Samsung TV "Mirror Screen"

I would like to show the screen of my Ubuntu laptop on a Samsung TV.

The TV has a menu entry called "mirror screen".

But up to now I found no way to get it working.

I need a wireless way to us the TV as monitor.

Any hints?

Exact hardware version: Samsung SmartTV UE55J6250

If it is not possible via software am willing to buy some hardware.

Solution 1:

By 2020, it's possible to do Screen Mirroring on a Samsung Smart TV as Wireless Display, without any HDMI cable (I use it every day, Samsung TV UN40J5500, with Ubuntu 20.04). The simplest way to do it, in my opinion, is to install gnome-network-displays via flatpak.

1. Download .flatpakref from Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.NetworkDisplays
2. Install: flatpak install org.gnome.NetworkDisplays.flatpakref
3. Run: flatpak run org.gnome.NetworkDisplays
4. Select TV to display
5. Should start streaming screen to TV.

Important: check that your audio is working on TV. In my case, I need to use PulseAudio Volume Manager.

1. Install: sudo apt install pavucontrol
2. Run: pavucontrol
3. Select: Output Devices -> Show: Virtual Output Devices -> Set Fallback.

Finally, if your TV is not located or if screen is suddently frozen, this is what I do:

1. close gnome-network-displays (if open)
2. stop: systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
3. stop: systemctl stop wpa_supplicant.service
4. start: systemctl start NetworkManager.service
5. start: systemctl start wpa_supplicant.service

Then, I re-open the network displays and it goes back to work.

My experience with Wireless Displays is usually very good, I manage to watch movies with audio in perfect sync. Just for extra information, I use 5GHz Wifi (maybe it helps...) on router Archer C60, and my CPU is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz (not very new but works fine).

For extra information, it's nice to visit the project repository: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-network-displays

Another project that "partially worked" for me was MiracleCast (at least for TV discovery and motivation to know if it COULD work possibly on linux...). I don't think it's complete yet (see Open Issue), but it's another possible alternative for the future: https://github.com/albfan/miraclecast/issues/4

Good luck!

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-network-displays

Solution 2:

Google Chromecast is likely the best and cheapest option for mirroring your Ubuntu desktop to your TV. Here is a short youtube video.

For setting up in Ubuntu 16.04 there are other users to help out if you have a problem: Google cast on Ubuntu 16.04

Note there is a now a version 2, an ultra option and even an Ethernet option.

The cost (without options) is reasonable around $35 USD.

Although this is the recommended option for the OP, check your TV model first before buying a Google Chromecast. It could very well be your TV already has it built in. Also check your blu-ray player as some of them have Google Chromecast already built in too.

Image:

Google cast extension has been discontinued, now is integrated into Chrome/Chromium: