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Chromecast

Started by biggytitbo, February 13, 2014, 01:58:46 PM

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biggytitbo

Just bought one of these from ebay for £30, mainly for youtube. It's very slick, mirrors the video perfectly.


I know for stuff like youtube it plays the video from the actual device, it doesn't stream it from your computer/tablet, which is good. The tab casting works fine aswell, tried it with iplayer and the video quality is extremely good. It still needs some work though. If i want to watch the video in full screen i have to have it full screen on my computer, which means i cant continue to use the computer whilst its playing.


The other main downside at the moment is a lack of remote control. It's fine if you still have youtube open, but if you close it the content continues to play but you can no longer pause or scrub (you can mute though, oddly). I imagine its only a matter of time before they sort that out though.


The potential of this thing is amazing once more content becomes available and they iron out the little kinks.

Steven

You can switch from fullscreen, you just press alt+tab in the browser to switch tasks, and it's an experimental feature in beta at the moment anyway. You can also play music  and video from the browser by just opening the files in chrome, this should be possible from the android browser soon. Atm the device is only as useful for looking at Netflix or Youtube from your mobile device, or you can use google play music to use your TV as a kind of jukebox.

This should be coming out over here around March from what I've heard, I got one last year because google have been deliberately tight-lipped about worldwide release. I have a few Chinese Android mini PCs and they are actually much more powerful and useful, except Google's only advantage is they make bespoke software that allows to forward URLs from any device and can skirt around the DRM issues re: Netflix etc. Otherwise China would be putting out much better models that can run Linux or Windows or whatever you want by the ton. The Chinese are good at churning out hardware but terrible at software solutions for some reason.

lazarou

I've had one of these for a while now. It's a bit of a mixed bag (I haven't found the browser streaming to be nearly as good as biggy, but apps that natively cast have been perfect). Yeah, there are other, much more powerful devices, but I think the key things that set it apart are the software support and more than anything else: the price. They've hit that sweet spot where even if you're not that fussed about it, you'll probably just get one anyway to play around with.

biggytitbo

I have a cheapo android stick which i was using for youtube, but it requires plugging a mouse in and having to constantly switch between pc or app youtube to add items then go to the device add watch it. Now i can just find something on youtube and play it directly, it miles better.

QuoteYou can switch from fullscreen, you just press alt+tab in the browser to switch tasks

That didnt work for me, as soon as I alt+tab it stops being fullscreen.

Steven

#4
You just need to open the chrome browser, cast the page you want then alt+tab out then open a second browser window to surf around without disturbing the feed in the other browser. There's also stuff in the chrome tab casting settings about resizing to fit the window etc which might need fiddling with.

There's also some hidden settings Google haven't implemented yet.

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 13, 2014, 05:42:12 PM
I have a cheapo android stick which i was using for youtube, but it requires plugging a mouse in and having to constantly switch between pc or app youtube to add items then go to the device add watch it. Now i can just find something on youtube and play it directly, it miles better.

The android sticks are great but obviously made for touchscreen devices, not TVs, so the Chromecast URL forwarding via a handheld device is more preferable format for armchair viewing. However where the TV sticks really shine is to be able to get a quadcore PC for less than £50, install Linux or Windows on it (depending on which chip core you plump for) plug it into a cheap flatscreen TV with a USB mouse/keyboard and you have a very cheap personal computer that is entirely disposable. Next year you can throw it away or sell it to someone and pick up an octacore for the same price.

Sure it won't be great for high-end graphics PC games, but for web browsing, music, video or anything else it's great. Or you could just use Android and play the myriad of games for that platform including all the OUYA stuff.

biggytitbo

Quote from: Steven on February 13, 2014, 09:38:40 PM
You just need to open the chrome browser, cast the page you want then alt+tab out then open a second browser window to surf around without disturbing the feed in the other browser.


Doesnt work with iplayer.

Steven

#6
Dunno about Iplayer, I never bother with that on the chromecast. Though I saw this elsewhere:

"In your google chrome browser (assuming that's what you are using), type in about://plugins. Click on the Details icon (+) on the far right of the Plugins title bar. Look for Adobe flash and you probably have 2 plugins listed. Look for pepflashplayer.dll . It should be listed in the location section. Click on disable. You may need to restart the browser. Try your fullscreen again."

May be worth a try? I'm sure the cunts over at the BBC must have some coded stuff to stop people multitasking in fullscreen to impede people recording or downloading the streams. Most other sites I can just alt+tab out and it's fine.

Edit: From the same thread you might also try "I have found a workaround casting full screen and still being able to alt tab, get this extension from the chromestore, Fullscreen Anything. Icon will be right next to your cast icon, just click it and it will make video ect take up the whole tab and when casted looks pretty good."

