Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times-and that's just here at How-To Geek. There's no way to play videos from Netflix or YouTube, stream music from an online service, display a presentation and control it on your screen, or just display the contents of your desktop.Ĭhris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Play To only allows you to play local media files like pictures, videos, and music on your hard drive. However, the standard was clearly designed years ago - it assumes you have local media. You can still use DLNA to stream media from a Windows 8.1 PC to an Xbox One. The device would then connect to your computer over the network and stream the media you selected. Compatible devices automatically advertise themselves on the network so they'd appear in the Play To menu without any further configuration needed. For example, you might open Windows Media Player on your PC and use the Play To feature to play a video file from your computer's hard drive to an audio/video receiver connected to your TV, such as a game console. Instead, it's simply a way to take content on one device and play it on another. However, Chromecast also offers a feature that lets you stream your entire desktop or the contents of a Chrome tab to your TV via the Chromecast - just like AirPlay.ĭLNA isn't really a wireless display solution. The Chromecast doesn't simply display the contents of your device's screen. In this way, your smartphone allows you to discover videos, launch them on the Chromecast, and control their playback. The Chromecast then connects to the Internet and plays the video, allowing you to control its playback via the app on your smartphone. You tell Netflix to play a video to your Chromecast. ![]() To use the Chromecast, you open an app on your Android phone - Netflix, for example. A Chromecast is a cheap receiver that plugs into your TV's HDMI port, but it uses something called the DIAL (DIscover And Launch) protocol. ![]() Instead, a year later, Google launched the Chromecast. These cheap, compatible receivers failed to materialize. The wireless display problem would be solved, enabling easy display-mirroring from Android and Windows devices. Soon, they said, you'd be able to buy cheap Miracast-compatible receivers that you could plug into your TV's HDMI port. When Google launched the Nexus 4 with Android 4.2 in 2012, they talked up its support of Miracast. Related: HTG Reviews the Google Chromecast: Stream Video to Your TV The same app can be used to turn a Windows PC into a Miracast receiver.) (Update: It took more than five years-but, as of March 13, 2019, the Xbox One can now function as a Miracast receiver if you install the Wireless Display app. You'd be wrong-the Xbox One can't function as a Miracast receiver. This would make streaming from a Windows 8.1 tablet to your TV via your Xbox One possible and easy. ![]() You might assume that, since Microsoft added built-in Miracast support to Windows 8.1, their Xbox One console would function as a Miracast receiver. You'd probably assume that it only worked with other Samsung devices supporting AllShare Cast - and you might not be wrong, considering how many theoretically compatible Miracast devices are incompatible with each other! For example, LG calls their Miracast support "SmartShare," Samsung calls it "AllShare Cast," Sony calls it "screen mirroring, " and Panasonic calls it "display mirroring." You might pick up a new Samsung TV, see the "AllShare Cast" logo on the box, and not be aware that this is theoretically a Miracast-compatible TV. Manufacturers have taken to calling their Miracast implementations other things. Even while fiddling with the playback controls on your iPhone's screen, they wouldn't appear on your TV - AirPlay is smart enough to stream only the content you want to see on the display.Īnother problem is that the standard doesn't mandate devices be branded with the "Miracast" brand. For example, you could play a video in an app on an iPhone and use the playback controls on your iPhone to control the video on your TV. It can use display mirroring to mirror the contents of a device's display, or use a streaming mode that's smarter. Using AirPlay, you can display the contents of your Mac's desktop, start a video in an app on your iPhone and "push" it to your TV, or play a game on your iPad and mirror your display on your TV.Īpple's AirPlay standard is flexible enough to work in two different ways. It allows you to stream video from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to an Apple TV. AirPlayĪirPlay is Apple's wireless display standard. When it comes to mirroring a device's screen wirelessly or using it as a remote-control for media displayed on another screen, there is still a wide variety of competing standards fighting it out in the market.
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