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Are you working on an Android™ app that you’d like users to experience on an external device like a TV or monitor? If your Xperia™ smartphone (or other Android™ device) has an HDMI port, then your app should detect when it’s plugged into a powered high-definition screen to ensure the display is rendered properly on the larger screen. This quick tutorial includes some code that shows you how. Read more after the jump.

Phone content shown on a TV using the HDMI connection.

A number of Sony Ericsson phones (Xperia™ arc, Xperia™ arc S, Xperia™ neo, Xperia™ pro, Xperia ion™ and Xperia™ S) feature a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port. When you connect an HDMI cable, the screen content shown on the device is automatically mirrored to the larger screen. In some cases, maybe the app developer intentionally wants to prevent the HDMI port becoming active, if the content is only meant for the handset screen. But if you want your app to receive and render content via the HDMI port, your app must be registered to receive HDMI port status changes.

An application can detect if the device is connect via an HDMI connector by listening to the broadcast intent:

“com.sonyericsson.intent.action.HDMI_EVENT”

This intent carries an extra parameter that contains information regarding if HDMI is in use. This extra parameter is named:

“com.sonyericsson.intent.extra.HDMI_STATE”

The supported HDMI states are: “HDMI_OFF” and “HDMI_IN_USE.”

In this case, you will need to prepare a BroadcastReceiver listening to that event, as shown by the following sample code:

In AndroidManifest.xml:

         <receiver android:name=”.HdmiListener”>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name=”com.sonyericsson.intent.action.HDMI_EVENT” />
            </intent-filter>
          </receiver>

In the source code of the BroadcastReceiver:

public class HdmiListener extends BroadcastReceiver {
     static String HDMIAPPEXTRA = “abrisHdmiExtraParameter”;

// Just a name for my launched activity
     private static String HDMIINTENT = “com.sonyericsson.intent.action.HDMI_EVENT”;
     private  static final String EXTRA_HDMI_STATE =
          ”com.sonyericsson.intent.extra.HDMI_STATE”;
     
     @Override
     public void onReceive(Context ctxt, Intent receivedIt) {
         String action = receivedIt.getAction();
         if (action.equals(HDMIINTENT)){
              String extras = receivedIt.getStringExtra(EXTRA_HDMI_STATE);
              Intent it = new Intent(ctxt,HdmiFromIntent.class);
              it.putExtra(HDMIAPPEXTRA, extras);
              it.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
              ctxt.startActivity(it);  

          //Do whatever you want to do – preferably
          //hand an intent to a service instead of
          //launching an activity – in this case a UI was
          //desired for demo purpose.
         }
     }

}

It’s as easy as that. So if you haven’t yet bothered ensuring that your Android™ app detects HDMI, just remember that several Xperia™ smartphones, and other Android phone manufacturers, have an HDMI port. Including HDMI connection is a small fix for your app that could go a long way, and might help your app stand out from similar apps missing the feature. If you have any questions or comments about HDMI detection, feel free to comment below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. 

More information

• Check out our other developer tutorials, tips and tricks.
• Learn more about Xperia S.
• Learn more about Xperia ion.
• Read about Smart Extras and the Smart Extension SDK.
• Find about NFC support in our new Xperia™ devices.
• See how our family of ANT+ supported devices is growing.

Źródło: Ensuring your Android™ app detects an HDMI cable event

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