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Resisted posting this in the Dev forum, but decided that since i'm not a Dev, It ought to stay in the Q&A for general discussion.
Could one really use this as a desktop PC running Android or is the HDMI connector doomed to a life of powerpoint presentations in corporate board rooms and showing phone-captured pics & video of the kids after vacation on the shiny HDTV?
Here's my logic, I want to be able to plug my evo into the USB/HDMI dock and have it function as a 'reasonable' machine for browsing the web and listening to music. We have root, so USB host, among other necessities shouldn't be an issue there.
Now, from the HDMI 1.4 spec, this thing ought to be capable of all of the following
Raw Bandwidth: 10.2 Gbit/s
Video: maximum resolution to 4K × 2K
Audio Formats: LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio, MPCM
Networking: HDMI Ethernet Channel, which allows for a 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection between the two HDMI connected devices;
Certainly, one would be dreaming to expect 4k x 2k video playback on this processor combination but what do you think about the HDMI Ethernet channel? With an extremely pervasive network in my home this is very interesting to me.
Maybe these features are too niche to ever actually work but the dream of a unified connector sure seems to be inching closer to reality.
bobsbobbers said:
Resisted posting this in the Dev forum, but decided that since i'm not a Dev, It ought to stay in the Q&A for general discussion.
Could one really use this as a desktop PC running Android or is the HDMI connector doomed to a life of powerpoint presentations in corporate board rooms and showing phone-captured pics & video of the kids after vacation on the shiny HDTV?
Here's my logic, I want to be able to plug my evo into the USB/HDMI dock and have it function as a 'reasonable' machine for browsing the web and listening to music. We have root, so USB host, among other necessities shouldn't be an issue there.
Now, from the HDMI 1.4 spec, this thing ought to be capable of all of the following
Raw Bandwidth: 10.2 Gbit/s
Video: maximum resolution to 4K × 2K
Audio Formats: LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio, MPCM
Networking: HDMI Ethernet Channel, which allows for a 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection between the two HDMI connected devices;
Certainly, one would be dreaming to expect 4k x 2k video playback on this processor combination but what do you think about the HDMI Ethernet channel? With an extremely pervasive network in my home this is very interesting to me.
Maybe these features are too niche to ever actually work but the dream of a unified connector sure seems to be inching closer to reality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Posts like this really make me appreciate just how small a world the Internet has created.
I've been hoping for the EXACT same thing as you since the first time I used my first smartphone (HTC/AT&T 3125). I said...man, this is gonna be great, I can use this to replace both my iPod AND my Game Boy. Every smartphone since, I've done that with, and inched closer to the reality of a unified device. However, there has always been the physical limitation of the screen.
Now, however, all of these phones (running Android, of course) are coming with HDMI-out, which (I would think) gives us an avenue to the larger screen. What I'm basically hoping to do is replace most of what my netbook does, with my next smartphone (EVO? Streak?), and do it on a larger display, when it is available.
In a perfect world, I would hook my device into the dock (so that I have HDMI-out, charging, and stereo speakers), and then use either a BlueTooth mouse/keyboard (not sure if the BlueTooth stack supports this type of communication), a USB mouse/keyboard (2-to-1 USB adapter into phone, hacked USB driver to facilitate input direction communication), and/or using the phone's display as an input method.
A lot of people look at me sort of oddly when I describe this but...whatever. I've seen at least a few other posts on XDA asking about display-output for the EVO via HDMI, so...I know we're not alone!
Would this maybe be better to post in the dev forum, to give developers an idea of what us non-dev-users are looking for?
^Bump. Any others have input? Will post a link over in the Dev forums to see if there is anyone else like minded...
Certainly you and I are on the same page at least.
Cyanogenmod has bluetooth hid working on the evo. I use my full size mouse and keyboard all the time but the screen is the only thing missing. They are pretty far along on being able to mirror the phone screen and I think scale it to 720p for hdtv output. If that's what you are looking for I assure you you are definitely not he only one.
daringblaze said:
Cyanogenmod has bluetooth hid working on the evo. I use my full size mouse and keyboard all the time but the screen is the only thing missing. They are pretty far along on being able to mirror the phone screen and I think scale it to 720p for hdtv output. If that's what you are looking for I assure you you are definitely not he only one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=12050061#post12050061
hexydes said:
Would this maybe be better to post in the dev forum, to give developers an idea of what us non-dev-users are looking for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still no. It'd be better to perhaps PM a developer and ask.. Starting a thread like that would only get you flamed since you aren't contributing any hard evidence, a leak, port, or half baked project. Not downing it as a bad idea, just saving you some irate posts.
bobsbobbers said:
Resisted posting this in the Dev forum, but decided that since i'm not a Dev, It ought to stay in the Q&A for general discussion.
