Google Chromecast (1 Viewer)

[[icon]]

Got one of these.... been using it with netflix mostly so far. Pretty slick. Did a browser tab cast from the laptop and worked great.

For popup windows that don't cast (it keeps casting that same tab)... just cut/paste the URL into the original tab and it will cast fine.

AMAZON.COM will have a Black Friday deal and the ChromeCast will be 29.99.

Would kill for spotify support on this... thought I doubt they will do it since they're pushing their own casting solution. For $35, worth it since my GoogleTV Box blew up and no longer allows me to watch netfix.

 

[Annyong]

Pardon me for not reading the whole thread, but this is basically a ROKU right? Kinda wanna get one of these since I just got a Chromebook.

 

[Usual21]

Got mine of off Amazon. LOVE this little dongle. Bedroom TV was only one without streaming capabilities. Popped in the dongle, plugged in the usb cable and set up was a breeze. Best 30 bucks I've spent in a long time.

 

[NutterButter]

Finally got one. This thing is great at casting my illegal sports streaming site to the tv. That's all I'm going to use it for, but so worth the 30 bucks.

 

[McGarnicle]

Will this stream pr0n sites from an iPad/iPhone?

 

[Hawks64]

Will this stream pr0n sites from an iPad/iPhone?

only from a laptop or mac using Chrome with the Chromecast add on.

 

[McGarnicle]

Will this stream pr0n sites from an iPad/iPhone?

only from a laptop or mac using Chrome with the Chromecast add on.

So when I install Chrome and the Chromecast app to my iPad, I can't stream porn? Just YouTube and whatever other limited content Google allows?

 

[Hawks64]

Will this stream pr0n sites from an iPad/iPhone?

only from a laptop or mac using Chrome with the Chromecast add on.

So when I install Chrome and the Chromecast app to my iPad, I can't stream porn? Just YouTube and whatever other limited content Google allows?

On an iOS tablet yes. On iOS, it's youtube, Hulu and Netflix right now. The app has to have the functionality integrated since the browser doesn't support plugins. I wouldn't be surprised if they release a new mobile Chrome that has Chromecast integrated.

 

[snitwitch]

I played around with one of these over the weekend. They really need more apps available that support chromecasting. Otherwise the thing is pretty genius.

 

[KCitons]

My wife bought me one of these for Christmas (she just doesn't know it yet)

Mine came with a $6 google play credit. I think it's only good for movie or video.

 

[NutterButter]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

 

[John Bender]

Dongle... Lol

 

[Disco Stu]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

 

[eaganwildcats]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

This. I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time watching Youtube videos now. I love being able to cast one to the TV from my phone and still keep searching / adding videos to my queue.

 

[Short Corner]

Will this do anything that screen-mirroring Samsung devices won't do? Thinking of getting one but may get a Samsung chromebook for $200 instead.

 

[McGarnicle]

Watched some stuff on Netflix last night and the picture quality was the same as the blu ray player and ps3 that we normally use to stream. Definitely convenient not to have to lug the ps3 from room to room, but outside of Netflix and YouTube streaming I don't see much value. It needs to be able to stream any video from the web. I use both hands when I jerk off and it's a pain to try to balance a phone or tablet on your chest in a good viewing position.

 

[NutterButter]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

I certainly wasn't expecting it to perform better; or even the same for that matter. I was hoping it would be closer than what it is and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something wrong with my setup. I close performance to a hardwire combined with the convenience would have made it a winner in my book, but the performance is just too far apart to justify the minimal convenience. I only want it for the chromecast capabilities as I watch all of my sports via a streaming service and up until now have just connected the laptop with hdmi.

 

[Annyong]

I use both hands when I jerk off and it's a pain to try to balance a phone or tablet on your chest in a good viewing position.

And here I thought I was the only one

 

[B-Deep]

dongle

yup, still funny

 

[[icon]]

dongle

yup, still funny

I don't get it.

 

[B-Deep]

dongle

yup, still funny

I don't get it.

it's a funny word

dongle

sounds a bit like dong

a bit like dangle

dongle!

 

[[icon]]

dongle

yup, still funny

I don't get it.

it's a funny word

dongle

sounds a bit like dong

a bit like dangle

dongle!

OHHHH!

