Compatible devices for video casting / streaming, on Fairphone4

Hi folks, running Iodé 5.2 on Fairphone4. What do I need to cast video/audio to a TV, via a dongle, from both local files and web services? What dongles are compatible: ChromeCast, MiraCast, others? Any special app needed? (Like GoogleHome) I would like to do this without yielding to Google nor compromising privacy, so I guess Chromecast is not and option?
I have read a related topic here, from 2022, but reportedly, via ChromeCast, only casting from VLC was working.
Any experience / info is much appreciated, thank you!

Hello,

If I am not wrong, FP4 has video output so just buy a usb-c to hdmi and it should work :slight_smile:
The problem I have with this kind of setup is the screen resolution which is not the same on FP (21/9) and TV (16/9). Need to test the Desktop mode and Free Form windows in developer options

FYI, I did not know about the desktop mode and I was always using SecondScreen app + TaskBar.
I have now tried Desktop mode + freeform windowing and actually it works very well.

  1. The screen of the phone remains as it is and you can use it.
  2. The external screen got the correct resolution (FHD in my case) with touch control (Asus Zenscreen Touch+Battery) and I can start apps, resize, move windows.
    Only remain drawback as always is not being able to turn phone screen off to save power.
    In my case, video output+usb touch control consume quite a lot of power. I have a notification that my FP5 is recharging the USB device, not the screen since it has a battery and I can control if it charges or not, but the chip in the usb-c DP alt mode cable I guess.
  3. Using usb hub with HDMI+power delivery+… then everything is fine.

Thanks a lot for this info, yay!. I have never used Desktop mode before, nor experience with direct connection phone-screen. At this moment I do not have an USB-C HDMI cable, but as soon as possible I’ll get one and try, and update here.

UPDATE: got a brand new USB-C/HDMI cable (1’8m long, Compatible with Thunderbolt 3). I have tried it with a TV with HDMI input (oldish one), but it has not worked, unfortunately.
Phone notified to be charging. But no screen mirroring happened automatically, nor seemingly I could do anything manually in the phone). At first, the TV kind of seemed to recognize something was connected to HDMI port, but no image came, and shortly went back to the “no signal” notification.

In a few days I will be able to test with other TVs, see what happens.
I believe the functionality should not depend on the particular TV, it just has an HDMI port that receives signal, right?
Could the length be influencing too?

Any help / ideas very much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all!,
Bien testing the brand new cable with several TVs, but could not make it work :frowning:

I am unsure whether it pays off to try other cables, maybe shorter, or rather get a dock set like @diablotin was saying…

Hi,

Well I don’t think the TV has something special, nor the cable. I did not tried directly USB-C to HDMI cable indeed, going with a dock, or usb-c to usb-c with DP alt mode.

If you have a not too old computer with TB3 or usb-c 3.1/2 with DP alt mode then you can try your cable to see if it works. If yes then issue is with FP4… otherwise something else is blocking.

I have tried the new cable with a laptop with USB c DP output, and it works. It doesn’t with my FP4, sadly, been forcing the DesktopMode from developer settings.
I have found this post about the same topic in Fairphone forum: External Display via USB-C port - Fairphone 4 - Fairphone Community Forum

Conclusion seems to be that some cables work and some others don’t. In this case, the working cable was shorter than ones that did not, for who wrote that post.

A dock is another possibility, but I would like to make this not very expensive (but avoiding using Google/Amazn stuff …)

I will keep trying, and update here.