Miracast is now part of our digital days, but some may not have a positive understanding of what is being traded. We are talking about a standard for wireless connections between different devices and thus be able to stream visual content to television screens or monitors.
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We could almost propose that thanks to Miracast we can replace HDMI, although we also have another very interesting alternative with Chromecast, although it differs a lot, since Miracast is suitable for both televisions and mobile devices. Let’s know a little more about this standard to reflect the screen of your living room from your mobile.
What is Miracast
Virtually Miracast is a standardized wireless for mirroring from a smartphone, tablet or PC to a TV without deprivation of HDMI cables. Let’s say that Miracast allows us to discover other devices to connect them together and thus make a “mirror” of what we have on our mobile screen, to give you a quick example of its most frequent use.
One of the biggest advantages of mirroring with Miracast is that a closed wifi is created that does not depend on a connection to the Internet like Chromecast. This in itself is its veteran strength and for what in many cases it can come from pearls to be able to visualize any content from our mobile on another screen.
Regarding its quality of video and audio transmission, it is of reinstatement quality. at 1080p and even up to 4K exalted HD. And I did not slide the sound to sink to 5.1. It is to propose, you will have a first quality audio and video output to satisfy your deposition of multimedia content playback through wireless networks.
A protocol that came in brilliant Android in 2013, but than in 2016Three springs later, Google’s support was stopped to suggest Google Cast, its alternative to Miracast. This does not mean that there are mobile brands that continue to use this protocol such as HTC, Xiaomi and many others.
What it is for and how it works
Unlike other alternatives that are based on wireless technology, such as Apple’s AirPlay or Google’s Chromecast, Miracast has been designed as a standard multiplatform. And to be clear, Miracast works like a “screen mirroring” protocol. This has its positive and negative aspects, but speaking of the second, if we use Miracast to reflect a TV series that we see from Netflix on our mobile, we must leave the screen of the device on all the time; which leads to a veteran squad consumption.
If we compare it with Chromecast, in this we can leave the mobile with the screen off while streaming one of the Netflix or Amazon TV movies. Although the great pre-eminence of Miracast is that everything we see on the screen of our mobile will be on the same screen of our television, so for some purposes, the truth is that it works very well.
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Miracast works in such a way that from our mobile device we can find it:
- Let’s go to Settings> Connections> More connections and if our mobile supports this protocol, the Miracast function should appear.
Now it is important that the two devices, one from which we emit and the other that receives the broadcast, are under the same Wi-Fi connection to gain the connection between the two.
To be able to direct:
- We are going to Settings> Display> Send screen
In this way we would connect and send the content we want through Miracast. One important thing is that transmission name can be changed from dispatch screen to multi-screen or broadcast screen. It is to propose, depending on the manufacturer of the phone it may vary, although the function is the same.
From the same notification panel, only from the shortcuts, we can find the arrival to «Send screen» to deliver the experience and we don’t have to go to the settings. You can also organize these ordinance to quickly access this Miracast feature if you use it frequently.
The coming would be directing the screen and waiting for it to appear on the tv where we are going to connect. Most brands since 2013 already have this protocol, so it would not be difficult, as long as our mobile has it, to be able to broadcast to the screen. And we repeat what was yesterday, you must have the screen on all the time for the content to be transmitted through miracast. If you turn it off, the transmission will cease and you will have to reconnect.
Alternatives to Miracast: Chromecast
Definitely Chromecast is the best alternative to Miracast. A dongle that you can get between 30-40 euros, and that if you go to Wallapop you will find them for 20 euros. Chromecast stands out for being able to convert old screens that do not have smart options into a smart one.
Everything is done through the HDMI connection and that we will use to connect the Chromecast dongle. Connected, we will use the HDMI output on the screen to enter your installation. When it is sagacious, from our mobile we can use an app like Google Home to configure and order the content and configuration of Chromecast, although its installation is not essential.
- Once shrewd, from our mobile we just have to go to YouTube, VLC or Netflix itself
- We reproduce any content.
- We will see in the upper right the icon for broadcasting content in streaming.
- We press it and if we have two or more Chromecasts at home, we can choose where to direct the content.
- The content will begin to air on our television.
Among its greatest advantages is the option to turn off the mobile screen to continue playing, and the options we have with some applications, such as Netflix, to use the direct arrival in the notification panel to pause or continue playing.
Another of the highlights of Chromecast is that if we leave the channel with the HDMI connection, a changing wallpaper is played every few minutes. This allows us to use our television as if it were an image where quality reinstatement photographs are being reproduced with a stopwatch to tell the time.
And of course use VLC with Chromecast means being able to play stored content on our TV through our mobile. A content that depending on the Chromecast that we have, can be in 1080p in the frequent interpretation and 4K in the Intolerant HD interpretation of Chromecast; and that logically has a more stopped valence.
Chromecast trick: use it without Wi-Fi connection
If Miracast allows us not to have an Internet connection to play stored content, with Chromecast we can also do it, although deceiving him. In those cases where you are in a house where there is no WiFi, but if it is a television with HDMI, we can do it this way:
- We create a shared connection with our mobile and important, the network must have the same name and password than the WiFi network with which we usually use Chromecast in our house.
- Chromecast will find the network created from our mobile and will connect to it; we cheat him as is.
- From our mobile now we can stream content we have locally without using data on the TV screen.
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Amazon Fire TV Stick uses the same protocol as Chromecast. It is to propose, we connect the dongle to the HDMI of the television and sagacious. The difference is that we can use a command to govern the content and do some things like play, pause, rewind, and fast forward. It also has a menu and even a voice branch to dictate commands to Alexa, Amazon’s imaginary assistant.
Another difference is that we can move through the Amazon Fire TV menu to install applications and thus access other types of content. Let’s say that Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV are very similar, but with their differences when it comes to ordering and managing the content.
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If you prefer to use your mobile more, we recommend Chromecast, on top of which you have several more applications than Amazon’s. Although in this you can pull Plex to stream video from a PC. It even offers the option of use the Apple TV app and iTunes itself. If you are heir to Apple, you already know where you have to go.
DLNA
Although it is increasingly in disuse, was born in 2003 and initially had the most important brands of televisions. It is one of the most widespread alternatives to Miracast and it is still suitable for transmitting that content from your Android mobile.
DLNA deposition both devices are DLNA certified, and most likely, we need applications like BubbleUPnP or Kodi. Another alternative to Miracast and Google Cast and that depending on our devices may be more convenient. We stayed with Chromecast for its portability and for the expansion of Android more or less the world; separately from the price which is more than convenient.
