Can someone explain Miracast and streaming tech with surface?
- Thread starter Olvrick
- Start date
Streaming to TVs built in WiFi works with some models and doesn't with others. Seems like there's some issues with the standards and or compliance with same. I have seen several posts by people having trouble with Sony and Samsung TVs not working with Surface as well as the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. AMAZON only claims to support Android and iOS IIRC.
If you have a TV that claims to support Miracast and it's not working try updating the Firmware on the TV. IF it still isn't working you may need a streaming device to plug into your TV such as the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter, ScreenBeam Pro, Netgear Push2Tv 3000, or the Roku streaming stick.
If you have a TV that claims to support Miracast and it's not working try updating the Firmware on the TV. IF it still isn't working you may need a streaming device to plug into your TV such as the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter, ScreenBeam Pro, Netgear Push2Tv 3000, or the Roku streaming stick.
ChrisPanzer
Active Member
It's not all its cracked up to be, in my opinion. I'd gladly take my $60.00 back from BestBuy.
There's a horrendous lag to it and little glitches here and there. Totally impractical for watching/streaming HD movies. If it's useful for anything, I would say looking at photos on a big screen with family members, and even then it messes up occassionally.
Save your money and buy a USB media player/streamer.
(waits for someone to say how wonderful it is and how it never messes up for them)
There's a horrendous lag to it and little glitches here and there. Totally impractical for watching/streaming HD movies. If it's useful for anything, I would say looking at photos on a big screen with family members, and even then it messes up occassionally.
Save your money and buy a USB media player/streamer.
(waits for someone to say how wonderful it is and how it never messes up for them)
Well, Chris, any of these wireless services are exceptionally dependent on a quality wifi network with no interference, as you add a lot of complexity by streaming the content to one device, that then has to turn around and stream it to another. Many people just don't have a robust enough network for that to work reliably. If you live in an apartment, that may not even be the fault of your equipment. Wireless performance is greatly degraded by the presence of all of your neighbors devices. For me, it has worked fine, although the experience has been subpar as with most web video I'd want to send to a tv, all of the regular web video controls get sent over to that screen as well, so navigating and controlling that content is a bit awkward.
ChrisPanzer
Active Member
The whole thing to me seems as if its still in the beta-phase of production. I have no idea why MS would release a device that performs so sub-par/below expectations.
And zenyah, sorry maybe I misunderstood but do you think that the wireless adapter runs off your wifi? That's not correct, it runs off its own closed frequency. I understand what you mean about network interference, type of living condition, etc, but when you try holding the Sp3 2" from the wireless receiver and it STILL lags, I doubt you can place the blame anywhere but the device itself!
EDIT: Wait wait wait, what is the OP talking about here, Miracast, or streaming video via WIFI? That's two different things completely. In my responses, I was obviously referring to the Miracast/Wireless projector $60.00 device. This device has nothing to do with WIFI, and as I said before DOES NOT work very good. Only good for viewing family photos on the living room bigscreen.
And zenyah, sorry maybe I misunderstood but do you think that the wireless adapter runs off your wifi? That's not correct, it runs off its own closed frequency. I understand what you mean about network interference, type of living condition, etc, but when you try holding the Sp3 2" from the wireless receiver and it STILL lags, I doubt you can place the blame anywhere but the device itself!
EDIT: Wait wait wait, what is the OP talking about here, Miracast, or streaming video via WIFI? That's two different things completely. In my responses, I was obviously referring to the Miracast/Wireless projector $60.00 device. This device has nothing to do with WIFI, and as I said before DOES NOT work very good. Only good for viewing family photos on the living room bigscreen.
Miracast uses wifi direct, which is still an extension of the wifi protocol. At the very least it is still subject to the same interference problems of wifi, and while I'm not 100% sure of this, I presume it shares the same available bandwidth as there is no separate chip to support the miracast stream. This means that when you are streaming a web video that you are then displaying via miracast, the route is Access Point --> Surface --> Screen. This is two wireless hops rather than one, which means that you have to have the bandwidth to support that.
ChrisPanzer
Active Member
Lets not mince words here; to be clear, there is no pre-requisite to have wifi in a structure in order to make the wireless adapter work. It may operate on the same frequency/channel, but you dont actually 'hook up' to a wifi network before using it.
Ok soooo full circle Explain Miracast ... I was sooo hoping to avoid going down that rabbit hole. 
2012. http://blog.clove.co.uk/2012/11/16/wifi-miracast-what-does-it-do/
2013 http://www.howtogeek.com/177145/wir...ed-airplay-miracast-widi-chromecast-and-dlna/
Wifi.org http://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-miracast. perhaps biased
From Wikipedia
Miracast is a certification program of the Wi-Fi Alliance based on their Wifi-Display specification. It defines a protocol to connect an external monitor or TV to your device, and therefore can roughly be described as "HDMI over Wifi", replacing the cable from the computer to the display.[1]
It is peer-to-peer, and wireless, using a Wi-Fi Direct connection. It allows sending up to 1080p HD video and 5.1 surround sound (AAC and AC3 are optional codecs, mandated codec is linear pulse-code modulation — 16 bits 48 kHz 2 channels).
