MacDirectory Magazine

Ingo Lindmeier

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1496181

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In Use As easy as the setup was, connecting to it to display media was just as easy. I first connected my iPhone and went to the YouTube app and started playing the first video that came up. It took several seconds (maybe 10 – 15?) to connect and start the video but once it started it played smoothly. I tried skipping around the video a little bit and it didn’t like that very much – it took probably 5-7 seconds for the audio to come back and at least 15-20 seconds to see the video again. I also played back some music from my iPhone and it sounded as good as it should have. I was able to turn off the screen on my Roku TV and just listen through my external speakers. I heard one slight glitch in the audio while testing music playback. While not ideal this is not an unusual thing for any kind of wireless listening or viewing experience so I don’t count it as a negative toward the SC01. Connecting to the SC01 from my MacBook Pro was just as easy. It showed up as a destination under Screen Mirroring just like my AppleTV and Roku TV do. Everything worked as expected here as well. There was just a slight lag (maybe 1/4 – 1/2 second) when I moved things around on screen. Playing video was as smooth as it had been from the phone, though. It’s normal to expect a slight latency when casting video to a wireless device like this and it didn’t seem any worse than the lag I see when I connect via any other method other than an HDMI cable. The Windows laptop in my office was able to see the device as a Cast destination and connected just as easily as a Mac would connect via Airplay. The video playback through the ProScreenCast SC01 Miracast Dongle was smooth and everything worked here as expected. The last device I connected to the SC01 was my Google Pixel Android phone. Once again the device connected quickly and both screen mirroring and video playback were smooth and reliable. Just for fun, I tried playing back video from Netflix and Amazon Prime from my phone and, as expected, it didn’t work. It says on their site that this won’t work but I hadn’t read that far ahead yet. One confusing thing happened after I upgraded the firmware. When I first connected this to my TV and WiFi network I was shown a list of videos I could watch by scanning a QR code. After the firmware upgrade this option never came up again. I’m not sure where this content came from or if I would have even wanted to watch what was being offered but I wonder where the options went. What I like • Very compact and lightweight • Helpful instructions – printed, on-screen, and online What I’d change • I’d like a version with ethernet Final thoughts All in all, the ProScreenCast SC01 Miracast Dongle is a great device for sending video from a wide variety of devices and operating systems to just about any TV or projector you would want to show it on. If you don’t want to pay for an AppleTV or you work in a mixed environment, or you don’t want other apps getting in the way, this is a perfect option for viewing video from just about any device you may come across. Price: $69.99 Where to buy: proscreencast.com Source: The sample for this review was provided by ProScreenCast. For more information visit their site.

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