What I describe is my genuine experience. I had a phone with usb otg with MHL. And netflix app didn't send video to the screen of the TV. It sent only text of subtitles. Because of some stupid limitations.
MHL is different than using the more modern USB-C Alt mode. In the image link I posted above, that was my iPhone connected via USB C watching “Breaking Bad” on Netflix while I was waiting on my flight in a Delta lounge.
This is totally the fault of your hardware for not supporting part of the USB C standard.
I'm honestly a bit confused about what your actual point is. Most people would agree that HDCP is hostile to consumers, but what does any of that have to do with USB or for that matter android? It sounds to me your problem is that your particular MHL implementation just didn't support HDCP. And AFAIK MHL has nothing to do with the USB standard other then reusing the connector to speak their protocol.
You're right, if this MHL implementation didn't have HDCP it would behave exactly like that. Sad.
My thinming is square. I still connect my monitors using SVGA and watch movies on them. Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things. My first android was closer to my Linux than every each version following. My colleague had SSH server on his Motorola phone. What I moan about is that limiting, strangling list of changes made to browsers and systems that is happening right now
> Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things.
I agree with that point, but I don't think that's what's happening here.
Go back a couple of years and you'll find tons of posts of people trying to get Netflix working on linux. People did find various workarounds of course, including really stupid things like changing the user agent of your browser, but it really wasn't working out of the box like it should.
So the problem really isn't that your pocket computer can't do computer things, but that HDCP is doing what it's designed to do, restrict people from using video streams in a way not envisioned by the designers. The fact that this is a (legally) legitimate use-case doesn't matter, it's just collateral damage.
> That’s exactly what is happening. The newest Google Pixels phone that support DisplayPort alt-mode over USB C should work with the Netflix app.
? I think you misunderstood something, but yes this works now also with usb-c alt modes on newer laptops on linux, hence the "go back a couple of years" part of my post.
> Truly this sounds to really complicated that a phone which is indeed a computer cannot do computer things
An iPhone with USB C supports most of the standard protocols you would expect - video, Ethernet, audio, external storage (USB 2 speeds on non Pro models and 10Gbps on pro models), and wired keyboards and mice.
