How to watch TV

[phideaux]

I know everybody has different tastes when it comes to watching tv.
That's what makes life.
But I quit watching all news , about a week ago, except 6 o'clock local that sucks.

I like old movies and John Wayne . I watch History channel some, and John Wayne.
I do like some sci-fi movies , and John Wayne, some Jimmy Stewart.

I have Dish satellite...it sucks. Same stuff over and over.

I do not have internet or wifi.
No internet available my area .
If I had WiFi there would be lots of choices.

Only internet I have is my TMobile phone , unlimited everything.

I was just thinking about another way to pick and choose what I want to watch , on the big screen.
Has anybody tried one of these ?

I think it will give me hi def to my tv.

I been reading ... Uuuggghhh.
Usb c, micro hdmi, usb 3.1, MHL,

I have the Moto E5+ phone , best I can tell it has the Micro USB.

Anybody doing this with the cable above ?
Or have any other suggestions.

Jim

 

[Amish Heart]

We are very rural and have dish. Limited data around here. A netflix movie may start, but it will freeze up about every 10 minutes. We have a firestick. We have Amazon prime. Sometimes we give up and use my husband's smart phone for a hot spot just to watch something. If husband is streaming Star Trek, I can forget looking at youtube. When the kids are doing at home computer school, forget anything with pictures on my computer. Sometimes I can see "Post a Photo" and sometimes I can't. No company wants to invest much in our area because there's not alot of need for it. Most around here don't have a tv, let alone electricity. I don't watch that much. I can usually get the old shows like you watch, Phideaux without any problem on the regular dish stations, and I like those the best anyway.

 

[hashbrown]

I called Direct TV last week to cancel our service we were paying them $90 per month and mostly watching things on the internet. Direct then in turn gave me the same plan for $42 dollars a month. I don't really think we will be using anything except for the internet for much longer.

 

[phideaux]

I think I could watch you tube movies thru that cable. I can watch them on my phone which is a whopping 5.5" screen.
I could also play music thru the sound system that the tv uses.

It's cheap enough cable.
I just hate order it , then toss it in that garbage.

Jim

 

[phideaux]

I called Direct TV last week to cancel our service we were paying them $90 per month and mostly watching things on the internet. Direct then in turn gave me the same plan for $42 dollars a month. I don't really think we will be using anything except for the internet for much longer.

I been with Dish 30 years and I do that every year. I'm at $56/mo now.
Flexpack.

Same crap over and over.
It sucks.

Jim

 

[Bacpacker]

We use Direct TV. Sounds like I need to give them a call

 

[phideaux]

We use Direct TV. Sounds like I need to give them a call

You gotta threaten to switch or drop them.

Jim

 

[backlash]

You can cast from your phone to a TV no cables needed. It's easy if you have a smart TV bust can be done with a regular TV with a fire stick.
How To Cast To Firestick (Windows/Android, iPhone/Mac 2021)

 

[Meerkat]

I think I could watch you tube movies thru that cable. I can watch them on my phone which is a whopping 5.5" screen.
I could also play music thru the sound system that the tv uses.

It's cheap enough cable.
I just hate order it , then toss it in that garbage.

Jim

I've been uing HDMI cable for years now, hubby said 10 .
It works great for me for all movies on youtube or news websites.

 

[Meerkat]

Last time we had cable was 26 yr ago. We have all the entertainment we need on wifi youtube and HDMI hooked ot Tv. Ofcourse tv had to be HDMI ready.

 

[hashbrown]

We use Direct TV. Sounds like I need to give them a call

It sort of pissed me off that they could have been giving me that deal for the last few years!

 

[phideaux]

You can cast from your phone to a TV no cables needed. It's easy if you have a smart TV bust can be done with a regular TV with a fire stick.
How To Cast To Firestick (Windows/Android, iPhone/Mac 2021)

Yes, but it's a pia to set up bluetooth mirror/cast every time I want to.
And I don't have wifi to get it thru wireless .

