AllShare application is a standard program for Samsung Smart-TV and allows you to use your TV monitor to share custom files. You can download a previously deleted AllShare from the Samsung Apps store. Suitable for a smartphone samsung app Smart View, which is distributed for free on Google Play. After installing the required software, you should:
For these purposes, you can use the Chrome Cast prefix created by Google. This accessory is inserted into the HDMI port of an old (not "smart") TV and acts as a signal receiver from the communicator. The system function Screen Mirroring (available on Android 4 and higher) is perfect for those users who want to broadcast their gadget's display on a large monitor: to start using it, just go to the appropriate "Settings" section and select the desired external display from the list that appears.
Android smartphone users can use wireless interface Miracast data transmission, which is an analogue of AirPlay technology. Miracast allows you to directly (that is, without the help of a network router) synchronize two devices with each other and set up a mirror image of the smartphone display on the TV panel.
To start using this technology, you need:
Further, duplication of media content will automatically begin. Although Miracast allows you to watch videos in 4K resolution, unfortunately, you won’t be able to enjoy a dynamic game on a large display: the desynchronization time between devices is approximately 1 second.
So, connect your phone to Smart TV from Samsung is easy: just choose the method that suits your needs and pair your devices according to the instructions. Practice shows that most modern Android smartphones will perfectly connect to smart TVs both over the air and in the traditional, wired way.
The dream of turning a smartphone into a full-fledged computer arose a long time ago, but something always stood in the way of its implementation. Motorola can rightfully be considered the pioneer of this direction, the engineers of this company tried to turn a smartphone into a computer back in the 90s, but every time something prevented them from creating a product that would be approved by marketers. In 2010, when the ATRIX model was created, they released a docking station for connecting to an external monitor via HDMI, as well as a laptop dock, a kind of brainless laptop in which memory and brains were in the phone itself.
Marketers once again won, since these devices were in demand only among geeks, the mass consumer did not understand why he needed to buy these accessories if the resulting “computer” was rather weak and did not support familiar programs. Almost a dozen companies over the past five years have explored the possibility of creating such accessories and each time they stumbled upon the fact that buyers could not understand what it was and why. The most successful attempt was the introduction of a docking station from Microsoft, with its help, a Windows smartphone connected to a monitor and allowed you to work with documents. Success at the same time was relative, as a percentage of Windows smartphones sold, which were always few, and therefore this experience passed by the mass market, it was simply not noticed.
At the same time, the stars aligned so that Microsoft stopped actively supporting its platform for smartphones and other mobile devices, but felt that they needed a presence on Android platform with the main programs, for example, MS Office, OneDrive, Skype. Key partner Samsung has become the promoter of these programs, these applications have appeared on almost all of the company's devices. Somehow it turns out by itself that Microsoft wants to turn smartphones into full-fledged computers, Samsung has a similar project, but it is stalling, as marketers defeat engineers, as it was at Motorola before. According to marketers, the market is not yet ready, there are many restrictions for such devices. But Microsoft believes that the time has come and is ready to adapt MS Office for Android running in desktop mode. And Samsung considered that this was enough to give the project a green light and create an accessory that would turn the company's flagship into a full-fledged computer, albeit with a number of reservations. This is how the DeX docking station was born, which can already be called the most successful product in this category, as it sells like hot cakes and the company simply does not have time to produce them.
The idea of the DeX docking station is simple and clear: you connect peripheral devices to the station and you can use a large monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, external drive and more with your phone. Let's figure out together how it works.
A small box contains a docking station and nothing else, and to connect to a monitor or TV, you need a regular HDMI cable, which will need to be purchased separately. There will be no problem with this, such cables are sold in most stores.
The docking station is large enough, it has a sliding cover, under which hides USB type C connector, here we install the smartphone, in this moment Only Galaxy S8/S8+ is supported, new Note will be added later.
The power supply of the station is carried out through the usual Charger, which comes with your phone, a connector on the USB Type C case. The docking station has its own cooling, a built-in fan, it is impossible to call it noisy, even with the most active mode of using the phone it is not audible at all. The presence of cooling is important, since in some modes the phone can heat up, but here overheating is excluded.
