NO TV out on Sprint Epic!!!!

[CzechPleez]

Hi, I'm a Sprint employee and Epic owner. Having worked with the Samsung developers a little I can tell you with assurance that the TV Out option was not "disabled" by Sprint's choice. It's a h/w limitation. When you first boot the phone you get an auto update which appears to disable the TV Out option, but I think that's a mandatory because the shipping ROM is universal to domestic carriers from Samsung. The TV Out limitation is due to the CDMA SOC (system on chip), which will be true for the Verizon model coming soon. The Galaxy S devices based on the GSM SOC do have the TV Out option.

DLNA is the only option for displaying multimedia on a remote display, but keep in mind you are limited to self-created content. You can't broadcast YouTube or SprintTV across DLNA as the DRM encryption is not supported on either the Epic or any remote device.

We're glad you're a Sprint customer and hope you remain happy with your Epic!

[dukeneverwinter]

So, as an employee/owner is there any hope of Samsung updating the phone to use their HDMI cable? DLNA is useless when not at home....This phone may go back to sprint for an EVO.

[Hypnotic2010]

Those interested in getting the tv-out feature to work may want to follow this thread:
Tv-Out Project: http://forum.sdx-developers.com/epic...v-out-project/

[compuw22c]

As someone who just came from a TP2 (and before that a TP) I have to ask.

Why does every phone manufacturer castrate their CDMA devices???

Is this at the request of the carriers or what? Seriously, if this kind of limitation appears in one more device I'm jumping ship to t-mobile.

First it was FM radio in the TP and TP2's, now video out has been disabled on BOTH the 3.5mm jack AND no HDMI??

This will be my last CDMA phone. Don't get me wrong I love the epic, but I would LOVE Qualcomm to be blown off the face of the earth. I've never seen such a F-ed up company last so long. I got the hummingbird hoping that staying away from their CPUs would help but it seems they did their best to smear sh*t on the walls anyways.

Next phone WILL be T-Mo/GSM

[sndtubes]

I'm about ready to pay the big bux to jump ship to another carrier. This is ridiculous. I was about to buy an Epic but now I'm just thinking of jumping to AT&T. They just put a tower 500 feet from my house......

[austin420]

sprint just put a tower in my house. you cant beat an airave!

[cocochannel]

that CDMA thing doesnt make sense. If it works on the EVO why woudn it work with the Epic?

[compuw22c]

Well, for starters it has to do with the Evo having that as an extra feature added to the system which I might add, only outputs certain video, not mirroring the entire display. What I believe most people here are concerned with is getting the composite out working (although I certainly wouldn't complain about HDMI) mainly because we KNOW it DOES work on both the gsm US and international galaxy s.

I understand it has to do with the system-on-chip for the gsm radio that includes this feature (for whatever reason its tied into the headphone jack and audio system), but the cdma system on chip doesn't. And I believe that's the issue. The fact that many phones that are designed as GSM and have awesome features just "thrown in" like composite video and fm radio, only to have those same features left out in the cdma variants. The FM radio too is part of this system-on-chip. And who is responsible for the system-on-chip? Good 'ole Qualcomm. This also raises another question. The Evo is an entirely Qualcomm system. CDMA radio, Qualcomm snapdragon CPU, and so maybe they decided to add the HDMI to make them look good, but intentionally left the analog video out feature off the Galaxy S in an effort to make the competitor look bad any way the can. The same way I believe Samsung refused to give screens to HTC for their recent smartphones (specifically Evo and Incredible, also Droid X) in an effort to try and take them on in the marketplace. The DIFFERENCE is Samsung (and thus we) paid for the technology (surely a high fee) only to have the bare minimum garbage Qualcomm was willing to supply. And although I have very little/no evidence to support it, I'm not entirely convinced Qualcomm hasn't had a hand in the recently discussed "150kbps upload cap" issue...(according to noobnl the RIL is a gsm to cdma wrapper rather than direct access: cyanogen mod 6 port to the epic 4g - CyanogenMod Forum )

[sndtubes]

Originally Posted by compuw22c

Well, for starters it has to do with the Evo having that as an extra feature added to the system which I might add, only outputs certain video, not mirroring the entire display. What I believe most people here are concerned with is getting the composite out working (although I certainly wouldn't complain about HDMI) mainly because we KNOW it DOES work on both the gsm US and international galaxy s.

I understand it has to do with the system-on-chip for the gsm radio that includes this feature (for whatever reason its tied into the headphone jack and audio system), but the cdma system on chip doesn't. And I believe that's the issue. The fact that many phones that are designed as GSM and have awesome features just "thrown in" like composite video and fm radio, only to have those same features left out in the cdma variants. The FM radio too is part of this system-on-chip. And who is responsible for the system-on-chip? Good 'ole Qualcomm. This also raises another question. The Evo is an entirely Qualcomm system. CDMA radio, Qualcomm snapdragon CPU, and so maybe they decided to add the HDMI to make them look good, but intentionally left the analog video out feature off the Galaxy S in an effort to make the competitor look bad any way the can. The same way I believe Samsung refused to give screens to HTC for their recent smartphones (specifically Evo and Incredible, also Droid X) in an effort to try and take them on in the marketplace. The DIFFERENCE is Samsung (and thus we) paid for the technology (surely a high fee) only to have the bare minimum garbage Qualcomm was willing to supply. And although I have very little/no evidence to support it, I'm not entirely convinced Qualcomm hasn't had a hand in the recently discussed "150kbps upload cap" issue...(according to noobnl the RIL is a gsm to cdma wrapper rather than direct access: cyanogen mod 6 port to the epic 4g - CyanogenMod Forum )

This sounds like there will be NO fix. Maybe I should buy an EVO instead. Will we have composite TV out with the upcoming WMG160? It is sort of unclear if it will or not.

[m4f1050]

**WARNING**

Do *NOT* buy the EPIC 4G TV Out cable from 1800mobiles.com they claim to be compatible with the EPIC 4G and it's *NOT* compatible and they will not refund all your money afterwards. I paid for both shippings (to me and return shipping) and they partially refunded my money, lost $15 in a 3 cable order.