MHL Adapter Question

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Impulses

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May 19, 2010
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Guaynabo
Care to offer more detail on these specs? Some phones come with stock chargers that are better than others, not all USB chargers are created equal, and I'm sure not all MHL adapters are the same either. What exactly would you consider a knockoff MHL adapter, AFAIK they're all dinky little things made in China... The one T-mobile sells isn't even branded in any way (doesn't say T-Mo or anything but MHL and a bunch of S/N).

MHL adapters could simply be required to charge up to USB spec (as in PC USB ports) which is only 0.5A and not enough to charge a phone under heavy use. Since you're the expert, care to share the details? In all likelyhood there isn't really any standard since MHL is a connection spec and these adapters are just a stopgap measure until we have TVs with actual MHL ports, not something the MHL spec covers in all likelyhood...

Point is, to dismiss the adapters as a factor in how well the phone will charge when plugged into one is foolish.
 

Impulses

Senior Member
May 19, 2010
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Guaynabo
Rather than carry on with the inane discussion above I decided to test my particular MHL adapter, the one sold by T-Mobile... I'm using Battery Monitor Widget and a beefy Monoprice HDMI cable btw. Here's what I've found:

A) It clearly states "Charging (USB)" under About phone/Battery, which means the phone WILL NOT charge at full speed when plugged in via MHL... At least with this adapter. USB charging usually means the phone is getting a max of 0.5A from the port (which is what you'd get from a PC's port), which is half what you'll get from the stock HTC charger or any other 1A charger.

B) With the phone completely idle, while connected to Wifi and with the screen turned on but at low brightness (30%-ish) I usually see a power draw of around -250mA. (ideal conditions really) Any time I plug my phone into the stock charger with any microUSB cable I've tested it jumps up to anywhere between +750mA and +800mA, e.g. max charging rate of 1A minus the existing draw of 250mA-ish. When plugged into the MHL adapter with the same charger/cable I see around +150mA, so technically it's charging but it's not even charging at 0.5A (more like 0.4A), it's charging very slowly basically.

C) Playing Green Hornet under the same ideal conditions (Wifi on, brightness low, no streaming) I'm seeing a draw of like -10mA or just under that, so it's DISCHARGING albeit very very slowly. Basically it's discharging at a negligible rate, slower than it'd discharge in your pocket while waking around and pinging different 3G towers.

D) Finally I tried a little Youtube streaming with a 10 min. clip (linked below) which seemingly resulted in an ever increasing power draw which peaked at -380mA (literally it kept using more and more power as the clip played, the Battery Widget graph was a sharp downward sloped line). It's still not discharging THAT fast (about as fast as normal Wifi web browsing would discharge it) but it's discharging at a pretty good clip nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75OuhWQ87w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The takeaway from all this is that MHL is hardly ideal, at least with the adapter I've got. Any heavy streaming (Netflix etc) will discharge your phone at a decent pace and if you intend to watch a full length movie I'd resort to some of the measures mentioned before (airplane mode, low brightness, etc.). The MHL/HDMI adapter wasn't really looking all that great to begin with because having the adapter hanging from your phone with two cables hanging from the adapter itself is pretty awkward imo, I'd rather just use my tablet for this kinda thing since it has a much beefier battery.

Now if anyone has any MHL adapters that report "Charging (AC)" when connected, that'd be a different story, since it'd mean at least double the charge rate which should be enough to keep up with basic Wifi streaming (4G might be a different story).

Now I'm curious whether TVs with actual MHL ports supply 0.5A thru MHL cables or whether they do 1A, MHL looked like a great long term single cable solution that eliminates the need for all these adapters (with future TVs), but it's gonna fail if it maxes out at 0.5A. Hopefully it's just a problem with these adapters (which themselves seem to require about 0.1A)

---------- Post added at 04:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 AM ----------

Some quick Google-fu revealed some bad news... The MHL spec itself seems to be a signaling spec and isn't necessarily attached to any single connector type, sorta how Thunderbolt is currently being implemented via Displayport copper cables but may move to fiber optic cables in the future. So there's room for change. The bad news is this tidbit:

"Operation of the mobile device in MHL mode while 5 volts and 500 mA of power are simultaneously provided from an HDTV or other CE device"

So yeah... Dunno what genius thought this up, but as currently implemented it's gonna fall short when used on modern smartphones. That quote's from Silicon Image, maybe LiquidSolstice can clue us in on the reasoning behind the 0.5A limit since he's done work for them... It seems woefully inadequate from a user perspective tho.

