We've all been there. There's a video on your phone that you want to play on your friend's TV.
When the video plays you immediately notice that not only is your friend's Wi-Fi terrible,
it may be a good idea to call Guinness.
Their Wi-Fi should probably be in the record books.
Today, we are going to show you how to avoid this situation by connecting your phone to your TV using USB. This is DIY in 5.
Hey everyone! My name is Trisha and you are watching DIY in 5
the show where we make tech simple enough that you can DIY it in 5 minutes or less.
Today we are discussing connecting your Android or iPhone to your TV using USB.
You may want to do this due to weak Wi-Fi, like in the example earlier, but there are plenty of other times
where a wired connection would be preferable like when Wi-Fi is simply not available,
or you're gaming and not willing to risk the lag.
Alright, let's talk about the connection types that will have us bypassing our friend's trash-tier Wi-Fi in no time.
Androids and iPhones will differ in the sense that Apple requires video to pass through the lightning port.
Androids will use USB-C and sometimes, old phones will use Micro-USB.
Also note that, although iPhones all work the same Android phones can differ by manufacturer.
Once we go through the different connections on the monitor/TV side, it will become clear how they differ.
However, at DIY in 5 we highly recommend that if you are unsure,
you look up your specific model before going out to purchase a cable.
Since Android devices have a lot of different variations, we will start with them.
Most modern Android smartphones support USB-C to HDMI via the DisplayPort standard.
This enables USB-C to HDMI screen mirroring with a simple adapter.
This means that your higher bitrate videos and games will play without buffering and lag.
You don't have to go directly to the TV if you don't want to.
You could dock your phone into a docking station like Nucleum. You would then attach Nucleum to the HDMI port of your TV.
In 2018, Samsung created an absolute game changer in this area with the announcement
of Samsung DeX aka Samsung Desktop Experience.
When the Samsung S line of phones, like the newly released S23 Ultra, connects to a display via USB-C to HDMI,
that display will have a windows-like interface or a desktop mode. All apps are fully supported in this mode.
This works so well that some users claim they reduced their everyday carry to their phone
and if they need something more, they will find a monitor and just use DEX.
Motorola introduced ReadyFor a few years ago as well and it's a worthy competitor to DEX.
A lesser known phone brand, REDMAGIC, knows the best way to play is on their phone or wired to a monitor.
They also have a desktop experience, but their killer app is console mode.
This mode launches a gaming front end that's extremely easy to navigate through.
If your Android phone does not support USB-C to HDMI, then there are two other standards I'd recommend you look at.
MHL or mobile high-definition link and SlimPort.
MHL offers HD video and 8 channel surround sound and devices are available in both micro-USB and USB-C.
SlimPort uses the VESA standard to transmit data, meaning it can output to HDMI as well as DisplayPort
and legacy connections like VGA and DVI.
SlimPort also uses lower power requirements, so you can connect your phone without as much battery drain
and some SlimPort adapters even have an extra USB port for connecting your charging cable.
Apple users have the fewest choices compared to other Android counterparts, but is that a bad thing?
All connections are via lightning. The digital AV adapter supports lightning to HDMI.
And Apple also has a lightning-to-VGA cable for legacy devices.
Once you've plugged in your adapter, just hook up the video out to your display. Done!
As a bonus, Apple's Lightning Adapters include an additional lightning port so you can charge your device at the same time.
Now that we covered this, all we have to do is connect our devices to the TV.
Most phones will mirror right away
and the Samsung S line and Motorola ReadyFor devices will launch their desktop experience.
This is so simple you may choose to always bypass WiFi.
So there you have it! The next time you face a situation where you need to connect a phone to your TV,
your videos won't buffer and your games won't lag.
If you found this video useful, please do give us a like and subscribe to the channel
so you don't miss out on any future tech tips.
Until next time, my name's Trisha Hershberger and you've been watching DIY in 5!