Solved How do I play videos from my smartphone to my laptop?

[malchore]

Hi. Just registered and am new to this site. I am having a hard time finding information on google so I thought I would come here and ask, perhaps maybe someone can give me a clue as what to search for.

I have a smartphone (Motorola Droid RAZR HD, Verizon is the carrier) which has an HDMI output. I have a company laptop (DELL Latitude E5430) which has a HDMI port. I would like to play videos from my smartphone on my laptop, through the HDMI port. I have a few videos of my family that I sometimes like to display to coworkers, but the phone screen is so small it's hard to see (especially to a small audience.) Is there anyway to accomplish this?

I cannot simply copy the .mp4 video file from my phone to my laptop. I have done that in the past and was given a stern lecture about using company resources for personal use blah blah. And would prefer to avoid that in the future. I thought there might be an easy way to "Play" a video on my phone and have it display on my laptop screen. Thanks.

 

[strollin]

It can't be done the way you think. The hdmi port on your laptop is an output, not an input. It lets you send video/audio output from your laptop to a TV or monitor with an hdmi input.

You should be able to tether your phone to your laptop via a USB cable which will make your phone appear to your laptop as an external drive, then you could play videos stored on your phone on your laptop. This will require you to be able to install drivers on your laptop (not sure how locked down your company supplied laptop is).

Other ways to do it would be to use a USB thumb drive, external hdd or an SD card and reader with the videos stored there. Then it's a simple matter of connecting whatever device the videos are stored on and playing them on your laptop. This will eliminate actually copying the video files to the laptop but will probably still run afoul of the "not for personal use" rule.

 

[Bongo]

Hi. Just registered and am new to this site. I am having a hard time finding information on google so I thought I would come here and ask, perhaps maybe someone can give me a clue as what to search for.

I have a smartphone (Motorola Droid RAZR HD, Verizon is the carrier) which has an HDMI output. I have a company laptop (DELL Latitude E5430) which has a HDMI port. I would like to play videos from my smartphone on my laptop, through the HDMI port. I have a few videos of my family that I sometimes like to display to coworkers, but the phone screen is so small it's hard to see (especially to a small audience.) Is there anyway to accomplish this?

I cannot simply copy the .mp4 video file from my phone to my laptop. I have done that in the past and was given a stern lecture about using company resources for personal use blah blah. And would prefer to avoid that in the future. I thought there might be an easy way to "Play" a video on my phone and have it display on my laptop screen. Thanks.

Welcome to the Seven Forums

I have done that in the past and was given a stern lecture about using company resources for personal use

Isn't your job important to you?

Jerry

 

[malchore]

It can't be done the way you think. The hdmi port on your laptop is an output, not an input. It lets you send video/audio output from your laptop to a TV or monitor with an hdmi input.

Thanks for the quick response Strollin. I figured there wasn't any way to do it, but it never hurts to ask and get confirmation.

One comment about HDMI - the HDMI interface is digital; it can transfer in any direction. But most hdmi devices are hardwired as either in or out. (Phones, Blue-ray players, TVs, cable boxes etc.) Those can't be changed. But a computer can be changed. My hope was to find software that would configure my hdmi port as an "input" device. Anyways thanks for the response.

 

[strollin]

Sorry, you can't just configure your hdmi port on your laptop as either input or output but here's a laptop that does claim it has an hdmi input: Eurocom's 17.3" X7200 Panther 2.0 Gaming Notebook Has HDMI 1.4 Input - HotHardware