SI was only one of half a dozen companies in the MHL consortium that developed the spec btw (Samsung, Sony, etc are in it too). It's possible they stayed within standard USB 2.0 limits for power supply to retain compatibility with cameras and other devices, hard to say, the same blurb quoted above can be found at the MHL Consortium site. Good old microHDMI is looking a lot better right now...
 
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P0ll0L0c0

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Jun 6, 2008
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Except...I did. For this person:



MHL Adapters are required to charge while being used, in fact, they only function if the charger is plugged in. That's part the spec, and I'd like to think I know quite a bit about MHL since I've done work and testing on the product for the company that created it, which is Silicon Image : http://www.siliconimage.com/products/family.aspx?id=10 . As for the quoted person, the adapter is not supposed to the the problem (unless you're getting a cheap knockoff one) but the power output of your charger can be an issue as well. The original Evo 3D charger outputs the proper power for the adapter to charge your phone properly. If you're using a cheap generic brand eBay MicroSD power cord, it will most likely not charge at the same output.

I've been using and testing these adapters before you ever knew about them. Is that enough information for you?

LOL - Still you provided nothing new. "I've been using and testing these adapters before you ever knew about them" - why don't you put that in your signature block so you can sound more credible? Your signature's like the decals on a rice rocket.

"My MHL adapter mirrors everything and charges directly from the wall."

They ALL do, LOL. As impressive a background as you have on the EVO 3D and in MHL testing - you missed the point of the thread. The issue is in charge rate because not all adapters and not all chargers allow you to charge at the same rate. Impulses has already lectured you - so I won't repeat the details about AC charging versus USB charging - even if it's from "the wall", LOL.

---------- Post added at 07:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ----------

Rather than carry on with the inane discussion above I decided to test my particular MHL adapter, the one sold by T-Mobile... I'm using Battery Monitor Widget and a beefy Monoprice HDMI cable btw. Here's what I've found:

A) It clearly states "Charging (USB)" under About phone/Battery, which means the phone WILL NOT charge at full speed when plugged in via MHL... At least with this adapter. USB charging usually means the phone is getting a max of 0.5A from the port (which is what you'd get from a PC's port), which is half what you'll get from the stock HTC charger or any other 1A charger.

B) With the phone completely idle, while connected to Wifi and with the screen turned on but at low brightness (30%-ish) I usually see a power draw of around -250mA. (ideal conditions really) Any time I plug my phone into the stock charger with any microUSB cable I've tested it jumps up to anywhere between +750mA and +800mA, e.g. max charging rate of 1A minus the existing draw of 250mA-ish. When plugged into the MHL adapter with the same charger/cable I see around +150mA, so technically it's charging but it's not even charging at 0.5A (more like 0.4A), it's charging very slowly basically.

C) Playing Green Hornet under the same ideal conditions (Wifi on, brightness low, no streaming) I'm seeing a draw of like -10mA or just under that, so it's DISCHARGING albeit very very slowly. Basically it's discharging at a negligible rate, slower than it'd discharge in your pocket while waking around and pinging different 3G towers.

D) Finally I tried a little Youtube streaming with a 10 min. clip (linked below) which seemingly resulted in an ever increasing power draw which peaked at -380mA (literally it kept using more and more power as the clip played, the Battery Widget graph was a sharp downward sloped line). It's still not discharging THAT fast (about as fast as normal Wifi web browsing would discharge it) but it's discharging at a pretty good clip nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75OuhWQ87w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The takeaway from all this is that MHL is hardly ideal, at least with the adapter I've got. Any heavy streaming (Netflix etc) will discharge your phone at a decent pace and if you intend to watch a full length movie I'd resort to some of the measures mentioned before (airplane mode, low brightness, etc.). The MHL/HDMI adapter wasn't really looking all that great to begin with because having the adapter hanging from your phone with two cables hanging from the adapter itself is pretty awkward imo, I'd rather just use my tablet for this kinda thing since it has a much beefier battery.

