Nike Kidman
Member
What Hi-Fi has put up a phone-to-TV guide and the useful part is the distinction most people never get told. Casting hands the job to the TV, which then streams the content itself while your phone acts as a remote, so you can leave the app, take a call or switch the screen off and playback keeps going. Mirroring sends the phone screen itself, which means everything on it, including your notifications, and the phone has to keep working the whole time.
That is why mirroring disappoints. It is at the mercy of your wi-fi rather than the TV's own connection, it drains the handset, and plenty of apps simply refuse to play protected video over it. The guide points out Sky Go supports no casting at all, and it is not the only one.
The other half of the mess is that support is per model, not per brand. Google Cast is built into Chromecast hardware, the Google TV Streamer, and sets running Google TV or Android TV, which covers a lot of Sony, Philips and TCL. Newer LG sets have it. Some Panasonic Android TVs have it. But Samsung on Tizen, Hisense on VIDAA and the Panasonic models running Fire TV all use different systems, so two televisions from the same maker in the same shop can behave completely differently.
My own rule after years of this: if a service has a proper app on the TV, use that and cast nothing. Casting is for the odd YouTube clip and holiday photos. Mirroring is for when something has already gone wrong.
Has anyone found a mirroring setup that genuinely holds up for video, or is it still a last resort?
That is why mirroring disappoints. It is at the mercy of your wi-fi rather than the TV's own connection, it drains the handset, and plenty of apps simply refuse to play protected video over it. The guide points out Sky Go supports no casting at all, and it is not the only one.
The other half of the mess is that support is per model, not per brand. Google Cast is built into Chromecast hardware, the Google TV Streamer, and sets running Google TV or Android TV, which covers a lot of Sony, Philips and TCL. Newer LG sets have it. Some Panasonic Android TVs have it. But Samsung on Tizen, Hisense on VIDAA and the Panasonic models running Fire TV all use different systems, so two televisions from the same maker in the same shop can behave completely differently.
My own rule after years of this: if a service has a proper app on the TV, use that and cast nothing. Casting is for the odd YouTube clip and holiday photos. Mirroring is for when something has already gone wrong.
Has anyone found a mirroring setup that genuinely holds up for video, or is it still a last resort?
