Samsung MHL Adapter Port Dual-Purpose USB or HDMI Video Out for Galaxy S II

I've been using this HDMI adaptor with my Samsung Galaxy S II for a couple of months now, and it works well. Since I did not know what to expect from my Samsung Galaxy S II when combined with this adaptor, I will dedicate the rest of this review to that.

Nothing happens when you attach this adaptor unless you also provide power to it: it has a female USB micro socket so you can use the phone's own charger, or the data-cable with a PC/TV at the other end. I tend to use the data cable with a battery pack that provides a female USB-A socket. Therefore, your phone will charge while you are using this adaptor.

Once attached the phone bleeps, the screen comes on (locked) and after a moment or two the TV begins to display a cloned 1080i portrait view of your phone's lock screen (upscaled from a native resolution of WVGA: 480x800). It does not support 1080p. Portrait looks very clear, if a bit silly with the massive black areas either side on the widescreen TV.

If you change the orientation of the phone the TV signal become landscape (800x480, upscaled to 1080i), fully filling the widescreen view. The up-scaled pixels are visible, but not distracting.

When you watch a video using the stock player, or a suitable alternative (e.g. MoboPlayer, mVideoPlayer) the video - and only the video - is displayed on the TV. On-screen controls are visible on the phone (in addition to the video), but not on the TV. Soft subtitles (the type you can turn on and off) display on the phone's own screen, but not on the TV.

If you playback a video that is encoded at 1920x1080 (the resolution of 1080i / 1080p) it is displayed on the 1080i TV pixel-exact. It is not downscaled to WVGA and then upscaled to 1080i as I feared before I bought one.

The picture quality is fine, but not great. Dark areas have noticeable banding and quantization errors, something which isn't visible on the phone's own screen. (And no, it isn't merely down to differing black levels on the TV and phone screen). The vast majority of people I've shown this to have not noticed these artifacts.

Since my TV supports HDMI CEC I can use the TV remote to control the phone (after pressing "Refresh" in the input selection menu). This lets you press up, down, left, right, enter, back, and via a menu, home. The pause button has the affect of toggling playback, but the "play" button doesn't seem to do anything. YMMV. It is very useful when showing photos from the phone, or watching TV series etc.

You cannot use the camera at the same time as this adaptor, which is a shame if you were thinking of making video calls as I was. When you start using the camera, the TV display a static slide of text that says HDMI out is not available when the camera is in use. When you exit the camera the TV's clone output is restored.

Occasionally when plugging / unplugging the adaptor the device's own display will become "stuck" with no display on the TV. Tapping the lock button to turn off the device screen and then again to restore it seems to unstick the situation, so it's just an occasional nuisance.

I happily use my SII with HDMI + bluetooth keyboard + bluetooth mouse as a PC substitute. It's a great media player, and a reasonable internet browser. It would be great if the mouse's scrollwheel worked, and there was a way to zoom in and out from the keyboard (or mouse).

So in summary I'm very happy with it, but I wish it would display my soft subtitles on the TV and not just on the device itself.

Not happy!!!

If your looking at this item cause you want the branded version, DON'T BUY!!!

Opted for this item above several others as it shows on the pictures and description that it's an "Original Samsung" product. On the back of the box - the blurb, about the product has several spelling mistakes. Which certainly makes me have 2nd thoughts about plugging my new phone into it.

Not really sure what's gone on here as 8 other reviews don't mention this. When contacting seller re problem, all I got back was standard response return to sender, which is what prompted me to post this review....

So if I were you go elsewhere and get it for half the price at least then you know your getting what you pay for!!

This is a genuine samsung cable. It does what it is supposed to but it's far to expensive compared to generic cables that do the exact same job. This cable should have come free with the phone. I cannot fault the seller, just samsung.