Well, a computer with multiple pci ports is where you'll start. The standard dell optiplexes have 2 built in ports, add 2 cards with 3 ports each, and you'll be at 8 which will be good enough. For a dell, you'll have to enable multi-monitor display, and, you can pretty much just stick your computer up in the ceiling, strapping it up there. Wireless keyboard and mouse will let you control the computers, same, if you have any remote software. You can make it RDP accessible, or really whatever you use would be best.
As a side note, try not to mix video cards. It can cause issues for you later on.
How to Connect to a Wireless Display with Miracast in Windows 10
Miracast is a wireless technology your PC, laptop, or tablet can use to project your screen to wireless TVs, projectors, and streaming media players that also support Miracast. You can use this to share what you’re doing on your PC, present a slide show, or even play your favorite game on a larger screen.
Starting with Windows 10 build 17682, just like remote desktop you’ll see a control banner at the top of your screen when you’re in a session. The banner keeps you informed of the state of your connection, allows you to quick disconnect or reconnect to the same sink and allows you to tune the connection based on what you are doing. This tuning is done via the settings gear, which optimizes the screen to screen latency based on one of the three scenarios:
- Game mode minimizes the screen to screen latency to make gaming over a wireless connection possible.
- Video mode increases the screen to screen latency to ensure the video on the big screen plays back smoothly and without glitching.
- Productivity modes strikes a good balance between game mode and video mode where the screen to screen latency is responsive enough that typing feels natural, while ensuring videos don’t glitch too often.
By default, all connections start off in productivity mode.
This tutorial will show you how to project your Windows 10 PC screen to a wireless TV, projector, or streaming media player with Miracast.
Both your Windows 10 computer (PC, laptop, or tablet) and device (TV, projector, or streaming media player) must support Miracast to be able to project your computer's screen to the device.
The device (TV, projector, or streaming media player) must support Miracast, and have Miracast turned on. To see if your device supports Miracast, you will need to check its manual to see if it's a supported feature.
Miracast requirements:
- Graphics driver must support Windows Display Driver Model WDDM 1.3 with Miracast support
- Wi-Fi driver must support Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 6.30 and Wi-Fi Direct
- Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
See also:
Here's How:
1. Do step 2 (Connect), step 3 (Project), or step 4 (Action Center) below for how you would like to open Connect.
Miracast To Multiple Tvs
2. Press the Win+K keys, and go to step 5
below.
3. Press the Win+P keys, or swipe in from the right edge of the touch screen.
A) Click/tap on the Connect to a wireless display link, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
4. Open the Action Center, click/tap on the Connect button, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
5. Do step 6 (connect) or step 7 (disconnect) below to either connect to or disconnect from a wireless display.
6. To Connect to a Wireless Display
A) Click/tap on the wireless display you want to project to. (see screenshot below)
B) Once connected, you can click/tap on the Change projection mode link to choose one of the options below: (see screenshot below)
Projection Mode | Description |
PC screen only | You’ll see everything on your PC. (When you're connected to a wireless projector, this option changes to Disconnect.) |
Duplicate | You’ll see the same things on both screens. |
Extend (default) | You'll see everything spread over both screens, and you can drag and move items between the two. |
Second screen only | You’ll see everything on the connected screen. Your other screen will be blank. |
7. To Disconnect from a Wireless Display
If you move your PC beyond the range of the wireless display (such as to another room), or if you make your PC sleep or hibernate, the two devices will automatically disconnect.
A) Click/tap on the Disconnect button for the wireless display you want to stop projecting to. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn
After the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the finalization of the Miracast wireless display standard at CES 2013, a plethora of Miracast-enabled devices and receivers followed, and include newer devices like Microsoft’s Surface Pro (2017) and Amazon’s Fire TV stick. But while Miracast continues to be developed—as of July 2017, Miracast hardware will support HD and 4K streaming, for example—it’s also lost some support to competing technologies. Keep reading to figure out how Miracast could work for you.
How Miracast works
Users can wirelessly mirror the display of their Miracast-certified phone, tablet, or PC to any Miracast-capable receiver like a TV, projector, or monitor. What you see on your device is exactly what will be displayed on your TV (albeit with a smidgen of input lag). You can also use a Miracast display as an extended PC monitor.