Could one really use this as a desktop PC running Android or is the HDMI connector doomed to a life of powerpoint presentations in corporate board rooms and showing phone-captured pics & video of the kids after vacation on the shiny HDTV?
Here's my logic, I want to be able to plug my evo into the USB/HDMI dock and have it function as a 'reasonable' machine for browsing the web and listening to music. We have root, so USB host, among other necessities shouldn't be an issue there.
Now, from the HDMI 1.4 spec, this thing ought to be capable of all of the following
Raw Bandwidth: 10.2 Gbit/s
Video: maximum resolution to 4K × 2K
Audio Formats: LPCM, Dolby Digital, DTS, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio, MPCM
Networking: HDMI Ethernet Channel, which allows for a 100 Mb/s Ethernet connection between the two HDMI connected devices;
Certainly, one would be dreaming to expect 4k x 2k video playback on this processor combination but what do you think about the HDMI Ethernet channel? With an extremely pervasive network in my home this is very interesting to me.
Maybe these features are too niche to ever actually work but the dream of a unified connector sure seems to be inching closer to reality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong, but I don't think the mini HDMI on the evo supports 1.4 spec. Which means it cannot do internet connection over HDMI. I am going to bet it really doesn't meet 1.3 spec either. Like I said, I could be wrong.
Brainss....
Its Micro HDMI (not mini hdmi) which is HDMI 1.4 which is compatible with the mentioned above
evo + HDMI can do a lot
Bump
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Gaming Console & Desktop configs Using the Evo and HDMI mirroring
I've been using my Evo as both since late Feb.
What about Rockplayer? I just ordered the HDMI cable so I haven't been able to mess with it. I would like to be able to stream video (jw player) and see on HDMI tv. Has anyone done this? Thx.
I've been wanting to try this forever. However I've upgraded to CM7 and they don't have the mouse pointer support, so I guess I'll have to wait to see if/when it's included. I want it, but not bad enough to downgrade to CM6. Back to rockin angry birds on the 50" Plasma.
HDMwIn + Rockplayer + Tv Shows Stream = Everything you need.
RileyGrant said:
HDMwIn + Rockplayer + Tv Shows Stream = Everything you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My current setup is HDMI mirroring, Zimly, Flash plus Hulu, Gamer's and Desktop setups from my site, BT KB/Mouse and a BT gamepad. I also have a media server running Orb with two digital tuners tucked in a corner with 3TB of storage. Now that's everything you need and want, well except for Netflix. Oh yeh, and the semi perm. Evo CarPC with a BT volume control.
weehooherod said:
http://www.goodandevo.net/2011/03/htc-evo-4g-impersonates-motorola-atrix-4g-webtop.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an overview to a more complete solution that I put up (check my sig or the Evo theme/app forum.
I've used rockplayer and a website called movshare mobile.
Don't tell anyone though.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Hi Guys,
I have the one x, Optoma pk301, MHL adapter and the required HDMI cable. Got the connection all set up but I'm unable to get a display on the projector. Are there any settings in the phone that i have to change/switch on to display on an external screen?
Thanks
Mine worked right out of the box. I used a Galaxy SII adapter. As soon as i connected HDMI, charger and phone, it switched to landscape mode and the picture showed up on the tv.
As far as i am aware, there are no settings on the phone to enable/disable MHL.
Did you plug the USB to charge ? It says no power > no video
Im using this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Smart-Adapter-Galaxy-Mobile/dp/B005MR82GA
Its working now. Was displaying a red X before. Didn't do anything other than just unplug and re plug everything
Can you tell me if I play movie on my TV by mhl cable, does it shows external subtitles (.srt)? And, can hox play movie on TV with phone screen of during.
flakz0r said:
Mine worked right out of the box. I used a Galaxy SII adapter. As soon as i connected HDMI, charger and phone, it switched to landscape mode and the picture showed up on the tv.
As far as i am aware, there are no settings on the phone to enable/disable MHL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool! Is your tv full hd, and if so what res. do you get from the phone?
