How Do I Play Something From My Phone To TV

Connect Your Phone Or Tablet To Your TV Via Usb

There are different methods you can use to connect your mobile device to a TV via USB such as using a USB cable for Android or Lightning cable for iOS devices, Mobile High-Definition Link , or SlimPort.

Lets look at how each of these methods work to mirror your phone or tablets screen on your TV.

AndroidUsing a USB Cable

For Android devices, a USB cable can help you connect your phone or tablet to your TV, provided it has a USB port. If youre connecting to a smart TV, go to to enable file transfers, instead of just charging the phone or tablet via the TV.

This method is used when you want to view files or photos on a compatible TV as it technically transfers your files for opening on your TV.

Connect With An Adapter Or Cable

This method works when you want to mirror your screen onto your TV to transmit the display on-screen. You can use an HDMI adapter or cable to connect your phone to a TV and mirror the content on your screen.

A USB to HDMI adapter is the easiest option as you simply plug the adapter to your phone and plug the HDMI cable into it to connect to your TV and watch from your phone. Check that your phone supports HDMI Alt Mode, which lets it output video.

Some Android devices have micro or mini HDMI ports for direct connection to HDMI over a single cable, so its important to check whether your cable is compatible before connecting your devices.

Connect With a Converter

Connect Using MHL

Connect Using SlimPort

Stream With a DLNA App

Connect With Samsung DeX

If Video Automatically Streams To An Airplay Device

Your device might automatically stream video to the Apple TV or AirPlay 2-compatible smart TV that you frequently use. If you open a video app and see in the upper-left corner, then an AirPlay device is already selected.

To use AirPlay with a different device, tap , then tap another device. Or tap again to stop streaming with AirPlay.

Chromecast And Chromecast Ultra

Since its debut in 2013, Chromecast has become a go-to device for affordable wireless streaming. What makes Chromecast devices special is their ability to bypass your devices internal resources thanks to Googles cast method of streaming, allowing you to start playback on your mobile device. Just click the cast icon and let the Chromecast take it from there, which also ts your phone or tablet rest and save battery.

Outside of casting from streaming apps, Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra also feature near latency-free mirroring of anything on an Android smartphone or tablet, including games, photos, video, and more. The options combine to make for a host of very cool applications. As of now, nearly any Android device running Android 4.4.2+ supports Chromecast. As a bonus, Chromecast can also mirror anything from a Mac or PCs Chrome browser or desktop by simply clicking the Cast button in the corner of your browser, but performance quality varies.

If youre an iOS user, Chromecast mirroring isnt supported for content loaded on your device. Still, Chromecasts are great for streaming content from tons of popular apps, including YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, and Google Play Movies & TV. Youll need to download the first, though.

Read our Chromecast 3rd generation and Chromecast Ultra reviews

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Everything You Need To Mirror Your Android Phone To Your TV

To start, you’ll need an Android phone or tablet running Android 5.0 or later. That version of Android was released in 2014, so odds are your phone or tablet is running a newer version of Android. You can check by opening the Settings app and going to About phone and looking for Android version.

In addition to an Android phone or tablet, you’ll also need a streaming device, like the recently released , a TV with Chromecast built in or a smart display like the . If you don’t know whether your TV has Chromecast support, the best way to check is to see if it shows up as an available casting device when you follow either method below.

Screen mirroring is built into the Home app.

Connect To The TV With Airplay

On Apple devices, youll be able to use AirPlay: Apples proprietary technology for casting audio and video wirelessly.

Naturally, AirPlay is designed to work between Apple devices only, but if youre sending content from your iPhone or iPad to your Apple TV, AirPlay will have you sorted. If both devices are connected to the same WiFi network, theyll automatically detect each other, and youll be able to select the AirPlay connection in your phones settings, the same way you would with Bluetooth for connecting to wireless headphones.

Henry is TechRadar’s News & Features Editor, covering the stories of the day with verve, moxie, and aplomb. He’s spent the past three years reporting on TVs, projectors and smart speakers as well as gaming and VR including a stint as the website’s Home Cinema Editor and has been interviewed live on both BBC World News and Channel News Asia, discussing the future of transport and 4K resolution televisions respectively. As a graduate of English Literature and persistent theatre enthusiast, he’ll usually be found forcing Shakespeare puns into his technology articles, which he thinks is what the Bard would have wanted. Bylines include Edge, T3, and Little White Lies.

