Anyone using Miracast?

[SailorSam20500]

One of the tech newsletters I follow had this as a link. Discusses a way to link Android and Windows devices to a TV set for display. I thought some of you folks might be interested in the info. Apparently Apple has their own version of this works differently and only with Apple devices.

How to use Miracast to mirror your device's screen wirelessly on your TV—even 4K | ITNews

[TheGerman]

Disclaimer: I've been using Macs running OS X for work and privately since 2003. However I do use Windows occasionally, and find the current Surface tablets running W10 pretty darn useable.

Having said that, I experimented with Miracast about a year ago and found it underwhelming. Easily a notch or two below the Apple Airplay solution, and even Apple is not perfect. Running full-screen video at 1080p is a little jerky, and this is with a 2 x dual-core Xeon "Trashcan" MacPro on an AC wireless network talking to an Apple TV.

The problem with either solution is that it basically copies screen memory over the wireless network. It leaves the heavy lifting to the application, network streaming, buffering, decoding, rendering etc and then takes the resulting bitmaps and sends it to the device connected to the remote display. The article referenced calls it "HDMI over wireless", and it's worth pointing out that the data rate on HDMI is in the multiple gigabit range. So either solution has to do some compression before sending it over WiFi, and that uses a lot of processing power on the sending device, pushing phones and tablets to their limits. It does work locally without a working Internet if the source is on the device.

In comparison Google Chromecast uses a different method (leaving aside the experimental mirroring from the Chrome browser). The phone or tablet simply points the Chromecast device to the source of the video and decoding takes place on that device. After that the phone/tablet is merely a remote control. It only works with content that has an application/website supporting Chromecast, and obviously requires a working Internet connection.

[mbutts]

I've had a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter for about 2 years now and I'm satisfied with it. It uses the Miracast standard. I have a "really" old (ten years) Sony TV that isn't smart and this was an inexpensive way to play Adobe Flash video from TV network websites on the big screen.

Does it occasionally drop the connection to the TV? Yes. Does the audio and video occasionally get out of sync? Yes. But most of the time, it's pretty painless. And my dogs no longer yank a long HDMI cable out of the TV when they're walking by.

[Delco Bobby]

Originally Posted by TheGerman

Disclaimer: I've been using Macs running OS X for work and privately since 2003. However I do use Windows occasionally, and find the current Surface tablets running W10 pretty darn useable.

Having said that, I experimented with Miracast about a year ago and found it underwhelming. Easily a notch or two below the Apple Airplay solution, and even Apple is not perfect. Running full-screen video at 1080p is a little jerky, and this is with a 2 x dual-core Xeon "Trashcan" MacPro on an AC wireless network talking to an Apple TV.

The problem with either solution is that it basically copies screen memory over the wireless network. It leaves the heavy lifting to the application, network streaming, buffering, decoding, rendering etc and then takes the resulting bitmaps and sends it to the device connected to the remote display. The article referenced calls it "HDMI over wireless", and it's worth pointing out that the data rate on HDMI is in the multiple gigabit range. So either solution has to do some compression before sending it over WiFi, and that uses a lot of processing power on the sending device, pushing phones and tablets to their limits. It does work locally without a working Internet if the source is on the device.

In comparison Google Chromecast uses a different method (leaving aside the experimental mirroring from the Chrome browser). The phone or tablet simply points the Chromecast device to the source of the video and decoding takes place on that device. After that the phone/tablet is merely a remote control. It only works with content that has an application/website supporting Chromecast, and obviously requires a working Internet connection.

Thanks for the education. It may explain why my iPad mini 2 has diffulty playing YouTube videos to my Apple TV after a few but my iPhone 5 with more memory keeps chugging away.