"Micro USB to HDMI® MHL Adapter - Black" - quick review
I just received the MHL adapter from MonoPrice, about $10 US:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10833&cs_id=1083314&p_id=8805&seq=1&format=2
The product description implies some phones can power the MHL adapter, with the One X you must supply power via a micro-USB charger. Be forewarned, the load may be a little higher than what some phone chargers can deliver; my EVO 4G charger would shut off after about 10 seconds, an old Nexus One charger worked fine.
Output is 1280x720 60Hz (should auto-adjust to the TV, don't have a PAL display here to confirm this). The Samsung HDTV was set to "Just Scan", meaning no scaling is done by the TV.
The resultant HDTV image is underscanned by about 35 pixels on each side, 20 pixels on top and bottom, resulting in a display area of 1210x680. I think this is a problem with the One X GPU drivers, and not the adapter because I doubt a simple device like this can do any scaling. At CES, I played with a few Transformer Primes running Shadowgun Multiplayer, mirrored to HDTVs at 1280x720, and there was no underscan, so this is likely not be a limitation of Tegra 3 GPU.
I got the red X once (displayed on the TV), afterwards it would not mirror the display to the TV until reset, so the connection handshaking is kinda finicky. I've been plugging the micro-USB power last, after the phone and the HDMI is connected and the phone is powered on. Sense should flip into landscape immediately, if not, something is wrong. If you power on after everything is connected, you should see the lock screen in portrait for a couple seconds, then it'll rotate. Sense works surprisingly well in landscape, I'm surprised that HTC didn't allow this mode without an MHL adapter connected.
There is a slight performance hit on the One X when display mirroring is active:
GLBenchmark 2.1.4, native display:
Egypt Standard: 48 fps
Pro Standard: 54
GLBenchmark 2.1.4, HDMI mirrored:
Egypt Standard: 42 fps
Pro Standard: 52 fps
If you want to demo a One X, play Shadowgun THD on a HDTV, it looks absolutely amazing. You are "playing blind" on a touchscreen, but once you get a feel for turning and shooting (right thumb), it's pretty easy. Ideally, this setup is screaming for a game controller, but I haven't come across a thread about this yet for the One X. Support for analog sticks has been in the OS since 3.1, so the keymapping utilities on the Market shouldn't be necessary, but I need to look into this further.
Note: the images were taken of the HDTV using a point-and-shoot and scaled to 720p, so you can see the degree of underscan (the unfiltered decimation is very visible in the fonts).
mertzi said:
cool! Is your tv full hd, and if so what res. do you get from the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The TV is full HD, the phone passes 720p through the adapter, looks like it's a direct mirror.
---------- Post added at 08:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 AM ----------
themanson said:
Did you plug the USB to charge ? It says no power > no video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it doesnt work if you dont connect the power cable to the adapter.
And subtitles? Are they on the TV please?
Looking nice on the tv
milkobgd said:
And subtitles? Are they on the TV please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything you see on the phone is mirrored on the TV. If you are watching a movie with subtitles on the phone, you will obviously see them on the TV.
My best experience so far watching 720p & 1080p has been with MX Player, but a lot of people also use Dice and Mobo.
That was not the case with my sgs and tv out and as far as I know with sgs2 tv out via mhl. It's mirroring everything but subtitles.
hi i have two days htc one x and have two hdmi cable to tv but same result no signal what i do wrong i use this one please helpme
I bought a MHL adapter from Mobilefun and I get the phone picture on a my PC monitor, with a little pixel loss as described by rasterX.
However I tried looking at a video I recorded with the HOX. I played the recording using the stock player and MX player.
In both cases, the playback is too fast on HDMI, it's like pushing a fast forward button.
With MX player I tried the different options (hardware/software): hardware is too fast, software is variable: complex pictures are too slow to display, less complex pictures are shown faster but since the display time changes according to the picture, the software playback is useless.
I tried two different PC monitors, one is Philips with a DVI-HDMI adapter, the other a DELL with a direct HDMI input, results are the same for both. I'm in a 50Hz country (France) if ever this can have a side effect...
Anyone has similar issues with MHL?
I tried my Samsung MHL adapter and it worked. My TV resolution is 1366x768.
When I connect all cables (inclusing power of course) I get portrait screen on my TV. As soon as I play movie or game, it goes landscape. When back to homescreen, it's portrait. No issues in Diceplayer or MX Player. Worked in HW and Software. Software mode allows to see subtitles on TV.
Sound only out of one channel
I only seem to be getting audio out of the left channel. I've tried 2 MHL adapters, and 2 different HDMI cables with 2 different TVs.
What's going on!?
jammy1 said:
I only seem to be getting audio out of the left channel. I've tried 2 MHL adapters, and 2 different HDMI cables with 2 different TVs.