Now if anyone has any MHL adapters that report "Charging (AC)" when connected, that'd be a different story, since it'd mean at least double the charge rate which should be enough to keep up with basic Wifi streaming (4G might be a different story).

Now I'm curious whether TVs with actual MHL ports supply 0.5A thru MHL cables or whether they do 1A, MHL looked like a great long term single cable solution that eliminates the need for all these adapters (with future TVs), but it's gonna fail if it maxes out at 0.5A. Hopefully it's just a problem with these adapters (which themselves seem to require about 0.1A)

---------- Post added at 04:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 AM ----------

Some quick Google-fu revealed some bad news... The MHL spec itself seems to be a signaling spec and isn't necessarily attached to any single connector type, sorta how Thunderbolt is currently being implemented via Displayport copper cables but may move to fiber optic cables in the future. So there's room for change. The bad news is this tidbit:

"Operation of the mobile device in MHL mode while 5 volts and 500 mA of power are simultaneously provided from an HDTV or other CE device"

So yeah... Dunno what genius thought this up, but as currently implemented it's gonna fall short when used on modern smartphones. That quote's from Silicon Image, maybe LiquidSolstice can clue us in on the reasoning behind the 0.5A limit since he's done work for them... It seems woefully inadequate from a user perspective tho.

SI was only one of half a dozen companies in the MHL consortium that developed the spec btw (Samsung, Sony, etc are in it too). It's possible they stayed within standard USB 2.0 limits for power supply to retain compatibility with cameras and other devices, hard to say, the same blurb quoted above can be found at the MHL Consortium site. Good old microHDMI is looking a lot better right now...

Thanks! Now that's perfectly useful information. Like I said, other users reported that the T-Mobile adapter was charging their phone no matter what - so it's nice to get real data, even if it says otherwise.

If people with other branded adapters can run this test - we can probably confirm that all MHL adapters charge the phone equally poorly.
 
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Impulses

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May 19, 2010
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I'm running a stock EVO 3D ATM, and the browser plus other apps were probably open in the background... Like i said in the previous post, playing Green Hornet my phone was right on the borderline of not discharging at all, plus it also shows the battery icon for charging whenever the MHL adapter is pligged in, it'd be very easy for others to see this and mistake it for a net positive charge.

In that state it's actually discharging slow enough that you could probably play several full length movies without trouble (locally stored movies that is). It's also possible that a custom kernel and/or other local file types (besides Green Hornet) might require just a little bit less power, thus allowing for a very slow charge... I don't ever see that happening while streaming tho.

I can test a few other scenarios if someone wants, tho I should probably find a downloadable clip others can also acquire so testing is repeatable... Technically and electrically speaking I don't see why someone can't build an MHL adapter that passes thru the full 1A from the charger (or close), however I have a feeling all of them are currently built off the same design/spec, and it seems actual MHL ports are equally ill fated.
 
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P0ll0L0c0

Senior Member
Jun 6, 2008
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I'm running a stock EVO 3D ATM, and the browser plus other apps were probably open in the background... Like i said in the previous post, playing Green Hornet my phone was right on the borderline of not discharging at all, plus it also shows the battery icon for charging whenever the MHL adapter is pligged in, it'd be very easy for others to see this and mistake it for a net positive charge.

In that state it's actually discharging slow enough that you could probably play several full length movies without trouble (locally stored movies that is). It's also possible that a custom kernel and/or other local file types (besides Green Hornet) might require just a little bit less power, thus allowing for a very slow charge... I don't ever see that happening while streaming tho.

I can test a few other scenarios if someone wants, tho I should probably find a downloadable clip others can also acquire so testing is repeatable... Technically and electrically speaking I don't see why someone can't build an MHL adapter that passes thru the full 1A from the charger (or close), however I have a feeling all of them are currently built off the same design/spec, and it seems actual MHL ports are equally ill fated.

I have gotten the same results as you within 50mah for charging and discharging - and I'm using the monoprice adapter. I was starting to think that the TMobile adapter was charging better - even based on some of the comments on this thread. But your testing seems to prove out that most current MHL adapters charge the same way. Which is a shame. Hopefully others will test and report back.

