Mirror mirror not on the wall or the TV screen: casting problems

hybernia

Weird, ho some aspects of home tech come to be riddled with rip-off suppliers and bedevilled with incomprehensible Internet 'advice' postings and YouTube blogs.



One would've thought that achieving the wireless transmission of a video appearing on a tablet's screen to a TV screen in the same room would long since have become as easy as it gets. But instead, instead . . .


We have a distinctly non-smart TV, a Sony exactly 9 years old this month. We don't expect it to be able to handle screen casting, screen mirroring (or whatever it's properly called) and so we have an Amazon Firestick permanently plugged into one side of the set and swap between different HDMI ports as and when using it.



What we'd like to be able to do is watch our MP4 holiday videos on our TV via the Amazon FireStick. They play OK on OH's Samsung Galaxy android tablet and also on my Ipad Pro but, but, but. . .



Ye gods, it's 2019: instead of all the nonsense which tech vendors get involved with -- everything from 'smart' fridges to wristwatches, Artificial Intelligence and the rest of it, could not one of them sit down one day and think through a product or app that allows the problem-free "mirroring" of images via a home wifi network from a handheld device to a large screen TV?


Perhaps they have. My problem is, I can't find one. I've read through reams and reams of verbiage about AirPlay and Air Receiver, most of it unintelligible because the author's first language has never been English, and I've also read user reviews where time and time again are reports of performance failures -- and especially after purchase.


We were impressed with the promises of the developer of the CnX video player, which charges £8 a year recurring for the full version of the player, a version which allows the user to quickly and easily cast the video from Android tablet to TV.



Oh, yes. Of course it does.



We've given up trying. It's not the waste of a meagre £8 which irritates as the sheer waste of time. Repeatedly, the CnX player reports "error in connecting with FireStick. Please restart FireStick" (as if there's an on/off button to press.)



Seeing as how the developers of other "casting" and "mirroring" apps are deliberately coy about mentioning the price of their wares -- whichever app store you go to, the app is listed as "free", you only discover the true cost of getting it to work (if it ever does) if you agree there and then to pay an annual subscription, we're not about to go that route again -- unless anyone else has had a better experience of mirroring/casting than we have, and can recommend an app which actually works.


All we want to do is mirror my iPad Pro's screen display to the Sony TV screen (Apple and Amazon, as we know, don't play nicely together) and achieve the same Astonishing Technological Feat with the Samsung (in the latter case, it shouldn't be too difficult, both the FireStick and the Samsung tab are on Android.)



We'll write off the wasted cost of the CnX video player -- seems to me, getting into the screen casting business could be a nice little earner: charge relatively little for an annual subscription, watch the company's bank balance grow and grow as more and more unsuspecting customers waste what eventually amounts to a large fortune on stuff that simply doesn't work, its cost being too small to bother going to all the hassle of getting a refund.



Help appreciated.

martinthebandit

Ditch the fire stick and buy yourself a roku stick and instal the roku app on your tablet, jobs a good 'un

dipsomaniac

chromecast + google home app will enable you to mirror or cast to tv. surprised you can't mirror your device via firestick

Heedtheadvice

I have an adndroid tablet and a firestick. I use the app Localcast.


Works quite well, free etc. Maybe not the best (I do not know!) but easy to use and works. Firestick see to need reseting if not used for a while -assume it has gone into standyby after several hours lack of use.



Have watched movies, sports games (that are not on terrestrial tv -normally use freeview...) and cast other screen output via 'share' function.
No complaints.:T


Wish I could say the same about Premier Sports service and coverage.....but thats another issue!!:rotfl:

googler

So the TV clearly has HDMI ... does it have a USB port?

If so, copy video to USB stick, and play from there?

hybernia

Thanks, everyone, for the help and advice.

(1) we don't know enough about Roku to know if it's worth junking the Amazon Firestick, which we received at half price from Amazon as a thank you for signing up as an Amazon Prime customer. We're happy with Amazon's choice of programmes (such as they are); the fact that the FireStick was said to be "ideal" for screen casting purposes was a bonusas far as we were concerned;

(2) £30 for Chromecast is a bit much for us, especially as it's not streaming video we're trying to view, but home produced MP4 and the occasional YouTube video we've downloaded using SkySoft iStudio software. It is surprising to us that the Firestick and the Samsung tablet won't play nicely together seeing as both are Android, but we're ascribing the casting failure to flaws in the CnX video player (and, it seems, we're not the only customers to do so);

(3) @heedtheadvice: thanks so much for that info and news of your own experience; exactly the kind of consumer insights we need right now. I'll go have a look at Localcast soon as I've finished this thank you note.