What's going on!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can someone check to see if they are getting both channels please? I've also tried 3 different players.
jammy1 said:
Can someone check to see if they are getting both channels please? I've also tried 3 different players.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI Jammy, I will test it.
What player are you using? MXPlayer or stock. what sort of files?
jammy1 said:
Can someone check to see if they are getting both channels please? I've also tried 3 different players.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem, only left channel is working on TV over mhl adapter and if I plug headphones in one x 3.5 mm jack it is OK. I tried BS PLAYER and MX PLAYER.
Same symptom here!
hmm ... bug?
Here's some info regarding what I've tried and what the results have been w/ my HTC ONE. Hopefully, it can help you based on what you're trying to accomplish. Maybe with some feedback, I can see if there's any work around. Obviously, this probably wasn't entirely part of the design team's intentions for this phone, but it's fun to try.
Using a 5-PIN MHL to USB Adapter:
INTERFACE: When I plug this in to my phone, I immediately notice scrolling through the app drawer is laggy. Do you? My adapter is from Ebay, and is about a year old. It looks like any other $10 adapter I see out there, but I wasn't sure if the newer ones are better.
INPUT LAG: almost non-existent. Pressing controls take action immediately.
MIRROR: TV is a true mirror of the phone.
MOVIES: playback stutters due to the MHL1.0 24fps @ 1080 restriction
GAMES: are playable due to low input lag, but again the 24fps bites you for any game (this is MANY) that does not support changing its resolution.
Using HTC Media Link HD: Ran the update to latest (as of Jun 19th 2013)
INTERFACE: Noticed right away that my phone remained butter-smooth while also transmitting signal to the TV.
INPUT LAG: felt like about 300ms.
MIRROR: TV is not a true mirror of the phone. I immediately noticed my phone was taken over, put in landscape mode and my app drawer was different.
MOVIES: Playback seemed smoother overall, with occasional hitching (not frequent enough to deter from use).
GAMES: Games are unplayable due to input lag. Noticed a softening effect and when not lagging, probably was a touch smoother in FPS.
Other Considerations:
Hook up to a non-1080p TV: Nope. Most modern 720p TVs support 1080i, and thus tell the phone to send it 1080 signal.
Hook up a REALLY non-1080p TV: Ok, ok... so get a 8+ year old TV, or an older LCD Monitor. Yes. Whatever resolution it supports at max will make the HTC One step down from 1080 signal and tada... movies, games and interface all become butter smooth over MHL to USB.
Change the output resolution in the app: This will work if the game supports it, but many don't. Movies? Does anyone know of a good movie app that lets you change the output res?
Root your phone, it's time for ElementalX's 720p MHL HDMI output tweak since this phone doesn't support MHL 2.0: Sure, but I'm trying to find a non-rooting method first. It looks decent. Ultimately, if I have to, I will, but I'm trying not to tinker this go-round. The phone is totally acceptable to me otherwise. On Sprint, he's just begun support for us and I'm keeping an eye on the thread to see better results from the pioneers first.
References:
Hardware Info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2226982
ElementalX w/ 720p MHL USB support: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2249774
New finding: If your MHL adapter causes your TV to blink in and out from time to time, I figured out what it is: Turn off Mobile Data on your phone.
For me, when I'm on 3G at least, whenever it gets a data hit, the HDMI functionality cuts out causing a static, noisy output to the TV.
Fortunately Wi-Fi is OK. Untested yet with 4G.
About to purchase a Bluetooth controller , a generic mhl adapter from amazon that has been confirmed to work with the one , and a flash of the ElementalX kernel . Really hope I'll be able to play my N64oid and PSXe titles smoothly . Will definitely report back with results
G1toEVO4G said:
About to purchase a Bluetooth controller , a generic mhl adapter from amazon that has been confirmed to work with the one , and a flash of the ElementalX kernel . Really hope I'll be able to play my N64oid and PSXe titles smoothly . Will definitely report back with results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With that great option to set to 720p you should be butter-smooth. Good luck and let us know!
Hey.
I am running the latest nightly of CM 10.1 on my HTC one.
I can not seem to get my mhl cable working. Once I plug it in my HTC one often shuts down. The cable isn't faulty. It works like a charm with my galaxy nexus.
Sometimes I see a mirror of my screen but it is with a really bad resolution. Sometimes it flickers and shows a picture on and off. Mostly it freezes and then shuts down. It's really annoying.
