Miracast or More-aches - headaches that is

So I had previously tried to use Miracast to project from my Droid Maxx.  In summary, I finally got it to work switching to 2.5ghz on both devices but it was heavily pixelated and basically useless.  The requirement to switch to 2.5 from 5ghz seems really odd to me since people recommend using 5ghz for miracast for bandwidth reasons and since it sets up an Ad-Hoc network independent of your current WiFi, what difference should it make.  But it does - and ultimately I'm not even sure which frequency it is using - maybe it was using the 5ghz after I freed it up by switching Internet to 2.5.

Anyway, I recently needed a new (actually my first) blu-ray player, so I got the Panasonic DMP-BDT230.  It was on sale for about 80 bucks and it too supported Miracast.  I review it separately but figured I'd test it and at the same time try projecting from my first generation Surface Pro running windows 8.1.

Before starting, I made sure that all devices were up to date for drivers, firmware, etc.

The good news on  the droid front was it paired up quickly with the blueray player (also only on the 2.5ghz network) and didn't exhibit any of the pixilation problems the TV had.  Furthermore, it didn't screw up its network connection using it.  The DMP-BD230 also has a miracast button right on the remote to quickly launch it without diving into its settings.

The bad news was on the MS Surface side: I couldn't get it to pair with either the Panasonic VIera tv or the Blu-Ray player.  

• When connecting to the TV, as soon as I went to connect, Windows prompted me to enter the WPS pin of the TV. Well the TV doesn't have a WPS pin, at least not one I could find in the manual or on the Internet.
• When connecting to the BluRay player, Windows would either prompt me to press the WPS button on the bluray player (it doesn't have one), or just time out trying to connect.

Whose fault is it - Panasonic or Microsofts?  Well since Miracast sets up an ad-hoc network, which in turn is probably using something like WPS, I might point the finger at Panasonic for not having the option to supply a PIN code.  Of course on the flip side, my Droid will pair without a PIN so perhaps Microsoft is at fault for requiring one before you can click next.  I know people have successfully paired the Surface with Netgear's Push2TV (PVT3000), but I also know when they do the Netgear shows a PIN they can enter.  I also know people have had trouble with Sony TVs becase they don't have a PIN.  For know I'll blame both - Panasonic because even with it working on the Droid, its flaky from the TV and seems dependent on which frequency Wifi I was previously connected to from both, and Microsoft because it just doesn't work where the Android device did.

Everything I've read seems to indicate Miracast is supposed to be about as simply as it gets - but so far, my Miracast experience has been anything but easy.