Miracast is awesome with surface 2

[Patric.Z]

Hey everyone,

I just bought the Netgear Push2TV PTV and tried the Miracast with my new Surface 2 and it worked flawlessly!! There's almost 1 second lag between the two screens, but when playing games or videos, the lag seems shorter (almost no lag). Audio is streamed to the TV and my home theater as well, just like HDMI. The video quality is really good, not sure if it's as good as HDMI, but I would say fairly close if not the same. It's better than the iOS airplay implementation quality wise. And the best part is there's several projection options in Windows 8.1, it acts just like a monitor connected with HDMI/VGA, therefore, other than duplicating the screen, I could extend the scene as well. And this turns into some very convenient and interesting uses: I am streaming a HD video stored in my laptop (through homegoup) to my TV while I am using my surface screen for browsing and typing this tread. Looks like the Tegra 4 is more than enough to handle this smoothly.

There are a few catches:

1. The use of the mouse on the TV is slower than normal, so it might be difficult to perform difficult tasks. I think this is due to the display lag using MIracast.. not sure it will be improved in the future.

2. If the Surface screen is off, everything will paused. So I don't think there's a way to play video the TV and turn off the surface screen.

3. Power consumption is pretty high when doing some many things at once.

Hope this helps anyone interested in Maracast use. I do believe things like this show the true power of WIndows/WIndows RT. It's just much more powerful than Android and iOS.

 

[Dwayne Selsig]

Thanks for sharing! :grin:

I was really curious about Miracast being able to work on the Surface 2. Your post made me order the Surface 2.

 

[Patric.Z]

Glad that you bought the Surface 2. It's so much better than the original Surface if you like Windows RT. Too bad my original Surface and the Thinkpad Tablet 2 won't support Miracast.

 

[Hoekie]

Which firmware has your ptv3000 ?

 

[Aaron M]

Can you give us an estimate of battery life when playing something like Netflix over miracast? Thanks!

 

[Aaron M]

So I've seen a couple of people mention that miracast can work with ptv3000 which I believe is also Intel widi. So can miracast work with other Intel widi adapters? I have a 1st Gen nergear pvt1000 and a 2nd Gen Belkin.

 

[Patric.Z]

Which firmware has your ptv3000 ?

I am using the lastest one - 2.4.19 but I believe it works on 2.2.xx version as that's the version I had when I bought it. The older version is actually smoother when listening to music. The new one cuts in and out sometimes when playing music only. Hope the future update will fix this.

 

[Patric.Z]

So I've seen a couple of people mention that miracast can work with ptv3000 which I believe is also Intel widi. So can miracast work with other Intel widi adapters? I have a 1st Gen nergear pvt1000 and a 2nd Gen Belkin.

I am not sure about the battery using Miracast with Netflix, but I would imagine it's quite demanding. I would say probably 4 - 5 hours from my experience. You could also display on the TV only (2nd display only) and it should save some battery.


My understanding is that Miracast adapter will support WIDI, but WIDI may not support Miracast. I tried the Netgear Neo TV Max, it didn't work.

 

[Smg-Uk]

I recently bought a Toshiba Smart 3D Blu-ray Player which has Miracast built in and i wanted to connect my S2 to it which it does but it says the device is not Microsoft certified so nothing happens ? Is there something i can do to get it work or is that a dead end ?

 

[Patric.Z]

I guess the best bet is to update the firmware of the Toshiba player, it may have been fixed. I had a Panasonic player says it supports Miracast as well, but when I tried to connect it, it says push a button on the adapter. There's no button... luckily I could return it.

 

[Hoekie]

I am using the lastest one - 2.4.19 but I believe it works on 2.2.xx version as that's the version I had when I bought it. The older version is actually smoother when listening to music. The new one cuts in and out sometimes when playing music only. Hope the future update will fix this.

I asked because 2.4.19 breaks sound with my Netgear Push2TV PTV. Got it today. Back to the original V2.2.16 firmware and sound is back. So I now know hardware is OK.
I was only so dumb to upgrade the firmware before testing whether stock firmware worked OK.