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Stream iPad Or iPhone To The TV Using Dlna

You don’t always need to buy extra hardware to stream your iPad or iPhone to your TV. If you’ve got a smart TV that supports DLNA, all you need is a compatible app.

Not all apps work the same way, but the specific instructions for using the app with your TV should be included in the app or on the developer’s website.

If your TV supports DLNA, install a compatible app on your iPhone or iPad, add content to it, and then use it to stream to a TV on the same Wi-Fi network as your iOS device.

Some examples of DLNA-compatible iOS apps include 8player Pro, ArkMC, C5, MCPlayer HD Pro, TV Assist, and UPNP/DLNA Streamer for TV.

Some protected content, such as videos from the iTunes Store, might not be playable using these apps because they don’t support DRM.

How Do I Connect My iPhone To A Roku Streaming Device

There are a couple ways iPhone and iPad users can wirelessly connect their devices to a Roku streaming device.

Cast from your iOS device by doing the following:

Use the Play on Roku feature of the Roku app by doing the following:

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Screen Mirroring With A Fire TV Stick

Alongside the Chromecast are many other devices that let you mirror content to your screen.

Follow these steps to start mirroring using an Amazon Fire TV Stick.

• Go to the Settings menu on your Fire TV Stick.
• Select Display & Sounds followed by Enable Display Mirroring.
• On your phone, select the screen mirroring option from the quick-access menu.
• Select the Fire TV device you want to connect with.

Check out our to see how it compares to Chromecasts, Rokus and Apple TVs.

Don’t worry if you don’t see a screen mirroring function on your device. There are other ways to connect.

Screen Mirroring To Your Samsung TV

That photograph you took is stunning, but you know what would make it look even more amazing? Projecting it onto a big screen. With Smart View, you can wirelessly connect a compatible Samsung device to a Samsung Smart TV. Beam photos, videos, presentations, and games on a large screen to make them look bigger and better.

Note: Available screens and settings may vary by wireless service provider, software version, and device model. Smart View is not available on every device. Devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV for screen mirroring.

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Using Screen Mirroring On Android

How To Cast Apps With Chromecast

Theres a huge list of apps that support Chromecast, and once your dongle is installed and connected to Wi-Fi, the way you use it is the same in most apps that support it.

1. Find the supported app you want to broadcast to your TV and open it.

2. Select a video, photo or song that you want to move off your phone and open it.

3. When it starts playing on your phone, tap the screen and look for the Chromecast icon. Its a rectangle with a Wi-Fi sign in the bottom left-hand corner. Tap it.

4. Select the device you want to Chromecast to from the pop-up menu.

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Iosusing A Lightning Cable

This process is similar to connecting your Android phone or tablet to TV via USB, except youll need a Lightning cable, which differs with your iPhone model.

Most people have an iPhone 5 or newer with a Lightning connector, but for HDMI outputs or VGA connections, you need a Lightning digital AV adapter or a Lightning to VGA adapter respectively.

For iPads, all models use the Lightning cable for iOS to TV connections, except the iPad 3 and older use the 30-pin cable, but youll pick either a digital AV or VGA adapter depending on your displays input.

There are many third-party cables but most of them dont work if you want to watch video-streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, or on-demand video like DirecTV or Comcast Xfinity. They lack HDCP , which protects against pirates capturing the content.

Plug in the adapter and connect video output to your TV and your screen will mirror to the display. Remember to plug the USB end of the cable into the adapter and the other end to a power source, as it needs to be charged to play.

Note: The Digital AV Adapter for iOS devices comes in two models, serving different purposes. One connects your iPhone or iPad to a TV with HDMI output, while the VGA adapter plugs into VGA-compatible peripherals, so be sure to pick the right version.

Connect With a DLNA App

Show Photos On Apple TV Or An Airplay 2

To stop streaming photos, tap near the top of the iPhone screen, then tap Turn off AirPlay.

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How To Connect And Watch Your Phone On Your TV

There’s more than one way to put your smartphone up on the TV

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Despite the rapidly blurring line between portable devices and televisions, connecting your phone to or mirroring it on your TV remains surprisingly complicated, all things considered.

