Looking at these on Amazon, I see the following warning: does this still apply to streaming like Netflix? Or have you found it will mirror the phone/iPad regardless?
this HDMI Digital AV Connector is compatible with YouTube, IDMB, Quickflix, Family On TV, ABC, NBC, FOX, Microsoft Office, and videos saved on your iPhone. But NOT compatible with Netflix, Amazon video, HBO go, HULU, SKY Q, Honda motor, and some APPs which have “HDCP” video copyrights protection.
Huh! I don’t remember ever seeing that warning (I bought the converter quite some time ago), but it could definitely explain something I started noticing in the past 1-2 years: a show I’m watching will suddenly just stop playing, ~10-20 minutes in. I’m able to restart the playback, but it always stops again. It’s annoying enough that the last couple times I traveled I didn’t even bother bringing the converter.
I’d been low-key scratching my head about this for a while now…thank you!! I assumed the converter had started malfunctioning, but couldn’t find a newer/different one. I might give it a try sometime with YouTube/content that’s been downloaded to my iPad, just to confirm.
Just buy a large (85" or bigger" smart tv). You can download any streaming app onto the TV itself and log into your account and watch to your hearts desire.
We cut the cord about 2 years ago. Gave up a 20 year DirecTv subscription that I was ultimately paying over $250 a month for. Subscribed to YouTube TV for $75 a month including all of the sports channels I want. Have Prime, Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount, Apple TV and Max and are still paying less than we did with DirecTV. Everything connected through our internet connection, which we already had. No boxes, no cables, all done wirelessly.
This.
The “sticks” are ways to retrofit smartness (really streamingness) onto pre-smart TVs. And oh by the way a way for that stick manufacturer to get some sweet sweet saleable data on what you watch.
Nowadays you’d be hard pressed to even buy a new non-smart TV.
My rig consists of a new smart Samsung TV and a new Sony DVD player connected with 1 HDMI cable. That’s it. Everything else is wireless.
The one thing that’s annoying is that, a bit like HP printers taking over your PC, the Sony DVD player desperately wants me to use it as a smart streaming box just feeding a dumb video signal to the TV.
Spare me you overweening droplet o’ silicon.
Why is that? So Sony gets the saleable data on what I’m watching instead of Samsung. Of course Google is also watching me carefully regardless of what I do since they’re both Android devices under the hood. I’m not overjoyed at the situation, but I’ve come to admit that resistance is indeed futile.
I suppose the point of this mini-rant is that it becomes easy to have multiple smart boxes attached to your smart TV. My solution / advice is to choose one device (I chose the TV itself) as the only device with any apps installed. Treat all the others as traditional dumb video sources. Otherwise you get into the mode of “To watch YouTube I turn on the TV and use its remote. To watch Netflix I turn on the DVD player and use its remote. To watch Disney I turn on the Roku and use its remote. To watch …”
That way lies madness IMO.
Yes. Projectors are still widely manufactured for home use.
Projectors are very much still a thing for home theatre enthusiasts.
Panels become a extremely expensive once you get past 100”. If you want the full cinematic experience at home you really want an image of the order of 140” or even more. This becomes even more so when watching 2.4:1 content. Audio works better if the speakers are behind an acoustically transparent screen.
Projectors using DLP can be quite cheap, albeit with intrinsic contrast limitations. Projectors based on liquid crystal on silicon are a step up and in the right room provide a very high quality image. And do so starting at similar prices to a good panel TV, and go on up to stratospheric prices. Epson, Sony, JVC, Christie.
The various forums discussing projectors have long running threads bemoaning the imminent end of projectors, but it so far has failed to happen.