First I will use it some more before upgrading firmware again. I saw that there's also a V2.4.3 firmware to try.
For now it's working great. Love it. Thanks again for sharing. :grin:

 

[Patric.Z]

I asked because 2.4.19 breaks sound with my Netgear Push2TV PTV. Got it today. Back to the original V2.2.16 firmware and sound is back. I was so dumb to upgrade the firmware before testing whether that firmware worked OK or not.

First I will use it some more before upgrading firmare again. I saw that there's also a V2.4.3 firmware to try.
For now it's working great. Love it. Thanks again for sharing. :grin:

You are welcome! So I am not the only one has this problem. One problem I had with 2.2.16 was that it streamed on 720P instead 1080P. Do you have the same problem? I can't remember which firmware I had when I bought it, (it's 2.2.XX for sure) it maybe the even some older versions. It streamed over 1080P and the sound worked great as far as I remember. I may try some of the older versions. It's stupid that the new versions work worse than the old ones. BTW, don't bother with 2.4.3, it's the same as 2.4.19

 

[Hoekie]

2.2.xx lowers res on mirror setting with me too. Extended screen keeps 1080p. Did not get sound straight away today with the 2.2.xx firmware. Reboot of my Surface2 fixed that. Will try newer firmware later this week.

 

[Michael F Sargent]

I have raised a support request with Netgear for the audio problems with the latest firmware. I'll let you know what I hear.

In the mean time, if everyone else were to raise a support request, it would help push this problem to the top of their list.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Michael F Sargent]

Netgear support got back to me and suggested I try the 2.4.19 firmware. I did that, but it still has audio problems (although it seems better than 2.4.26). I actually tested all of the following firmware loads with no luck: 2.2.16, 2.4.3, 2.4.19, 2.4.26. For the time being I am running 2.4.19 as it seems a bit better than the rest. 2.2.16 was actually pretty good for audio, but forced the video to 1024 x 768 which is completely unacceptable.

I have updated my case with Netgear and added all the information I could provide. I hope they will be able to provide working firmware sometime soon. I asked for an ETA and if they can provide it I'll keep you all informed.

In the mean time, anyone else who is not completely satisfied with the current firmware should open a case with Netgear. The more customers they know are having this problem, the faster (and better) a solution will appear.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Michael F Sargent]

Netgear is now saying my PTV3000 is defective and I should exchange it. Am I the only one having these problems? Or do others have the same problems and Netgear is just wasting everyone's time?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Rasetech]

How did you manage to get video on the second screen? I tried yesterday but was not able to push any app to the second screen (extended mode).

 

[Patric.Z]

How did you manage to get video on the second screen? I tried yesterday but was not able to push any app to the second screen (extended mode).

When you use extended mode, it's just a dual-monitor setup. Use your mouse or "Mouse Pointer" program to drag the app/file/window to the other screen. If you just want to play video on the other screen, "Play to" is probably better then miracast.

BTW, I believe Netgear has updated their firmware a few months ago and we can do 1080P miracast now.

 

[Rasetech]

Ok, thx got the extended Mode working but with a really strange resolution on my TV. Can I use the play to mode also with the ptv3000? If I want to use it the surface is telling me to add a device. When I search for devices it does not find any.

 

[Patric.Z]

Ok, thx got the extended Mode working but with a really strange resolution on my TV. Can I use the play to mode also with the ptv3000? If I want to use it the surface is telling me to add a device. When I search for devices it does not find any.

You should be able to adjust the screen resolution in display properties, just like a normal monitor.

PTV3000 is a Miracast receiver, no DLNA capability. If you want to use Play to, find a DLNA receiver, i.e. Xbox 360/Xbox one, TV/Receivers with DLNA, Windows Media Player/DLNA receiver apps in app store etc. There are also DLNA adapters (some with miracast and DLNA) but I have never tried any.