Time for one of my favourite programmes.
Should I watch it on the tablet...
...or on television?
Smart Device technology continues to evolve and one of the more recent developments is
the ability to wirelessly stream content from your tablet or smart phone to a smart television.
But if you don't have a smart television you can get a device like this.
It's a Netgear PTV3000 which is a wireless display adapter.
It plugs into the mains for power and into your television via a HDMI cable.
That sorts out the receiver.
The transmitter is, obviously, your smart device and this must support something called
Miracast.
If it does you can do this with, for example, a Nexus 7 2013 tablet.
Go to settings and then choose the display options.
At the bottom of this screen is something called cast screen.
Press that and then in this next screen press the three dots in the top right hand corner
and check the 'Enable Wireless Display' option.
If the wireless display adapter is on the tablet should pick it up.
Press on the device to connect the two together.
The process is very much like pairing two Bluetooth devices together and once you've
succeeded, the content on the tablet is transmitted directly to your television.
This isn't Chromecast where only certain applications are compatible, this is a direct mirror of
your android device on your television.
When the two devices are connected you can swipe down on you notification tray to quickly
disconnect the android device and the wireless adapter.
But now the connection has been established, it's very easy to connect the two again by
swiping down on the top right of the tablet to bring up quick options and selecting the
cast screen option.
And that's all you have to do to get your content onto a television.
Whatever you do on your tablet, the wireless adaptor will show it to you on your television.
That includes rotating from portrait to landscape mode.
A couple of important and positive points to note at this moment are that this does
not impact on the wifi capability of your android; it doesn't lose internet connection.
And not only is the visual content streamed to your television, sound is too and it syncs
perfectly.
In principle this is a fantastic addition to your gadget collection, but unfortunately
it's not quite perfect yet.
If the resolution of your android device differs from your television then you might encounter
borders like you can see here with my hand up against the right edge of the television.
Secondly, applications can detect whether you are using wireless Miracast and can block
the signal.
For example, you can't use the SKY Go application to transmit SKY from the android device to
your television, so you need to make sure the apps you use don't block Miracast.
Finally, there is a slight delay of maybe a third of a second between the android device
and what's actually displayed on screen.
This doesn't affect sound as that is delayed too but it does mean that playing games is
impossible.
But when you think about it, trying to play touchscreen games without looking at the touchscreen
is just downright stupid anyway.
However, for those of you looking to use emulators and other interactive applications, this isn't
really the solution.
Wireless adaptors are designed to work with passive entertainment, which basically means
watching stuff on your big television.
I'm afraid to say the technology doesn't seem to be consistent with different devices either.
First of all, the connect method is always different depending on which android device
you use.
For my Samsung Galaxy S4 for example I had to go to my connections and choose screen
mirroring.
That's acceptable of course; every android device has its own quirks.
But what's not acceptable is the atrocious lag I experienced using this device.
You wouldn't want to watch that for long and when I tried to use Youtube, it just flat
out refused to work.
Even when using the BBC News app you can see the terrible delay.
So, in short, we all want wireless connections and the ability to watch stuff on big screens.
But at around £50 the Netgear PTV3000 is gamble due to its patchy performance.
Give it a year though, and I think this technology will be perfected and readily available.
If you have any questions about this device or things you'd like me to test, let me know
and I'll give it a try.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you all again soon in another VGJFelix video.