HTC Vive Focus Plus screen projection on external device

[Tobias]

BHello everyone,

we have been struggling with this for a few days now and perhaps someone can enlighten us or had similar problems.

We use a HTC Vive Focus Plus and want to stream the display to an external device (e.g. Smart TV or Chromecast). 
In our actual case we use a Samsung Series 7 55" Smart TV which supports Miracast (working from other devices like windows pcs) and a Google Chromecast 3rd Gen. (assumed it might work as standard Android streaming works with it).
All devices are connected to a 5Ghz wireless network and can be seen by other devices (Android devices, Windows PC as wireless displays in case of the Smart-TV or via Chrome screen sharing in case of the Chromecast)

We cannot get the Vive Focus to stream anything to any of the devices. Although the Smart-TV shows up in the lit of available devices it does not connect or stream (nothing shows up on the TV itself).
As we relied on the statement screen casting would work from the Vive Focus and state the same to a customer of ours we now try to find a solution which would allow us and our customer to mirror the Vive Focus' display to an external device.

My questions now are:
Does anyone have a working solution to stream to an external device (ideally using an separate dongle instead of a complete TV/Display, but any info would help)?
What might be possible issues with out current setup which prevent it from working?

I'm aware that this might be an issue to contact support, but the last time we've contacted official germen htc support it took ages and didn't solve the problem at all as they didn't seem to understand our issue. Thus I do not tend to request their 'help' again as the forum and some HTC staff here was able to help my in an instant.
If any additional information is required please let me know, so I can provide them asap.

Best regards

Tobias

@Tony PH Lin @Cotta

[dario]

Hi, Miracast is the supported streaming protocol - so no, Chromecast won't work currently. There are inexpensive Miracast dongles (tested and works) or you can cast to a PC and then from there cabst to whichever display you can from the PC.

 

best,

Dario

[Tobias]

Hi @Dario,

thank you for your reply.

Okay then the assumption that the Vive Focus as an Android device would work with Chromecast was a wrong one on our side.
Could you name one or two of these dongles so I can try them without starting searching for compatible ones all over again?

That would be of great help to our project.

Kind regards

Tobias

[HackPerception]

@Tobias I've moved this thread to the WaveSDK forum and have tagged some members of the Focus/WaveSDK team onto the thread for their input on if we have preferred/tested Miracast devices. Miracast is a very stable standard - it really hasn't changed much in the last few years so anything labeled "Miracast" should work as it's a universal standard that's upheld by the WiFi alliance.

I don't have direct experience with casting to the series 7 TV's but I suspect based on a documentation dive that Samsung may be gating access to that functionality via the Samsung SmartThings app - all of their helpdesk KB's are referencing the SmartThings app as a step 1 for casting to series 7 TV's and their Miracast functionality seems to primarily be based around projecting Android devices into the screen via the SmartThings app. Samsung has a competing proprietary protocol to Miracast called Allcast which may play into the situation. Chromecast doesn't use Miracast but is using a different proprietary tech stack.

Does your network employ a firewall or port-blocking? That may be another potential break point, especially in enterprise environments.

@Tony PH Lin @Cotta @JustinVive

[JustinVive]

@Tobias  As mentioned above, the Focus and Focus Plus only work with the Miracast standard. I've successfully had these devices streaming to several Window 8.1 computers and LG smart tvs.  I have not tested with Samsung tv, but if it supports Miracast, then it should work. I have reached out to my engineering team to ask about specific dongles and will get back to you soon.

Here is a guide to projecting the Focus Plus to an external device via Miracast .

In my past experience, I've noticed that connecting to Windows 8.1 was very easy. However, to connect with the tvs I'd have to turn the Focus wifi off/on a couple times before a connection was firmly established. 

[Tobias]

Thank you everyone for the responses so far. Any more details on compatible devices/dongle would be appreciated.

@VibrantNebula Yeah I suppose that there is some sort of firewall working in our network but I doubt it does any specific blocking of ports related to Miracast as casting to the TV form other devices works from within the same network.
You might be right with the SmartThings app provided by Samsung as I already found it quite hard to find "miracast" somewhere in the TVs settings and it seemed to me that Samsung isn't eager to not use the standards naming -.-.

@JustinVive That was our initial assumption regarding miracast support on the Samsung TV but as @VibrantNebula pointed out the Samsung SmartThings app seems to be the way Samsung want their customers to use their screen casting (which sucks in a way).
I doubt we have explicitly checked your hint on turning Wifi off/on on the Vive Focus but I'll give it a try today to see if that makes any different (and I might wrong Samsung on the miracast support)

Thanks again and I'm looking forward to any further responses.

 

[JustinVive]

@Tobias My team reports that the following devices and dongles support Miracast and allow the Focus and Focus Plus to project to an external screen:

-       Netgear Push2TV

-       Netgear PTV3000

-       ScreenBeam Mini2

-       Microsoft wireless display adapter V2.

 

[Tobias]

@JustinVive Thank you for the list of devices.

Fortunately we had a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter lie around and I could test it with that and it worked flawlessly. (I'm not sure if we missed it in our previous tests or did something wrong)
As a matter of fact, our customer has his meeting rooms equipped with those to covering the whole company, thus it should be an easy way for him to us the screen sharing.

Thank you again and I'm again happy with the help the forum could provide in such little time.

Have a nice week everyone.

[Insightful Environments]

Hello

 

Were in the same predicament with Casting from HTC VIVE FOCUS, I can cast to Samsung TV and via Microsoft Wireless adaptor but it only shows half the screen - see attachement.

 

Has anyone got any advice on how to rectify this?

@Tony PH Lin

 

[Insightful Environments]

@Tobias