I have a Samsung 4k uhd smart tv about 6 years old.

I figger if this cable works all I have to do is switch source on tv. Voila...
Easy ready now see phone.

Jim

 

[Meerkat]

Yes, but it's a pia to set up bluetooth mirror/cast every time I want to.
And I don't have wifi to get it thru wireless .

I have a Samsung 4k uhd smart tv about 6 years old.

I figger if this cable works all I have to do is switch source on tv. Voila...
Easy ready now see phone.

Jim

Our son was telling us to use cloud but if this works don't need anymore learningabout techology.

 

[Meerkat]

My keyboard keys keep sticking and adding extra letters so excuse please.Sometimes I can edit it but ssometimes its best to leave it alone.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Usb c

Is the plug on your phone USB C? Reason I ask is the pic you posted is USB/HDMI.

 

[phideaux]

My phone is Micro USB .
That's what the one in picture is suppose to , according to description.


Jim

 

[Curmudgeon]

Yeah, I don't know when they switched them up, it may be.

The pic above shows the two, USB C on the left and USB on the right. Compare it to your phone charger to be absolutely sure and then order the cord. How well it will work I have no idea. I would think once the Bluetooth was set up it would just be a couple clicks to hook it up.

I need to order an adapter for my borescope, lol.

 

[phideaux]

Heres mine.

USB C is oval corners, USB hdmi is slightly bigger, my phone says micro USB , angled corners, then there Apple.
They changed the connector at some point. My phone is 3 years old and my charger cable will not fit my friends new Samsung.

Crazy.

Jim

 

[Grimm]

I called Direct TV last week to cancel our service we were paying them $90 per month and mostly watching things on the internet. Direct then in turn gave me the same plan for $42 dollars a month. I don't really think we will be using anything except for the internet for much longer.

We cut the cables when we moved last November. We only have internet and use an Amazon fire-stick (replacing with a different device soon) to hook our old-ish tv to the net to watch shows that way.

We were paying about $100 for cable/satellite and another $75 for internet before the move. Now we just pay $50 for internet plus $60 annually for Disney+. We just cancelled our Prime account and Netflix. We have a decent sized dvd collection and plan to subscribe to Blaze Tv next month.

 

[Haertig]

Jim, that is actually "USB micro", not "USB mini". You rarely see USB mini on modern devices.

In order for a cable to work, both your phone and your TV must be "MHL compliant" ("Mobile High-definition Link"). If your TV is not, then you can get an adapter I think. But if you phone is not, then you are out of luck. This is a hardware thing, so a firmware update will not make a non-MHL device into a MHL device.

IIRC correctly, your TV is a Samsung 65" JU7500? Is that correct? I remember it was the next model up from the one I bought, which is the JU7100. I had to throw that in there, because other folks on the forum would be wondering how in the heck I would know what model TV you had! I remember crawling on the floor hooking up audio cables to your TV. Since my JU7100 is indeed MHL compliant, I would assume that you next model up JU7500 would be as well.

As far as your phone goes - I don't know what brand/model you have, so I have no idea if it's MHL compliant.

I do not know if data cables like the example you gave come in MHL and non-MHL varieties. But that's something that you should investigate. Maybe they are all MHL compliant by their nature, maybe they aren't. I just don't know personally (I have no experience with MHL other than knowing the bare basics about it).

Another thing to consider is your T-Mobile service provider. They may indeed have unlimited data, but do they slow down the data transfer rate as you start using more and more? Many companies do exactly this. They can still call it "unlimited", but in actuality it is "unlimited, but slow". You can get apps for your smartphone that test internet speeds. I have one of those on mine named "Speedtest". So you can see how fast your internet connection is over cellular, which is the way you are planning on watching TV. I just checked my phone. Over cellular, my download speed is 46Mbps. Over WiFi is it 118Mbps. And my computers (as opposed to my phone) get 185Mbps. All these are plenty fast enough to watch videos. Overkill actually. Your data over cellular must be fast enough to watch video. It may or may not be in your neck of the woods. And if T-Mobile throttles down your speed as you use more data, that would make things even worse. You might want to call them and check on this. Although they may be very noncommittal in telling you about any throttling - they may just say something useless like "our speeds are fine for the average user".

