HDMI work around for ICS

[yaterml]

I poked around and couldn't find anything addressing the issue of HDMI out on NFL Mobile post ICS. I know the trusty Xternal Display for Droid X worked previously but now it won't let me install on ICS. Stock Rooted FW.

 

[rbess1965]

I would sure like to know about this one also. I asked this same question over on Android Central a few days ago and all I hear is crickets. I can display Netflix and YouTube but not NFL or Hulu. They have the same type of error message telling me to unplug the hdmi cable and then the run fine on the phone only. That just sucks and I'd like to at minimum hear an explanation n of why. If it won't work I'm canceling my subscription to Verizon NFL service.

Sent using the amazing DROID RAZR MAXX

 

[yaterml]

It's to prevent misuse of the broadcast. That way you couldn't use it for professional broadcast as it's only a personal mobile license you purchase from Verizon not a full broadcast license. Same for Hulu mobile versus full profile. It's all BS. They don't want you hooking it up and showing an entire room of people or charging people to watch it. It's the same reason you won't see a WWE or UFC mobile PPV app. There is obviously a work around it just needs to be exploited for ICS.

 

[mekanism]

I have been researching this for the past week and currently there is no work around for hdmi with nfl mobile. However, I plan on trying an app called mirrorop which mirrors the display wirelessly or through usb. You have to have a computer connected to your tv otherwise you need to buy a special receiver, and you need to be rooted which I'm not at the moment. If any of you that are rooted want to try it out they have a trial for the window software and the app is free.

Check it out:

http://www.mirrorop.com/product_Windows_Receiver.html

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[mekanism]

I got mirrorop working on my computer that is connected to my tv in the living room but the framerates are horrible. Nfl mobile is un watchable. Maybe for those of you with really fast wifi it would work better (I'm still on G).

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[InVeNtOr]

well this sucks. i have a hdmi cable on order and i was all set to do this. i thought it was a great idea. i have a rooted maxx and my rom is symplex so maybe, just maybe it will work?
anyone made any progress yet? anyone tired sqlite editor on nfl mobile app to see if that fixes it?

 

[jbattershell]

Solution using ADB

I used to use Xternal Display until I got a RAZR Maxx that has ICS and the app doesn't work anymore. Xternal Display actually has their code posted online so I downloaded it and tried to see if there were any changes that would allow it to work with ICS. Turns out Motorola had an HDMI API that it discontinued for ICS. This API is what Xternal Display used and without it, there is not an easy way of making the app work on 4.0+.

After some work I did come up with a new solution so I can get NFL mobile mirrored to my TV! You must have the Android SDK tools installed and the Developer driver from Motorola installed for this to work. You can download the driver at https://developer.motorola.com/tools/usb_drivers/handset_usb_driver/

1. Connect HDMI cable to phone and connect USB to computer and phone
2. Open up command prompt and change directory to your SDK folder/platform-tools. For me, that is C:\Android-sdk\platform-tools
3. Send the following without the quotes: "adb shell am broadcast -a com.motorola.intent.action.externaldisplaystate --ei hdmi 0 --ei hdcp 1"
4. Open up NFL Mobile and enjoy it on a bigger screen!

NFL Mobile looks for broadcasts that indicate the state of the HDMI port and stops accessing the streaming content when it sees that HDMI has been plugged in. By sending a command over the ADB interface, we are effectively tricking NFL mobile into thinking that the HDMI cable has been removed! It's not quite as nice as Xternal Display was since it's not just an app on the phone anymore, but at least there is a way!

 

[yaterml]

Do you think that the command could be put in an executable command script that could be put on the phone and opened via an app like es explorer? Or rom manager?

 

[yaterml]

Or could this be direct edited via SDK lite?

 

[jbattershell]

I'm not sure. So far I haven't found any way to allow an app on the phone to give commands as if they were being sent through the ADB. Though I've only been coding Android for a few months, so it's entirely possible there is a way. If someone is able use this method to create an app or a script that eliminates the need for a PC, that would be great.

 

[yaterml]

See in was wondering if you could change the value with SQLite so that it doesn't see the HDMI cable or that it checked and it returned a 0. I haven't had time to sit down an comb over the code

 

[gan777]

I don't know if this will help, but I would like to see a workaround for this. While I was waiting around at work today for a computer issue to be resolved I started looking through the file system on my razr to see if I could find anything... I came across a file in etc/permissions called com.verizon.hardware.hdmi.xml. I opened the file and it says something about this being there to prevent content from being displayed through hdmi. There is a reference to "permissions" in the file that looks like it references its permissions from a database (see below). I know squat about XML myself so I am hoping someone else might be able to make use of this info.
<permissions>
<feature name="vzw.hardware.hdmi"/>
</permissions>

edit: I tried simply renaming the file hoping that if it didn't find it, maybe it would work. That had no effect.

 

[rbess1965]

Watching you guys working on this and how the process develops to create a solution is fascinating and I'm glad these forums exist for us that have no programming experience what so ever. You guys rock.

Sent using the amazing DROID RAZR MAXX

 

[Lintroller]

Any updates on this? Anybody else use the jbattershell method successfully? I'm currently attempting it as we speak, I'll update you on my progress.

 

[m3mo15]

I actually didn't have the sdk tools so it took me forever to try this but anyways it works flawless. How i did it was i connected the usb cable (load drivers), then connected the HDMI cable (phone-tv) select mirror display "duh", then i opened the nfl mobile app and tried to watch it, after the error i sent the adb command and then retried to watch it and voila! working %100 looks pretty good on my 32", saved my day and got to see the broncos embarrass the raiders lol