What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Google Chromecast (1 Viewer)

My TV doubles as my computer monitor, so whenever I watch YouTube or whatever on my computer, I'm already automatically watching it on my TV. (The screen connects to my cable box via HDMI and to my computer via VGA).

If I'm understanding this correctly, I'd get zero benefit out of Chromecast, right? (My computer is literally three feet from my TV, so using a wire to connect isn't a problem.)
This is my question as well. Same setup.
there is no benefit, unless you want to trade the wire for worse performance.

 
What I really need is a pair of something that is this size that will transmit HD audio and video between two TVs. Right now the only options are not very heavy duty and use IR. Transmitting to another part of the house is no problem. Transmitting to an outside TV is a bit more problematic and most of the choices are not heavy duty enough to handle the elements much at all. So, yeah.
SLingbox down?
How would that work? i haven't had a slingbox in years.
What exactly are you trying to do first of all.
I have an HD LCD outside. It's too expensive to get a jack dropped in because it's on a brick wall. SO I just run a coax out of the bedroom window around to the patio when I want to watch TV outside. It means the bedroom TV has to watch the same thing the outside TV watches which sucks during football season when the wife goes to bed and I am staying up watching a game. I've gone through two different $80-100 IR transmitters and they crap out pretty quickly and the picture quality sucks. I'm trying to get the signal from one of the 4 boxes in the house on to the TV outside which does not have a box.
Can you at least split the coax in the bedroom and have boxes on each tv to watch whatever you want on each tv. There's probably a reasonably easy and affordable way to not have to run it through the window; maybe through the attic and down the outside of the brick via a hole in the soffit. Get a little box that mounts on the brick,

 
I apologize if it this is a honda...

Would a windows home server count as a computer for this? Thinking about switching my PC over to that, and my iMac will be moving around from user to user with the kids using it! Also the WHS would be on at nite, and the we would have would have this on in our room and the iMac may be asleep.

TIA,

 
You guys sure do watch a bunch of TV. And even moreso a bunch of TV from your computer. You guys should unplug and get outside more.

 
So, if I already have a PS3 connected to my TV and linked to my home network via WiFi, is there any advantage to owning this other than being able to stream from my phone/tablet rather than having to use the browser/bluetooth keyboard through my PS3?

 
So, if I already have a PS3 connected to my TV and linked to my home network via WiFi, is there any advantage to owning this other than being able to stream from my phone/tablet rather than having to use the browser/bluetooth keyboard through my PS3?
If you like to make jokes about sticking your 2" dongle in the slot, this dream can come true for $35.

 
Tom Skerritt said:
You guys sure do watch a bunch of TV. And even moreso a bunch of TV from your computer. You guys should unplug and get outside more.
Follow the white rabbit...

 
Sounds very limited and while I initially thought it would be a good on the go solution it appears to be even weaker than I thought. I'll stick to my current solution and using a notebook on the road. I have a feeling this will be one of those pieces of hardware that ends up laying around and forgotten.
:goodposting:

Most likely the reason they sprung it on everyone and there was no build up for it. Decent for the money but has quite a few flaws that would have been picked apart if they'd allowed it to be reviewed first.

 
So, if I already have a PS3 connected to my TV and linked to my home network via WiFi, is there any advantage to owning this other than being able to stream from my phone/tablet rather than having to use the browser/bluetooth keyboard through my PS3?
no

 
Can't get it to work. I just bought a new dual band router tonight and it can't connect the Chromecast to the same network my PC is on.

Troubleshooting is worthless:

It says I have UPnP turned off. I do not.

It says to ensure it's not in AP isolation mode. It's not.

Something, something whitelisting...

Grrr...

 
mquinnjr Chromecast Review

Got this bad boy upon arrival home from work tonight. Unpacked, and plugged into an open HDMI port on my TV. External power cord connected to the open USB port on my Vizio TV, but can also be connected to provided wall plug adapter if your HDTV doesn't have an open USB port.

Setup: Pain in the butt. I spent an hour on Google reading reviews to find out why it wouldn't connect to my Wireless-N 5GHz network. Google didn't provide for this functionality. NOW I KNOW. Went into my router settings and dropped the signal frequency to 2.4 GHz, which has degraded speed down for me from 20 Mbps to 16 Mbps. Not thrilled, but let's move on. Now that it can find my Wireless-N network, connected and fired up in a few minutes.

I use an iMac at home, and I downloaded the Chrome browser to get running, as I use Firefox. All tab/desktop mirroring gets going via a Chrome extension that you install during initial setup, so you must use it to establish the connection in day-to-day usage. If you desktop mirror, you can do whatever you want on your computer, via whatever browser you choose, and it's on your TV. Just need to start the mirroring via the Chrome extension first, which will then sit right next to Ad-block, etc. in the upper right of your Chrome window.

