There are several reasons for wanting to connect your smartphone to your TV, including watching videos or showing your photos on a big screen, and even playing games. There are mainly two methods for this: wired or wireless.
Watching a series on Netflix or on YouTube with your smartphone or tablet is good if there are two or three of you, but after a while if you want to show all this to your family the screen becomes quickly too small. The solution is then to connect your smartphone to the television to take advantage of the latter's large screen.
For this you will have two solutions, either with a wire or wireless. For the wired solution you will be able to use MHL or a Slimport, in both cases it is to connect via an HDMI cable, there are even smartphones with micro HDMI ports, but they are far too rare and this is not done. more.
For the wireless solution, the most popular is of course the chromecast, but there are other dongles or keys that allow you to connect your smartphone to your TV wirelessly using Miracast.
Wired solutions to connect your Android device to TV
La solution MHL
L'interface MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link or, in of the country, “high-definition mobile interface”) is pushed by a conglomerate formed by Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Nokia in 2010. Thanks to this, it is undoubtedly the most famous wired solution of all, but especially the most used by manufacturers. To find out if your smartphone is compatible, I invite you to look at the characteristics of the latter, it is seldom put forward, but in most cases it is written.
The MHL connection can go up to 1080p at 60 fps and in its current version, 3.0, it supports 4K / UHD image streaming. It is done via a cable with a micro-USB port on one side and an HDMI output on the other.
But cables are increasingly rare, because you should know that this connection uses a lot of energy, which is why now the manufacturers created a block around the HDMI output with a micro USB port, so you can charge your smartphone at the same time. However, check your TV, if one of the HDMI ports indicates “MHL” then no need for a cable with a block, the latter can transmit energy to your smartphone.
In general, you will find this kind of MHL port between € 7 and € 30 depending on the quality of the cable, but also on its length.
The Slimport solution
The Slimport is not very far from MHL, but it is much less supported than the latter, for example the Nexus 4 or the Nexus 7 2013 supports this format. However, it has certain advantages. For example it supports a wider choice of formats: HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort et VGA. Rather practical.
Furthermore he hardly consumes anything in terms of energy, there is therefore no need for power. As with MHL, it supports 4K provided you have a compatible TV. The prices are roughly the same as for the MHL.
In both cases, all you need to do is connect your smartphone to the MHL or Slimport cable, connect an HDMI cable to the adapter and then connect everything to your TV. Then look for the source you plugged all these cute people into and voila.
- Read also : What solutions to choose to cast your smartphone on your wireless TV
Wireless solutions to connect your Android device to TV
The Miracast solution
Miracast is a free standard developed by the Wifi Alliance consortium that allows you to effortlessly stream a phone screen to your TV. For this, the target device must be compatible with it, and therefore have an Intel chip, and will connect in Wifi Direct with the smartphone to duplicate its display.
The Miracast has for him that he is a standard universal, that is, it is not dependent on a brand or even an operating system to function. Also, no limitation is given for its use.
However, it depends on a size factor: your television must be compatible with it. Even if smartphones have all adopted it, this is not necessarily the case for manufacturers who timidly integrate it into their solutions, particularly at the entry level. From dongles however exist like that of Microsoft.
It also has a major flaw: it requires your phone to stay on to display content, just duplicating its video and audio signal. Also, a certain latency is felt and your phone's battery will necessarily suffer. Effective for watching an episode quickly, but not for everyday use.
Usually prices are around 30 €.
La solution Chromecast
Google's magic key is in its second version, it currently costs € 39 excluding promotions. It works as well with Android from version 2.3 as with iOS. To do this, connect it to the HDMI port of your television and then to WIFI. Then you install the Google cast application on your smartphone or tablet and you're done. I refer you to this article to do a complete configuration.
The key does a lot of things, you can cast your whole screen, but only in some cases not all Android devices allow it. The Nexus are all compatible for the rest you have to check yourself. When your device does not natively allow it, Google Cast app can force your entire screen to cast, sometimes the experience is degraded, but it is still possible.
But most of the time, it's to cast applications like Netflix or even YouTube or Canal +. Here you will find a top of the best apps for the Chromecast. The big advantage of this solution is that once you have cast your application, no need to stay on it, the Chromecast takes over.
These are the solutions available to you to connect your smartphone to your TV, in any case the most popular. If you know others or if you want share your experience or if you have any questions I invite you to do so in the comments.
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