Tablet to TV

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

dad2taylor

Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
My wife and I download a bunch of content to our tablets and then watch them later.  We would like to somehow view the stuff on our tablets on the larger screen of a TV via some means (HDMI cable??) that does not use WIFI data.  I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A and am trying to watch on a Samsung TV.  The Galaxy Tab A does not have an HDMI cable.  I bought an adapter that goes from the Galaxy port to a female HDMI and then from there I used a regular HDMI cable to hook up the tablet and the TV.  I cannot get this to work.  I followed all the instructions I could find online with no success.  One of the places online I went to suggested that the Tab A may not be able to perform this function.  I have way more money than technological patience and don't mind buying the right hardware.

Questions:

Do some tablets work while others do not?

Does anybody have a combo tablet/TV that works for them?  If yes what hardware are you using?
 
I don't know about a tab a but my tab e can share to a tv using Smart View. I have a roku box hooked to my tv that allows it but the other brands along with smart tv's might have something similar that is smart view capable. Tap the share tab for your file and there should be a listing for smart view or beam to tv.

Sent from my SM-T560NU using Tapatalk
 
I have an iPad.  There are several versions of the iPad and each has a different connector, but I’ve found a connector for each version that I’ve had that converts to an HDMI port.  I have several videos on my iPad storage and can watch them on the TV via the connector to the HDMI port.
 
My old RCA tablet has a mini HDMI port that plugs into the HDMI port on my Samsung tv or my Trexonic tv. Works fine.
 
There are several devices comparable to the Roku, usually used for streaming.
 
Hi, I have a Android Samsung Tablet with Samsung's Smart View feature.  I also have a Samsung WiFi Tv.  It's tricky to use.  Both the Tablet and the TV have to be on the same network.  (Input suggestion here...  You said you don't want to  use Wifi Data, can you use a router?  )  I have my TV connected to  the Cable Box Ethernet and the Tablet on WiFi.  It's tricky to use.  With both the TV on and the Tablet on I bring the Menu Tab down by sliding my finger from the top of the Tablet and tap on the Smart View Icon.  It opens a window with anything in view that it can connect to.  If my TV is on but not showing on the list, I turn my TV off and back on and it discovers the TV.  I click on the TV name, then another box opens on the TV asking me to give it permission to Connect.  Then the TV displays whatever is on my Tablet.
The Samsung Copyright infringement warnings can display if you try to send video from a third part, like netflix...  Sometimes.  

I also have a Android Acer Tablet that uses Google's Cast feature. (Same as Samsung Smart View, but Google's name Cast)  It also has trouble playing Copyrighted videos.  

Good Luck, I use mine alot!  It works well with the Philo program that I have to play on my Tablet then send to the Samsung Smart TV because Samsung doesn't have Philo, yet.

(Waves)
 
I don't have a tab a, but I bought a usb C to HDMI cable and I can connect my Samsung Galaxy phone on my Sharp TV without a wifi connection. I would guess there has to be a way you can do it
 
I use micro SD cards. I loaded up all my old TV shows from the 90's that I used to watch over and over on Netflix and put them on micro SD cards ( either buy them on iTunes or another provider or rip them from the actual DVD's box sets )

From there it's easy... I bought 2 carrier locked phone from some rip-off carriers with crazy plans most people don't want because they are expensive, however they usually sell the phones for a loss or break even point. Long as the phone has a micro SD slot, bluetooth (to pair with a speaker, I have a bluetooth USB speaker that is easy to charge up on my 12V solar system.) and able to connect to wifi/hot spot. Not that it needs wifi, but its good to be able to connect to a hot spot to download software updates and connect to the android store to get software to play the videos files on the Micro SD card.

it's the perfect cheap system and it is very simple. Keep in mind BOTH of my cell phones are apple iphones which I love, it's just they don't have Micros SD slots so watching my shows on them is impossible plus it's nice to have one of my "TV's" playing my shows in the background while I surf the internet on my iphone.

I have a Amazon fire tablet but I had trouble figuring out how to get my shows to play on them.. besides that any android tablet I think would be good to play them as long as you had an Micro SD slot too. it's worth investing into the system. It was a PAIN to get shows on such a format but a few weekends worth of work has payed off in the years since. Plus it has saved my data usage, and has helped me last in places where I had no data at all.

Think long term, make the switch to digital storage like Micro SD it is worth it, at least for me it was 10 fold.
 
There is an app called fire toolbox that can change a Amazon Fire tablet over to a pure Android tablet. It requires a Windows PC to make the changeover but once done you have full access to the Playstore and all apps that will run on Android. It also gets rid of adds and all the other annoying Amazon stuff. BTW VLC is a media player app for Android that'll play just about anything.
 
From my understanding MHL HDMI adapters are not compatible with the Galaxy Tab A. It seems they are pushing towards chrome casting over WiFi which wont really work well for us on to go tethering people.

Do you have a smart phone? Those usually have the capability since the screens are small. I use Samsung Dex for my mirroring on my Note9.
 

Latest posts

Top