Attaching Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 to TV/Projector

Lindsay D

Lindsay D

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,677
Name
Lindsay
Edit My Images
No
I recently bought a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition tablet and it's very nice. One of the main reasons I bought it is the fact that a tablet is a compact way for me to deliver slideshows and presentations wherever I'm doing a talk or workshop by attaching the tablet to a display - saves me carting around my bulky laptop. I did research on how to do this and I purchased the appropriate micro USB to HDMI cable - this is a very specific cable and must be 11 pin MHL 2.0, generally it needs to be run actively with the other end of the cable attached to a power supply.

Anyway, my cable arrived today and I attached my Galaxy Note to my Sony Bravia TV in my viewing room. No picture - although the television did detect that an MHL device is attached. I repeated this process by attaching my Note to the Panasonic television in my bedroom and it worked perfectly. I then went on the Internet to do some digging - from what I see it appears that some other people are having problems connecting their Samsung devices to Sony displays. This is a nightmare, because I'm now frightened I'll encounter a Sony TV or projector when I go somewhere to do a talk. Trying something like the chromecast dongle wouldn't be an option for me because Wi-Fi connection can be dodgy in some of the places I find myself.

So my question is, have any of you encountered this problem and figured out some sort of workaround?

Secondly, whilst there appears to be a problem connecting to a Sony TV, does the same problem occur with Sony projectors? I don't even know how common Sony projectors are but knowing my luck they will be popular.

Any thoughts or opinions will be welcome.
 
Last edited:
It could have something to do with HDMI standards where one screen does support it and the other doesn't. I've always found it flaky on my devices as well, and even some projectors in clients meeting rooms.

I was in the understanding that Miracast or WiDi (Wireless Display) was a point to point connection, a bit like when enabling a wireless hotspot on your phone and the laptop shows the network mode. Or if you've used a network project like those from Epson, they show up as infrastructure hotspots. As such only the strength between your tablet and display with the dongle matters.

Now I have to say I do not know for certain yet, I just went through this process and today my Miracast dongle should arrive. Be careful though as whilst I was swayed towards the Google Chromecast initially I then started looking into the specifications. And if you were willing to display anything higher resolution than 1920x1080 then you need a device that is HDMI 2.0 compatible. Belkin is the only one that is 4K TV ready that I am aware off. Just a thought. I'm going to see how it works with my Microsoft Surface Pro; I've got a Samsung Plasma, Sony Bravia LCD, Epson Projector, Dell 30" monitor and some Tesco own LCD thing.....

Unfortunately incompatibility still exists, that is why for the important meetings I normally have a full bag of dongle and cables and in the car my own projector and mobile draper pop up screen. It is always appreciated by my clients as they don't tend to have a clue themselves....

Hope that helped a little.
 
Thanks JP, that must be the case, and it's really annoying because I thought this was going to be a reliable way for me to travel light when on business. It looks like I'm still going to have to drag my laptop around with me which is a right pain. I think I'll have to rule out the dongle method because I can't always access Wi-Fi at the locations I'm at, and am limited to what I can carry in my hand since the car is usually some distance away or else I had to get their using public transport. Nightmare.

Interesting what you're saying about the resolution, I didn't know that. Let us know how you get on with the displays you mention.

In this day and age you would think that they could just come up with a universal plug and play standard! I've never had my (Sony) laptop not work when plugged into any display or projector and unfortunately I thought my tablet would be the same - there seems to be comparatively little information about compatibility on the web.

Anyway, I did order a different adapter (specific Samsung one) yesterday just in case it works, but given the principles involved I'm not hopeful.
 
It also might be worth getting a little hdmi hub thing that allows you to attach multiple devices. Sometimes these 'work around' some of the incompatibility that a straight connection might not manage. I have one made by Neet.

For HDMI I'd definitely get a samsung branded adapter/lead. This will have the greatest chance of working fine with multiple projectors.
 
Thanks Suz, I'll definitely look into the hub device you mention. The cable I bought was in fact specifically for my Samsung device, but was made by a third party. It works like a charm on everything except my Sony display - it will be interesting to see if the adapter from Samsung is any different. I'll report back either way.
 
Just had a change to try out my Miracast adapter. One plug into an hdmi port, an extension cable was include which helps, and a USB cable in the USB port to power the device.

I can confirm it is not reliant on existing wifi. It didn't want to connect to my home network, yet my Tablet instantly recognised it and mirrored everything including sound to the device.

It works absolutely brilliantly and is fairly quick as well.

So if you want to future proof or connect to very high resolution displays I would recommend the Belkin on. Alternatively cheaper models are available but limited to 1920x1200 and run at lower frequency so don't know how they handle the speed.

I'm very pleased with it. Light room wirelessly from my Surface Pro was a hit. But the very favourite of my children is Microsoft One Note with Mathematics plugin. Draw the formula on the tablet and see it being solved on screen.
 
Well that sounds promising!

So if you have a dongle like the one you describe (which I presume you plug into the HDMI port on the television/projector and hook up the dongle to a power supply via USB) you then don't need a wireless router attached to your tablet to generate Wi-Fi, or even a local WiFi supply from the venue? So this is a totally Wi-Fi free solution?

