In the increasingly crowded streaming media player market, companies are looking for ways to distinguish their players from the pack. Case in point: Favi's new MiraStick TV Cast, a stick-style player whose main feature is its ability to mirror content on a phone or tablet and send it wirelessly to your TV. It supports Miracast (Android) and Airplay (Apple), something no other device we’ve tested can do.
Unfortunately, that’s where its appeal ends. Perhaps the biggest liability is that you can't stream directly from services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix. You can view those and other services only by playing them on a mobile device, then mirroring the service on your TV. This results in lower-quality video since it's being formatted for the portable device’s screen, not your TV.
The MiraStick is priced at $80 on the Favi website, but you should be able to buy one, as we did, for about $35, the same price as Chromecast.
Like other stick-styled players we've reviewed, including Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick, the MiraStick is about the size of a pack of gum and plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI port. (We'll be reviewing the new Amazon Fire TV Stick as soon as it's available.) Power comes from a TV's USB port. Unlike those other players, though, there's no option to use an AC adapter if your TV lacks a free—or any—USB input.
Setting up the player is pretty easy. The MiraStick automatically powers up with the TV, and offers visual prompts from the first screen that appears. You'll also need to download the EZCast app on your mobile device, either from the Apple App store or Google Play store. There are also versions for Windows phones (8.1 or above), Mac computers (OS 10.9 or above), or PCs.
First, you connect your mobile device to the MiraStick using the SSID and password that's displayed on the home screen, as shown in the above photo. Then, once the app is downloaded, you connect the MiraStick to your Wi-Fi network using the app. There's no separate remote control, so everything is done through the EZCast app on your phone, tablet, or laptop computer; you can mirror your device’s screen via the MiraStick by directly using Miracast or AirPlay.
Check out our streaming media player buying guide and Ratings.
Using the app, you can easily display your device’s photos, videos, and music on the TV—you can even draw on the images to make annotations. (I drew funny mustaches on a few coworkers' photos.) You can even bring up the device’s camera and pause the live stream to annotate and save that image.
The MiraStick has its own Web browser, and though it claims to support DLNA, it actually uses your device's DLNA app. Because the device connects directly to the MiraStick, you won't find other DLNA compatible devices, such as a hard drive connected to your router, that are on your Wi-Fi network and display that content on the TV. But it does support Dropbox and other cloud storage services, so you can view media stored in the cloud. Also, as its name suggests, you can mirror whatever is on your device's screen. This is MiraStick's most useful feature because it supports Miracast (Android) and Airplay (Apple).
As far as streaming video is concerned, the MiraStick only has direct support for YouTube. All other services—Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, etc.—can be viewed only by playing them on your device, then mirroring the service on your TV. Unfortunately, this results in lower-quality video because it's being formatted for the portable device’s screen, not your TV. Also, in our tests the video was choppier than we've generally experienced with streaming media players that connect directly to the video services, with annoying motion artifacts that can sometimes make videos unwatchable. In our opinion, that makes the MiraStick a poor choice for those looking for a media streamer primarily to watch movies and TV shows from services such as Amazon Prime or Netflix.
While we commend MiraStick's support for Miracast and AirPlay screen-mirroring protocols, that's really its only advantage. If screen mirroring is your highest priority, then you might want to consider Favi's new player, especially if you can get it for $35. But for most of us that use a streaming media player to watch TV shows and movies from a streaming service, either the $35 Chromecast or the $50 Roku Streaming Stick is a better, more versatile alternative.
—Chris Andrade
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