How to screen mirror from Windows 11 to TV (perhaps via AirPlay)

April 15, 2024 10:06 AM

A sudden flareup of an old injury will leave me on my back on the couch for a bit. But this is a question about how I can view visual/video content from my "work" laptop on my TV. Open to solutions that don't involve AirPlay, though it may be the only way , described below.

I know next to zero about whatever fun things the kids have been doing over the past several years with casting receiver hardware dongles, but I do know both of my TV's HDMI ports are filled and it would be inconvenient to make one of them free for an HDMI cable to my laptop.

One of those HDMI ports connects to an AppleTV. I use AirPlay frequently from my iPhone or personal Macbook and it works flawlessly. Bringing up Work content on my personal Macbook is something I very much want to avoid, so I'm hoping I can get my Windows 11 Work laptop's display mirrored or casted or whatever to the TV using AirPlay/AppleTV, but am def open to something else.

You might recommend AirParrot 3 . Functionality looks great ; reviews look not so good. Slightly suspect about installing that on my Work computer. Or any computer, really; but I might try it if some very good recommendations were made. Bonus points if someone who's installed that has also fired up wireshark and done the needful w/r/t confirming the only remote location those display data packets are copied to is the Airplay Receiver. Yeah, I know, probably needlessly paranoid.

I'd be open to hardware dongle on both or either PC and TV, along with an HDMI hub (is that even a thing?) on the TV.

My Samsung TV appears to _not_ have Google Chromecast, or similar, built into it. I generally keep my TV's network interfaces unconfigured/disabled, because screw Sumsung's data collection brigades.

There is an empty USB port, FWIW.

Thank you for helping me continue to be the best corporate flunkie I can be while home on the couch!

posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

The USB port on the TV is probably just for playing media files off USB storage and not for direct video input.

Also, your instinct to have the TV be "not smart" and not directly connected to the internet is in my opinion extremely correct.

I think the most straightforward option would be to grab an HDMI input splitter (this one seems fine) and run a cable from your laptop to that.

If you want to be cable-free, attaching this wireless receiver to the HDMI splitter should do the trick, and you shouldn't need extra hardware on the laptop side to make it work.
posted by implied_otter at 11:50 AM on April 15

While I respect your ideals of opting out of Samsung's data collection, having your TV hooked up to receive Chromecast and Network feeds is probably the easiest way. If you click through the Samsung menu under Terms and Privacy, you can opt out of "Viewing Information Services" without agreeing to their policy. There are a few other options in here as well.

The other option is a cable. I know you said you're out of ports, but there are a myriad of low-cost HDMI splitters available for under $20, which would help you out with the HDMI port issue.

For example
posted by bitdamaged at 12:52 PM on April 15

Just to address one specific thing directly: I don't think there's a way to do this via Airplay and AppleTV, since you don't have a Mac. HDMI is definitely the path I'd go down.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:18 PM on April 15

I don't use it enough to give a "very good recommendation," but I have AirParrot and have used it successfully and without incident several times to zap stuff from my Windows laptop to my AppleTV. For $18 and a wireless solution it might be worth a shot?
posted by AgentRocket at 2:54 PM on April 15