Tinkered with the settings in Chrome, and went with 720p high bit rate to give it a test spin. My iMac is about a year old and I added to get to 12Gigs of RAM, with a 20/4 internet connection and Wireless-N, slightly degraded to connect on the slower N frequency. So, the test drive. I went right for the "Cast entire screen (experimental)" option, and pushed it to my TV. It is...AWESOME. The picture is sharp, streaming videos I tested with, as well as local videos, were on a delay of about 3 seconds, but were streaming video flawlessly. That's what I bought this for, and it met expectations big time for me. Audio - however - is a completely different story. Right now, I cannot figure out how to get the audio from my Mac to stream to the TV and stay in sync with the video. Right now, the audio will play off of my Mac, but on a delay of about 3 seconds. I want/need the audio to play in sync with video on the screen. A google search has shown that this is a common issue, and making VLC the default Chrome video player is not fixing the issue. Need to do more research on this myself.

In no exact technical terms, you need a PC/Mac with some horsepower. I tried for the sake of trying my 5 year old work PC with Windows XP, and it connected, but was un-useable as a mirroring option under the same settings as I used for my Mac. This was to be expected, but confirmed this thought (which is also obviously supported by the Chromecast support page's operating requirements).

All in all, this is an extremely promising product, but not out of the box and go if you are planning to mirror your desktop and play video on your TV. I'll post back when I have some more time to investigate the audio thing, but video wise Chromecast nailed the mirroring. Almost there, but the audio needs some work in terms of mirroring.

 
mquinnjr, thanks for the review.

I'm waiting to see what kind of updates google implements for this. Until then, I'll stick to connecting via hdmi cable.

 
I read the first page and then my ADD kicked in...can someone give me tdoss notes as to how this is anything other than a wireless option for your hdmi connection...

I have one of my pc's directly connected to my big screen...I play wherever I want...or just use my big screen as a giant monitor.

Why would I get this chrome cast? Just need help understanding the appeal...

 
mquinnjr Chromecast Review

Got this bad boy upon arrival home from work tonight. Unpacked, and plugged into an open HDMI port on my TV. External power cord connected to the open USB port on my Vizio TV, but can also be connected to provided wall plug adapter if your HDTV doesn't have an open USB port.

Setup: Pain in the butt. I spent an hour on Google reading reviews to find out why it wouldn't connect to my Wireless-N 5GHz network. Google didn't provide for this functionality. NOW I KNOW. Went into my router settings and dropped the signal frequency to 2.4 GHz, which has degraded speed down for me from 20 Mbps to 16 Mbps. Not thrilled, but let's move on. Now that it can find my Wireless-N network, connected and fired up in a few minutes.

I use an iMac at home, and I downloaded the Chrome browser to get running, as I use Firefox. All tab/desktop mirroring gets going via a Chrome extension that you install during initial setup, so you must use it to establish the connection in day-to-day usage. If you desktop mirror, you can do whatever you want on your computer, via whatever browser you choose, and it's on your TV. Just need to start the mirroring via the Chrome extension first, which will then sit right next to Ad-block, etc. in the upper right of your Chrome window.

Tinkered with the settings in Chrome, and went with 720p high bit rate to give it a test spin. My iMac is about a year old and I added to get to 12Gigs of RAM, with a 20/4 internet connection and Wireless-N, slightly degraded to connect on the slower N frequency. So, the test drive. I went right for the "Cast entire screen (experimental)" option, and pushed it to my TV. It is...AWESOME. The picture is sharp, streaming videos I tested with, as well as local videos, were on a delay of about 3 seconds, but were streaming video flawlessly. That's what I bought this for, and it met expectations big time for me. Audio - however - is a completely different story. Right now, I cannot figure out how to get the audio from my Mac to stream to the TV and stay in sync with the video. Right now, the audio will play off of my Mac, but on a delay of about 3 seconds. I want/need the audio to play in sync with video on the screen. A google search has shown that this is a common issue, and making VLC the default Chrome video player is not fixing the issue. Need to do more research on this myself.

In no exact technical terms, you need a PC/Mac with some horsepower. I tried for the sake of trying my 5 year old work PC with Windows XP, and it connected, but was un-useable as a mirroring option under the same settings as I used for my Mac. This was to be expected, but confirmed this thought (which is also obviously supported by the Chromecast support page's operating requirements).

All in all, this is an extremely promising product, but not out of the box and go if you are planning to mirror your desktop and play video on your TV. I'll post back when I have some more time to investigate the audio thing, but video wise Chromecast nailed the mirroring. Almost there, but the audio needs some work in terms of mirroring.
You can set a time delay on the audio in VLC.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Can't get it to work. I just bought a new dual band router tonight and it can't connect the Chromecast to the same network my PC is on.

Troubleshooting is worthless:

It says I have UPnP turned off. I do not.

It says to ensure it's not in AP isolation mode. It's not.

Something, something whitelisting...

Grrr...
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2302/2510825375_e66dfdc60f_o.jpg
What are you doing inside?
I'm actually outside posting from my wi-fi dongle-enabled brain-actuated optical-retina-typographic-response smartphone-linked-bluetooth-hotspot.

 
<_<

From amazon

Netflix Promotion No Longer AvailablePlease note that the Netflix promotional offer (which was available in limited supply) has now ended. Customers who ordered their Chromecast prior to 5:31 PM PST on July 24, 2013 will receive a Netflix gift code via email within 5 days of their product's ship date.