(4) Yup, the Sony, bless it, has 6 HDMI ports and 2 USB slots. We had thought of going the USB route but it seems just so clunky in 2019. There's also the fact that the Sony's handling of USB input has never been particularly good.

Linton

A vote for Chromecast. It works brilliantly on our aged tv which has nothing more advanced than a spare HDMI slot. You can cast directly from Youtube or some other apps so dont need to copy files over. As to £30 being too much?? Its a one-off cost, not a subscription! Less than half the cost of 6 months Amazon Prime.

almillar

What is this 'Samsung Galaxy Android Tablet'? It could be ancient, and not up to streaming the video. It could have very old WiFi that's not up to the job. It also may not have the processing power to stream the videos, even if playing locally is OK.

DCFC79

Could be wrong but Im sure you can get the Amazon Video app on the Roku so kills 2 birds with 1 stone as they say.

hybernia

@ Linton: thanks.That's two strong votes for Chromecast now, you and dipso's. The cost is ceasing to be a consideration, seeing as how our FireStick is ceasing to function properly -- Alexa doesn't work and hasn't since OH swore at it/ (her), and like dipsomaniac says, we can't figure out why, as an Android device, it isn't mirroring the screen of another Android device. Perhaps the unit is failing and needs replacing anyway.

The other problem we have is that we're fast running out of HDMI ports on the TV. HDMI 1 = Humax; HDMI 2 = FireStick; HDMI 3 = NOW TV Stick. (I erroneously said in my earlier post that our Sony has 6 HDMI ports. I wish. It actually has 4, pretty good though for a 2010 vintage telly.)

One of the things which really puts us off Google's Chromecast is Goodle's software, i.e.: 'Google Home'. I've had a look at it and it's the usual Google Let-Us-Rule-The-World drivel, asking me all kinds of daft questions on start-up about the various "devices" in various rooms in my home I wish to link to (though with no clear guidance as how to do so.) I do NOT want Google "running" my home, thank you, so the app is overkill and its user-unfriendly opening set-up hugely discouraging.

If you found a quick and easy way to use Google Home to achieve the mirroring you do to a non-smart Chromecast-equipped TV, information as to the steps you took would be much appreciated. Thanks again, Linton!:)

hybernia

DCFC79 wrote: »

Could be wrong but Im sure you can get the Amazon Video app on the Roku so kills 2 birds with 1 stone as they say.

Thanks DCFC: we've thought of Roku before, seeing as how it seems to us that the solution to this issue is going to be a hardware one, not software. Unfortunately, where Amazon Prime video is concerned, it looks as though Amazon has no more wish to play nicely with Roku than it does with Google: the Amazon Prime Video app available for the Roku stick is reported to be pretty hopeless.

A reviewer on Amazon UK warns:

"It really does not matter whether all the services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Google Play are available in your region. The Roku Streaming Stick+ (or any Roku device for that matter) will not and can not support it without the respective services making an up-to-date app available.

"The Prime Video app is only available on Roku devices in the following territories: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.

"That list is straight from the support section from Prime Video. So if you are outside of those regions and want to stream Prime Video on it, DO NOT BUY IT."

All of which reinforces my frustration over something as seemingly simple as screen mirroring -- that's all we want from our tablets, yet time after time we're coming up against problems in regard to hardware solutions and problems with the plethora of software solutions dreamt up by various Chinese scammers and pumped out on both the Google and Apple app stores.

The quality of "reviews" out there is, as with so much tech-related, pretty dire; the major websites are anything but dependable, whilst consumer "reviews"vary so wildly as to be unworthy of attention.

The above warning about Roku and Amazon Prime Video is the only one in an assortment of Amazon UK customer "rave reviews" to mention the app issue; all the others blithely bang on about how good the stick is with Amazon Prime Video (begging the questions, do they have Amazon Prime Video anyway, but are instead just parroting something they read written by someone else, somewhere else. . . Or is it the case that the owners of Roku sticks in Guatemala and Honduras all post their reviews to Amazon UK?):(