Miracast (also called screen mirroring and wireless display among other names on consumer devices) is a standard for wireless connections from sending devices (such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones) to display receivers (such as TVs, monitors, or projectors), introduced in 2012 by the

Wi-Fi Alliance The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi interoperability. History Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems be ...

. It can roughly be described as "

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

over

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

", replacing the cable from the device to the display.On Wifi-Display, Democratic Republics and Miracles
Patrick Herrmann, on the development of Miraclecast, 2014-02-17. The

launched the Miracast certification program at the end of 2012. Devices that are Miracast-certified can communicate with each other, regardless of manufacturer. Adapters became available that may be plugged either into HDMI or USB ports, allowing devices without built-in Miracast support to connect via Miracast. In 2013,

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

announced support for Miracast. In 2017, Wi-Fi Alliance stated Miracast as a use for

Wi-Fi Direct Wi-Fi Direct (formerly Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer) is a Wi-Fi standard for peer-to-peer wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, router, or Internet connection. W ...

. Miracast is based on the peer-to-peer

standard. It allows sending up to

1080p 1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen ve ...

HD video ( H.264 codec) and

5.1 surround sound 5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dolb ...

( AAC and AC3 are optional codecs, mandated codec is linear pulse-code modulation16 bits 48 kHz 2 channels). The connection is created via WPS and therefore is secured with WPA2. IPv4 is used on the

Internet layer The internet layer is a group of internetworking methods, protocols, and specifications in the Internet protocol suite that are used to transport network packets from the originating host across network boundaries; if necessary, to the destinat ...

. On the transport layer, TCP or UDP are used. On the

application layer An application layer is an abstraction layer that specifies the shared communications protocols and interface methods used by hosts in a communications network. An ''application layer'' abstraction is specified in both the Internet Protocol Su ...

, the stream is initiated and controlled via

RTSP The Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is an application-level network protocol designed for multiplexing and packetizing multimedia transport streams (such as interactive media, video and audio) over a suitable transport protocol. RTSP is u ...

, RTP for the data transfer."Miracast unter Linux ist schrecklich"
golem.de, 2014-02-02.

Devices

The

maintains a list of certified devices, which numbered over 6,700 .

announced support in 2012 for their Tegra 3 platform, and

Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focused their integrated circuit products on the automotive, em ...

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, ...

Marvell Technology Group Marvell Technology, Inc. is an American company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, which develops and produces semiconductors and related technology. Founded in 1995, the company had more than 6,000 employees as of 2021, with over 10,00 ...

and other chip vendors have also announced their plans to support it. Actiontec Electronics also supports Miracast with its line of ScreenBeam products. Both devices (the sender and the receiver) need to be Miracast certified for the technology to work. However, to stream music and movies to a non-certified device, Miracast adapters are available that plug into

or USB ports. On 29 October 2012,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

announced that Android version 4.2+ (from an updated version of Jelly Bean) supports the Miracast wireless display standard, and by default have it integrated. With Android 6.0 Marshmallow, released in 2015, Miracast support was dropped. Despite this, there are still Miracast apps for Android available. As of 8 January 2013, the LG

Nexus 4 The Nexus 4 (codenamed Mako) is an Android smartphone co-developed by Google and LG Electronics. It is the fourth smartphone in the Google Nexus product family, unveiled on October 29, 2012, and released on November 13, 2012, and succeeded th ...

and

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Xperia Xperia () is the brand name of smartphones and tablets from Sony. The name Xperia is derived from the word "experience", and was first used in the Xperia X1 tagline of "I Xperia the best". Sony Mobile was previously known globally as Sony Er ...

Z, ZL, T and V officially supported the function, as did

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

One,

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

in their

Droid Maxx The Droid Maxx is a smartphone developed by Motorola Mobility. It is the first Droid to be a high end smartphone exclusively developed by Motorola for Verizon Wireless. It is part of the Verizon Droid line, and was announced on 23 July 2013 alon ...

and

Droid Ultra The Droid Maxx is a smartphone developed by Motorola Mobility. It is the first Droid to be a high end smartphone exclusively developed by Motorola for Verizon Wireless. It is part of the Verizon Droid line, and was announced on 23 July 2013 alon ...

flagships, and

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in its

Galaxy S III The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...

and Galaxy Note II under the moniker ''AllShare Cast''. The Galaxy S4 uses Samsung Link for its implementation. In October 2013,

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

released its 10.2.1 update to most of the existing BlackBerry 10 devices available at that time. As of March 2015, the BlackBerry

Q10 Q10 or Q-10 may refer to: Science and technology * Q10 (temperature coefficient) * Coenzyme Q10, a dietary supplement * BlackBerry Q10, a smartphone Transportation * Q10 (New York City bus) The Q10 bus route constitutes a public transit line ...

, Q5, Z30, and later models support Miracast streaming; the

BlackBerry Z10 The BlackBerry Z10 is a high-end LTE touchscreen-based smartphone developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM. The BlackBerry Z10 is the first of two new BlackBerry phones presented at the BlackBerry 10 event on January 30, 2013. The Blac ...

does not support Miracast, due to hardware limitations. In April 2013,

Rockchip Rockchip (Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company based in Fuzhou, Fujian province. Rockchip has been providing SoC products for tablets & PCs, streaming media TV boxes, AI audio & vision, IoT hardware ...

unveiled a Miracast adapter powered by the RK2928. Microsoft also added support for Miracast in Windows 8.1 (announced in June 2013) and Windows 10. This functionality first became available in the Windows 8.1 Preview, and is available on hardware with supported Miracast drivers from hardware (GPU) manufacturers such as those listed above. The WDTV Live Streaming Media Player added Miracast support with firmware version 2.02.32 The

Amazon Fire TV Stick Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connected ...