 

[ClownCausedChaos2]

Watched some stuff on Netflix last night and the picture quality was the same as the blu ray player and ps3 that we normally use to stream. Definitely convenient not to have to lug the ps3 from room to room, but outside of Netflix and YouTube streaming I don't see much value. It needs to be able to stream any video from the web. I use both hands when I jerk off and it's a pain to try to balance a phone or tablet on your chest in a good viewing position.

The hand you use to catch doesn't count.

 

[pats3in4]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

I certainly wasn't expecting it to perform better; or even the same for that matter. I was hoping it would be closer than what it is and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something wrong with my setup. I close performance to a hardwire combined with the convenience would have made it a winner in my book, but the performance is just too far apart to justify the minimal convenience. I only want it for the chromecast capabilities as I watch all of my sports via a streaming service and up until now have just connected the laptop with hdmi.

For the tab casting, the performance is going to be also strongly tied to the encoding capabilities of your laptop. The ecosystem gets complicated outside of the basic VOD apps built into the Chromecast software stack (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, HBO Go).

 

[McGarnicle]

Finding this thing to be buggy as hell. Once I start watching something on Netflix, sometimes I can't stop it unless I turn off the TV or start streaming something from YouTube. Or if I can pause it, I can't restart it. Seems like it was rushed out to market or it just doesn't play nice with Apple products.

 

[Keerock]

Finding this thing to be buggy as hell. Once I start watching something on Netflix, sometimes I can't stop it unless I turn off the TV or start streaming something from YouTube. Or if I can pause it, I can't restart it. Seems like it was rushed out to market or it just doesn't play nice with Apple products.

Hmmm... the only problems I've had is a little lagging from my iPhone. Thing works flawlessly with my Chromebook.

 

[Brady Marino]

December 4, 2013, 9:00 pm, Minneapolis MN US Delay in delivery due to weather or natural disaster

FML. Hoped it'd get here today.

 

[McGarnicle]

Finding this thing to be buggy as hell. Once I start watching something on Netflix, sometimes I can't stop it unless I turn off the TV or start streaming something from YouTube. Or if I can pause it, I can't restart it. Seems like it was rushed out to market or it just doesn't play nice with Apple products.

Hmmm... the only problems I've had is a little lagging from my iPhone. Thing works flawlessly with my Chromebook.

Been using a brand new iPad with it. I'll have to try with the iPhone.

 

[Hawks64]

Finding this thing to be buggy as hell. Once I start watching something on Netflix, sometimes I can't stop it unless I turn off the TV or start streaming something from YouTube. Or if I can pause it, I can't restart it. Seems like it was rushed out to market or it just doesn't play nice with Apple products.

Hmmm... the only problems I've had is a little lagging from my iPhone. Thing works flawlessly with my Chromebook.

Been using a brand new iPad with it. I'll have to try with the iPhone.

Works great on my iPad2. You may want to try rebooting the iPad, sometimes they get jacked up and need a reboot.

 

[MattFancy]

Just got mine hooked up last night. Have to say, it's pretty neat. I see no reason to buy a Smart TV anymore when you get basically get all the functionality of a Smart TV for $35. Plus, you can move it around from TV to TV if you wanted to.

 

[NutterButter]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

I certainly wasn't expecting it to perform better; or even the same for that matter. I was hoping it would be closer than what it is and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something wrong with my setup. I close performance to a hardwire combined with the convenience would have made it a winner in my book, but the performance is just too far apart to justify the minimal convenience. I only want it for the chromecast capabilities as I watch all of my sports via a streaming service and up until now have just connected the laptop with hdmi.

For the tab casting, the performance is going to be also strongly tied to the encoding capabilities of your laptop. The ecosystem gets complicated outside of the basic VOD apps built into the Chromecast software stack (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, HBO Go).

I'm not following you with the encoding? Agreed, way too many variables and just inherent limitations where you'd have a hard time getting this close to a straight wired connection. I'm just going to move my existing server in the basement next to the tv, rewire some things in my network and run an hdmi from the server to the tv.

 

[pats3in4]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

I certainly wasn't expecting it to perform better; or even the same for that matter. I was hoping it would be closer than what it is and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something wrong with my setup. I close performance to a hardwire combined with the convenience would have made it a winner in my book, but the performance is just too far apart to justify the minimal convenience. I only want it for the chromecast capabilities as I watch all of my sports via a streaming service and up until now have just connected the laptop with hdmi.

