[djkher]

Backgroud
I visited my cousin couple of months back. He had got a new TV Sony Bravia
W700B (IIRC). I was going through the features, settings etc and happen to hit the "Screen Mirroring" option.

I had heard about this but never really experienced it. I was carrying my Galaxy S3 and Nexus 7 (2nd Gen) and it was a time to test the mirroring feature.
Now each brand has a different name for essentially the same feature based on "Miracast" standard where we are mirroring the contents on the device (both the screen and the audio) to the receiver.

S3 calls it "Screen Mirroring"
Nexus 7 (2nd Gen) calls it "Cast Screen".

Both devices worked flawlessly. I was streaming full hd wirelessly!!!
Swiping home screens, browing web, flicking images in the gallery all worked fine.
There was a very slight lag (may not be noticiable to many people). But otherwise it was perfect.
Streaming movies is made all the more convienient.

Bought Netgear PTV3000
Now i liked the concept and wanted it on my tv as well.
I have a 2010 Panasonic Plasma V20D model which doesn't support miracast out of the box.
Obviously i had to purchase a Miracast dongle to enable this.

I searched for dongles and came across few options like EZCast and some more cheap products and then there was Netgear Ptv3000 which was at a premium

compared to others.
I somehow didn't like EZCast as i looked at reviews which required a specific app to be installed on my device to work. Moreover i was not very sure of the

support or firmware updates.

I had made up my mind on PTV3000. Looked at couple of reviews which were mostly positive and with a known brand like Netgear, support was less likely to be

an issue.
So took the plunge.
Got the device from ITDepot for Rs 4600.

The box contains:
1) Miracast receiver
2) HDMI cable to connect to the TV
3) USB charge cable to power up the device (this can be connected to the USB port on TV or a dedicated charger, the TV's USB port worked fine for me).

Performance
The first thing after setup was to check and install the latest firmware.

Nexus 7
Cast screen option is shown in the settings pull down menu.
Once you hit "Cast screen", it searches for Miracast adapters, Found my PTV and selected.
After few seconds the device connected and whoa my wireless mirroring was working.
Performance is smooth as i had experienced on my cousin's sony tv.


Galaxy S3 (i9300)
Things aren't so great with the S3. Video playback through the video player is fine.
But the usual interactions like swiping home screens, browing web, scrolling through the UI in general is choppy.
I guess I need to await a firmware update for a fix.

Dell XPS 15 (L502x) + Windows 7 64 bit
There's a pre-installed app "Intel Widi" which should theoritically work with PTV3000 but somehow i couldn't get it to work.D

So basically it worked on 1 of the 3 devices i tried it on. Sounds like a downer but the stuff i want to stream is present on the tab so not really an issue for me. Also Windows 8.1 has much better support for Miracast but i don't have windows 8.1 so couldn't test this. Netgear PTV3000 is officially supported on 8.1 though so it should work fine.

[sun]

Didn't you consider chromecast ?

[djkher]

Originally Posted by sun

Didn't you consider chromecast ?

Well, chromecast is good for online media consumption and largely depends on the supporting apps. I wanted mirroring. So basically whatever I do on my device gets mirrored in full HD wirelessly. So let's say playing a game, playing a locally stored video in gallery/MX player etc. Or with windows 8.1(whenever I get it) I can use my TV as an extended desktop etc

[redrage]

The latest update to chromecast also enables you to cast screens from your phones/tablets for a select few devices. (Mainly Nexus & other premium flagships) and also this will be expanded to most devices. Pretty cheap too, picked up mine for 30$

[djkher]

Originally Posted by redrage

The latest update to chromecast also enables you to cast screens from your phones/tablets for a select few devices. (Mainly Nexus & other premium flagships) and also this will be expanded to most devices. Pretty cheap too, picked up mine for 30$

That makes chromecast a better buy then. But does it work well? Fast paced games like real racing 3 etc? Chromecast and Miracast are fundamentally different in terms of technology. Chromecast will be limited by the bandwidth available on the work network.
Mira cast is based on WifiDirect peer to peer connection between the device and the receiver and ought to have better bandwidth I feel. That said real racing works like a charm on ptv3000 plus Nexus 7

[redrage]

Originally Posted by djkher

That makes chromecast a better buy then. But does it work well? Fast paced games like real racing 3 etc? Chromecast and Miracast are fundamentally different in terms of technology. Chromecast will be limited by the bandwidth available on the work network.
Mira cast is based on WifiDirect peer to peer connection between the device and the receiver and ought to have better bandwidth I feel. That said real racing works like a charm on ptv3000 plus Nexus 7

Hey thanks for the info. Even though i do have RR3 on my N5 haven't tried it on mirror. I am using an Airtel 4G Network at home so didnt feel any lag while playing HD videos. Will try casting RR3 & give a feedback on the performance and internet consumption if possible.

Just a Question, Miracast also needs an active DATA connection right? (could be via the mobile/tablet APN or a wifi connection)

[djkher]

Originally Posted by redrage

Hey thanks for the info. Even though i do have RR3 on my N5 haven't tried it on mirror. I am using an Airtel 4G Network at home so didnt feel any lag while playing HD videos. Will try casting RR3 & give a feedback on the performance and internet consumption if possible.

Just a Question, Miracast also needs an active Network connection right? (could be via the mobile/tablet APN or a wifi connection)

No. Miracast is WifiDirect. It doesn't require the sender and receiver to be connected to a WiFi network via an AP. A adhoc connection gets created between the sender and receiver. That said the sender can connect to a WiFi network at the same time for internet access. So there are two connections in this case.