Advantages
The technology was promoted to work across devices, regardless of brand. Miracast devices negotiate settings for each connection, which simplifies the process for the users. In particular, it obviates having to worry about format or codec details.[16] Miracast is "effectively a wireless HDMI cable, copying everything from one screen to another using the H.264 codec and its own digital rights management (DRM) layer emulating the HDMI system".
Disadvantages
Miracast is limited to Wi-Fi Direct supported devices. Comparing to other IP-based screen mirroring applications such as Splashtop,[18] MirrorOp,[19] VNC and RDP, Miracast cannot run on all IP networks such as conventional Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet, HomePlug powerline networking and Internet, but those IP-based screen mirroring applications can run on Wi-Fi Direct. The Miracast standard also has "optional components" such as Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WMM). The use of optional components in "standards" often causes issues if one vendor supports the options components and another does not. Its reliance on Wi-Fi Direct also reduces the attractiveness of the technology in enterprise environments.
The development of the support in Linux took 4 months, and the relevant developer originally recommended not to buy or use devices supporting Miracast. The following reasons were cited:[1][2]
Certification does not mandate a maximum latency (i.e. the time between display of picture on the source and display of the mirrored image on the sync display).
Device incompatibility
There are serious incompatibilities between Miracast devices, i.e. being Miracast compatible does not mean devices can talk to each other. On the internet huge lists are collected with devices compatible to each other.[20][21][22]
HTH.
2012. http://blog.clove.co.uk/2012/11/16/wifi-miracast-what-does-it-do/
2013 http://www.howtogeek.com/177145/wir...ed-airplay-miracast-widi-chromecast-and-dlna/
Wifi.org http://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-miracast. perhaps biased
From Wikipedia
Miracast is a certification program of the Wi-Fi Alliance based on their Wifi-Display specification. It defines a protocol to connect an external monitor or TV to your device, and therefore can roughly be described as "HDMI over Wifi", replacing the cable from the computer to the display.[1]
It is peer-to-peer, and wireless, using a Wi-Fi Direct connection. It allows sending up to 1080p HD video and 5.1 surround sound (AAC and AC3 are optional codecs, mandated codec is linear pulse-code modulation — 16 bits 48 kHz 2 channels).
Advantages
The technology was promoted to work across devices, regardless of brand. Miracast devices negotiate settings for each connection, which simplifies the process for the users. In particular, it obviates having to worry about format or codec details.[16] Miracast is "effectively a wireless HDMI cable, copying everything from one screen to another using the H.264 codec and its own digital rights management (DRM) layer emulating the HDMI system".
Disadvantages
Miracast is limited to Wi-Fi Direct supported devices. Comparing to other IP-based screen mirroring applications such as Splashtop,[18] MirrorOp,[19] VNC and RDP, Miracast cannot run on all IP networks such as conventional Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet, HomePlug powerline networking and Internet, but those IP-based screen mirroring applications can run on Wi-Fi Direct. The Miracast standard also has "optional components" such as Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WMM). The use of optional components in "standards" often causes issues if one vendor supports the options components and another does not. Its reliance on Wi-Fi Direct also reduces the attractiveness of the technology in enterprise environments.
The development of the support in Linux took 4 months, and the relevant developer originally recommended not to buy or use devices supporting Miracast. The following reasons were cited:[1][2]
- the specification is only available on payment of a high amount of money.
- hardware support is barely available, the only working chip in February 2014 was Intel's 7260-WLAN-Chip.
- he considers the technology "horrible". Filters are sent which define properties of the hardware, e.g. the screen resolution. This boils down to an enormous amount of data sent which makes its challenging to find the correct peering device. IPv4 including DHCP is used as internet protocol, not the new IPv6. To transfer contents the sender and receiver device should be done, but sometimes this happens spontaneously without a possibility to change it afterwards. The streaming is controlled via the RTSP. The disadvantage is that the receiver explicitely needs to request the data transfer from the sender - instead of the sender just starting the transfer.
Certification does not mandate a maximum latency (i.e. the time between display of picture on the source and display of the mirrored image on the sync display).
Device incompatibility
There are serious incompatibilities between Miracast devices, i.e. being Miracast compatible does not mean devices can talk to each other. On the internet huge lists are collected with devices compatible to each other.[20][21][22]
HTH.
... and Chris baby monitors operate on the same frequencies so they can interfere with your Miracast as well, not that you use a baby monitor or anything such as a portable phone, web cam, security cam, etc.
ChrisPanzer
Active Member
1) Yes I utilize baby monitors, partially because I have one (a baby).
2) zenhaya: Yes, you were right, it uses the same wifi technology but I really want disputing that, I should have made meself more clear before spouting my Pearls of Wisdom.
<Looks around for OP>... I think we may've scared him away. lol.
2) zenhaya: Yes, you were right, it uses the same wifi technology but I really want disputing that, I should have made meself more clear before spouting my Pearls of Wisdom.
<Looks around for OP>... I think we may've scared him away. lol.
