What to know:
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This article shows you how to connect your phone to your TV using a USB. It tells you how to connect a USB drive to a TV that doesn’t already have one and gives you reasons to do so.
Contents
How to Connect Your Phone to Your TV Using USB
Step-By-Step Guide
If you’ve ever connected a game console or a streaming box to your television, connecting your phone ought to look familiar. Pick up your TV guidebook and read it before you do anything else. It should tell you a lot of useful things about the port, like where it is and how to use it.
Here’s what to do:
1. Check your TV for the USB connection. They appear frequently on modern flat-screen televisions. Although your particular television may not have any USB ports, if it does, they will be situated on the side of the device or adjacent to the other ports.
Note: Don’t assume that it will be a normal “rectangle” USB. Check the port to make sure the cord fits. |
2. Once you’ve found the port, use the right ends of the wire to connect your phone to your TV. This is the best way to check if it can charge your phone while you use it. If it can, it should start charging right away.
Tips: Do not plug USB hubs or other extension devices into the USB ports on your TV. It might not be able to hold them up and could lead to other issues. Instead, you might want to get a longer USB cord that will give you some additional space. |
3. Apply the on-screen menu, the TV remote, or the side of the television to access the Source icon. Connect the supply via USB.
4. The screen of your phone should now be displayed on your television. Some adjustments will likely be required on your phone to match it one-to-one.
For example, one might desire to horizontally rotate videos to occupy the screen, employ a stand to maintain the phone in its preferred orientation and disable screen lock and screen rotation in the phone’s settings. |
Why do you connect a phone to a TV with USB?
Special difficulties may arise when “casting” (transmitting data wirelessly) to a television from a smartphone or tablet.
Stability is one of our main concerns.
. Data undergoes several hops, including between the internet, your phone, router, or a distinct casting device, and your television, before returning. Increasing the number of links in a chain from two to three increases the probability that one of those links will break. This is particularly true of video conversations involving multiple connections or massively multiplayer games.
Even if your telephone and television are in direct communication, complications may still arise. Your phone and television are essentially communicating via radio. Occasionally, this occurs via your router. Everyone is familiar with the result of two radio signals crossing, and when your wireless connection fails, the cause is frequently the same. For instance, if you own a cordless phone, it could potentially disrupt your Wi-Fi signal.
Similar to how your phone, television, and router are probably performing other duties, even if they are in the background. Any of the aforementioned technologies may be inundated with an unexpected demand, similar to how unexpected demands from other programs can cause issues elsewhere on your computer.
As if that weren’t enough, you must also manage your battery. Although it is possible to connect a phone to a casting device while engrossed in a game or film, one may accidentally overlook the connection until it is too late. A low battery may force your phone to prioritize certain functions to remain operational, which can degrade the connection, even if you remember in time.
This results in buffering, stuttering, and other irritating issues. By connecting a USB cable, much of this frustration is alleviated. Data can be transmitted directly between your phone and television, removing the need for your router or a potentially disrupted direct wireless connection. The ability of your television to supply power directly to your phone is contingent upon its design. Rather than utilizing an intermediary device such as a Chromecast, your television will handle your phone as an individual device, similar to a game console or cable box.
When your phone won’t connect to your TV, here’s what you should do:
When connecting your phone to your TV, there are two main reasons why it might not work right away. To fix both, you need to get an adapter.
TV Doesn’t Have a USB Port
If your TV doesn’t have one, you can add a USB port to it. If you use a USB-to-HDMI adapter, all you have to do is connect your phone to the adapter. The adapter can then be put into one of your TV’s HDMI ports. But, likely, this setup won’t charge your phone, so you’d have to keep an eye on the battery life.
You can buy USB-C to HDMI adapters on sites like Amazon.com if your phone has a USB-C port.
TV Doesn’t See the Phone as a Source
Even though they have their computers, some TVs are made to see anything plugged into the USB port as an external drive, like a thumb drive. This means that you might also need an adapter in this case so that the TV can see the phone and the two can work together.
FAQs
How do I play movies from my phone to my TV through a USB cable?
When you connect your phone to your TV and it recognizes it, find a video file or start streaming it, and it should start playing on your TV’s screen right away.
How do I connect my phone if my TV doesn’t support HDMI?
Look for an MHL port on your TV instead of an HDMI port if it doesn’t have any. If you want to connect your phone this way, you will probably need an MHL cord and maybe even an adapter.