I've previously written about the use of Apple's Airplay Mirroring to display some iOS and Mac devices on a television. In that article I mentioned a standard called Miracast that would achieve the same result for non-Apple devices. Unlike Airplay, which uses an existing wifi network in order for the two devices to see each other, Miracast establishes a Wi-Fi Direct connection (a little bit like Bluetooth) to connect the devices.This means that, unlike the Apple proprietary standard, you won't come unstuck if the the wifi network you're connected to enforces AP isolation or some other restrictive network settings. However, it does mean that both sending and receiving devices will have to be Wi-Fi Alliance certified as compliant with the standard... And frustratingly, when I first got the Netgear Push2TV device, I had absolutely no device in my kit capable of sending. Even my Nexus 7 was first generation (2012 edition). The Push2TV sat unused for several months until I finally got an HTC One, which is compatible.
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast
Now that I have hands on compatible source device - and time to play - I have been able to try Miracast and have been quite pleased with the result. Certainly it gives options out there that don't require you to have Apple gear. As with all relatively new standards, maturity will fix the low number of devices that can use it.
Instead of writing this one up, I've uploaded a demo onto YouTube. Enjoy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment