Mirroring from Android to TV with VPN and Roku

What I already have:

  • ExpressVPN
  • Netflix account
  • Amazon Prime Video account
  • LG flat screen TV with 2 HDMI ports and USB port (not a smart TV)
  • Huawei P20 Pro phone running Android Pie

What I want to buy:
-Roku Streaming Stick +

Here is what I want to do…
I want to watch US content from my Amazon and Netflix accounts on my TV.

If I turn on the VPN on my phone I can watch it all just fine on my phone. Will the VPN still work when I “miracast” to the TV via the Roku device? Has anyone tried this before?

I don’t use a VPN or Roku so… I cast from a Samsung phone to both a miracast on a SONY TV and a Chromecast on a Samsung.

I think at this point the TVs just act as monitors so VPN should work. That’s some of what I know about that.

There’s one challenge to overcome. The VPN will direct all the connections on the phone into the encrypted tunnel to far away lands it sets up by default. However, your streaming device will be on your local network. You’ll probably need to add some sort of ‘exemption’ to allow your phone to access traffic on your local network directly and not through the VPN. Then, Netflix comes in via the VPN, streaming goes out via your local network - should work.

Instead of using vpn on your phone, you need to place the vpn in your router. Your phone and your tv will thus be on the same internal network but you are acesssing the content trough vpn

Check here https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-software/vpn-router

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This is great stuff. Mind if I ask a basic miscast question. My audio seems to be a bit out of sync. Phone or desktop viewing is fine. Just casting. Anyway to correct?

Can also check current router, alot of routers these days come with a VPN option. My Zyxel from HiNet comes with a pretty decent VPN built in, I dont use it but it is there.

Mine is a generic router from Zhongua Telecom. Tried looking the specs up, but could not find anything.

If you root your phone, you can actually share your vpn connection with any other device via internet sharing.

The strangest thing is happening.
I have a paid account with ExpressVPN and with Getflix.com.au
Both are top tier VPN and DNS services.

Using those services, I can access and play videos on Netflix USA and Amazon Prime Video just fine using my laptop with Windows 10. However, I can’t access Netflix USA using my Huawei P20 Pro Android phone. On my phone, Amazon Prime Video let’s me see the USA menu of videos, but refuses to play them. When I attempt to play a video, the screen goes completely black and locks up. No error message from Amazon. Just a black screen and all locked up.

Very frustrating.
I googled “black screen when playing prime videos”, but it did not return anything remotely useful. Any idea why this would be happening? If I use Prime video without the VPN on my phone, I can watch videos for Taiwan region just fine. No issues at all. SO it must be detecting the VPN somehow. But why would it work on my PC but not my phone???

I tried that by turning on the VPN on my phone and then turning on the wifi hotspot option, but it did not work. I could use the hotspot but the VPN did not carry through.

Yeah, you would need a special app to enable vpn tethering. You can find them on the play store. Those apps would require root access.

I could look up how to unlock and root your phone model if you’d like.

Thanks. The info would be useful, but I am hesitant about rooting it.
Huawei P20 Pro

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Yeah, I’d have to warn you, it would be at your own risk. Things could go wrong when rooting but I’ve successfully rooted both of my phones without issues. I’ll get back to you on that if you’re still interested.

Thanks. Any idea about the Prime Video problem from above?

Have you experimented with different vpns or tried manually connecting to the servers without the vpn client? Could be incompatibility between the software (client and amazon app). I’m not too familiar with amazon prime but have you tried accessing it with both the app and browser?

Yes. I tried multiple ways to connect.
Here are the results:

  • No VPN + Prime App = smooth sailing, but only for Taiwan region.
  • No VPN + Prime Video through Chrome and Firefox browsers = smooth sailing, but only for Taiwan region.
  • VPN + Prime App = Only shows listings for Taiwan region as if it were just ignoring the VPN
  • VPN + Prime Video through Chrome browser = can see USA listings, but black screen when playing.
  • VPN + Prime Video through Firefox = can see USA listings, but black screen when playing.
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Hmm. That’s pretty weird and this same vpn service is working fine on the pc right? Maybe try manually imputing the vpn server info through an app like openvpn?

It’s just a carry through wifi option (that’s why it’s called hotspot), the VPN should be in the device you’re watching on.

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Yeah but they have apps that can carry the vpn connection through enabling hotspot. Like this one for example. It’s the one I use.