EZCast aka Miracast dongle vs Chromecast (discussion, similarities and differences)

recDNA · Jun 30, 2014

But you said it lags?

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

styndall · Jun 30, 2014

Mine lags only if my phone is more than 10 feet from the receiver dongle for my Tronsmart using EZcast. Otherwise it is flawless.

Edit: And also if there isn't a direct line of sight to the dongle (i.e. wall separating line of sight or furniture in the way or phone buried in something.

recDNA · Jun 30, 2014

And this 9 foot no lag region includes streaming movies from. Internet in mirror mode at 1080p?

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

styndall · Jul 3, 2014

Yes in mirror mode streaming things from internet. I don't know whether it is 1080 or not though. If you can tell me how to check I will look for you

tacopicante123 · Jul 3, 2014

Note 3 - EZCast or Trosmart T1000?

Hey guys I have a Note 3 and am interested to know which of these 2 options is better for streaming movies from my file explorer onto my TV... I just want to be able to watch these movies that I usually watch with VLC Player and want them to look good and not get choppy. Thanks.

bhiga · Jul 3, 2014

tacopicante123 said:
Hey guys I have a Note 3 and am interested to know which of these 2 options is better for streaming movies from my file explorer onto my TV... I just want to be able to watch these movies that I usually watch with VLC Player and want them to look good and not get choppy. Thanks.

The keys here are

Are movies all stored on your device?
Are your movies in a format and compression type that can be played by other players, or are they in format/compression that only specific players can play? In other words, can the native Gallery player play them?

recDNA · Jul 3, 2014

bhiga said:
The keys here are

Are movies all stored on your device?

Are your movies in a format and compression type that can be played by other players, or are they in format/compression that only specific players can play? In other words, can the native Gallery player play them?

No, these cannot be played in any way except directly through xfinity player in the internet. I believ they use flash player. They are not on my device. That is why I keep saying I need to mirror my dv8p

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

bhiga · Jul 4, 2014

recDNA said:
No, these cannot be played in any way except directly through xfinity player in the internet. I believ they use flash player. They are not on my device. That is why I keep saying I need to mirror my dv8p

Ahh, got it.
Well in that case I'd lean toward a dongle designed for Miracast mirroring for now.
Once there's a public release of the Chromecast Android mirroring you can see what people say.
I suspect performance will vary by device due to resolutions and CPU power, but moreover because some devices have on-board hardware encoders that if used, should provide a very smooth mirroring experience.

recDNA · Jul 4, 2014

My device is a dell venue 8 pro which is to say the least NOT powerful. Only 2 gb ram with atom processor. Before spending money I was hoping someone with exactly this setup could comment on watch ability. Even better if they also use verizon on demand to watch commercial tv like HBO, STARZ etc through the internet.

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

bhiga · Jul 4, 2014

recDNA said:
My device is a dell venue 8 pro which is to say the least NOT powerful. Only 2 gb ram with atom processor. Before spending money I was hoping someone with exactly this setup could comment on watch ability. Even better if they also use verizon on demand to watch commercial tv like HBO, STARZ etc through the internet.

Hmm... Support on x86 Android may not be as good or even exist.

For your purposes I'd seriously look at an Android TV stick which is essentially a full Android device that has TV output, rather than trying to trying to mirror from a low-horsepower device. Yes, it's another remote or input device though I bet they have some network-based controls.

EZCast might fill this requirement, but I'm not familiar enough with it to know.

At least a TV stick would be doing the work on its own rather than doubling up on the compression, decompression and network utilization as happens in a mirroring scenario.

Given that the Google I/O announcement had the Galaxy S4, which is significantly more powerful than my Galaxy S3, at the lower end, I'm guessing the Android screen mirroring still requires some amount of CPU usage. Also, I'm not sure those specs were listed with the idea of mirroring CPU-intensive video playback.

recDNA · Jul 4, 2014

My DV8P is Windows 8.1

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

bhiga · Jul 4, 2014

recDNA said:
My DV8P is Windows 8.1

Oh, geez, LOL! Sorry, I had my head stuck in Android...

