One of the prominent features embedded into Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone is screen mirroring, otherwise known as wireless display (as some geeks call it). The main concept of this feature is to let users view and enjoy any contents, including your favorite videos in the Galaxy S4 to a bigger screen such as smart televisions or some projectors. In short, what you have on your smartphone is what you see in bigger screens. So the phone will work as a remote control for your TV or bigger monitors.
Due to the lack of clear guides given to Galaxy S4 owners about how to use screen mirroring on the handset, this feature is under-used.
And for this reason, we offer you this content. Please read on if you need help about using screen mirroring and make the most of your S4 handset.
Let’s get started:
1. Enable screen mirroring on S4. First thing you have to do to use this feature is to turn screen mirroring on or have it enabled on your device. Follow these steps to turn the feature on.
a. Go to your phone Settings.
b. Touch Connections.
c. Select Screen mirroring.
d. To enable the feature, simply drag the switch to the right direction. To turn it off or stop screen sharing, just toggle it to the left.
2. After you enabled screen mirroring on your phone settings, allow your Galaxy S4 to scan for available devices that support Miracast within range.
3. Tap the device you want to connect to and follow the on-screen prompts.
Note:
You will need a Miracast-supported TV or Miracast-supported HDMI dongle to get the mirrored screen. This is because Galaxy S4 screen mirroring uses the Miracast technology that allows a portable device or computer to send up to 1080p HD vidoe and 5.1 surround sound to any devices that support Miracast, using a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi Direct connection.
In case your TV does not support Miracast, you have the option to use an HDMI port for your TV to work with your phone. Just get any of the following devices and you’re good:
a. HDMI adapter that supports Miracast
b. Samsung AllShare Cast Hub
c. Samsung HomeSync
What if you turned on your Galaxy S4 screen mirroring but there are no devices to share the phone screen with?
Answer: Just make sure your TV is ON. In case you’re using an adapter, be sure to check the connection or setup between the HDMI source and your TV. Once the connection is correctly setup, you will be prompted with some text telling the phone is ready to cast on your television.
More Tips on Galaxy S4 Screen Mirroring:
1. Galaxy S4 screen mirroring does not require your smart TV or HDMI dongle/adapter to connect to the same network with the phone. Instead, a peer-to-peer network will be used to established private connection on both devices and privately share the screen. In fact, Internet access is not a pre-requisite for the screen mirroring feature to work on the Galaxy S4.
2. Also remember, you cannot turn off the Galaxy S4 phone’s screen when using the screen mirroring feature. Of course, if you do so, you will see nothing on the television screen as it has no video/audio to mirror from the phone. If you think of saving your phone battery during the process, you can disable auto brightness and set brightness to low.
3. Screen or display settings on the Galaxy S4 is different from the television, so changing the screen brightness on either devices won’t affect each other.
4. To save battery power on your phone, be sure to disable Screen Mirroring feature when not in use.
This guide also works on Galaxy Note 3 screen mirroring. However, screen mirroring feature may not be available to other Note 3 models, depending on the region or service provider.
