Showmax is part of the new way we consume TV in today’s world, called “video on demand”. Pay a flat fee per month (starting at KES 250 for three months) and get access to over 35,000 episodes of series, movies, children’s shows, and documentaries that can be viewed across multiple platforms.
The easiest way to watch or Stream Showmax is definitely on your laptop or phone via the web and mobile apps respectively. However, if you have a non-smart TV at home, you can still watch Showmax content on non-smart TV. Here are some useful tricks.
Connect your laptop to the TV via an HDMI cable
Laptops and TVs usually have HDMI ports that you can use to exchange audiovisual content with each other. Laptops have an HDMI output and TVs have an HDMI input, which requires an HDMI cable to complete the process of displaying content from your laptop to the TV.
Locate the HDMI ports on your laptop and TV, connect the HDMI cable, adjust the position according to the cable length, and you can enjoy Showmax on the big screen. The only downside is that your laptop doesn’t have a remote control, but a wireless mouse solves this problem easily.
Connect your phone or tablet to the TV
Unsurprisingly, our phones connect directly to the TV and you can do this using MHL (Mobile High Definition). MHL uses an adapter with a micro USB socket on one end to connect the phone and a female HDMI port on the other end to connect the HDMI cable that will later be connected to the TV.
The only downside to this is that you will need an MHL-compatible phone or tablet that you can check out on this list.
Buy Xbox One
Showmax added support for Xbox One this year, which makes sense given that the game console is also being marketed as an “entertainment system”.
This means that people who own Xbox One can use the console to stream Showmax content. All you have to do is install the Showmax app from the Xbox Store, pin it to the Start screen and start streaming.
Download the Sony Playstation 4
Earlier this month, Showmax also launched its PS4 app. It is the best-selling game console in the world and means that all players who already own a PS4 can use it to stream Showmax content directly to their non-smart TVs.
Search for the Showmax app in the Playstation Store, install, log in and that’s it.
Download the Chromecast from Google
Google Chromecast is a dongle-style media player that lets you control streaming video playback or mirror content from your phone.
Since the Chromecast is connected directly to the TV, simply open the Showmax app on your phone and “cast” the content you want to watch from the app directly to the TV. This way, you’ll be able to Stream Showmax on Chromecast.
The sad thing is that Chromecast is not common on this side of the seas, so you may have to import it.
