Output from mobile to TV with no tv-out?

[tvout]

Hi all,
I'm just about to switch from a Nokia N95 to a HTC Wildfire but am sad I'm losing the TV out feature. I've been looking into possible workarounds for this and wondered if there's any way of doing it other than copying stuff to the N95 to play on the TV.
I wondered if you could use the USB output on newer phones in conjunction with some kind of media converter that would work with flash drives etc? I wasn't sure how phones are generally recognised as mass storage devices when plugged into PCs etc and if that would work or not?

Any ideas anyone?

[Graham M]

Does your TV have a USB media port?

[tvout]

Originally Posted by Graham M

Does your TV have a USB media port?

Hi Graham, I was thinking someone might mention that. Unfortunately I'm one of those still in the dark ages with a CRT... same too at my gf's parents house where we often show pictures and videos of holidays etc.
My Dad has some kind of little device where he can insert a memory card and it outputs to TV through 3 phono cables. It also has a USB connector but I didn't know if that might work with a mobile phone or not...

[Graham M]

Well I don't know about that particular phone but my HTC HD Mini asks how you want to connect when you plug it in, if it detects the connection when you plug it into the media player then if you tell it to act as a Flash Drive then it MIGHT work, worth a try

[tvout]

Originally Posted by Graham M

Well I don't know about that particular phone but my HTC HD Mini asks how you want to connect when you plug it in, if it detects the connection when you plug it into the media player then if you tell it to act as a Flash Drive then it MIGHT work, worth a try

Thanks Graham, I'll see if I can try it with my Dad's device thing. How do you find the HTC HD Mini? I was offered a choice of that or the Wildfire but opted for Android over Windows Mobile as I was put off a bit by what I'd heard about Windows Mobile? Is the picture/video quality on the HD Mini good? That was another big downer for me in choosing to go from a N95 to a HTC Wildfire was the picture/video quality...

Kind of begs the question ... why are you changing your phone? Doesn't sound like much of an upgrade to me!

[tvout]

Originally Posted by Chris

Kind of begs the question ... why are you changing your phone? Doesn't sound like much of an upgrade to me!

It is a very good question and to be honest I'm in two minds but my N95 does seem to suffer annoying memory errors and stuff and the Android OS has lots of nice apps and better web support etc. I thought it might be better to just get a decent digital camera and use that instead rather than just using a phone.
Money also being very tight meaning I couldn't go for something like the high MP Sony Ericsson phones, Nokia N8 or Samsung Galaxy which I would have all quite fancied. I had to pay £140 for my N95 in June 2007 and it seems to be suffering more often now with software bugs especially as websites become more high tech and needing better browsers...
The TV-out thing I was thinking I'd somehow work around.
The craziest thing is that along with the free phone, my line rental has gone down by nearly £10 a month and I get the same benefits but 3 times as many minutes and texts! I could think in a way I'll keep the same phone but get a free phone anyway so it was worth it to get a free phone!

[Stuart]

It is, of course, slightly ironic that your forum nickname is tvout..

---------- Post added at 21:11 ---------- Previous post was at 21:06 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Kind of begs the question ... why are you changing your phone? Doesn't sound like much of an upgrade to me!

It may be that he thinks the thinks he is obtaining outweigh what is lost.

When I went my iphone from an n95, I lost full tv out support (the iphone can play videos to TV, the n95 can output anything that appears on it's LCD to tv). I also lost a few megapixels resolution on the camera, video recording and a flash.

However, what I gained in screen resolution, storage and other facilities on the phone far outwieghed the losses, IMO.