Okay... In that case, yeah, it's not going to work well for Chromecast simply because you'd have to use Chrome Tab or Desktop casting and that will chew up your CPU time, causing much lag and a very unpleasant viewing experience.

I strongly suspect the same will hold for EZcast, because in both cases what's happening is...

Compressed video arrives from Internet
CPU decompresses video, possibly with some hardware assistance, to put on screen
CPU compresses screen image to Chromecast or Miracast-friendly compression
Recompressed video goes to Chromecast/Miracast device
Chromecast/Miracast device decompresses video to put on screen

It's a lot of CPU burden to both be decompressing the video for local-screen playback and recompress that video to send to Chromecast/Miracast. Chrome desktop/tab mirroring is currently limited to 720p because it's not optimized much (if at all).

If all the apps supported Chromecast, life would be much nicer. For example, HBO GO does support Chromecast (even in Windows Chrome), so what happens is essentially the same as what happens when you watch just on your tablet.

Compressed video arrives from Internet
CPU decompresses video, possibly with some hardware assistance, to put on screen

Boom, done. No extra steps, no extra load on your DV8P.

Unfortunately XfinityTV doesn't seem to work with Chromecast on Windows (or on Android, for that matter

), so unless you can find the shows you want on Chromecast-supporting sites, you might be stuck in the top scenario...
Normally I would recommend a wireless HDMI dongle or even a USB DVI/HDMI/VGA adapter, but it looks like your Venue 8 does not have a HDMI port, and its USB port is not a host (ie, it doesn't support devices, only being plugged into a computer for data transfer).

The larger Venue 11 Pro, has a mini HDMI at least, so it could either go wired to a TV or via a wireless HDMI device.

recDNA · Jul 4, 2014

bhiga said:
Oh, geez, LOL! Sorry, I had my head stuck in Android...

Okay... In that case, yeah, it's not going to work well for Chromecast simply because you'd have to use Chrome Tab or Desktop casting and that will chew up your CPU time, causing much lag and a very unpleasant viewing experience.

I strongly suspect the same will hold for EZcast, because in both cases what's happening is...

Compressed video arrives from Internet

CPU decompresses video, possibly with some hardware assistance, to put on screen

CPU compresses screen image to Chromecast or Miracast-friendly compression

Recompressed video goes to Chromecast/Miracast device

Chromecast/Miracast device decompresses video to put on screen

It's a lot of CPU burden to both be decompressing the video for local-screen playback and recompress that video to send to Chromecast/Miracast. Chrome desktop/tab mirroring is currently limited to 720p because it's not optimized much (if at all).

If all the apps supported Chromecast, life would be much nicer. For example, HBO GO does support Chromecast (even in Windows Chrome), so what happens is essentially the same as what happens when you watch just on your tablet.

Compressed video arrives from Internet

CPU decompresses video, possibly with some hardware assistance, to put on screen

Boom, done. No extra steps, no extra load on your DV8P.

Unfortunately XfinityTV doesn't seem to work with Chromecast on Windows (or on Android, for that matter ), so unless you can find the shows you want on Chromecast-supporting sites, you might be stuck in the top scenario...
Normally I would recommend a wireless HDMI dongle or even a USB DVI/HDMI/VGA adapter, but it looks like your Venue 8 does not have a HDMI port, and its USB port is not a host (ie, it doesn't support devices, only being plugged into a computer for data transfer).

The larger Venue 11 Pro, has a mini HDMI at least, so it could either go wired to a TV or via a wireless HDMI device.

It does support usb on the go so I do use flashbdrive with a usb on the go cable. Pluggable makes a vga/dvi converter that they claim works. The main problem is I might need a powered usb hub because the micro usb provides very little. Power. There are hdmi converters too but I don't want to have to put the dv8p next tonthe tv to plug it in. A wireless solution would be best.

