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One of my favorite features on my Samsung TV is the option to watch content on so many different apps and even AirPlay or mirror my iPhone.
The TV has a bunch of apps built in and has an App Store. So for example, you can watch YouTube, Netflix and Hulu just to name a few directly on the TV. There is also a web browser that’s built-in and allows you to pull up websites. It’s not the easiest to use but it is an option.
But, the easiest way to watch content that’s not available directly on the TV is to AirPlay from an Apple device. For example, I use that to watch the Iowa women’s basketball games. They are broadcast on the Big Ten Network Plus app. As far as I can tell there’s no way to download that app in the Samsung TV App Store.
Simply open up the app on your phone and click the little streaming TV button to start an AirPlay. The biggest things to remember include to make sure:
- your phone and TV are on the same Wi-Fi network.
- the Samsung TV has AirPlay turned on – if it’s not turned on simply go to sources and then settings.
That’s pretty much it. What I like about this functionality is that you can do other things on your phone while you’re AirPlaying and you can even just put the phone away and let it go to sleep. The show keeps playing on the TV.
Video and audio
Most often I use this for video-based content but it’s also available for audio content like podcasts. For example, I can AirPlay a podcast from Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google Podcasts.
Basically follow the same process and look for the AirPlay button in the app.
Mirroring
In the case that you cannot AirPlay from a specific app or website, there’s always the option to simply mirror your screen. This functionality is not as nice to use because you cannot use your device for anything else while mirroring. But it is an option.
To play content through the mirroring screen functionality just swipe down from the top right corner and click on the mirroring button.
Then pick the device on the next screen. That part is very similar to starting an AirPlay.
It certainly would be easier if we could just have one set up for all the content we want to watch on our TVs. Of course that would be called traditional television. Since that’s not an option anymore this is a nice way to stream additional content.