There are two full-fledged USB connectors (USB 2.0) on the case, you can connect any peripherals to them, for example, a keyboard, mouse or USB flash drive, as well as HDD. As a rule, there is enough food for any portable device, which usually works with a laptop or similar equipment. An HDMI connector is needed to connect the docking station to a monitor or TV, and there is no need for any special settings, the phone automatically detects the type of monitor. Unfortunately, there is one problem here - old monitors with 4:3 geometry will work, but the picture is optimized for widescreen displays and TV, as a result, it does not look very good on older devices.
When connected for the first time, a picture is displayed on the screen, which shows the corners of the image, you can adjust them yourself. On all my TVs and monitors, the picture was initially displayed correctly.
When the phone is placed in the docking station, it automatically starts charging, but the picture on the screen turns off, the DeX mode starts working. You can also select the mode of mirroring the image from the smartphone screen, then the DeX mode, respectively, will not be available. This is an old, well-known mode, so I won’t dwell on it in detail, especially since all Samsung smart TVs support this Wi-Fi smartphone connection.
Unfortunately, the connectors on the docking station are located in a semicircle, which is convenient for connecting peripherals, but the wires take up a lot of space on the table.
In practice, you can connect a wireless keyboard to the docking station (you need to install a USB dongle from the keyboard into one of the connectors) or connect the keyboard directly to the phone via Bluetooth. I like the second option a lot more, since no wires are required and everything works exactly the same.
In terms of accessories that are supported, I would say that it is almost all mice, keyboards, hard drives and the like. You can connect the printer directly to the station, but why? It's easier to set up printing through Android drivers, most modern models support this option, I have everything set up that way.
There is also an Ethernet connector on the case, that is, you can connect the docking station to the network directly, this will be valuable for corporate clients, this option is important for them, but less interesting for home use.
The interface device on the monitor or TV in front of you is very similar to Windows, you have a status bar at the bottom where application shortcuts are located, on the right side there are status icons, for example, battery charge, an icon for screenshots, network signal and more. On the desktop, you can create your own icons, which is extremely convenient.
You need to understand that the interface has been redesigned for a computer, but we still have the same well-known Android. For example, you can have an unlimited number of open windows, but only those that are located on the screen remain active, the rest are called from memory, they “freeze” in the state in which they were. So don't be surprised by these multitasking capabilities.
On the screen, you can open several applications at the same time and work in them at the same time. It is important that you can file manager drag and drop a file into mail or vice versa, many standard applications support this possibility.
This makes the DeX mode very similar to a regular computer, there is no addiction as such, you will instantly learn what to do and how.
In the menu, you can see applications that work in DeX mode, that's almost all Android programs, but there are exceptions. So, you can run toys, but most likely you won’t be able to play, for example, Clash of Clans didn’t work with my mouse, but Infinitode works great. But playing games with a mouse is somehow quite inconvenient, although there was a time when we had no other options and this seemed to be the only option.
All your files are stored in the phone's memory, for insurance, you can also enable saving them in the cloud. Considering that we have an Android smartphone, and even a flagship, it can do almost everything that is taught conventional computers. Do you want to watch the video? No problem - you can run any file and enjoy it on the big screen. I had such an experience - I put the Expanse series on a TV with a DeX station connected to the children, and I myself listened to wireless headphones podcast from the same phone (outputting two audio streams at the same time is a great thing in the S8/S8+). Moreover, during a call, the phone understands that it needs to be sent to the headset, and not to the TV, and this is very captivating.
Oddly enough, what attracts me to DeX is the opportunity quick search by SMS, messenger messages, mail and other sections that I consider to be originally telephone, of the same call list. Everything is in front of you in a convenient form, any information can be copied, by the way, all keyboard shortcuts work fine in this mode (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V and others).
You can use MS Office for work if you are committed to this program, but you need a subscription to Ms Office 365. The whole package is adapted for this mode of operation, these are full-fledged programs, they are better than the regular version for Android. I could not find any difference from a Windows laptop, everything is exactly the same. The same files are opened, stored in the cloud from MS, in a word, work - I don’t want to. And this is not only reading, but also editing, for example, presentations.