That said - I had estimated that I could go for 10 hours using movies on my microsd card. It's just disappointing that streaming music or video isn't any better.
 

LiquidSolstice

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 17, 2008
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As it turns out, I owe you guys an apology. I spoke too soon.

The reason why I'm getting the full level charge is that the MHL adapter I'm using is still an unbranded prototype that I still have from testing. (I can take pictures but it literally says nothing except MHL on the MicroUSB side)

I also own an official HTC adapter (http://www.amazon.com/OEM-HTC-HDMI-Adapter-Sensation/dp/B005E5MPBS) and upon testing it, my battery was still draining while watching 42-minute tv show.

That is certainly unfortunate, I don't understand why this didn't make it into the retail adapters.

However, on the positive side, it may interest you to know that the roadmap for MHL involves its incorporation into monitors, TVs, and AV receivers, so that soon, you won't need a separate charging cord and from what I'm told, they should charge at the proper mA rate.

Again, I am willing to admit when I've made a mistake. That being said, MHL is certainly something great to have and I would still get the adapter if I were you.
 

P0ll0L0c0

Senior Member
Jun 6, 2008
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As it turns out, I owe you guys an apology. I spoke too soon.

The reason why I'm getting the full level charge is that the MHL adapter I'm using is still an unbranded prototype that I still have from testing. (I can take pictures but it literally says nothing except MHL on the MicroUSB side)

I also own an official HTC adapter (http://www.amazon.com/OEM-HTC-HDMI-Adapter-Sensation/dp/B005E5MPBS) and upon testing it, my battery was still draining while watching 42-minute tv show.

That is certainly unfortunate, I don't understand why this didn't make it into the retail adapters.

However, on the positive side, it may interest you to know that the roadmap for MHL involves its incorporation into monitors, TVs, and AV receivers, so that soon, you won't need a separate charging cord and from what I'm told, they should charge at the proper mA rate.

Again, I am willing to admit when I've made a mistake. That being said, MHL is certainly something great to have and I would still get the adapter if I were you.

Apology accepted, and I'm sorry I went off on you. I got carried away.

Well - now we know the monoprice, T-Mobile, and HTC adapters all behave the same way. Which is good - but disappointing at the same time.
 

Impulses

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May 19, 2010
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It's all good LiquidSolstice, at least knowing that prototype adapter exists and does 1A confirms my theory that there's absolutely no reason the adapters (and in the future, TVs themselves) can't be built to pass on the full current from the charger... Existing adapters, and even the MHL Consortium's PR materials, are just using 0.5A for whatever reason but hopefully that'll change; even devices that only need 0.5A would work fine with 1A tho, the device's circuitry just uses what it needs.

I do agree that long term MHL is a great solution, the fact that they designed it as a signaling spec is great as it allows for these kinda changes to the charging part (or even future connection changes)... If anything it's HTC/Samsung that jumped the gun and implemented it too early imo. I guess this was gonna happen one way or the other tho, it's a chicken/egg thing, someone has to jump in first and implement it for the rest to follow.

Right now most people would be better off with microHDMI but it's entirely possible that by the time people find themselves upgrading their current phones MHL will have started to gain traction, last I heard Samsung was releasing MHL equipped TVs at year's end. I imagine using MHL also simplifies the phone's internal build, I'm surprised Moto hasn't been using it because of that alone (does the new super thin RAZR have any form of video out?).
 
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Ok, with my HTC wall adaptor, HTC micro usb cable, and T-Mobile MHL adaptor, my phone shows "usb charging" instead of AC. It does still charge my phone though when streaming through Netflix, that's why I assumed it was ac charging. Oh well, as long as its charging and not losing battery life, I don't care what it shows or says about charging....

Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
 

Impulses

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May 19, 2010
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Ok, with my HTC wall adaptor, HTC micro usb cable, and T-Mobile MHL adaptor, my phone shows "usb charging" instead of AC. It does still charge my phone though when streaming through Netflix, that's why I assumed it was ac charging. Oh well, as long as its charging and not losing battery life, I don't care what it shows or says about charging....