The ultimate test is to buy a cable and try it. That's probably the only way to know for sure. But if in your initial research you find that your phone is not MHL compliant, there's no use in trying to go any further. You could try other technologies besides a cable (screencast, etc.), but I have a suspicion that you would not be happy with those results. YMMV.

 

[Haertig]

I do not know how accurate or up to date this is, but you can search out your phone at the URL below and see if it's listed as MHL compliant. If it is listed, then no doubt you are good to go. If it's not, that may not mean your are sunk, it just may mean that the data on this website is out of date or not 100% accurate.

https://www.mhltech.org/devices.aspx

 

[phideaux]

Thanks @Haertig ,
you are corrcorrect that my tv is the JU7500.
I did see that there are some of those cables MHL and some not. I think the MHL cables are a little more $.
I will research my phone to see if it's MHL compatible.
Yes TMobile does start throttling the speed after 50 gig ..
I think I have enough speed , because I watch videos and movies on my phone.
Watched an entire basketball game last...it HS boys are infested.

I'll see about my phone.
It's a Moto E5+.

I did edit my previous post to Micro USB.


JIM

 

[Terri9630]

I've used that cable between my phone and tv to watch YouTube and my movies on Vudu. The cable was plugged into the "in" port on the surround sound thing and sent to the tv that way. That thing works like a switch box to go between cable/DVD and Xbox.

 

[Haertig]

OK, I said something not 100% accurate above. My understanding was wrong. If you phone is not MHL compatible, then you can get an adapter for that, contrary to what I said previously.

Here is one such adapter:

http://www.martgreat.com/motorola-moto-e5-plus-mhl-adapter.html
p.s. - I don't know if the website selling this adapter is legit or not. It just popped up when I Googled "Is Moto E5+ MHL compatible". Evidently the phone is not natively compatible, but Google was nice enough to point me to an adapter!

 

[LadyLocust]

Haven’t had TV for 20 years

 

[Haertig]

More potentially useful information:

https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/how-to-connect-android-to-tv
https://www.mobilefun.co.uk/blog/how-to-connect-your-android-device-to-a-tv-mhl-miracast-more/
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2012/08/what-is-mhl-and-why-should-you-care/index.htm
https://www.startech.com/en-us/faq/mhl-compliance

 

[backlash]

I get free HBO through T-Mobile. Might want to check with them.
T-Mobile does slow down your speed once you hit 50 Gig but only if the cell is busy.

This site might help.
How To Quickly Connect Phone To Smart TV Without WIFI

 

[bamadeb48]

I have charter and pay for internet,about 84$ monthly, stream Netflix,

 

[Camalot]

I use the Amazon Firestick. Great tv option, but you do have to have internet to use it. Actually almost all I watch is YouTube. I only have 1 5 o'clock news option local to me but I only watch the weather anyway. Lots of movies with Amazon Prime. I watch lots of YouTube tutorials on homesteading, tractors, bushcraft. You name it it's on there. Love it

 

[UrbanHunter]

We had cable TV and a land line but dropped them about 4 years ago, didn't miss much. We added Prime (actually already had it) and Netflix when we dropped cable. Last week I dropped Netflix, it was just the same thing over and over. Prime is the same, they like to bait and switch; have a free program and advertise programming that they sell to you, we have a code that makes you want to run to the computer if you get the urge to watch anything with a pay.... gives you time to reconsider....

We still have about 500 VCR tapes and DVDs, to be honest if we want to watch a movie, we most likely already have it.....