Ow, my head hurts!
 
dejongj said:
I can confirm it is not reliant on existing wifi. It didn't want to connect to my home network, yet my Tablet instantly recognised it and mirrored everything including sound to the device.

.
Click to expand...

Out of interest can I ask which tablet you were using and what kind of display you attached the dongle to?

I'm still worried about certain brand incompatibilities, but it sounds like I need to give this a try.
 
Hi Lindsay....

Yes, as I understand the Samsung Galaxy supports Miracast aka WiDi. As such it will be a direct connection with no need for other WiFi connectivity.

I use a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, and tried it with a Samsung Plasma, Sony Brava LCD and Epson Projector and all work great. Oh and also with my high resolution Dell desktop. One thing I can do is charge my Nexus 7 which is also an Android device and try it from there. It won't be until tomorrow to test that.

Kind regards,

JP
 
That is the one indeed. I only ordered mine yesterday from Amazon.co.uk. Odd but yes it says not available now. Sorry about that.
 
I think I've made a decision. Because I can't get the Belkin device here in the UK off Amazon I'm not going to get that one - nor would I recommend buying anything direct from Belkin because from prior experience I know how atrocious their customer service is.

So I have been doing research in order to come up with what I think will be quite a good alternative, and I've found the Tronsmart T1000. It's about £20 off Amazon and is quite feature rich.

To recap for newcomers to this thread: the miracast dongles are not the same as Chromecast (which doesn't offer screen mirroring). You would use Chromecast if your priorities lay with watching videos or playing games which you do via dedicated Google apps with your phone or tablet acting as a controller. Instead, the miracast dongles are simply like a wireless HDMI connection and allow you to see whatever you're seeing on your phone or tablet, on your recipient display such as a TV or projector. As JP has said, you don't need to rely on a local Wi-Fi service because the signal is transmitted between your tablet and display using WiDi (Wi-Fi direct) which is widely supported and (one hopes) will solve the problems I've been having with wired HDMI compatibility. The downside is that it if the connection is poor your presentation may not run particularly smoothly, particularly if there are other Wi-Fi services operating in the vicinity which I presume could cause interference.

As for all things mobile related, it's important that you check your donor device (phone, tablet, laptop etc) is supported by this technology. As far as Android devices go, you should be fine with miracast providing you have 4.2 or above installed, but you should still check. Some miracast dongles support iOS and windows, and some don't.

I'll report back once I've given this a go.
 
Sounds like a great summary and very sensible conclusion. :)
 
After doing a huge amount of research since we last spoke, I've had a change of heart about the Tronsmart dongle. If going with a strictly miracast device it appears that the Microsoft Wireless Adapter gets better ratings and is a bit more reliable (and a lot easier to set up) - but it's a ridiculous price (£52). But, whilst doing my research I found out that the latest incarnation of the Roku Streaming Stick has just had an upgrade to include Miracast (currently in beta form, but getting good reviews). I understand that this particular dongle has quite a strong antennae in it and seems to be less prone to artefacts and breaking up. And of course it also gives me all of its well-known entertainment benefits as well. On Amazon today the price had dropped by £10 so I have ordered one. Although I've checked compatibility there can still be nasty surprises with these things, but I'll report back on my progress.
 
I can now confirm that the second tethered option I have tried (which has just arrived) appears to be working fine with the displays I have so far tried it on, including my errant Sony Bravia. This particular item is dedicated to Samsung devices which are 11 pin MHL 2.0: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Pro®-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-SM-P605-White/dp/B00HWZIK5I/ref=cm_rdp_product

I have still not ascertained why the cable version of this (similarly dedicated) did not work with the Sony TV.

I am eagerly awaiting the Roku - because if this works I will have two portable connectivity options, in case one doesn't work the other might. So much for downscaling - I know what JP meant when he mentioned that he now has to carry around a big bag full of cables and dongles!
 
Well, the Roku Streaming Stick arrived. I have both good and bad news to report. On the good side, it's a lot better than I thought it was going to be for streaming movies and television programmes - even though my router is a floor and a room away the Roku is reporting a very strong signal and the picture and sound is flawless - at least so far.

On the less positive side, the remote control has frozen twice today already. When this happens you have to unplug the Roku, press okay on the remote control for 10 seconds, remove the batteries, wait 10 seconds, insert the batteries again, press the internal connection button for five seconds and when the remote control starts blinking you then plug in the Roku, and communication is resumed. I'm guessing I may have a flaky remote control unit.

On an even less positive note, the reason I got this thing was to see how its newly introduced mirrorcast function works. The Roku website includes a small list of 'compatible' devices but it does state that devices running Android 4.4.2 and above are well worth trying. Although my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 isn't on the officially supported list I still wanted to give this a go. But unfortunately the results were very poor - once connected my television shows a perfect duplicate of my tablet's screen, but as soon as I switch to another screen on the tablet the picture is awful - a mass of blocks and pixels. Occasionally this clears and you can see the picture quite well, but move to another screen or picture and the blockiness returns. It also has a habit of disconnecting the casting feature after a few minutes. So all in all, a complete disaster. I can only conclude that my particular tablet isn't quite compatible with Roku's casting feature - I'm confused about this as I thought it was down to whether or not your device supported casting and had a relevant version of Android, but obviously not.

Therefore it looks like I'm going to have to revert to the Microsoft Video Adapter and see how that goes.

Groan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top