Data usage comparison

Another complication is some phone plans let you watch unlimited video on the phone... not sure if they are able to detect screen mirroring and count that outside the unlimited part.

Well, maybe you'll critique my answer too, and then we can block each other.

Since you haven't told us what phone plan you have no one can give you any meaningful help. It's not clear if you're asking about the difference in bitrate between the two streams or if you're inquiring about a potential difference in how each method would impact a data consumption cap.

Most plans differentiate between data used onboard vs data shared via the hotspot function.

Refine your question and we can help you more. But with all your experience, you know that, right? Civility on forums is a two way street.

I tried to keep the question as simple as possible. Guy watches a half hour of "Happy Days" on his android phone or uses it as a hotspot with his ROKU to watch the same episode on his 32 inch tv. Is there a big difference in terms of data usage? Doesn't matter if he has a 10 gb plan or a 100 gb plan. How much simpler can I get?

(If people do not have an opinion or real knowledge, telling others to "Do a search, dummy" is worthless. One could reply to every question that is posted on the forums and tell them to "Do a search". Really, do people think that others are that stupid"? I like lots of answers. Some from real people and others from Google. I might learn something that way. Google has been around for at least twenty years and I think most of us have heard of it.)

I think we all need to realize, if we don’t know it already, that there are those among us who want to help (here’s what worked for me, I had that same problem, too), and those who feel it necessary to belittle/bully others (do a search, haven’t you heard of Google). Thank those who help; ignore those with the attitudes.