For the tab casting, the performance is going to be also strongly tied to the encoding capabilities of your laptop. The ecosystem gets complicated outside of the basic VOD apps built into the Chromecast software stack (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, HBO Go).

I'm not following you with the encoding? Agreed, way too many variables and just inherent limitations where you'd have a hard time getting this close to a straight wired connection. I'm just going to move my existing server in the basement next to the tv, rewire some things in my network and run an hdmi from the server to the tv.

For the regular VOD services like Netflix and YouTube, those apps reside on Chromecast. When you run those apps on your laptop and then cast the video to the Chromecast, you are actually invoking the same app to run on Chromecast and it fetches the same video from the web. The laptop is not transmitting the video itself to the Chromecast.

For tab casting, the laptop *is* transmitting content to the Chromecast. The content in your tab is treated as video. Video is very high bandwidth so it needs to be encoded (compressed) and then transmitted to the Chromecast where it is decoded (uncompressed) and displayed. This performance is heavily determined by how powerful of a laptop you have and thus this experience will vary from device to device, customer to customer. Google understood this clearly and thus announced the tab casting feature as Beta when they launched Chromecast back in July. This is also why tab casting is *only* available (now) on laptops/computers and not mobile devices like phones and tablets. The encoding capabilities of mobile devices is very suspect. Even the most high-end smartphones don't stack up against a laptop in this area.

There are wireless HDMI transmitters that you can buy. $100-$250 range.

 

[NutterButter]

The verdict is still out on this thing. I only use this to cast from a chrome tab. I'm not loving the performance or even the picture quality. Playback is a bit choppy and I occasionally get a performance warning from the chromecast chrome extension. I just upgraded by router and am get 130 Mbps. Not sure if that's good or if its good enough. The router is in the basement and I'm on the first floor. Has anyone gotten the extreme setting to work well? Still considering just going with the hard connection from an extra laptop to the tv using hdmi.

Unless I'm missing something, the chromecast can't possibly perform better than the hard connection. It's just a convenience thing.

That's not the primary purpose of the device though, so I wouldn't judge it based on this. It's awesome for Netflix and Youtube.

I certainly wasn't expecting it to perform better; or even the same for that matter. I was hoping it would be closer than what it is and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something wrong with my setup. I close performance to a hardwire combined with the convenience would have made it a winner in my book, but the performance is just too far apart to justify the minimal convenience. I only want it for the chromecast capabilities as I watch all of my sports via a streaming service and up until now have just connected the laptop with hdmi.

For the tab casting, the performance is going to be also strongly tied to the encoding capabilities of your laptop. The ecosystem gets complicated outside of the basic VOD apps built into the Chromecast software stack (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, HBO Go).

I'm not following you with the encoding? Agreed, way too many variables and just inherent limitations where you'd have a hard time getting this close to a straight wired connection. I'm just going to move my existing server in the basement next to the tv, rewire some things in my network and run an hdmi from the server to the tv.

For the regular VOD services like Netflix and YouTube, those apps reside on Chromecast. When you run those apps on your laptop and then cast the video to the Chromecast, you are actually invoking the same app to run on Chromecast and it fetches the same video from the web. The laptop is not transmitting the video itself to the Chromecast.

For tab casting, the laptop *is* transmitting content to the Chromecast. The content in your tab is treated as video. Video is very high bandwidth so it needs to be encoded (compressed) and then transmitted to the Chromecast where it is decoded (uncompressed) and displayed. This performance is heavily determined by how powerful of a laptop you have and thus this experience will vary from device to device, customer to customer. Google understood this clearly and thus announced the tab casting feature as Beta when they launched Chromecast back in July. This is also why tab casting is *only* available (now) on laptops/computers and not mobile devices like phones and tablets. The encoding capabilities of mobile devices is very suspect. Even the most high-end smartphones don't stack up against a laptop in this area.

There are wireless HDMI transmitters that you can buy. $100-$250 range.

Gotcha. Didn't think about encoding/decoding that's done when sending from laptop to chromecast. Didn't think about a transmitter. My server is currently in the basement so transmitting that distance is probably out of the question. Even if technically possible, I'd rather just go hardwired route and eliminate any possibility of issues.

