DC Universe Community user BD1 has shared another way to cast to TV with HBO Max through Roku in the post pictured above.
Ideally, HBO Max subscribers will soon receive a native app on Roku to use, but this is another workaround if you want to use your Windows laptop or PC.
To limit the geek speak: you want to watch HBO Max on your TV through Roku, how do you do it? The above method works if you have a Windows laptop. The below technique works on our Android phone. There are various cast to TV apps and all of them should follow a similar process.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Cast To TV with SmartThings
We are using my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ phone and cast to TV through the SmartThings app (FREE). The process involves mirroring the phone to TV which overtakes whatever is playing on the TV and shows the phone. Then whatever you do on the phone ends up on the TV. Then I just launch the HBO Max app on the phone and play whatever movie or TV show we want to watch and it plays on the TV. The whole process takes 30 seconds or less to execute. No, it’s not as easy or convenient as simply choosing the HBO channel with the Roku remote, launching, finding what to watch.
I just checked out of curiosity if this same technique could be used yet for Quibi, since they were blocking that at launch (see: Quibi “accelerating” engineering roadmap for cast to TV feature, was “always” planned, says Whitman) and, the result was … nope.
Poor Quibi. Their 90 day free trial is almost gone and they still don’t let me watch their quick bites content on TV. That feature is “coming” but when that will be? Who knows. By the time they do get this obvious and easy to implement feature enabled, maybe some/most(?) interested subscribers will have moved on. Sigh.
We still have the HBO Now app on Roku and use that to watch the base HBO content that is mirrored on HBO Max, but whenever we want to get the rest of the HBO Max content, we use the method explained in the paragraph above.
Yeah, I know it seems (and kinda is) a bit cumbersome, but we can all thank Roku and HBO Max for not cutting the deal at launch to simply have an HBO Max channel. Again, I think it will eventually happen and have seen several people online and in social media saying they are waiting to join HBO Max until there is either a Roku channel or Amazon Fire support.
When exactly that will be remains the ongoing question. If I had to guess, I’d say within the next couple months, maybe even the next 30 days. It comes down to who blinks first. Right now, neither side seems to be blinking. Roku is entrenched, thinking they are holding all the cards and on the other side WarnerMedia with HBO, a site that has been running for over 40 years and has built enormous street cred and loyal subscribers.
Who blinks first? My guess, and it’s only that, is it will be WarnerMedia. They will agree to Roku’s demands, whatever those happen to be. We’ll probably never find out the specifics of said deal, but likely it will involve some percentage of the subscriber revenue. As a customer, I don’t blame them for some hold out, but will use the HBO Max service more if it becomes a Roku channel.
Movies, Movies, Movies 
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