Casting Prime to TV

Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2012
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5,951
I've never cast anything from my phone to a TV as I don't own one, but I went around to my Dad's on Boxing Day and instead of being force fed 15 year old repeats of Top Gear on Dave I decided to attempt casting The Grand Tour to his TV from my phone but I couldn't make it work, all I got was a black screen on both devices and sound only.

Obviously it was only a one off and I'm unlikely to need it again but for my own sanity I'd like to know what I was doing wrong? Should it just work?
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
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38,372
I've never cast anything from my phone to a TV as I don't own one, but I went around to my Dad's on Boxing Day and instead of being force fed 15 year old repeats of Top Gear on Dave I decided to attempt casting The Grand Tour to his TV from my phone but I couldn't make it work, all I got was a black screen on both devices and sound only.

Obviously it was only a one off and I'm unlikely to need it again but for my own sanity I'd like to know what I was doing wrong? Should it just work?

It should just work but I'm guessing that he doesn't have a smart TV with prime app?

Therefore it's likely the fact he has a crap TV using older casting methods and probably not got enough grunt for streaming and transcoding 4k HDR streams.

If he gets a fire stick or Chromecast in the next prime day or black Friday deals for £25 that would be the easiest solution.
 
Soldato
OP
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17 Jun 2012
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It should just work but I'm guessing that he doesn't have a smart TV with prime app?

Therefore it's likely the fact he has a crap TV using older casting methods and probably not got enough grunt for streaming and transcoding 4k HDR streams.

If he gets a fire stick or Chromecast in the next prime day or black Friday deals for £25 that would be the easiest solution.

He has a 65" Samsung 4k HDR TV that is about 12 months old I think, so your guess couldn't be more wrong.
 
Permabanned
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I think it could be down to license/legal issues.

If something on my phone has no cast button in its own GUI it can do the same if I use Android toolbar to cast (casting whole phone inc desktop/background then open player).

Install the app on his TV and sign in.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
He has a 65" Samsung 4k HDR TV that is about 12 months old I think, so your guess couldn't be more wrong.

Then why not just use the prime app on the tv?

Also because it's Samsung and 65 inches that doesn't mean it's decent either. Especially if it's using Samsung's tizen os on a budget model.

Whenever I cast something from an official source it just works.

If I try casting something from a dodgy site like live sports it will be glitchy and it's 50/50 on whether it works or not.

I'm assuming that the TV is connected to his broadband with a decent signal and connection quality and his broadband can handle streaming. If so use the app.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Jun 2012
Posts
5,951
I think it could be down to license/legal issues.

If something on my phone has no cast button in its own GUI it can do the same if I use Android toolbar to cast (casting whole phone inc desktop/background then open player).

Install the app on his TV and sign in.

I think you're right with the legal stuff as it would show the phone desktop and all the navigating but as soon as I tried to play anything in prime I just got black screen.

I was hoping it would have been as simple as just sharing it to his screen, installing the app and signing in would have required me to know my password and probably taken more time than I'd care to waste on it.

At least I'll know ready for next Christmas now :D
 
Soldato
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1 Mar 2010
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21,785
(whose username ?)

can you chromecast prime off of a chrome tab, or miracast from edge ? even if the prime app won't cast.

I thought licensing/copyright was secure with both mechanisms, since both give a peer 2 peer connection that you can't divert through a router to some other geographic location. ?

Didn't have time over christmas to try out a similar casting setup, just audio, from an edge browser tab, on a tablet, to the tv,
father wanted to listen to Times (newspaper) radio on the tv.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Jun 2012
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5,951
lol at username gag, I like it :D

Stuff paying £30 for something nobody will use!

It was a spur of the moment thing, it didn't work so I thought I'd ask here as curiosity got the better of me.
 
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