I haven't written new content all week. I have spent the whole weekend trying a new trick and wanted to write a post on the subject, but I have not made it work yet so for now the article has been totally in the gutter. For now! That is why I am going to write at least a mini-post so that this does not look like the desert ...
Today I'm going to talk about Allcast, an app for Android that allows you to send multimedia content from an Android device and play it on TV. How?
Through any of these devices:
- Chromecast
- Amazon Fire TV
- Apple tv
- Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Roku
- WDTV
- Smart TVs from Samsung, Sony or Panasonic
- Other DLNA renderers
The good thing about all this is that even if you don't have any of the toys mentioned above you can also use an old Android smartphone that has a built-in HDMI output and use it as a bridge. And since this is the method that requires the most sauce and is the cheapest, it is the one that I am going to take advantage of to explain to you. For this we only need:
- An HDMI cable
- An HDMI mini - HDMI adapter
The process to set up the entire chiringuito is as follows:
- First we install the AllCast app on the Android device that we are going to use as a transmitter video / pictures / music. You can download it by clicking HERE.
- Next we install the AllCast Receiver app on the Android with HDMI output. You can download it from HERE.
- Connect the HDMI cable to the Android receiver via the HDMI mini - HDMI adapter, and plug it into the TV.
Now everything is ready. Now we just have to launch AllCast Receiver on the receiver that we have connected to the TV, and do the same with the AllCast app on the sending device (which is where we have all the multimedia content that we want to play on the big screen).
Now it's time to choose the photos, music or videos that we want to play on television. As an interesting point, it should be noted that this app not only allows us to reproduce the content that we have stored on our device, but also it will also let us launch the multimedia files that we have stored in Google Drive, Google+ or Dropbox.
As a catch, we must highlight the limit of 5 minutes. After that time the app will bother us with an ad, but if you are really satisfied with AllCast you can get the paid version that costs 3.65 euros (about $ 3.5) and forget about the advertisement completely.
When I installed AllCast it occurred to me to look for a fix that would allow me to play multimedia from the PC, and although there are some pages that talk about the subject, I would recommend not scratching too much. In all cases it is suggested to use an Android emulator on the PC and install AllCast on the emulator, but the tests I have done to date have been totally disappointing. For the rest, a good way to play multimedia from your mobile or tablet without too much effort.
