First the adapter is a beautiful object, well finished, well within the tone of the latest Samsung smartphones (and this is the official adapter). Having to find a USB port or power somewhere to power it is binding, but we made it, especially if like me you already have a USB port on the same TV. But at least if your USB spits enough power (or if you use a USB charger), the phone is powered through the adapter, so is charging. FYI I use it with a Galaxy Note 2, and I have tried this on a Sony Bravia 40EX500 TV.
The use, three points are bothersome:
1 to 1 Once connected, I had a problem of overscan to display on the TV (the 4 edges of the image are cut off). Surprising, since insofar as the adapter should leave the 1080p, and that my TV is that standard, the concern should not exist. I notice that the adapter quickly comes out "only" 1080i, perhaps an explanation? Fortunately I have in my TV settings an option to address this concern overscan, so after some trial and error I managed to get a full picture, not cropped.
2 - the phone constantly alternates between portrait and landscape mode. For example on my Note 2, most applications are supported landscape mode, but not the office, which returns to portrait when I leave an app. It would be good that Samsung TouchWiz adds to a landscape mode ...
3 - last problem, the most troublesome is that the screen of the phone will not turn off when connected to HDMI, and not to standby at any time. There is thus a mirror type display between TV and telephone, very well, but no way to disable the phone screen! Suddenly, the phone heats up and recharges more slowly. And inevitably, if I put the phone to sleep with the corresponding button, it cuts any view, including on the TV.
This last point is particularly annoying when a long video we look, for example, when the phone screen is not intended to remain on, otherwise what interest ... There is a software solution, an application called "Screen Standby ", findable on the Play Store, which allows to solve this problem. The application is free but requires ROOTE terminal. It's not perfect, but turns off the phone screen.
Incredible as it has not been studied more basic, the Android system itself or Samsung.
On the quality of the image, it is not transcendent. For the video is fine, although it is not quite as fluid on the TV on the phone (but nothing insurmountable really), also for the internet browsing, by contrast to the picture, ouch ouch ouch. The picture is not very clear, and the colors are pretty bland, as if the image was suffering severe enough upscaling, which is actually quite normal, since the phone itself is 720p, not 1080p .. .
Finally? It works a lot, but it takes a little tweaking (on the TV when overscan, on the phone to turn off the screen in HDMI mode). This is a backup solution, it helps out well when we go in to quell mates rapido a movie, but it still remains rather limited, not enough to replace a true media player under the TV for example.
