# Second Screen (Fire TV feature)



## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

I was curious if anyone knows if the Second Screen feature of the Fire TV will work with a Fire Phone registered to a different account. I would like to watch the series Bosch with my Mom, who is a fan of the books. I have Prime. She does not. If I go to her house, can I use Second Screen from my Fire Phone with Prime account to view Bosch on her Fire TV which is registered to an account that does not have Prime? Or do both devices need to be registered to a Prime account or the same account?


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## Brownskins (Nov 18, 2011)

No, both devices do not need to be registered on the same account.  Basically, you will be streaming the videos from your phone and casting it onto the big screen.  So only your phone's Prime account is being accessed.  The Fire TV acts as the screencast-enabler, as a network device - it will not access the Fire TV's (or your mom's) amazon account.  

You will need to be connected the same WiFi connection.  To connect, you need to go to the set-up screen menu of the Fire TV and go to display and then select the mirroring option - there will be a small note saying do not leave that screen until you are connected.  You need to do the same from your phone's end, and they need to search each other through the wifi connection.  You will know you are connected when your phone's screen is displayed on the TV.  It's just like Miracast.

I figured it out only through experience.  I thought I would need a Miracast-enabled TV to do it, but apparently the Fire TV took care of the needed "infrastructure".


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

Thank you - that is very helpful info!


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

Just an update on this in case anyone else tries to do the same thing:

I could not get Second Screen to work with devices on two separate accounts. I later found this information on Amazon's website stating that both devices must be on the same account to use Second Screen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201493130. So it is just not possible for me to use this feature at my mother's house to watch Prime TV shows. It is too bad, because that feature works pretty seamlessly.

However, the advice above did work for the Miracast screen mirroring feature. Unfortunately, that technique is much more choppy. I found that downloading the episode to my phone in Medium quality and then using Miracast to cast it to the TV via my mom's FireTV worked suitably well. It could have been smoother, but it was good enough not to be distracting once you are engrossed in the program. Trying to stream the program to my phone and then cast it did not work very well. Nor did downloading the highest quality and casting that.


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## Brownskins (Nov 18, 2011)

Makes sense that both devices have to be registered to the same account, since you are using "second screen".  Duh, I missed that premise.  

In my experience, from a non-Amazon phone (a Samsung android for example), I can mirror my CBS shows, youtube videos, etc. to the Fire TV, even if my TV does not have Miracast.  So basically, my Fire TV acted as the needed "infrastructure" to mirror my phone.  Quality was HD - I think this part will depend on the strength of the WiFi connection.

I assumed that your phone had Prime, and that your TV will just access the needed infrastructure from Fire TV to enable mirroring.  I did not realize that your phone will actually "phone in" with the Fire TV registration.  Good to note your specific situation.  Thanks for the follow up.


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

Brownskins said:


> I assumed that your phone had Prime, and that your TV will just access the needed infrastructure from Fire TV to enable mirroring. I did not realize that your phone will actually "phone in" with the Fire TV registration. Good to note your specific situation. Thanks for the follow up.


Since the FireTV supports Miracast, you don't need a TV with Miracast to use the feature. However, it seems that Miracast works by sending data wirelessly from my phone to the Fire TV, which is kind of slow. This makes sense, though, since how else could it mirror other things on the phone except by sending that data wirelessly to the FireTV. I was hoping Second Screen would work because that does not seem to send any data from the phone to the Fire TV - it allows the Fire TV to get the streaming content the way it would natively, directly from Amazon. So there are no hiccups and everything is smooth. However, in order for the Fire TV to do that, it has to be on the same Amazon account, so it wouldn't work at my parent's house.

I could have just streamed from the Prime account on my phone and mirrored to my mom's Fire TV, but that ended up being too choppy. Even downloading the HD copy first and casting it was too choppy, but better than streaming. Downloading the medium quality video was much smoother (not perfect, but good enough). I tried this at home as well, where we have a faster Internet connection and the Wireless router is right near the TV, but had similar results.


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