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

bhiga · Jul 4, 2014

recDNA said:
It does support usb on the go so I do use flashbdrive with a usb on the go cable. Pluggable makes a vga/dvi converter that they claim works. The main problem is I might need a powered usb hub because the micro usb provides very little. Power. There are hdmi converters too but I don't want to have to put the dv8p next tonthe tv to plug it in. A wireless solution would be best.

If there's a HDMI output that works, you could do that and feed a wireless HDMI adapter with that.
The DVI/VGA could work too, but the problem is you have no sound, so you'd also have to run an audio cable to your TV.

Trouble is, the wireless HDMI adapter alone is $150+
That much money might be better put toward a laptop or headless PC like an Intel NUC to drive the TV directly, HTPC style.

My current HTPC is an Atom D525 and it's iffy with 1080p streaming Flash playback. Your Z3740D should fare much better, but as your native screen resolution is 1280x800, not sure what resolution the HDMI adapter will put out.

recDNA · Jul 4, 2014

I have a great ultrabook that came with its own adapters. I just wanted to be able to use the dv8p too

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

tacopicante123 · Jul 4, 2014

I don't know if I misunderstood or not.. I am trying to figure out what to buy between the EZCast M2 and the Tronsmart T1000 for miracasting the contents of my Note 3 onto my Vizio HDTV. The files are in mkv format which are totally playable in VLC Player, and I currently use an MHL to HDMI adapter to play on my TV with no lag. I just want to know which of the two dongles are better with the Note 3 so I can make my final decision to buy them online. I am just tired of having the cable dangle from my TV and prefer to have my phone wirelessly mirror the files... Please let me know if that makes sense. Thanks again for your help!

recDNA said:
No, these cannot be played in any way except directly through xfinity player in the internet. I believ they use flash player. They are not on my device. That is why I keep saying I need to mirror my dv8p

Sent from my Hyperdriven Note 3

bhiga · Jul 4, 2014

tacopicante123 said:
I don't know if I misunderstood or not.. I am trying to figure out what to buy between the EZCast M2 and the Tronsmart T1000 for miracasting the contents of my Note 3 onto my Vizio HDTV. The files are in mkv format which are totally playable in VLC Player, and I currently use an MHL to HDMI adapter to play on my TV with no lag. I just want to know which of the two dongles are better with the Note 3 so I can make my final decision to buy them online. I am just tired of having the cable dangle from my TV and prefer to have my phone wirelessly mirror the files... Please let me know if that makes sense. Thanks again for your help!

Chromecast won't natively play MKVs, and even if it did it still depends what compression is being used within the MKV.

If it's a Galaxy Note 3, the best solution would be the Samsung AllShare Cast Wireless Hub as it'll use the native AllShare Cast functionality and give you exactly what you're getting now from your MHL adapter - except wirelessly. I see them online for just a tad more than Chromecast.

tacopicante123 · Jul 8, 2014

Note 3 Miracast Dongle - Best Option?

Hey I appreciate all the comments! I am narrowing my choices to the Tronsmart T1000 or the EZCast miracast dongles... I own the Note 3 and just want to know which one offers the least lag while streaming movies from my phone via mirror mode to my Vizio HDTV. I appreciate any help you guys can provide me.

alucardbcn · Jul 12, 2014

Mirroring mode ezcast/xiaomi mi3

Hi i buy an ezcast dongle and it runs perfect with my Xiaomi mi3 but i cannot use mirroring mode, any program or idea to do this?? Thanks in advance.

Solved i dont know if its x the last actualization of zcast or i tried with wlan display and connects it in mirror mode plays good

bhiga · Jul 12, 2014

Not to add confusion but now that r3pwn's put out the experimental MirrorEnabler, Android Screen Mirroring on Chromecast may be an option for some. Works great on my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S3 on rooted 4.4.2
Check the officially supported devices first, of course, in case you don't even need MirrorEnabler.
Performance is quite good and IMO if works better for streaming Internet content than AllShare Cast (I recently got an AllShare Wireless Hub).

EZCast aka Miracast dongle vs Chromecast (discussion, similarities and differences)

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