Are you sure it's charging? Read some of my previous posts... Just because it says it's charging doesn't mean it's not actually spending power faster than it's charging. I don't see how you could possibly stream Netflix while using less than 0.5A of power (USB charge rate), the phone uses half that just idling with the screen on.

You can download Battery Monitor Widget (it's much more than a widget) to find out for sure, if the fourth number on the right is red and negative then you're not actually charging (more like discharging at a slower pace)... Could also look at battery %s but it's a more sloppy way of figuring it out.
 
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Impulses

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May 19, 2010
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I never said it was impossible, just unlikely depending on what you're doing. I did say a combination of settings/kernels and/or less taxing content could allow for a positive charge.

Netflix streaming must be less taxing than Youtube or even local playback of Green Hornet for what you're saying be possible, and I'd love to figure out why. I'm not doubting you right now btw, just trying to get more info, I canceled Netflix so I can't test that.

Lemme ask you this, does Netflix allow you to turn off the phone's screen while playing back thru MHL? That could very well account for the difference we're seeing, the phone's native player wouldn't allow it while playing Green Hornet and with Youtube the screen remained on as well to display playback controls.

P.S. You're still charging like 8-10x slower than the normal rate off the charger, but that's still better than the borderline non-charge I saw with Green Hornet, I didn't think that clip's DRM and whatever other crap it's got going on would make much of a difference buy I guess it does.

I'll try some other local content later, maybe pick up a Hulu trial, anyone know of a player that will allow you to continue playback thru MHL with the screen off? Guess I oughta try 0 brightness too.
 
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willfck4beer

Senior Member
Oct 18, 2007
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Thanks for the Battery Monitor Widget info! I had initially rejected off the cuff as a simple pretty widget... awesome to know there's something out there that reports actual ma usage. Appreciate it!

FWIW, Netflix does seem much less demanding than say HBO GO app...
for acceptable framerate/lack of sluggishness, my evo3d only needed to have 647MHZ ish set as max in set cpu for netflix (BTW doesn't have an option to turn of screen while HDMI playback as far as I can tell); whereas the HBO Go app required something on the order of 900ish MHz to not stutter.
 

Impulses

Senior Member
May 19, 2010
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Interesting, I'll check out what speed the CPU is running at with Youtube and other local content later... Could be Netflix is just vastly more efficient, I can see how higher quality local media and/or background DRM could push for higher utilization with GH (and the Youtube app always seemed like a hog to me, it behaves better on the 3D than my old EVO 4G but still...).
 

givemelove

Member
Mar 14, 2007
26
0
Hey Guys,

First off, I'd like to thank you for your input on MHL in this thread; I was able to learn more in 5mins than browsing through the net.

I recently acquired a Galaxy Nexus and a MHL Adapter from Monoprice. Although the combination works like a charm on my TV, with the MHL Adapter plugged in my wall AC Adapter, I still fail to understand how it determines the power source is an AC Adapter vs something else.

Here's my objective and here are a couple things I've attempted:
The objective is to be able to mirror the screen of my GNext onto my car nav monitor (All the car-related parts are there and tested already).
I do have a dual USB Car adapter (Monoprice) and one of those external battery blocks which can charge at 2Amps as well from monoprice.

Here are also a couple tests performed:
Tweaked USB Cable = Cable with D- and D+ shorted together

1 - AC Wall adapter + MHL Adapter + Standard USB cable = Success (AC Charging)
2 - Power Cube + MHL Adapter + Standard USB cable = Failure (no charge reported)
3 - Car Adapter + MHL Adapter + Standard USB cable = Failure (No charge reported)
4 - Power Cube + Standard USB Cable = Success (USB Charging)
5 - Car Adapter + Standard USB Cable = Success (USB Charging)
6 - Power Cube + Tweaked USB Cable = Success (AC Charging)
7 - Car Adapter + Tweaked USB Cable = Success (AC Charging)
8 - AC Wall adapter + Tweaked USB Cable = Success (AC Charging)
9 - Power Cube + MHL Adapter + Tweaked USB cable = Failure (no charge reported)
10 - Car Adapter + MHL Adapter + Tweaked USB cable = Failure (no charge reported)

At this point, I don't see any additional tests I can perform and I still fail to understand why the MHL Adapter (Which requirement per the doc is:
An audio/video equipment with 5 volts and 500 ma, continue to provide power for portable devices and charging
)wouldn't work with either the Battery pack or the Car charger (which can both deliver up to 2Amps).

