Eureka! Did I just solve my 10 yr problem of displaying PC/Tablet to TV?

Brian_Pamo

Hi all

For many years I have (on and off) been intermittently trying to connect various tablets, PC’s to my TV without any success. So, tried again tonight to cast my PC to our living room TV. IT FAILED. Apparently the PC doesn’t support Miracast so that option is out. The TV is quite new (Panasonic Vierra) and doesn’t have a VGA socket. So, that’s the VGA route gone. The PC doesn’t have HDMI so that route is out. So, I bought (last year) a Display Port to HDMI connector. So, I plugged the Display Port adapter into PC. HDMI lead from that to the TV. Changed input source in TV to HDMI 2 (We already have SKY in HDMI 1)   The PC Booted fine but nothing! I was really, really baffled. After an hour messing around I accidentally knocked the power cable out of the Sky TV Box (which was feeding HDMI 1). Lo and behold the PC Screen showed up on the TV. I have deduced that the TV somehow would not let me see the PC on HDMI 2 whilst it was receiving the SKY TV signal from HDMI 1. This takes me back to my problem why I could never seem to mirror our tablet screen in Hotels we have stayed in over the last few years. I’m guessing that because those hotel TV’s already had an HDMI signal coming in then that’s why my tablet could not be seen on the TV screen. 
Anybody got any comments with regard to this? 

Neil_Jones

Shouldn't make any difference.  You can have a TV with 4 HDMI ins, of which three all receiving a signal, you generate a 4th one by your adapter and you should be able to switch to it manually.  On first setup of the PC you may need to set up screen duplicating/resolution to something the TV can work with (and unlike the Sky box it may not auto switch to it).

I have a TV with three HDMIs in pretty on constantly - Now TV, a Pi and a desktop PC.  Even if all these are on I can Miracast/Wireless send without an issue (and add the 4th if I need to and I can switch between them all.

Brian_Pamo

Hi Neil
I get what you're saying but the PC doesn't support Miracast.  Also, surely it's just too much of a coincidence that I knocked out the input to the SKY box into the TV which then immediately allowed the PC screen to appear? Maybe our particular TV insists on only 1 'live' input into HDMI?

Carrot007

Brian_Pamo said:

Also, surely it's just too much of a coincidence that I knocked out the input to the SKY box into the TV which then immediately allowed the PC screen to appear? Maybe our particular TV insists on only 1 'live' input into HDMI?

It would be normal to stay on 1 while there was an input, you did try switching manually right?

There is no way it works like you are saying unless it is broken though. But do tell us the model just in case you bought something very weird.

Neil_Jones

Brian_Pamo said:

Hi Neil
I get what you're saying but the PC doesn't support Miracast.  Also, surely it's just too much of a coincidence that I knocked out the input to the SKY box into the TV which then immediately allowed the PC screen to appear? Maybe our particular TV insists on only 1 'live' input into HDMI?

That may be a quirk of your particular TV but otherwise its illogical to suggest all TVs behave that way, as it sort of defeats the whole point of HDMI auto switching.  If a source is powered on and the TV sees something, the standard behaviour (which can normally be toggled in the settings) is to switch to it.   This doesn't always work on a computer though.

Note you can add HDMI to a computer relatively cheaply, most graphics cards even cheap and cheerful ones have HDMI on them.  But as a general rule if you have Displayport on the computer you should also have HDMI?  The former is a newer technology than the latter.

jsmith9

This is definitely not the correct behaviour, and if it just happened on your TV I would suggest a faulty TV, but since you say it has also been happening over the years at hotels as well it may point to a faulty tablet or lead but exactly what fault I have no idea.

Johnmcl7

Neil_Jones said:

Note you can add HDMI to a computer relatively cheaply, most graphics cards even cheap and cheerful ones have HDMI on them.  But as a general rule if you have Displayport on the computer you should also have HDMI?  The former is a newer technology than the latter.

Some companies only opt to support one video out and go for displayport only although over the last couple of years more machines seem to be adding hdmi back in.  

I've not come across a TV or monitor that wouldn't work on a second input due to a device being connected to the first.

Brian_Pamo

Yes, we stay in a lot of hotels in Europe so we take our Android tablet with us to watch UK freeview TV, stored films, Netflix on the Hotel TV's and we have never managed to get a signal.  After my Eureka moment described above I initially convinced myself that the reason was because the Hotel TV's already have an internal Hotel input.  So, I am baffled then.  Judging by your comments here it is obviously a coincidence that I accidently knocked  the HDMI out which led to my success.  Ahh well.  Maybe I'll have to go and try and invent something new etc.
Thanks for commenting all.