USB OTG also doesn't work. The frequency of getting a bad resolution for a little while before it shuts down worked better after I disabled USB debugging in my developer settings.
Any thoughts? Workarounds?
Thanks in advance.
HTC one. CM 10.1
Turn off any form of motion control, as that'll cause quite a few issues as well.
Correct. Thanks a lot. I turned off auto rotate and then it worked. Didn't think of that. Now the mhl HDMI setup runs flawless without lag.
HTC one. CM 10.1
It's just me or image quality it's not that good? It's not the same as computer connected with HDMI? It seems it lower bitrate or diminish image quality. I am not talking about 24 fps limitation...
Does MHL adaptor quality might have an influence, or it's all the same?
Hi all.
I recently bought a Fire TV stick. When plugged into an HDMI socket on the TV it works fine, but if I plug it into a spare HDMI socket on my AV receiver the playback is rather jerky, as if the processor on it is struggling to maintain the frame rate. This happens both on HD content from Prime and on 480p video played with Plex.
This makes no sense to me. Surely the Fire TV doesn't care what it's plugged into - it just outputs video. Can anyone shed any light on what's going on here? It isn't the end of the world but obviously it's a lot easier to switch inputs on the reciever than on the TV.
Thanks
John
Is the receiver doing any kind of processing on the video? Someone mentioned a while back that their TV had some video mode that would cause the same kind of issue.
Well, not that I'm aware of. It doesn't do upconverting or anything like that. Presumably it is extracting the audio to process locally, but the TV does the same since I still get 5.1 sound through the amp. The system has Control for HDMI, whatever that means.
a number of fire TV users have reported that the device is picky about which HDMI cables they use - it's entirely possible that an av receiver could be sending back information to the fire TV that it has to think about, slowing it down, or that the internal connections within the receiver are noisy - writing inside receivers is often amusingly lightweight, makes you scratch your head over the thousands of dollars some folks sink into cabling for an amp that's using a printer ribbon to route multichannel audio internally (including some very good amps, expensive enough gear that if the manufacturers wanted to add 100 bucks to the price for a few feet of heavier wire, they wouldn't likely lose many sales.)
Interesting. I did actually buy a cheap HDMI extension cable so that the stick wouldn't be behind the amp. Perhaps I should try using plugging it into the TV using that cable to see if it's at fault?
It would be interesting to know. And it can't take more than a few minute to find out...
Ok, tried out the HDMI cable at the weekend and it's not that.
Long story short I had a Note 4 (that took a dump and died) where I played music on VLC via the HDMI out into one of those eBay Chinese HDMI to Optical converters, from there into my car processor (Alpine PXA-H800). Worked like a charm, very clean sound.
To replace the dead Note 4 I got an S8, but this thing does not want to play nice (or I am being stupid). Will not work with an MHL cable (same as the cable I was using with the Note 4 but USB Type-C instead). From what I understand these phone do not play well with MHL cables (please correct me if I am wrong as this is the route I would like to go). I hear the SlimPort may work, but then I saw this Bluetooth Receiver that claims lossless data transfer (lossless is the ultimate goal). Also, since my processor has an optical input that will also be a requirement (optical output).
Has anyone has any experience with these devices and the connectivity that I am trying to achieve? Has anyone has been successful doing what I am trying to do? I have been without music in my car since my Note 4 died and it is getting old.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Hi, we are basically in the same situation. Sadly I think you are going to find it is rare for someone to have answers to any of this, as very few people are familiar with the systems/protocols we are trying to use and there is a lot of confusion or bad information out there.
I am currently using an Alpine PXA-H701 DSP/5.1 decoder and have experimented with various things trying to accomplish the same thing as you.
First, the Bluetooth receiver you mentioned is a LIE - that is false advertising. It doesn't even support APT-X, which my Sony Z Ultra phone and the Bose Bluetooth Receiver I recently installed do. Bluetooth simply cannot even support full-resolution stereo data, so it certainly cannot support 5.1 or lossless. Right now, the only wireless way to do that is (supposedly) Chromecast Audio or DLNA.
APT-X is the best sounding Bluetooth protocol currently offered, however it is not lossless - there is a penalty on frequency response, and I believe the upper frequencies are band-limited to around 16KHz if I read correctly somewhere. It sounds nice but still isn't CD quality. I can tell the difference vs. lossless when I tested my Chromecast.
