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I recently joined the Samsung / Android mobile phone club. Being a curious person, I wanted to know about TV-Out options, as I saw the MHL adapters were a thing. (Mobile High-Definition Link) Turns out, you need to have a MHL compliant device for this to work Regular HDMI works OK. I had to install the included Samsung adapter. HDMI alone will not cut it, as the cable being connected does not detect as HDMI does on android devices. I picked an adapter up at the store and the salesperson told me "That adapter should work on any HDMI TV". So far, this is false. However the specs for the Samsung edition adapter say they work on a TV or PC monitor, so I would like to think that would work over USB. Here is a link to MHL specs on WikiPedia. TL;dr edition is that this is a video cable standard, the adapters have an inline connection for you to hook power up, and they are up to MHL 3.0 I am testing with a Samsung Galaxy S4 and one of the Rocketfish BestBuy branded adapters. (please see the bold portion. I have to use the included adapter for Non-MHL devices on my Samsung phone) MHL is actually quite nice. Vastly nicer than trying anything on an Apple mobile. On MHL you get: [*]Full screen mirroring. None of that only in video player or slide show madness on iOS. [*]Movie player support and audio output. [*]Landscape and Portrait support. Main desktop is only in portrait, but any and everything else seems to fully support going to full screen in 1080p. [*]So yes. If you wish to hook your mobile up to any HDMI display, get a MHL adapter, as the passive cables may only work on the MHL-compliant devices.