At the core of this technology is the Wi-Fi Direct standard, which allows for point-to-point connections between devices without the use of a router. From there, Miracast adds a vendor-neutral wrapper that originally supported the streaming of up to 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound. Miracast also secures that connection using WPA2 encryption, so protected content like Blu-ray and Netflix videos can flow freely across it.
The peer-to-peer nature of a Miracast connection means mirroring can be done securely and without an internet connection. The apps and content are streamed directly from your device, instead of through an internet service, as with Google’s Chromecast.
For businesses, Miracast could make video conferencing, slide shows, and group product design that much easier. For home users, Miracast offers a great way to stream high-definition videos and photos to your television.
It works great, if all your hardware and software are on the same page. There’s the rub.
What you need to use Miracast (it’s complicated)
Of course, there’s a catch if you want to cut out streaming middlemen: Both the device you have and the device you want to display to must support Miracast.
For the device whose screen you want to mirror, support for Miracast requires three things: wireless chipset support, operating system support, and driver support. If your device doesn’t meet all three of these requirements then you’ll have to buy a Miracast adapter and upgrade your operating system (more on that below). Miracast source adapters are often bundled with Miracast receivers like Actiontec’s ScreenBeam kit.
Mentioned in this article
On the software side, Miracast is supported in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Older Windows versions can be made to support Miracast through third-party apps. Linux distros have access to wireless display support through Intel’s open-source Wireless Display Software for Linux OS. However, we recommend skipping all these minefields and using an operating system that supports Miracast natively.
Android supported Miracast in Android 4.2 (KitKat) and Android 5 (Lollipop). However, Google dropped native Miracast support in Android 6 (Marshmallow) and later. If you want to mirror the display from a newer Android phone or tablet, you’ll need to do so via Chromecast.
Neither Apple’s OS X nor iOS support Miracast. Instead, Apple has opted for its own AirPlay technology, which requires an Apple TV to mirror the display wirelessly on a television screen.
Among Windows hardware, laptops and tablets starting with Intel’s fourth- and fifth-generation Core processors and Intel’s own 7260 wireless chip supported Miracast, but the Intel technology underlying that support, WiDi, has been discontinued in favor of the Windows 8.1/10 support mentioned above. AMD Wireless Display has supported it in laptops starting with third- and fourth-generation APUs.
Still unsure whether your device supports Miracast? You can always check the box or online product description for a mention of “Miracast-certified,” or just follow the steps in the “How to use Miracast” section below to see if the option exists in your device’s settings menu.
Miracast receivers and adapters
The receiver side of the equation can also be complicated. Smart-TV manufacturers like Sony, LG, Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic added Miracast to their high-end television sets some years ago, as did certain projector manufacturers, but that doesn’t mean Miracast is built into the TV or monitor you own now.
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on Amazon
Amazon’s Fire TV devices and Roku players support screen mirroring through Miracast. Note that Fire TV devices don’t officially support mirroring from Windows, meaning you may have trouble sharing the screen from a PC to Amazon’s streaming devices.
If all else fails, you can buy a dedicated Miracast receiver dongle, such as the Actiontec ScreenBeam Mini2 receiver or Microsoft’s Wireless Display Adapter are two choices currently available. Which one you buy largely boils down to whose ecosystem you prefer.
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We recommend picking a first-party adapter if you can find one. For example, if you wanted to screen-beam from a Microsoft Surface Pro, you’d be best off with Microsoft’s adapter. That’s not to say third-party adapters are bad, but troubleshooting is easier when you’re working with devices from the same company.
Setup for any of these adapters is simple: Just plug the adapter into any open HDMI input port on your TV, projector, or monitor, then plug the small USB cable coming from the side of the device into the TV or an outlet. These USB cables don’t actually transfer any data; they’re there just to provide power to the adapter.
How to use Miracast
Now that you’ve got a Miracast-capable device, power on your display, and switch the appropriate input if you’re using a streaming box or adapter.
Some adapters, like Microsoft’s, will require you to press a power button located on the physical dongle. It may take up to 90 seconds for the adapter to finish booting up, but most are faster. Your TV will then display a splash screen asking you to connect a device.