Very much like you, I have used a Monoprice HDMI audio extractor and MHL cable successfully to pass through lossless bit-perfect audio including 5.1 (which is not lossless, but demonstrates passthrough ability, not downscaling or transcoding) via Kodi for Android. I would have liked to use MX Player but at the time they had removed AAC/5.1 audio decoding so there was no sound, but I now have the codex for it and will re-test.
Kodi can play music, videos, etc but the interface is not simple like VLC or MX Player.
Also, lossless FLAC files can be used wirelessly with the Chromecast Audio but you'll need a player that supports casting or BubbleUPnP, which now can transmit lossless FLAC to the Chromecast. However, it's a work-around for sending audio and when trying to play videos or YouTube; the lag is tremendous so it's not good for playing video on the device while casting audio. I currently do not have a media player that can cast so I used the BubbleUPnP module within Xposed Framework (had to root my phone) for music.
USB-DAC (w/ optical output) adapters would be ideal, too, but USB OTG in Android does not currently support charging while using an external USB-DAC/Optical adapter, so it will drain your battery down. So that's unfortunately not an option in current Android OS to the best of my knowledge.
To make matters worse, very few phones as you know support MHL/HDMI output, and even fewer APT-X. But to get real lossless via optical you can use any phone you want that has a hotspot feature if you use the Chromecast Audio and FLAC audio files, or WAV if they're lossless too. Otherwise we're stuck with phones/tablets that support MHL only since USB audio can't support charging.
Then another potential problem is that of discharging your phone's battery when using an MHL cable/adapter. I read here that when an MHL standard device is attached, the phone will charge. I haven't verified this.
So, from what I've found it comes down to this:
For WIRED lossless digital audio, will have to be MHL/HDMI, limited to very few phones/tablets with the feature. This assumes the device will be able to charge - so that's still an important question to answer. In this case video could also be support & synced pretty well to audio
For WIRELESS lossless digital audio, any Android device w/ hotspot ability can connect to a Chromecast Audio and BubbleUPnP will allow casting FLAC files from a media player like VLC or MX Player. You can also use Spotify and other supporting apps to cast digital audio to the Chromecast. Video will not be synced to audio, so that's out, unless you use Bluetooth for audio when playing videos on the device.
USB-out on Android is not currently the end-all solution until charging in host mode is supported
No lossless audio possible on Bluetooth (it's compressed by nature); any claims otherwise are false advertising
So, I'll have to try MHL w/ my HDMI extractor and some way to try to see if my Sony can charge while doing so. Otherwise, I'll have to use both Bluetooth (at the cost of reduced quality) for video files [due to sync issues] and cast to Chromecast Audio for lossless audio. I tested a tablet like the Nvidia Shield w/ separate HDMI out, and that's all I needed - the HDMI audio extractor only.
Your Samsung may need a better/different MHL cable, because I'm not familar with the S8 but I have seen that not all MHL cable work well as the OEM and also they're often not interchangeable.
Hope this helps!
Thanks a lot for the elaborate reply. I used to have the PXA-H701 and I loved it. When I had my Note 4 I was able to charge while playing, the charge was slow but it kept the phone from discharging while playing music but it would still discharge while using the GPS. I am going to give the MHL cable I listed above a try and see if it works, it does list the S8 after all. Worst case I'll return the cable and get me a used Note 4 as a music player and be done with this. Thanks again.
That's cool, as long as you have a way to do it that's great. I'll try my Z Ultra again tonight, but I have a simple cable and not a real MHL adapter. I think mine will drain therefore.
I'm trying to have an all-in-one media player with bit-perfect optical output using a phone and not installing a dedicated tablet, if possible.
It is ridiculous to have so many catch-22s and hassles in this day and age to just do this one basic function!
Glad I could contribute.
Fyi, my note 4 worked with the cable , not the adapter.
Update: well, you are lucky if your Samsung can charge with the cable and not a MHL device connected - the Sony Xperias apparently cannot, and similar for other brands of phone & tablets, it turns out.
After some research, it turns out that most devices with an MHL port will drain the battery because when not connected to an MHL-compliant device like a TV with the option (Example: Sony Bravia TV, MHL charge option) the charge/supply is limited and not sufficient - it's not full charge mode.
My work around I've found is what someone else described - using my MHL cable while also using my magnetic charge port & magnetic charge cable attached. Tested while playing a video in Kodi 16.1 - phone is now charging, no battery draining pop-up.
(I'm posting this in case someone else finds this thread and has similar problems)
I'll also try an MHL adapter "box" and see if that is compliant and can charge the phone.
Sound quality is great via HDMI/Toslink!