[Verizon Galaxy S 5 General] nsmal24:
First off, I get it. Chromecast is awesome and Miracast kinda sucks. I know. However, I was searching for an AIO video solution for my minivan that I could control from the 1st row (refuse to use DVDs - 2014 T&C has 1 HDMI port behind the 2nd row). My Chromecast works awesome tethered to my phone's hotspot. Other than for the first time setup, you don't even need a second device. You can cast from the device hosting the hotspot which is slick. Perfect for in-car. But I wanted to be able to cast local content so network reliability does not become and issue when traveling (Netflix, Emby, etc). Enter BubbleUPNP. Bubble will transcode on the fly (on the phone) and cast anything you have to your Chromecast (Chromecast is super limited on codecs). This was perfect for when I was in the car. But I needed a solution for my wife. Unfortunately, due to me holding on to my unlimited data on good 'ole VZW, my wife does not have native tethering enabled (iPhone - not going to JB it either). My idea was to get a deactivated phone (in this case, a Galaxy S5), enable the native hotspot, and use the Chromecast connected to wifi, but offline. Guess what Chromecast can't do...even for local content. Yeah. It needs the internet. So...

So I bought a Microsoft Wireless Adapter for Miracast. It is not too shabby actually. Hate that it mirrors everything (prefer the "cast" then use your phone normally and even turn the screen off), but it is fast and reliable. The problem was, the GS5 wouldn't connect to it (something like "failed to connect to screen mirroring"). Tried on Lollipop and Marshmallow with the same result. I found a build.prop edit that disables HDCP. This allowed it to connect with a minor exception. Netflix would not display its video (from my research, Hulu and others might be affected too). I figured this was due to the device being rooted, so I unrooted the device and re-enabled HDCP, but left everything else the same (unlocked dev bootloader, custom recovery, near-stock rom). Failed to connect. Well crap.

I finally rolled back to completely stock 5.0 (PB1) and tried again. Everything worked (including Netflix). Side-loaded the 6.0.1 update. It still worked. I'm not sure what breaks HDCP compliance, but something in the modification process does it. The good news is that since I don't need the native hotspot or any apps other than media players, I don't need root at all. I disabled all the crapware and done!

Popped in a 128GB microSD and loaded it up. Installed the newest Kodi nightly (to get the new estouchy skin for touchscreen use) and it works amazingly. Everything was named nicely already because of Emby, so once I added the TV shows and movies to libraries, Kodi pulled in all the art and metadata automatically. The only thing I don't like so far is that Kodi won't dim/shut off the phone's display like VLC does when you are mirroring (it's not really off, it just turns black). That's not a dealbreaker though, and it might be a feature that I just haven't found yet, or can add via an add-on.

Anyhow, I have no idea if this will help anyone, but I figured if I could save someone some time and a few headaches, it would be worth a quick write-up.

Note: I do have an MHL 2.0 to HDMI adapter. Mirroring a VZW GS5 with 6.0.1 works perfectly with this setup. I wanted to find a wireless solution to avoid cable clutter and potential damage to the phone's USB port.