On streaming devices, you may have to navigate through some menus to enable mirroring. On the Fire TV, for instance, you must long-press the Home button, then select “Mirroring.” On Roku devices running OS 7.6, you’ll find the Screen Mirroring option under Settings > System. (This is no longer required on Roku devices running OS 7.7, which rolled out in August 2017.)
Now it’s time to head over to your source device and connect it to your adapter.
Windows 10
In Windows 10, screen mirroring lives inside the quick settings section of the Action Center. Click the speech bubble icon on the far-right side of the task bar to launch Action Center, then click the Connect button near the bottom of the screen. (If you don’t see the button, click Expand right above the quick settings section.)
A list of available Miracast display devices should appear within this menu. Click the device name to begin the connection process.
Depending on your display device, you may have to enter a PIN to verify that the connection is secure, or complete the connection on your display device. Roku, for instance, provides a mini-menu to approve the connection on a one-time or permanent basis.
After a moment, your display device will either mirror your PC or act as an extended monitor. Selecting Change projection mode in the Windows 10 Connect menu lets you choose between mirroring, monitor extension, and disabling your primary PC display. (One word of caution for multi-monitor setups: Choosing to duplicate your PC display will cause all of your monitors to show the same screen. If you want to mirror only your primary monitor, select Second-Screen Only.)
Android
If you have an older Android device that still supports Miracast, you’ll need to go to the Settings menu, tap Display, and then tap Wireless display. At the top of this page, toggle “Wireless display” to ON and it will scan for nearby Miracast devices. After a minute, the name of your Miracast adapter should pop up. Tap it and either your device will connect, or you’ll be prompted for the PIN code display on your TV or projector by the Miracast adapter. After you connect to the adapter your screen will be mirrored onto your display.
A final note: One issue you may encounter when mirroring to a TV is overscan. Many TVs are set to overscan their HDMI inputs, which will make the image appear zoomed-in. To fix this you’ll need to go into your TV’s options menu and set it to display on a dot-by-dot basis, rather than the stretch or zoom settings. Some Miracast adapters—again, like Microsoft’s—come with an app that can use the adapter itself to change the overscan level.
This story was updated on July 28 and August 16, 2017 with new information about Miracast’s 4K capabilities, and current hardware and software support.
Miracast is a wireless display standard designed for mirroring a smartphone, tablet, or PC’s screen to a television without requiring any physical HDMI cables. It’s becoming more widespread with each passing day.
The Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick recently gained support for Miracast. Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV stick also do Miracast. Microsoft it even selling two Miracast dongles of its own, for some reason.
Miracast is Like a Wireless HDMI Cable
RELATED:Wireless Display Standards Explained: AirPlay, Miracast, WiDi, Chromecast, and DLNA
Miracast is a standard that hopes to one day banish the need for HDMI cables. Rather than physically connecting your laptop, smartphone, or tablet to a TV like you would with an HDMI cable, Miracast provides a wireless standard that allows devices to discover each other, connect to each other, and mirror the contents of their screen wirelessly.
Unlike protocols like Apple’s AirPlay (on the Apple TV) and Google’s Chromecast (on the Chromecast and Android TV devices), Miracast is designed to be a cross-platform standard. Assassin creed rogue download. Check out our comparison of AirPlay, Miracast, WiDi, Chromecast, and DLNA to understand the differences between all these different protocols.
Miracast functions exclusively as a “screen mirroring” protocol. So, if you wanted to start a Netflix video on your phone and play it via Miracast, you’d have to leave your phone’s screen on the whole time. Everything on your phone’s screen would be mirrored on the TV.
Because it’s all about screen mirroring and doesn’t have the “smarts” you see in protocols like AirPlay and Chromecast, which can hand-off streaming to another device and display a different interface on one device’s screen, Miracast can best be thought of like a wireless HDMI cable.
Which Operating Systems and Devices Support Miracast
Computers running Windows 8.1 and phones running Windows Phone 8.1 can stream to Miracast devices. Android phones and tablets running Android 4.2 or newer can also stream to Miracast devices. Amazon’s Fire OS is built on top of Android, so it also supports Miracast.
Linux PCs will require some sort of unsupported hack to do this, Chromebooks don’t have native Miracast support, and Apple’s Macs and iOS devices support AIrPlay and not this open standard. It’s basically Windows and Android only, for now.
As we mentioned above, the Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick are now Miracast-compatible. Microsoft sells two of their own Miracast receivers, named the Microsoft Screen Sharing for Lumia Phones (HD-10) and the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter. Amazon’s Fire TV has Miracast integrated, and so does their new Fire TV Stick — a $39 device with Miracast support built in. There are also many other dedicated Miracast receivers you can buy.
In theory, Miracast should become increasingly widespread, even being integrated into TVs themselves so you can easily wirelessly stream to them.
Miracast Problem 1: It’s Only Screen Mirroring
Miracast is a great idea in theory. It should be open standard for wireless display streaming that every manufacturer can implement, allowing devices to just work with each other. It would be great to be able to walk into a hotel room and easily mirror your device’s screen on its TV, or walk into an office and wirelessly connect to a TV so you could give a presentation without messing with cables. Miracast promises to banish the HDMI cable.
In practice, even if Miracast worked perfectly, the core design would still be a problem. Banishing the HDMI cable is nice, but Miracast doesn’t have the “smarts” competing protocols offer. Both Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast can mirror a device’s screen — yes, a Chromecast can even mirror your Windows desktop and all your running applications. However, they can also be smarter.
For example, you could open the Netflix app on your phone, locate a movie you want to watch, and tap the Chromecast button. Your phone would then tell the Chromecast to play the video, and the CHromecast would connect to the web and stream it directly. You could then set your phone down and it would go to sleep. With Miracast, your phone’s screen would have to stay powered-on and streaming the video for the entire length of the Netflix movie, draining its battery.
These protocols also allow you to display something different on your device’s screen and on your TV. So you could watch a Netflix video and view the playback controls only on your phone, so they wouldn’t get in the way on the TV. Or, you could play a video game and view only the game world on the screen, with a separate set of controls on your phone. With Miracast, you can’t have separate controls on your phone — your TV just mirrors everything on your phone’s display.
Miracast could be a good solution for replacing HDMI cables with a wireless protocol, but it’s inconvenient for many of the things people use Chromecast and AirPlay for in the living room.
Miracast Problem 2: It’s Unreliable and Often Doesn’t Work
But here’s the biggest problem with Miracast. It’s an open standard and Miracast-certified devices are supposed to communicate just fine with other Miracast-certified devices. However, they often don’t. If you look at help pages for devices like the Roku 3, you’ll often see a list of devices that have been tested to work with the receiver. This shouldn’t be necessary if it was a proper standard — you don’t need to check if your model of phone or laptop is compatible with your Wi-Fi router, after all.
RELATED:What Is Wi-Fi Direct, and How Does It Work?
Time and time again, both coordinated tests and people trying to use Miracast in the real world have struggled to make it work. We tried getting Miracast working on a Roku 3 after enabling the new Screen Sharing feature and were unable to, both with a Nexus 4 running Android 4.4.4 and a Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8.1. Both are officially approved devices Roku says will work, but they all hang on a “Connecting” message before timing out without any helpful status messages.
This shouldn’t be because of a problem with our Wi-Fi network, as Miracast is supposed to use Wi-Fi Direct. This means Miracast devices can even work where no Wi-Fi network is present — the devices connect directly to each other, bypassing the standard Wi-Fi network and wireless router.
MIracast is nice in theory, but it’s also just a wireless HDMI cable. In many situations, you’re often just better off plugging in an HDMI cable rather than dealing with the potential connection problems and streaming glitches.
A new generation of Miracast receivers and Miracast-capable operating systems could potentially solve these problems and turn MIracast into a standard that works well. We can only hope that will happen.
Image Credit: Sam Churchill on Flickr, John Biehler on Flickr
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Now playing:Watch this: Mirror your Android device's screen with Miracast
Every so often, another device is touted as supporting 'Miracast.' Fighting its way into the mainstream, Miracast is a killer feature poised to wipe out other video streaming standards in a very fragmented Android market.
Acting like a wireless HDMI cable, Miracast mirrors your Android device onto your TV screen in high definition and with audio. Once Miracast is enabled, everything -- from the general interface, to apps and videos -- is duplicated on the big screen without the burden of a cable connecting the two devices.
