Chromecast

swvillafan

should have one waiting for me at home later. dont have apple tv but have seen it working so should be able to do a fair comparison. hear there is an api for it as well, might be able to create an app or two, could be fun!

jaydeeuk1

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I've just placed an order for one on Amazon... £30 to turn my kitchen TV 'smart' seems like a no-brainer.

£25 if you have a facebook account (fake one for me)


edit - just saw link above...

RumRat

This or Roku?

[Deleted User]

The nice delivery man dropped it off 15 minutes ago. It's a nice 'expensive' feeling box. You get the Chromecast, a HDMI extender, a microUSB cable and a plug adaptor (very handy since my kitchen TV doesn't have a USB socket to power it)

Plug it all in, turn the TV on, set it to HDMI, then you get a page telling you to install the software on your phone or go to a google webpage.

Once installed on your phone, the software detects the Chromecast, you enter your wifi password (via your phone) and it'll update the software. Annoyingly, this just gave me a screen of static after it finished. I unplugged it all, plugged it back in and it was working.

So, i then fired up netflix on my phone and a new icon was present.. clicked it, and woosh, netflix popped up on the TV. I'm thinking this is great.

Went up to check my emails, then came back down to show my wife the new toy. Sadly, the app won't load on the Chromecast. Tried again, no luck.

So far, i'm not massively sold on it. I'll have to give it a chance when i'm not trying to work

Attempt 2: The Ipad
It worked flawlessly with BBC Iplayer

I've installed it on my PC.. it's very easy to beam a browser tab to the TV. It's far better for this than the Apple TV, as it goes 'widescreen', unlike Apple's mirroring which is square. If someone can make Powerpoint 'beam' I think this will be great for work. You can mirror any application actually, i've just discovered and i've just got Powerpoint up on my TV.

I love the form factor - i can move it from TV to TV in the house rather easily. I can quiet imagine buying a few more to 'smart' enable all the TVs in the house

If they could get Lovefilm on it though, it would be brilliant

womble12345

patman99 wrote: »

I'm not sure, but I believe Chromecast has 1 flaw. If your device goes to sleep, or you go and check your emails whilst streaming a video to your TV, you end-up with your emails on the TV instead (or the stream to the TV is cut).

This is complete rubbish, please ignore this statement as it contains lots of false information that may confuse newbies. Once you have initiated the 'cast' from your device (phone/tablet, etc) you can use the device for anything else and the 'cast' will not be disrupted.

[Deleted User]

womble12345 wrote: »

This is complete rubbish, please ignore this statement as it contains lots of false information that may confuse newbies. Once you have initiated the 'cast' from your device (phone/tablet, etc) you can use the device for anything else and the 'cast' will not be disrupted.

Yep, I tested it out. I set BBC iplayer streaming via my android phone, then turned the phone off. The stream carried on, whilst I turned it off, turned it back on again then loaded the app and regained control of the stream.

kingmonkey

womble12345 wrote: »

This is complete rubbish, please ignore this statement as it contains lots of false information that may confuse newbies. Once you have initiated the 'cast' from your device (phone/tablet, etc) you can use the device for anything else and the 'cast' will not be disrupted.

This would only happen if your casting your whole desktop which is in alpha development anyway and not a main feature.

David333

almillar wrote: »

David333 - yes, you can plug it Speakers HDMI port on a monitor. If your monitor has no speakers though, you'll no sound, and presumably there'll be an output on the monitor to pass the sound out somewhere else... There's no other way to get the sound out of the stick other than the HDMI.

Thank you! My monitor has speakers, although they're quite poor. I'm going to try to see if I can plug cheap speakers into it to make it louder...

PhilNailerson

Guys,
I have quite an out-dated Laptop, which suffers from stutter when I try to play/stream any video with a 720p (or higher) setting. I was wondering, if I use Chromecast, would this still be an issue, if I played/streamed it to the Xbox One?

googler

Does the Chromecast remember network login, etc., when disconnected from USB power? I note that when not casting it keeps a clock running, and it seems to load new wallpaper every so often, which must be using some data allowance at least....