Would any of you be able to point me to the right direction to make this work?

Thanks for reading.
 

Impulses

Senior Member
May 19, 2010
267
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Guaynabo
Those other chargers don't have the proper pins shorted so they appear to the phone/mhl adapter as if you had the phone plugged into a PC's port, common issue, not hard to fix.
 

givemelove

Member
Mar 14, 2007
26
0
Thanks for your response, Impulses,

I did try to short the pins at the cable level during my tests; That should have done the trick; but I'm no expert on the subject.

Would you happen to know a model that has these pins already shorted?

Thanks much,
 

Impulses

Senior Member
May 19, 2010
267
23
Guaynabo
Thanks for your response, Impulses,

I did try to short the pins at the cable level during my tests; That should have done the trick; but I'm no expert on the subject.

Would you happen to know a model that has these pins already shorted?

Thanks much,

Hmm, I glossed over the fact that you tested with a shorted cable... That should've done the trick but I still can't imagine what else it could be. What kinda charger are you looking for exactly? I stopped bothering with tracking down properly shorted car chargers so now I just get whichever cheap charger I like and I short it at the charger level (never wanted to short a cable I might later confuse and screw something up with it).

I do have an Banker portable battery pack (5600mAh, $33 on AMZ) that does 1A without any mods, I can test it with my MHL adapter or whatever if you need. Just because a charger can do 2A doesn't mean it always will supply that tho (depending on the connection).

There may be something about the MP adapter that I'm overlooking too, I'm surprised it can identify itself as an AC charging adapter... My T-Mobile MHL adapter always showed up as USB charging which was my biggest issue with it. I'm rather confused now, I think the Thunder's loss has left me in a daze. :p
 

bignibb

Senior Member
Jul 14, 2010
656
131
I just picked up a DLNA adapter and I have two mhl adapters, one is the T-mobile version and the other is the offical htc Sprint version. I'm looking to sell these to someone that may be interested.

Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
 

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    got Monoprice MHL to charge last night while streaming

    Took quite a bit of tinkering, but finally got positive charging (albeit not much) while streaming Battle of Midway from Netflix and the Wire from HBO GO last night. Using WTSB 1.9 rom and Monoprice MHL adapter.

    What I had to do was:
    -Airplane Mode;
    -Turn on Wifi;
    -Turn off account sync;
    -Taskmanager to kill off everything but netflix;
    -Use SetCPU to underclock to (648ishMHZ for netflix) or (900ishMHZ for HBO GO);
    -Covedesign app to turn off button backlights;
    -Covedesign app to go to backlight "blink" and disabled blink (like jumping rope) just at the right time for the backlight to stay off (may have to do this several times)(though this makes it damn hard to interact with phone unless you have bt mouse or keyboard - if not, may just want to turn brightness down as far as you can get);

    My setup:
    Evo3d streaming via wifi from iSpot 4G Clear device, outputting via MHL to optoma pk201 pico projector, with stock charger+usb, and audio via MHL/HDMI to pico projector.

    Comment:
    Netflix ROCKS (wonder why no stock landscape UI though)!!! Great streaming, no hiccups; HBO GO, on the other hand, (while AMAZING selection) constantly drops out to "Audio only stream, connect to stronger network or wifi for video", stutters, ... all kinds of crap and this is on a pretty regular 6mbps 4G Clear iSpot!

    ---------- Post added at 01:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 PM ----------

    BTW, anyone know of an app that lets you monitor your total mA usage live?
    like a graphing app or anything?
    There used to be a great one for WM6 that showed, for example 400milliamps with screen on, and 200milliamps with screen off and graphed it over time.