, which started shipping on 19 November 2014, also supports Miracast. The

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduced ...

streaming stick and Roku TV started providing support for Miracast starting October 2014. On 28 July 2013, Google announced the availability of the

Chromecast Chromecast is a line of digital media players developed by Google. The devices, designed as small dongles, can play Internet-streamed audio-visual content on a high-definition television or home audio system. The user can control playback w ...

powered by a Marvell DE3005-A1, but despite the similarity in name and Google's early support of Miracast in Android, the Chromecast does not support Miracast. On 23 September 2014, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Wireless Display Adaptor, a USB-powered HDMI dongle for high definition televisions. As of late April 2016, the Ubuntu Touch-powered Meizu Pro 5 supported Miracast in OTA-11.

Functionality

The technology was promoted to work across devices, regardless of brand. Miracast devices negotiate settings for each connection, which simplifies the process for the users. In particular, it obviates having to worry about format or

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

details. Miracast is "effectively a wireless HDMI cable, copying everything from one screen to another using the H.264 codec and its own

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted work ...

(DRM) layer emulating the HDMI system". The Wi-Fi Alliance suggested that Miracast could also be used by a

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

wanting to

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

content to a TV or tablet.

Types of media streamed

Miracast can stream videos that are in

, media with DRM such as DVDs, as well as protected premium content streaming, enabling devices to stream feature films and other copy-protected materials. This is accomplished by using a Wi-Fi version of the same trusted content mechanisms used on cable-based HDMI and

DisplayPort DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...

connections.

Display resolution

* 27 Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) formats, from 640 x 480 up to 4096 x 2160 pixels, and from 24 to 60 frames per second (fps) * 34 Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) formats, from 800 x 600 up to 2560 x 1600 pixels, and from 30 to 60 fps * 12 handheld formats, from 640 x 360 up to 960 x 540 pixels, and from 30 to 60 fps * Mandatory: 1280 x 720p30 (HD) * Optional: 3840 x 2160p60 (4K Ultra HD)

Video

Mandatory: ITU-T H.264 (Advanced Video Coding VC for HD and Ultra HD video; supports several profiles in transcoding and non-transcoding modes, including Constrained Baseline Profile (CBP), at levels ranging from 3.1 to 5.2 Optional: ITU-T H.265 (High-Efficiency Video Coding EVC for HD and Ultra HD video; supports several profiles in transcoding and non-transcoding modes, including Main Profile, Main 444, SCC-8 bit 444, Main 444 10, at levels ranging from 3.1 to 5.1

Audio

Mandated audio codec: Linear Pulse-Code Modulation (LPCM) 16 bits, 48 kHz sampling, 2 channels Optional audio codecs, including: * LPCM mode 16 bits, 44.1 kHz sampling, 2 channels * Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) modes * Dolby Advanced Codec 3 (AC3) modes * E-AC-3 * Dolby TrueHD, Dolby MAT modes * DTS-HD mode * MPEG-4 AAC and MPEG-H 3D Audio modes * AAC-ELDv2

Version history

Issues

Certification does not mandate a maximum latency (i.e. the time between the display of pictures on the source and display of the mirrored image on the sync display). Even with certification, it is possible an underpowered device will be constrained in performance or bandwidth. Also, as a certified hardware standard, Miracast device support is 100% OEM determined. A software, firmware or OS update doesn't grant Miracast on uncertified hardware, even if the minimum requirements are met. (ex: Apple MacBooks, even with compatible Intel Core processors and Wi-Fi support that would be able to do Miracast if they were using Windows, either natively or under BootCamp, are not supported.) It was a feature of

Android KitKat Android KitKat is the codename for the eleventh Android mobile operating system, representing release version 4.4. Unveiled on September 3, 2013, KitKat focused primarily on optimizing the operating system for improved performance on entry-level ...

, support in Android was dropped in 2015, and ''

Computerworld ''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...

'' observed that "Miracast never quite caught on as a standard".

OS support

Windows

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

and

Windows 11 Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...

support Miracast transmitting along with User Input Back Channel (UIBC) support to allow for human interface devices (touch screens, mouse, keyboard) to also have wireless connectivity (provided the host hardware also supports this). The transmit feature is built-in from launch for all Miracast devices with no additional setup past using the WIN+K keystroke to pair with a compatible display sink (including Microsoft's own Wireless Display Adapter). Since Version 2004 was released a user needs to add "Wireless Display" as a optional Windows add-in feature in the Settings app to have a device receive video as a Miracast display sink on compatible hardware (using the UWP-based "Connect" app). Windows 11 has the "Connect" app only as an optional add-in since RTM launch.

Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1 is a release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, and broadly released for retail sale on October 17, 2013, about a year after the retail release of its pre ...

supports broadcasting/sending the screen via Miracast. Miracast is also built into

Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...

. Developers can also implement Miracast on top of the built-in

support in

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

. Another way to support Miracast in Windows is with Intel's proprietary WiDi (v3.5 or higher). A software-based Miracast receiver for Windows 8.1, AirServer Universal, was made available on 31 October 2014 by App Dynamic.

iOS and macOS

Apple does not support the Miracast standard on iOS or

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, instead using its own

proprietary {{Short pages monitor