I just got an e-mail from Amazon that my purchase qualified for the Netflix promotion, even though I ordered on July 25th.

I checked back and their web site now shows that the promotion ran through the 5:30PM PST July 25th, and not the 24th as their web site had said earlier (and which prompted me to cancel my order on the 26th).

<_<

 
<_<

From amazon

Netflix Promotion No Longer AvailablePlease note that the Netflix promotional offer (which was available in limited supply) has now ended. Customers who ordered their Chromecast prior to 5:31 PM PST on July 24, 2013 will receive a Netflix gift code via email within 5 days of their product's ship date.

I just got an e-mail from Amazon that my purchase qualified for the Netflix promotion, even though I ordered on July 25th.

I checked back and their web site now shows that the promotion ran through the 5:30PM PST July 25th, and not the 24th as their web site had said earlier (and which prompted me to cancel my order on the 26th).

<_<
Just got the same email. Lots of screwups all around.

 
My ChromeCast was delivered today. Took me literally 10 minutes to install/setup. My son was watching YouTube from his iPod Touch 2 minutes later. This is so very cool. The 2nd one I ordered will go with my son to college for his NetFlix (and I assume pr0n) viewing...

 
My ChromeCast was delivered today. Took me literally 10 minutes to install/setup. My son was watching YouTube from his iPod Touch 2 minutes later. This is so very cool. The 2nd one I ordered will go with my son to college for his NetFlix (and I assume pr0n) viewing...
:thumbup:

 
how's the experience from the chrome tab?
I haven't tried that yet because its not supported on the iPad... I'll try from my laptop soon.
:lol: Just installed the GoogleCast extension in Chrome on my laptop and "cast" my RedTube.com tab to the 55" TV in my family room. :pickle:
Any lag in the audio?
No. Initially, there is a "buffering" lag with the video/audio... takes it like 5-10 seconds to get everything going, but once it starts, I haven't experienced any lag.

 
How's the quality. Eporner.com has hd streams that have very high quality even when on full screen on the laptop. Most sites look terrible blown up. Trying to get an idea of how a good stream would look on a big screen tv for sports and porn of course.

 
NutterButter said:
How's the quality. Eporner.com has hd streams that have very high quality even when on full screen on the laptop. Most sites look terrible blown up. Trying to get an idea of how a good stream would look on a big screen tv for sports and porn of course.
Quality is not bad at all. I was a bit concerned the first time I cast YouTube... it came up quite blurry, but once it fully "buffered" (5-10 seconds), it was fine.

Based on your suggestion, I cast a slutty little amateur whore from eporner in "HD"... looked good on the TV, admittedly not as sharp as on the laptop, but a step above the non-HD videos. I am no videophile, so take this with a grain of salt, but I see NO problem with the quality so far.

 
NutterButter said:
How's the quality. Eporner.com has hd streams that have very high quality even when on full screen on the laptop. Most sites look terrible blown up. Trying to get an idea of how a good stream would look on a big screen tv for sports and porn of course.
Quality is not bad at all. I was a bit concerned the first time I cast YouTube... it came up quite blurry, but once it fully "buffered" (5-10 seconds), it was fine.

Based on your suggestion, I cast a slutty little amateur whore from eporner in "HD"... looked good on the TV, admittedly not as sharp as on the laptop, but a step above the non-HD videos. I am no videophile, so take this with a grain of salt, but I see NO problem with the quality so far.
Thanks for the info. At $35, I'll probably take the plunge to see if streaming the browser wirelessly works well. That's the big feature to me.

 
NutterButter said:
How's the quality. Eporner.com has hd streams that have very high quality even when on full screen on the laptop. Most sites look terrible blown up. Trying to get an idea of how a good stream would look on a big screen tv for sports and porn of course.
Quality is not bad at all. I was a bit concerned the first time I cast YouTube... it came up quite blurry, but once it fully "buffered" (5-10 seconds), it was fine.

Based on your suggestion, I cast a slutty little amateur whore from eporner in "HD"... looked good on the TV, admittedly not as sharp as on the laptop, but a step above the non-HD videos. I am no videophile, so take this with a grain of salt, but I see NO problem with the quality so far.
Porn in ultra high definition isn't necessarily a good thing. Kinda like a brightly lit strip club.

 
NutterButter said:
How's the quality. Eporner.com has hd streams that have very high quality even when on full screen on the laptop. Most sites look terrible blown up. Trying to get an idea of how a good stream would look on a big screen tv for sports and porn of course.
Quality is not bad at all. I was a bit concerned the first time I cast YouTube... it came up quite blurry, but once it fully "buffered" (5-10 seconds), it was fine.

Based on your suggestion, I cast a slutty little amateur whore from eporner in "HD"... looked good on the TV, admittedly not as sharp as on the laptop, but a step above the non-HD videos. I am no videophile, so take this with a grain of salt, but I see NO problem with the quality so far.
Porn in ultra high definition isn't necessarily a good thing. Kinda like a brightly lit strip club.
Gotta say the one I saw "taking a ride" last night was HD worthy... but in general, I'd agree.

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top