Chromecast ?

50Twuncle

I am interested in Chromecast - I am trying to work out exactly what / how it works ..

From what I can make of it - you connect the adapter to your HD TV - Linking a USB input and HDMI ...

Then, you connect your Tablet/Phone to the link by WiFi to the TV and send the Video to the TV ?

Am I correct ?
Is it any good ?

bod1467

Close enough.

If it's an online stream (E.G. Youtube) then it'll get the link to the stream and play directly over wifi from the source, not from your device. Same for the likes of iplayer.

penrhyn

I'm waiting for the Amazon Fire TV to come to the UK, does not need a phone/tablet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CX5P8FC/ref=amb_link_411363022_2/182-8279676-2664116?ie=UTF8&nav_sdd=aps&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0736XY4KYXWHGBVJ3T7V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1775687182&pf_rd_i=507846

jaybeetoo

50Twuncle wrote: »

Is it any good ?

I have one for a 'dumb' LCD TV in a bedroom. I use it for watching BBC iPlayer and BT Sports - it does the job really well.

If your TV doesn't have a USB port, the Chromecast comes with a power supply.

It was easy to set up and the quality of the streamed picture is good. Just make sure you have a good wifi signal at your TV.

The only problem I had was the Chromecast was causing interference with the terrestrial TV signal. I solved it by buying a cheap HDMI extension cable so the Chromecast is now well away from the TV.

50Twuncle

jaybeetoo wrote: »

I have one for a 'dumb' LCD TV in a bedroom. I use it for watching BBC iPlayer and BT Sports - it does the job really well.

If your TV doesn't have a USB port, the Chromecast comes with a power supply.

It was easy to set up and the quality of the streamed picture is good. Just make sure you have a good wifi signal at your TV.

The only problem I had was the Chromecast was causing interference with the terrestrial TV signal. I solved it by buying a cheap HDMI extension cable so the Chromecast is now well away from the TV.

We have an HD TV with all of the necessary ports - will it provide any more than Sky does already ?
We also have BBCiplayer etc on the setup...

jaybeetoo

Personally, I would only get one for a dumb TV.

googler

50Twuncle wrote: »

We have an HD TV with all of the necessary ports - will it provide any more than Sky does already ?
We also have BBCiplayer etc on the setup...

We've used it thus far with

iPlayer
Netflix
YouTube

and you can also display anything that will play within a Chrome browser on tablet, phone or laptop.

It's expected that 4OD and other on-demand services will be enabled for Chromecast soon, so it's up to you to decide if what's there at present and what's expected gives you something that you want in addition to your Sky package.

At the very least, if your Sky box is recording as many channels as it is able, and you want to watch something else, you can do so on the Chromecast - it's essentially an extra tuner.

Mercenary

I'm interested in the ChromeCast tech and am keeping an eye on news about it, but I can already watch BBC iPlayer on my PC or Android tablet (not that there's ever much on it ), I don't stream music and I'm not interested in paying for Netflix or similar as there are very few films I ever want to watch.
So until there's a lot more useful stuff that it can stream then it will remain on my watchlist only.

googler

50Twuncle wrote: »

We have an HD TV with all of the necessary ports - will it provide any more than Sky does already ?
We also have BBCiplayer etc on the setup...

Major plus - no adverts !!!

And, you can watch things when you like, without having to watch or record at the broadcaster's chosen time .....

For example, I was recording Season 1 of Person of Interest from 5USA or similar, one episode per week, with adverts, and they stopped showing it after Ep3. I can now watch it through Netflix/Chromecast when I like, without adverts.

Similarly, we watched three episodes of another favourite last night, whereas we'd have had to wait for the once-per-week showing on Freeview or Sky.

Picture-wise, the Chromecast compares very favourably with Standard Definition broadcasts, in my view.

50Twuncle

googler wrote: »

Picture-wise, the Chromecast compares very favourably with Standard Definition broadcasts, in my view.

Isn't it supposed to be HD ?

googler

50Twuncle wrote: »

Isn't it supposed to be HD ?

Maybe, it wouldn't be of much consequence to us if it was, we watch pretty much everything in SD anyways.