What's the best way to connect the SP2 to a TV, wirelessly?

[beq]

FYI I've also been looking at other options for Miracast:

- Been waiting for over a year for the Roku 3 streaming boxes to support Miracast, since we already have a lot of them! Lost cause?

- Bought the Amazon Fire TV streaming box, but our SP2's couldn't even find it. I hear it only supports Miracast for Kindle Fire tablets?

- Bought the just-launched WD TV box with Miracast. They list support for the SP2 (admist all the Androids), and it does kinda work with our units. But it's only single-band Wi-Fi (no 5GHz). And doesn't seem to reliably support PIN codes for Windows 8.1. Perhaps that's why it stops working between sessions and I have to keep deleting and re-adding.

- Will be in the market for 4K TV's this summer. Does the built-in Miracast in TV sets generally work well with Surfaces and Windows 8.1 computers??

EDIT: Also finally ordered one of those cheap imported Miracast dongles. Curious about all the features they cram in there, specifically AirPlay Mirroring support for Apple devices! We'll see I guess (that particular feature seems to come and go, depending on which model might have gotten a cease-and-desist?)


P.S. Found out the hard way that Miracast won't even show up if you've installed a VM bridged network adapter, before I saw this post.

 

[jnjroach]

I can say the Actiontec is the only one I find workable to use as a wireless docking solution, I can actually use it to do work on, the PTV3000 has much more noticeable lag. I not familiar with the new Actiontec models. The Actiontec has a Modern UI App for management available in the Store.

 

[beq]

Thanks jnjroach! Sorry didn't mean to come off too strong, like I'm peppering you with a barrage of questions.

I was partly just recapping my own experience.

Thanks again for sharing.


I suspect the new Actiontec models' web config replaces the need for the dedicated management app. Then again I haven't even received my order of the ScreenBeam (current model) or the PTV3000 yet, so I'm just presuming.

 

[jnjroach]

I like the PTV3000 for traveling as it is very compact, and will use it in Hotel or at a customer's site. I like the Actiontec for everything else....

 

[godson594]

FYI I've also been looking at other options for Miracast:

- Been waiting for over a year for the Roku 3 streaming boxes to support Miracast, since we already have a lot of them! Lost cause?

- Bought the Amazon Fire TV streaming box, but our SP2's couldn't even find it. I hear it only supports Miracast for Kindle Fire tablets?

- Bought the just-launched WD TV box with Miracast. They list support for the SP2 (admist all the Androids), and it does kinda work with our units. But it's only single-band Wi-Fi (no 5GHz). And doesn't seem to reliably support PIN codes for Windows 8.1. Perhaps that's why it stops working between sessions and I have to keep deleting and re-adding.

- Will be in the market for 4K TV's this summer. Does the built-in Miracast in TV sets generally work well with Surfaces and Windows 8.1 computers??

EDIT: Also finally ordered one of those cheap imported Miracast dongles. Curious about all the features they cram in there, specifically AirPlay Mirroring support for Apple devices! We'll see I guess (that particular feature seems to come and go, depending on which model might have gotten a cease-and-desist?)


P.S. Found out the hard way that Miracast won't even show up if you've installed a VM bridged network adapter, before I saw this post.

I'm still annoyed this isn't built into the xbox one.

 

[jnjroach]

I'm still annoyed this isn't built into the xbox one.

Just plug a Miracast Adapter into the HDMI In and now it is built in BTW - That is how they did the Demo's last year at WPC that got everyone thinking it was built-in....

 

[godson594]

Just plug a Miracast Adapter into the HDMI In and now it is built in BTW - That is how they did the Demo's last year at WPC that got everyone thinking it was built-in....

I have a cable box connected to the hdmi input.

Yea i was one of the ones fooled by that :x

 

[CrippsCorner]

Any news on the official Surface Miracast-kind-of-thing adapter that was rumoured (and I believe there were patents or something) hope it hasn't been buried.

 

[beq]

^ I too would like to know.


Anyways, I've been testing the Netgear Push2TV PTV3000 and Actiontec ScreenBeam Pro (SBWD100A) Miracast receivers with our SP2's, both before and after Microsoft's System Firmware Update - 6/10/2014.

Our SP2's previously had Intel graphics driver v10.18.10.3431, but the firmware pack includes:

HD Graphics Family (v10.18.10.3496) update improves Miracast wireless display experience and enhances display stability.

Ironically the Actiontec seems to have lost performance after the SP2 firmware update. Can jnjroach or anyone else confirm??


Before the SP2 update, Actiontec had less lag than Netgear. You could tell on a side-by-side comparison, and it was wonderful (not that Netgear was bad to begin with).

But after the SP2 update, Actiontec now has noticeably more lag than Netgear (the latter maintained the same performance).

It's as if Actiontec were using aggressive optimization routines that no longer worked with the latest SP2/Intel update?


FWIW both Actiontec and Netgear were updated to the latest firmware (1.1.9.0 and 2.4.46, respectively). The SP2's were connected to the router on 5GHz during the testing.

I did notice that after the SP2 update, I could no longer connect to the existing Miracast receivers at first. I had to delete the devices in PC Settings, then pair them again. Does this always happen after an SP2 firmware update?

 

[jnjroach]

I'm not experiencing any degradation in performance on my Actiontec, same Firmware....using it now for my external display. Have you rebooted the receiver?

 

[beq]

BTW I wonder if the Netgear's wireless performance partly depends on how much power it's getting (if it's hooked up to a USB port instead of AC adapter)? I'd initially tried powering it from the USB port of various devices (monitor, TV, Roku box, etc). Some of those times the Netgear had made some chirping noises, and the screen refresh might've been slower than normal (could've just been device interference though).


Now I just have to pick which receiver to buy more for family members. I do like the smaller size and USB power versatility of the Netgear. But the Actiontec potentially has even less lag for the SP2 (assuming they can fix what broke after the latest SP2 update). Haven't compared the lag performance with Android phone/tablet/game devices though.

One deciding factor is that the latest Actiontec 1.1.9.0 firmware from May 2014 can now shut off its HDMI output signal when idle. Which means at home I can hook it up to an autosensing HDMI switch along with my primary video source (whether cable or streaming box), to get the same convenience as having Miracast built-in to the TV set.

 

[beq]

I'm not experiencing any degradation in performance on my Actiontec, same Firmware....using it now for my external display. Have you rebooted the receiver?

Hmm, wonder if it's something in my test environment then. I'll try testing at another house.

I did power cycle both Actiontec and Netgear several times and connected a couple of SP2's before and after the Microsoft updates.

When doing things like scrolling the start screen left/right, typing text, raising/lowering the touch keyboard, playing video, etc -- there was barely any lag with Actiontec previously, but definitely more noticeable now.

I should mention that I got the ScreenBeam Kit and not the stand-alone ScreenBeam Pro, but isn't the receiver exactly the same (despite what Actiontec says)?