    I keep getting pissed off with these phones; can anyone help me (I've been searching for years and can't find answers) mind you, I'm coming from the x51v wm6.5.3; PalmTX; Sammy Omnia...
    -Why can't we turn off the backlight to the screen?
    -Why can't we MANUALLY rotate to landscape or portrait? (I know you can manually engage or disengage the AUTOmatic rotation feature)
    -(maybe this does exist) Why can't we get readings on how many mA we are using?
    It just seems like the x51v from 2002 was so much more advanced and customizable, seems like we are re-creating the wheel over and over again.
    Sorry for the rant.
    1
    Rather than carry on with the inane discussion above I decided to test my particular MHL adapter, the one sold by T-Mobile... I'm using Battery Monitor Widget and a beefy Monoprice HDMI cable btw. Here's what I've found:

    A) It clearly states "Charging (USB)" under About phone/Battery, which means the phone WILL NOT charge at full speed when plugged in via MHL... At least with this adapter. USB charging usually means the phone is getting a max of 0.5A from the port (which is what you'd get from a PC's port), which is half what you'll get from the stock HTC charger or any other 1A charger.

    B) With the phone completely idle, while connected to Wifi and with the screen turned on but at low brightness (30%-ish) I usually see a power draw of around -250mA. (ideal conditions really) Any time I plug my phone into the stock charger with any microUSB cable I've tested it jumps up to anywhere between +750mA and +800mA, e.g. max charging rate of 1A minus the existing draw of 250mA-ish. When plugged into the MHL adapter with the same charger/cable I see around +150mA, so technically it's charging but it's not even charging at 0.5A (more like 0.4A), it's charging very slowly basically.

    C) Playing Green Hornet under the same ideal conditions (Wifi on, brightness low, no streaming) I'm seeing a draw of like -10mA or just under that, so it's DISCHARGING albeit very very slowly. Basically it's discharging at a negligible rate, slower than it'd discharge in your pocket while waking around and pinging different 3G towers.

    D) Finally I tried a little Youtube streaming with a 10 min. clip (linked below) which seemingly resulted in an ever increasing power draw which peaked at -380mA (literally it kept using more and more power as the clip played, the Battery Widget graph was a sharp downward sloped line). It's still not discharging THAT fast (about as fast as normal Wifi web browsing would discharge it) but it's discharging at a pretty good clip nonetheless.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75OuhWQ87w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    The takeaway from all this is that MHL is hardly ideal, at least with the adapter I've got. Any heavy streaming (Netflix etc) will discharge your phone at a decent pace and if you intend to watch a full length movie I'd resort to some of the measures mentioned before (airplane mode, low brightness, etc.). The MHL/HDMI adapter wasn't really looking all that great to begin with because having the adapter hanging from your phone with two cables hanging from the adapter itself is pretty awkward imo, I'd rather just use my tablet for this kinda thing since it has a much beefier battery.

    Now if anyone has any MHL adapters that report "Charging (AC)" when connected, that'd be a different story, since it'd mean at least double the charge rate which should be enough to keep up with basic Wifi streaming (4G might be a different story).

    Now I'm curious whether TVs with actual MHL ports supply 0.5A thru MHL cables or whether they do 1A, MHL looked like a great long term single cable solution that eliminates the need for all these adapters (with future TVs), but it's gonna fail if it maxes out at 0.5A. Hopefully it's just a problem with these adapters (which themselves seem to require about 0.1A)

    ---------- Post added at 04:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 AM ----------

    Some quick Google-fu revealed some bad news... The MHL spec itself seems to be a signaling spec and isn't necessarily attached to any single connector type, sorta how Thunderbolt is currently being implemented via Displayport copper cables but may move to fiber optic cables in the future. So there's room for change. The bad news is this tidbit:

    "Operation of the mobile device in MHL mode while 5 volts and 500 mA of power are simultaneously provided from an HDTV or other CE device"

    So yeah... Dunno what genius thought this up, but as currently implemented it's gonna fall short when used on modern smartphones. That quote's from Silicon Image, maybe LiquidSolstice can clue us in on the reasoning behind the 0.5A limit since he's done work for them... It seems woefully inadequate from a user perspective tho.

    SI was only one of half a dozen companies in the MHL consortium that developed the spec btw (Samsung, Sony, etc are in it too). It's possible they stayed within standard USB 2.0 limits for power supply to retain compatibility with cameras and other devices, hard to say, the same blurb quoted above can be found at the MHL Consortium site. Good old microHDMI is looking a lot better right now...