How to connect your Android phone to an HDTV

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Many Android phones have HDMI ports to output photos and videos to an HDTV. We’ll show you how to connect your Android phone to your TV so you can view them on the big screen. The phone we’ll use in this how-to is a Motorola Droid X.

Step 1: Connect the HDMI cable to your Android phone and your HDTV. The Motorola Droid X has a micro-HDMI port (type-D connector) that connects to the regular HDMI port (type-A connector) of your HDTV.

Step 2: Launch your Android phone’s Gallery app and select the photo or video you’d like to view on your TV. Once you make your selection, a few controls will briefly show up on the screen. If you miss them, you can tap the dark area of the screen to redisplay them. The top left corner will display a Play icon with “HDMI” written below it. Tap that icon to launch the player controls.

Step 3: Press the Play/Pause button to start outputting the photo or video to your TV.

If you’re having trouble, try changing the HDMI settings of your Android phone. Go to Settings → HDMI → HDMI Format. You may want to try the other resolutions and refresh rates if the Automatic setting didn’t work for you.

Keep in mind that some apps will not allow HDMI output. Blockbuster and YouTube are two such apps. Typically, only photos or videos you have taken yourself or copied over can be viewed, and only from the Gallery app.