UKC

Mine came in the post today from Amazon because it had free postage while Google.Play wanted an extra three quid for postage.

I wasn't expecting much, thinking that I could only use web based stuff like Youtube and aother handful of Google friendly/affiliated apps that want to prise money from your pockets with monthly subscriptions.

Google does make it hard to find apps that play nicely with Chromecast but the first thing you should do is read this article

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/25/google-chromecast-best-ap...

And install this app 'Cast store'
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=goko.gcs
Its an app that finds all the Chromecast friendly apps and makes them easy to find. Google.play may have half a million apps but its almost impossible to find nugats of gold in all that crap.

I have just found an app that lets me beam movies direct from my PC or NAS box to my telly. Its a bit hit and miss with the file formats as in it likes MP4 movies and not AVI files but its early days and I've only been using the Chromecast dongle for an hour so I predict a great future.

And its apple friendly too.

In reply to The Lemming:

I was thinking about it, I am just trying to convince myself that it is worth getting when I have a RaspberryPi doing everything that does and more!

In reply to JoshOvki:

I too have a Raspberry. At the moment its on duty as an xBox Media Centre at work in the messroom.

The beauty of the Chromecast is that it just work's 'out of the box'

In reply to The Lemming:

I agree I got a chromecast just before Christmas from ebay and shipped in from the US. Brilliant piece of kit and very good value for money. I have it connected to my phone, tablet and laptop being able to stream things from the phone to the TV with no wires etc is its biggest selling point for me.

In reply to The Lemming:

I'm 50 I'm past it. Been keeping up with tech so far I thought,, but the 4 previous posts baffled me.

In reply to aln:

Rather than have everybody huddle round your tablet/phone/laptop to watch something, you can display what ever it is onto your TV without the need of a long write connecting the device to your TV.

You could buy a Smart TV or you could buy a Chromecast and plug it into any TV with a HDMI slot.

It has its limitations though as it is new.
And it has its competition from apple TV and miracast but they all do the same thing by transmitting what is on your device to the TV.

In reply to aln:
It's like plugging your phone into the TV but with magic invisible wires. So the main thing to remember is, if you're going to watch porn and you're not that tech savvy, unplug it from the back of the TV first.

In reply to The Lemming: My mates got one. I installed the Chromecast software on my laptop last night and tried it, but the colour was various shades of pink only and totally useless. I was going to buy one, but I'll wait until they've got it working.

In reply to Sharp:

Reminds me of that Swiss professor who enjoyed a bit of porn on his laptop while his students carried-out a task he'd set them. Unfortunately he'd failed to realise that it was connected-up to the projector and was being shown on the huge screen behind him.

Apparently, to make matters worse, he had searched for something rather "niche" like amputee porn.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:


Have you tried it on a tablet or phone as well?

I've not tried it on my laptop yet but just my tablet and all worked fine.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:



Niche, you say?



Fidgets quietly on chair typing this.

In reply to The Lemming:

I wanted to post that reply.

In reply to The Lemming:

I don't want to know about your fidgeting thanks!

In reply to The Lemming:

Ah OK. Ben Sharp, good advice, I'll keep it in mind.

In reply to Sharp:


Its actually better than that - if you use a proper app, the Chromecast 'takes over' leaving you able to shut your laptop/tablet and let CC get on with it.

For me that is the biggest problem - I got one a couple of months ago - I'm in France and watch UK Netflix over a VPN to make it think I'm in the UK. However when the Chromecast takes over streaming Netflix, it does so through the Google servers and not through my VPN connection, so I'm then unable to watch it as they know I'm out of the country.

I've got half a plan to put another router in front of my modem, fiddle with IP tables and get it working that way, but although I've always been technical, these days I just want something that works out of the box (admittedly my problem is not the fault of Chromecast).

In reply to The Lemming:

I've had a chromecast for months, now that iPlayer works properly now it's great. Still love the artkick app

In reply to yorkshireman:

The earlier chromecasts there was a way of getting round the location

In reply to The Lemming: No, but I wanted it to work with my laptop, so it's a bit irrelevant to me.

In reply to yorkshireman:

Do you need a Google account to use Chromecast? Is Google harvesting your viewing habits? Just wondering.

In reply to aln:


Me too Aln, I'm a bit older, but I am lucky to have 3 savvy daughter's with boyfriends and a SIL that is a Sky engineer, and into all this stuff.

I walk into my married daughter's house and their 3D TV is on the wall, not a trace of a wire anywhere, the power cable comes out the wall immediately behind the TV, and all remote signals are sent by a magic eye sensor to boxes in a cupboard somewhere. No boxes or clutter in sight.
I guess he will have this stuff being discussed here sussed too, (and I can ask him to set me up as well. )

In reply to The Lemming:

<sigh> one day when we get proper broadband in my area...I don't suppose it will work with a max speed of 300kbps.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

It will work with your laptop, I use mine with my tablet, laptop and phone

In reply to Clarence:

Broadband doesn't have to be super fast for many uses, if you can steam things like iPlayer OK then that is fast enough

In reply to AndyC:


Your entire life is being harvested while on-line, so its no biggie for me.