For those who don't want to buy a subscription to MS Office, you can type texts in Samsung's native application, it has text formatting, minimal features text editor. It is convenient for small texts, but it is hardly suitable for the same job of creating a book. It is quite suitable for writing this text, there is no problem here.
I put off getting to know the DeX station for a long time, as everything worked slowly at the presentation, if not slowly. What was the reason for this, I don’t know, but in real life everything is very, very fast. What's more, you won't notice any slowdowns even when working with heavy, large documents. And this is surprising, if you remember that the processing of documents is handled by the phone, not the computer.
And another surprising discovery for me was that the first two hours with DeX took me what I tried to work in different applications in the hope that they won't work at all. But this did not happen.
For the desktop, you can set your wallpaper (exactly for DeX mode). There are not so many phone settings, this is the speed of the mouse, and nothing more.
The fact that a modern flagship can run most programs and adapt them to the big screen is not surprising. It is important to think about what previously unavailable scenarios such a bundle can implement. For me, this is a scenario for a workplace in a second apartment, where I don’t want to drag a computer with me. I came, connected the phone, and everything is ready - you start working with your files, especially since most of my working files are in the cloud. I'm sure that for someone this scenario will look attractive, and here the DeX-station is fighting with chromebooks, which can be bought for 100-300 dollars in the US. Why Chromebooks in particular? Yes, because they are rather weak, there is little memory, but they work with the cloud and have a large screen. They have a comfortable keyboard and no need to buy an external monitor. And for DeX, such a monitor is needed, another thing is that your TV can become it.
For corporate users, the DeX-station is just a godsend, especially in companies where they buy Samsung flagships for employees. You can create a workplace anywhere, and given that a virtual desktop for Windows is supported, you can also work with all your usual documents in another place (equally, run all your Windows programs that are on your regular PC from the desktop, you only need to connect to the network). In Europe, several large companies have already appreciated this accessory, as it saves them money and time, which is spent on maintaining conventional networks. But here we must understand that these are still pioneers, it is too early to talk about the mass introduction of such solutions.
My experience with the DeX station is that it has a couple of downsides. For example, if at some point you forget that you have a phone in front of you, and you are guaranteed to forget, then you start keeping an open player with a movie, large documents and 30-40 bookmarks in Chrome in your memory. There is no slowdown in the interface, but the battery does not have time to charge, the charge freezes at the same point. Therefore, if you want the phone to charge, minimize all applications from the desktop, then the system “freezes” them, they do not waste energy.
Unfortunately, it’s inconvenient to take such a station with you on trips, because in addition to DeX, you will need an HDMI cable, keyboard, mouse, and all this takes up a lot of space, it’s easier to take a laptop with you.
For example, I use Samsung's wireless keyboard with the S8+ while traveling, but it's a compromise for me, as it's inconvenient due to its size. And with DeX, you want something big, the right size. The conclusion follows from this: DeX is inconvenient when traveling, it is still a stationary solution.
A dozen such docking stations passed through my hands, but it was always a compromise, it is also present here, after all, this is not a full-fledged computer, and the same 1C can only be run on a virtual desktop, and not in a regular program (although the client for Android is quite working). Unlike other devices, this one has an undoubted advantage, the interface is fast, responsive, and the adaptation of a number of programs, including MS Office, makes DeX unique in many ways, there are no analogues (apart from Microsoft's own docking station and the de facto dead Windows platform). phone).
The price of DeX in Russia is 9,990 rubles (in the US $150 plus taxes, in Europe can be found for 125 euros). Expensive? Perhaps. But for those who need just such functionality and they have already come up with an application scenario for the docking station, there are simply no analogues. What really surprised me, many people buy DeX just as a docking station for charging their smartphone, they say it’s beautiful and have been waiting for this for a long time. Why not buy wireless charging and not save? Appearance is similar, the issue of charging is resolved.
The fact that such devices are the future, I'm sure, the only question is when this future will become massive. DeX sales prove it's just around the corner. This accessory is produced noticeably more than planned, the plant is 100% loaded, and this is amazing. Can someone explain what the Europeans liked so much about this accessory?