ETA: Instead of casting from my laptop, I wonder if casting from my server which is wired to my router would give a performance increase. So instead of the content having to go wirelessly from laptop to router and back out to tv (I think that's how it currently works), the wireless portion is reduced from going from the router to tv.

 

[Annyong]

Just got mine setup on myChromebook and am casting a Netflix movie for the kids. I have no idea how I'm supposed to pause or stop this thing. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough

 

[Annyong]

So far for me Netflix > HBO Go when casting from my Chromebook. HBO gets stuck every 30 seconds or so and Netflix might need to buffer once a movie.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Just got yesterday.Really like so far.

Ditched cable long ago, love the casting feature & Youtube.

 

[[icon]]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/10/songza-launches-on-google-chromecast/

Buncha new apps for Chromecast... Songza is awesome.

 

[metoo]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/10/songza-launches-on-google-chromecast/

Buncha new apps for Chromecast... Songza is awesome.

VEVO
Red Bull.TV
Songza
PostTV
Viki
Revision 3
BeyondPod
Plex
Avia
RealPlayer Cloud

 

[Jewell]

I just got Chromecast last week and I'm loving it so far. I like to watch documentaries and old boxing matches on YouTube that are difficult to find elsewhere and watching them on the big screen with TV volume definitely enhances the experience. There's a pretty significant difference in picture quality among YouTube videos, though, and some look crappy on the big screen. But c'est la vie.

 

[Bucks]

Chromecasting my own local content from my paid Android Plex App will be very cool when they offer it without paying an additional $4 monthly subscription fee.

 

[matttyl]

Can you use two of these at the same time from the same iphone/laptop? In my "mancave", I have a large TV, but want to wall mount two smaller (maybe 37") TVs beside it. Then get a chromecast for each, and "stream" content from ESPN3 or any other sporting events that have live (possibly illegal) feeds.

I guess my question is, can you use two dongles at once?

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I don't think so. When you set up the ChromeCast it has you identify it with a unique name. When you cast from your device you then have to select that name.

But that's just a guess.

 

[matttyl]

So you can't even have 2 of them in your house, much less 2 in the same room? That seems a bit short sighted by them.

 

[Annyong]

Can you use two of these at the same time from the same iphone/laptop? In my "mancave", I have a large TV, but want to wall mount two smaller (maybe 37") TVs beside it. Then get a chromecast for each, and "stream" content from ESPN3 or any other sporting events that have live (possibly illegal) feeds.

I guess my question is, can you use two dongles at once?

yeah i think you can. It should give you an option to select whichever one you want

 

[Annyong]

I don't think so. When you set up the ChromeCast it has you identify it with a unique name. When you cast from your device you then have to select that name.

But that's just a guess.

im assuming all your chromecast pop up when you want to cast something. and you just pick which one you want. you can name them tv1, tv2, and tv3 wen setting up

 

[Andy Dufresne]

So you can't even have 2 of them in your house, much less 2 in the same room? That seems a bit short sighted by them.

Sure you can. They'd just each have a unique name. What you could do is have two or more devices running the same program because you're CASTING from two different devices - one for each ChromeCast.

 

[Arsenal of Doom]

I don't think so. When you set up the ChromeCast it has you identify it with a unique name. When you cast from your device you then have to select that name.

But that's just a guess.

Devices can see multiple Chromecasts. I have a couple and my devices see both when I open new windows. At the very least you could cast one stream from a laptop and one from another device.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I don't think so. When you set up the ChromeCast it has you identify it with a unique name. When you cast from your device you then have to select that name.

But that's just a guess.

im assuming all your chromecast pop up when you want to cast something. and you just pick which one you want. you can name them tv1, tv2, and tv3 wen setting up

Right but I think he's asking if you can cast to more than one from one device.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

He asked if you can cast to more than one device at a time from the SAME laptop.

 

[matttyl]

So you can't even have 2 of them in your house, much less 2 in the same room? That seems a bit short sighted by them.

Sure you can. They'd just each have a unique name. What you could do is have two or more devices running the same program because you're CASTING from two different devices - one for each ChromeCast.

Oh, ok. But could you use one laptop for both "casts".

Ok, I think I see my issue now. I can have as many as I want, but if I want to use more than 1 at a time, I'd need to have multiple devices (iphone/laptop, computer) doing the streaming.