Use old phone for Android TV Emby player (?)

[justdrooit 3]

Apologies in advance if this isn't quite in the right area. I am a little curious. I have a couple of Android TV/media players. I know they're comparatively lower performing devices compared to what you get as a flagship smartphone from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. I recently upgraded from an LG G3 to an LG V20. The V20 is a *very* nice phone btw...

 

So... the LG G3 is still a pretty strong performing device (Certainly less than a nVidia Shield, but almost certainly better than a Fire Stick, T95m or Mini M8IIs) and it has a mini/micro HDMI out. Has anyone attempted turning a smartphone into a full Android TV media player? I can't be the first one to try this...

 

Anyone given this a go?

[mastrmind11 717]

If there's HDMI out, then it'll mirror whatever's on your device to the TV.  It certainly won't be the full blown experience that you'd get from a pure Android TV setup, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.  There wouldn't be an HDMI out on the device if it weren't meant to be hooked up to something bigger.  The pain would be navigation, but you could install SPMC on it, turn on external access, and control it via Yatse on your other device(s).  The only limitations I see (and they might not even be) is it'd rely on the wifi of the device so it may buffer and/or transcode server side, and I'm also not sure how HDMI out works when the screen goes to sleep.  Give it a go and report back.

[Ponyo 22]

Yes it will work. If you run the Emby app on it I think you'll even be able to control it from a other phone/browser.

 

Why you would bother is beyond me though. My experience with MHL is that its rather hit and miss with apps working on or. If it has HDMI out it might be better. Another issue might be charging. Chances are that while playing a movie the battery will drain faster than the phone can recharge.

 

But most of all, why go for such a "hacky" solution if for 50 ~ 100 bucks you can gets a chromecast/android/intel atom solution? You could probably even sell that G3 and buy one of those devices with the money you get from it.

 

If the argument is that you can use it whenever you need then yes, a phone might be a half decent solution though if for example you are traveling a lot I would still prefer taking something like a firetv stick with me just so your phone is free to do... uhh... phone stuff.