With all this talk about cases, I just picked up the AllShare Cast Hub yesterday, and I was playing with it for quite a while and have been fairly happy with my new toy. For those of you who are not familiar with it, there is a feature in the Galaxy S3 and Note 2 called AllShare Cast. The basic idea is to show your screen on the TV without the need to plug in a HDMI cable. This will allow you to play games from your phone and have them come up on the big screen, almost like you have a mini game console in your hands. It also can come in handy for showing pictures or videos from your phone to a group of people without setting it up next to the TV and then running back to sit down again the way a HDMI connection would require.
Samsung has AllShare Cast built in as a feature on their higher end flat panel TVs, generally those that come with WiFi built in(not the normal Ethernet you see on lower end models), so for those with a non-Samsung TV, or those with a lower end TV, Samsung has the AllShare Cast Hub available as an accessory. It is also referred to as the AllShare Cast Dongle, I suspect because Samsung is still working on the branding for the device it changed. The box says Hub, the product calls itself the AllShare Cast Dongle.
To set it up is very simple, plug the "hub" into wall power with the included power connector, and then plug the normal HDMI cable into an available connection on your TV. You can also plug it into a surround sound receiver that supports HDMI if you want. When you change your TV to the proper input, you should see some basic instructions, and there will be a red light on the AllShare Cast Hub that will be blinking. Now, on your Galaxy S3 or Note 2, turn on AllShare Cast(on my AT&T version it is under Settings, then More Settings and you will find where to turn it on). Next, press and hold the button on the back of the AllShare Cast Hub until the light turns blue. Your phone SHOULD now see the Dongle(hit scan again on the phone if it didn't find any devices before that). In under 30 seconds it SHOULD connect, and you will see on your phone and TV screen that all is now synced, and your phone screen should now be on your TV.
Initially, I did not insert the HDMI cable all the way into the AllShare Cast Hub, but it is clear that you need the Hub to be connected to the TV FIRST before you try connecting your phone to the Hub. Quality seems to be acceptable for the most part, I am running mine through an older HDMI 1.2a Yamaha receiver, so I am not sure if some of the display quality issues are from that, or the source from Showtime Anytime not giving the best quality at this point. I can say that it is a more interesting accessory than many, simply because it isn't passive. Turn on AllShare Cast, and it will automatically connect to the Hub after that initial setup, so at this point, I just change my inputs on surround sound receiver and TV, and bingo, it is all up and working. I will be doing a few other tests to see if bypassing the surround sound receiver improves video quality, also trying other video sources besides the Showtime Anytime app.
Samsung has AllShare Cast built in as a feature on their higher end flat panel TVs, generally those that come with WiFi built in(not the normal Ethernet you see on lower end models), so for those with a non-Samsung TV, or those with a lower end TV, Samsung has the AllShare Cast Hub available as an accessory. It is also referred to as the AllShare Cast Dongle, I suspect because Samsung is still working on the branding for the device it changed. The box says Hub, the product calls itself the AllShare Cast Dongle.
To set it up is very simple, plug the "hub" into wall power with the included power connector, and then plug the normal HDMI cable into an available connection on your TV. You can also plug it into a surround sound receiver that supports HDMI if you want. When you change your TV to the proper input, you should see some basic instructions, and there will be a red light on the AllShare Cast Hub that will be blinking. Now, on your Galaxy S3 or Note 2, turn on AllShare Cast(on my AT&T version it is under Settings, then More Settings and you will find where to turn it on). Next, press and hold the button on the back of the AllShare Cast Hub until the light turns blue. Your phone SHOULD now see the Dongle(hit scan again on the phone if it didn't find any devices before that). In under 30 seconds it SHOULD connect, and you will see on your phone and TV screen that all is now synced, and your phone screen should now be on your TV.
Initially, I did not insert the HDMI cable all the way into the AllShare Cast Hub, but it is clear that you need the Hub to be connected to the TV FIRST before you try connecting your phone to the Hub. Quality seems to be acceptable for the most part, I am running mine through an older HDMI 1.2a Yamaha receiver, so I am not sure if some of the display quality issues are from that, or the source from Showtime Anytime not giving the best quality at this point. I can say that it is a more interesting accessory than many, simply because it isn't passive. Turn on AllShare Cast, and it will automatically connect to the Hub after that initial setup, so at this point, I just change my inputs on surround sound receiver and TV, and bingo, it is all up and working. I will be doing a few other tests to see if bypassing the surround sound receiver improves video quality, also trying other video sources besides the Showtime Anytime app.