Its differentiating quality? It doesn't rely on your home's Wi-Fi network. But it's not magic -- let's lift the hood to see how Miracast works.
Under the hood
Seasoned Android users' ears will perk up when they hear that Miracast is built on the much-ignored Wi-Fi Direct technology. Wi-Fi Direct, first introduced in Android 4.0, allows a user to create a private (ad-hoc) network that allows other users to connect and share files. The technology never quite caught on in the mainstream, but it did pave the way for Miracast.
With Wi-Fi Direct as the foundation, it makes sense that Miracast doesn't need to rely on your home's network. Instead, it creates is own. For instance, your television creates the ad-hoc network, which is then discovered by your Android phone or tablet. Once the two devices are paired, data can flow freely between them.
When it comes to what you can stream to your TV, the options are endless. Miracast employs the H.264 codec to mirror videos in 1080p and 5.1 surround sound audio. Even copyright-protected materials like DVDs and music can be mirrored, thanks to a DRM layer.
Wait, is this like Chromecast?
I am so glad you asked. No, Miracast is absolutely not like Chromecast. Here's why.
With Miracast, your TV (or Miracast dongle) is dependent on your Android device the entire time the devices are paired. If your Android goes to sleep, your TV's screen blacks out, too. This co-dependency is both a great advantage and a tragic pitfall for Miracast (think battery life).
Chromecast, however, only relies on the mobile device for a moment during the initial setup. Once the Chromecast receiver knows what content it needs to play, your mobile device holds none of the load. In which case you're free to multitask, lock your device, or queue up the next video.
For the same reason, Chromecast is not nearly as dynamic as Miracast -- it only works with compatible video and music apps and will not play DRM-protected content on your device. And mirroring? Fuggetaboutit. Chromecast let's you mirror you Chrome browser (in beta), but that's it.
How to use Miracast
To make use of Miracast, you'll need two things: a Miracast-compatible Android device, and a Miracast TV or dongle.
The Android part is easy. If your device runs Android 4.2 or later, you most likely have Miracast, also known as the 'Wireless display' feature.
Now you'll need to set up your Miracast receiver. Though the tech is relatively new, a number of TV manufacturers like Sony, LG, and Panasonic, are integrating Miracast into their televisions. But, unless you purchased a TV in the last year, it's probably not Miracast-ready. Instead, you'll need a dongle.
Head to Amazon and you'll see a number of Miracast dongles. Even Best Buy creates one under its house brand, Rocketfish. Most of these dongles land in the $40-$60 range, and are really only designed to do one thing: mirror your Android device.
At CNET, we tested Netgear's Push2TV dongle, which was mostly reliable, save for a few laggy moments and stuttering playback. Overall, though, it did the job. You can view a complete list of Miracast-ready TVs, dongles, and set-top boxes here.
With your Miracast dongle connected, switch your TV to its input. Then, grab your Android device, and go to Settings > Display > Wireless display. (As usual, this might vary a bit depending on your device.)
Turn the Wireless display feature on, and wait a moment while the device looks for your Miracast dongle or TV. When it appears in the list, tap to connect, and a few moments later, you'll see your Android device duplicated on the big screen.
Now you're free to fire up a playlist, watch a movie in 1080p, or let your friends watch you play Candy Crush Saga on the big screen. Just be mindful that although the brightness on your device doesn't affect that of the TV, locking your Android will also black out your TV.
So, if you're watching a movie, be sure to hook your Android up to its charger.
The verdict
Though Miracast is easily the best all-in-one solution for getting Android on the big screen, the technology still has room for growth. The lack of multitasking is the biggest disappointment, arresting your Android device while it actively generates content for the Miracast receiver. That, however, is already changing. The LG G2, the Sony Xperia Z, and the Optimus G Pro are the first phones to allow Miracast multitasking, letting you mirror your screen while you continue browsing on your phone.
But even with increased compatibility, Miracast needs help. Sometimes laggy video and occasional difficulty establishing a connection between the Android device and the receiver make an otherwise enjoyable experience frustrating. Still, the ability to mirror anything on your Android, and the convenience of a wireless connection could make Miracast a worthy investment.
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