Do you feel frustrated that your smart TV can only support few channels? Would you like to have more content to watch? Should you go with a wireless display adapter/receiver? Read about the pros and cons before making your decision.

In fact, you can determine whether you need to buy a wireless adapter, based on the following three situations:

01 Do you have a smart TV？

First of all, not that traditional TVs can cast screens. So it’s important to check if your TV supports a wireless screen mirroring feature.

When it comes to smart TVs, the first question to ask yourself is if your TV has its own operating system and if you can install some software. Whether it is from the application store that comes with the TV, or can you install third-party software through a USB flash drive.

Otherwise, it may only support screen projection from a certain brand of mobile phone. For example, Sony’s previous TVs can only be use screen mirroring by Sony’s own mobile phones.

If the TV itself doesn’t support screencasting, nor can it install third-party software, you need to continue reading.

02 Set-top box or wireless display adapter？

When you are sure that your TV cannot directly cast the screen, then you can only use external equipment to achieve screen mirroring.

There are generally two types of external devices that support screen mirroring: set-top box or wireless display adapter.

Both have their own characteristics. Which device you should get depends on what features you want. Here are some pros and cons of set-top boxes:

• If you want to turn on the set-top box, you just have to press the remote control to watch TV shows, movies, TV shows, and so on.

• The majority of set-top boxes will have an ethernet port that can be connected by cable. But, if your router is in another room, you may need to trail cables through the house and that can increase your expenses.

• Data consumption limit. The data offered to clients in specific packages or plans is likewise limited. You should remain within the data limit or your connection could be disconnected. At this point, you would be no longer able to broadcast services.

• Limited Channels: on many occasions, the users don’t have access to certain channels.

Relatively speaking, the advantages and disadvantages of screen mirroring devices are also obvious:

• First of all, the software can’t be directly installed. Therefore, the flexibility of users who want to expand their functions is relatively limited.

• But from another point of view, the function of the wireless display adapter meets the needs of most people's life and work.

• At the same time, the mobile phone screen can be viewed immediately after casting, which saves money and worry.

• Wireless display adapters are compact and easier to carry around

• the content watched can vary from streaming services to youtube TV and other media.

03 Other questions？

Even if the TV supports its own, direct screencasting, it might not friendly to use.

Regarding the built-in screen castingfunction, what problems could you encounter?

（1）Screen Mirroring (directly from the TV)

That is the screencasting method that synchronizes the screen of the mobile phone in real-time. The built-in screen projection function of the TV is prone to compatibility problems between mobile phones and TVs.

The version of the mobile phone or TV could be too new or too old, which may cause this kind of "unknown or unfamiliar" situation between each other, such as not being able to search for the device, casting a black screen, and so on.

（2）Video Streaming (with Wireless Display Adapters)

You will be able to multitask on your phone, even when you are screen mirroring content to a bigger display! You can send text messages or even play on your phone when casting media to your TV!

Because the screencasting function of the TV is actually sending a file address to the TV to download, decode and play, if the built-in player of the TV is poor or the TV network is stuck (the network card only supports 2.4GHz wireless WiFi and the quality is average), it will cause the video playback to freeze or even fail to play.

Therefore, if the screen casting funtion of the TV is basically not easy to use, it is better to use a wireless display adapter.

In order to let everyone more intuitively judge whether they need a wireless dongle, we compiled a simple guide map for your reference.

If you like our projection products and want to become our distributor, or are interested in our customized wireless projection solutions, please contact sales.

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