Thanks to the widespread diffusion of legal streaming services (such as Netflix but also Amazon Prime Video ), it becomes even more important to know how to connect your mobile phone or tablet to the TV, so you can enjoy movies and TV series at the highest quality on the bigger screen. Some Smart TVs already have apps to use streaming services, but being able to project anything you see on the screen of a tablet or phone on the TV offers greater form of control, since the smartphone can become a "remote control" from use while sitting comfortably on the sofa.
In this guide we have collected all the methods to connect the mobile phone or tablet to the TV, via cable or via Wi-Fi, for any type of portable device, be it an Android device (Samsung, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi etc.) be it an Apple device (iPhone or iPad) .
Connect mobile phone or tablet to cable TV
The methods that allow you to connect your smartphone or tablet to cable TV are many and depend on the type of charging socket present or on the presence of a dedicated dedicated video output.HDMI adapter
If our smartphone or tablet is compatible with the MHL standard or we have a recent iPhone / iPad, we can connect via a universal HDMI adapter such as the AMANKA 1080P Digital AV Adapter Cellular to HDMI (17 €).
To use it, simply connect the USB cable from the phone to the adapter's DATA IN port, then connect a generic HDMI cable between the adapter's HDMI OUT port and the HDMI port on the back of the TV. By connecting the dedicated power cable ( Power socket), we will be able to view the screen of our smartphone or tablet on the TV, in the highest quality available. With this small adapter we won't even have to look for a suitable MHL cable for our phone, since it is compatible with practically any model of MHL smartphone or tablet on the market. In addition to the HDMI socket there is also a VGA output, excellent for connecting old TVs or old monitors.
By connecting an iPhone or iPad to it, the Lightning port will be immediately exploited to duplicate the screen, so as to display each app on TV; alternatively we can use Apple's official Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter, on sale for less than € 50.
Type-C / HDMI cable
On newer Android smartphones equipped with a USB Type-C socket, we can use a direct Type-C / HDMI cable such as the CHOETECH USB 3.1 Type C to HDMI (€ 14).
The cable is very simple to use: just connect the part of the cable with USB Type-C to the charging socket of the smartphone or tablet and the other part of the HDMI cable to a port of the same name on the TV. Without pressing any key or configuring any menu item, the screen of our mobile device will be duplicated on the TV, so that you can view your favorite apps or games on a much larger screen.
HDMI-SCART / RCA adapters
If we have an old TV without an HDMI port, we will have to add an additional adapter to the cable and adapter seen previously, capable of converting the signal from digital to analog.To convert the HDMI signal to SCART, we can use the ESYNiC HDMI to SCART Converter Adapter (€ 20).
If our TV is really very old, we can convert the HDMI signal to RCA using the Neoteck 1080P HDMI to RCA CVBS Adapter (€ 16).
Obviously the final quality will not be comparable to that obtainable with digital cables and adapters, but we will be able to connect the new generation digital devices also on old cathodic tudo TVs or the first generations of flat TVs.
Connect mobile phone or tablet to TV wirelessly
The best methods to connect your mobile phone or tablet to the TV are to use the wireless connection, so that you can duplicate the full screen of the mobile devices while remaining comfortably seated on the sofa, without getting in the way.Miracast
On Smart TVs it is possible to duplicate the screen of Android smartphones and tablets using Miracast, already integrated on both Wi-Fi televisions and portable devices.
To take advantage of this function, make sure that the Smart TV and the Android device are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, then open the app dedicated to Miracast (on LG it is called Screen Share, on Samsung it is called AllShare); on some TVs we can find Miracast as a menu item and not as a dedicated app.
Enabled Miracast on the TV, we open the Settings app on our Android smartphone or tablet, we look for the menu Wireless screen or Cast screen (change according to the manufacturer) and inside we press on the name of the TV; in a few seconds the connection will be made and we will get the duplicated screen of the portable device, complete with audio (we will also hear the notification sounds, in addition to the sound of the multimedia apps).
Google Chromecast
Another valid method to connect mobile phone or tablet to TV wirelessly involves the use of Chromecast, the HDMI dongle signed Google useful both on televisions without Smart functionality and on Smart TVs (where it is useful to integrate new functions absent).
By connecting it to an HDMI socket on the TV and to your home Wi-Fi network, it will allow us to receive multimedia streams directly from compatible apps, without having to transmit the entire screen of your smartphone or tablet.
If we want to duplicate the screen of the portable device via Chromecast, we install Google Home on our Android device, we open the app, we press the icon on the bottom right of the account, we press on the menu Mirror the device, we tap on the Send button screen / Audio then select from the list the name of the Chromecast on our home network.
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Another method that we can use to connect a portable device to the TV involves the use of the Amazon Fire TV Stick, which works similarly to the Miracast.
Once the Fire TV Stick is connected to our TV and to the home wireless network, we press the Home button, go to the Display and Sound menu and then click Enable Display Mirroring .
As soon as the Fire TV window is ready, we take our Android smartphone, go to the Wireless screen menu (or similar items) and select the name of the Fire TV from the items present, so that we can duplicate the screen.
Apple AirPlay
If we only use iPhones and iPads at home, we can duplicate the screen of Apple devices using AirPlay. If our TV does not have AirPlay support, simply connect the Apple TV 4K (€ 219) to the TV.
By connecting the Apple TV Box via HDMI to the TV and via Wi-Fi to the home network, we can use AirPlay within the compatible apps (so as to send the multimedia streams directly) or by duplicating the screen of the iPhone or iPad, scrolling from the bottom edge or from the top right corner (from iPhone X onwards), selecting the Duplicate screen item and pressing on the name of the Apple TV connected on the local network.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to connect iPad or iPhone to TV with cables or wirelessly .
Conclusions
As we have seen, various methods are available to connect mobile phone or tablet to the TV, with any mobile operating system known today (Android, iOS and iPadOS). Wireless methods are definitely the most comfortable, but the highest video quality can only be achieved with digital (HDMI) cables. If we have an old TV, we can still use adapters, so as to connect our smartphones or tablets to it (with a very low quality).If we want to use our Android smartphone as a total multimedia center, we invite you to read our guide on how to use an Android smartphone as a media player for TV .
If, on the other hand, we need to connect a desktop PC or notebook to our TV, we can read our articles on How to connect PC or laptop to TV to watch videos and movies and How to play PC games on TV .