In reply to lost1977: It doesn't though, colours are all messed up (see my original post).

In reply to AndyC:


No, you don't need a Google account, as mentioned it pretty much works out of the box.

If you're bothered about your viewing habits being harvested:

a) don't be - do you really care?
b) as time goes on your options will only decrease - stick with a tv aerial and broadcast tv until it all eventually gets switched off if you're paranoid.
c) Google (and others) only really cares about you as part of an aggregate - eg you will fall into the segment for 41-50 year old middle managers from the east Midlands with a penchant for goat porn so will get relevant content, rather than being interested in your specific, personally identifiable details.

In reply to 1poundSOCKS:

Never had any problems with mine just plugged it in and worked straight away with all my devices, chromecast has been around for a while now and I haven't heard of anyone else getting the problem you have

In reply to yorkshireman:


Damn, and I'm pretty sure goats aren't mentioned anywhere in my profile... I rest my case!

In reply to lost1977:


Unfortunately I can't, not even youtube on the lowest quality. I tend to use free wi-fi in town to watch video.

In reply to The Lemming:

The only thing that is holding me back from getting one is how easy is it to play things from my NAS drive?

I cant see any apps thats specifically say they will work with streaming it over. Majority of my dvd collection has now been moved onto there and it would be the main reason for me getting a chromecast.

I dont want to have me PC on to stream them over needs to be all capable between my phone/tablet and the chromecast.

Have anyone found a simple solution to this?

In reply to Doad13:


So far I have tried localcast and it works with my NAS. It won't play nicely with AVI files but it works fine with MP4 files.

it's early days but there are apps that work with your NAS Box. Google only advertise their own 9 apps but there are over a hundred.

In reply to The Lemming:

We might have to compare notes on apps

In reply to The Lemming:

Very interesting. Think I may look into purchasing one only ~£30 on amazon.

Thanks for the info!

In reply to yorkshireman:




Can you keep me posted on whether you get this working?

Cheers,

E

In reply to The Lemming:

I was very unimpressed.
I can stream Youtube well. Stream from Chrome OK. Movies through Chrome are not great and you need them in the right format. BUT it doesn't work for Chrome on my iPad, which is what I bought it for in the first place! How can Google software not support Google hardware?

In reply to The Lemming:

Can someone riddle me this please?

Can I stream a DVD that I'm watching in/on my laptop to my TV using a Chromecast?

I'm just thinking of saving the faff with cables etc...

Thanks in advance.

In reply to cap'nChino:

Is it a physical DVD that you popped into the laptop?

If so then I have not tried. However if the DVD is stored on your hard drive and in a specific format then yes you can stream the movie to your TV.

I am streaming movies from my network storage device + smartphone. No desktop, laptop or cables involved beyond power cables.

In reply to The Lemming:

Well I can stream content from my NAS (media server) to any of our devices. The TV is connected via Homeplug (LAN over the mains) but it could use a wireless dongle. I can also stream content from my desktop to the TV. I've not tried from my phone (iPhone) but suspect I need an app or some shenanigans to do it.

In reply to The Lemming:

Yes it is a physical dvd.

In reply to cap'nChino:
Yes. Google it. But you need to get The movie, as I remember, into an mp4 file. Then drag and drop the movie onto chrome browser. Or maybe vice versa. It works but is a bit weird to do
But nothing can beat an HDMI cable, since doing it over the network may make it less clear and the sound may lag.

In reply to MikeTS:

Thanks. Looks like I might get one.

In reply to cap'nChino:
For movies I still use HDMI cable. For streaming like BBC iPayer I use Chromecast since I don't have to move my laptop to the sitting room.

In reply to The Lemming:

I don't suppose it is compatible with Amazon Prime is it?

I'm trying to avoid having to buy a smart tv to receive Amazon Prime films and they aren't marketing their own box yet, though it was announced today.

Amazon Prime's pages suggest that a Roku box is compatible but the blokes at Curry's say it's not. I'd feel awkward about ignoring their advice then finding out they were right all along.

So I was wondering which other boxes might work (Now TV doesn't)

In reply to The Lemming:

OK as we seem to have a few knowledgeable folk contributing to this thread, I have the following related question...

If you have the Netflix app installed on an Android tablet, can you stream Netflix content onto your tv via an hdmi lead?

In reply to WyeValleyClimber:

I can - my tablet has a micro HDMI port. Not streaming, just puts the tablet screen on the TV. And I now hve chomecast so the lead is redundant.