The good news is that, if your smartphone is relatively new, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to hook it up to your TV with ease. The bad news is that you might need to buy some extra hardware in order to do it. Here’s everything you need to know.

Connecting Your Phone To Your TV

In this month’s technical article, we will outline step-by-step instructions for mirroring your smartphone screen straight through your media player and onto your TV quickly and easily. Join us as we go in-depth to explore different types of streaming devices, and how to get them all synced up with your smartphone. We have you covered whether you have an Android, iPhone or a Windows phone. The process of screen mirroring occurs when you wirelessly create an exact replica of your smartphone or tablet’s screen and transfer it straight to your TV. Before you begin, make sure that your mobile device’s operating system is updated to the latest version. For newer phones, the most current updates are iOS 9.3, Android Marshmallow 6.0 and Windows 10. Here we go!

Android to Roku

iPhone to RokuWindows Phone to RokuAndroid to Apple TViPhone to Apple TV

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How To Stream From Your Phone To An Older TV

What if your TV is so old that it doesnt support streaming from Android or iPhone? Dont worry, you dont need to throw out your old set, unless its so old that it doesnt have HDMI ports .

As long as you have an HDMI port, you can buy and use a streaming stick. In essence, these make dumb TVs smart, introducing the kind of apps and/or interface youd get if you purchased a smart TV today.

There are a number of options available from Roku to . But people looking to stream their phones to an older TV should look to either Apple TV if they own an iPhone, or if theyre on Android

Weve covered the reasons for the former above, but for Chromecast the explanation comes down to its easy integration with all sorts of apps that you might want to broadcast on the big screen. Not only can you mirror your display with all but the oldest Android phones, but a huge range of apps can be instantly broadcast to the big screen too. That includes everything from Google Photos to share your holiday snaps to YouTube for broadcasting your home videos.

Can I Lock My Phones Screen While Mirroring

It may come as no surprise that Mirroring eats battery life. To preserve every precious minute of battery life you may wonder whether you can lock your phones screen and continue to mirror. Most phones wont do this natively but there are third-party applications that can be used to perform this action like SecondScreen.

Head over to the App Store or Google Play Store to find an app with good reviews.

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How To Mirror An iPhone To A Smart TV

iPhones and iPads also support screen mirroring but you will need an Apple TV or AirPlay 2-compatible smart TV. To connect your iOS mobile to your TV wirelessly, heres what you need to do.

If you dont have an Apple TV or AirPlay 2-compatible smart TV, you can still stream content from Chromecast-enabled apps on your iOS device. Simply open the app , tap on the Cast button and select your TV from the list. This feature only works for iOS devices running iOS 13 and above.

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How To Watch Videos From Android Phone On TV

Users have several different options to watch videos from Android phone on TV:

• Chromecast

  Use a Chromecast dongle to cast video to a compatible TV. The attachment for Android phones supports a range of popular streaming services.

• Screen mirroring

  For apps without a casting option, you can use screen mirroring to watch videos from Android Phone on TV. Open your phone settings and click on Cast to begin.

• Samsung Galaxy Smart View

  If you own a Samsung Galaxy, you can use the Smart View to mirror your phone on your TV. Look for the option in Settings.

• HDMI USB Adapter

  You can connect a cable from your phone to your TV with a USB-C to HDMI adapter. However, this may not support certain paid streaming services.

Why settle for the small screen? With screen mirroring apps, like AirBeamTV, you can instantly cast any video from your phone to the TV. Remember, these apps arent just limited to videos either. You can mirror the screen, which is great for showing presentations, viewing pictures and browsing websites, too. Whichever you prefer, enjoy all your favorite content on the big screen casting directly from your phone or tablet.

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Connect To The TV With Hdmi

The most reliable way to get your phone hooked up to the TV is with an HDMI cable. Practically every TV will have an HDMI port of some sort, which is used to transfer both audio and video from the same source.

Your phone wont have an HDMI port, but there are handy adaptors that will bolt HDMI ports onto your phones USB Type-C, micro USB, or lightning ports.

Some Android tablets will have mini HDMI or micro HDMI ports, which can connect directly to HDMI over a single cable. Whatever port youre hoping to connect from, make sure your cable is compatible with that connection.