Johnny Textface

I'm tempted after watching a demo on youtube. Should I wait for the UK release or does it not matter? My broadband speed isn't the best, if I'm casting something like a divx from my laptop - will I expect a lot of buffering? (This was the case when trying to use the xbox to stream to).

Ta

Steven

I doubt it matters, really don't think Google will bother changing the architecture of the stick for the UK market, probably only a few regional software changes. You can always root it and download replacement ROMs to put on other builds of software anyway, but I gather they are trickier to root since Google implemented it's last software update.

They've just released the source code anyway so we will expect a lot more apps especially made for the Chromecast very soon.

biggytitbo

I think its a universal piece of hardware. The only restriction will be whatever the individual apps regional IP restrictions are.


Stevens little scam above worked with the full screen thing by the way.

biggytitbo

This is nice, with a cheapo hdmi-vga adapter you can turn any pair of speakers into a wireless audio streamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRM7Vqej9s8

Johnny Textface

Mine arrived today and definitely think it's good value. Is there a decent and preferably cheap solution for streaming local video files out there yet?

biggytitbo

Quote from: Johnny Textface on February 19, 2014, 11:46:36 PM
Mine arrived today and definitely think it's good value. Is there a decent and preferably cheap solution for streaming local video files out there yet?


The easiest way so far is to install the chrome cast player extension, which let's you play local videos in a tab and you just cast the tab. Works perfectly, but I imagine slicker ways of doing it are on the way.

Johnny Textface

Anything for .mkv's etc?

Could do with VLC adding a cast option ideally!

Steven

Google only released the Chromecast code last week so lots of apps will probably start integrating that stuff soon. Here's a list of compatible apps atm, or there's a Chromecast section in the Play store. There's a few DLNA type things like Plex or aVia to play local files, but I think most of them are paid apps.

olliebean

Plex sort-of has it:

QuoteThe Chromecast feature currently requires a premium Plex Pass subscription, but will be free for all after the preview period

I presume this will play anything, transcoding on the server if necessary.

biggytitbo

Looks like this is officially released in the UK on Wednesday, and is coming to iplayer too.

surreal

I have a question about this - I've just registered for a VPN and am looking at the best way to use Netflix with it.  If I use the VPN app on a Nexus 7 tablet and run the Netflix app will I be able to switch regions and broadcast it to my TV with a Chromecast?  Just thinking it might be easier than pissing about flashing my router and trying to get it all working via my PS3.

MojoJojo

The VPN should not make any difference. The quality may not be too hot from a nexus 7 - anyone tried it?

I'll probably get one.

Queneau

How's this work exactly? All over wi-fi? I read somewhere that it can play off your computer but displays a weird resolution. Been thinking of buying something like this since a mate got Now TV but don't really know. If I can play all the files off my computer without having to use my HDMI lead every time that would be worth it alone for me.

Steven

It's basically a WiFi forwarding system, so you click on a webpage/video/music link on your PC/Laptop/Tablet/Phone and it will tell the Chromecast to play it on your TV. Once you click the link the host device just forwards the URL and is then free to use again, the Chromecast is the actual device downloading the stream.

Music via Google Play Music works very easily. Video files from your library will work but by actually being streamed from the host device the file is sitting on but I suppose it all depends on how decent your WiFi strength is. Opening stuff in the Chrome browser will work, but there are also independent apps specifically designed to play stuff from your file library available on the Play store.

biggytitbo

The tab mirroring is what makes it so great. I was able to watch a dodgy stream of the football yesterday on my telly, something you'll struggle to do with a normal smart tv.

Queneau

Cheers for the comments. Might give it a go.


Beagle 2

Quote from: biggytitbo on March 16, 2014, 11:26:29 PM
The tab mirroring is what makes it so great. I was able to watch a dodgy stream of the football yesterday on my telly, something you'll struggle to do with a normal smart tv.

How well does this work, considering I often struggle to find decent in-browser streams full stop these days (probably my new flat's crappy internet connection)? Does a standard pixelly stream from WYZIWYG or something not just look terrible on a proper television, and is there a loss of quality in the transfer? What about something like TV Catchup? We can't get freeview in our bedroom, and it would be super useful.

biggytitbo

Video quality is pretty much the same as on your computer. You can adjust the quality of the casting if its not smooth enough though.

Queneau

biggy, you seem up on this stuff. Won't I be able to do all that on this: http://www.woohoodeal.co.uk/android-4-2-smart-hdtv-hdmi-dongle-mini-pc-quad-core-8gb-for-just-59-99.html/

I think it has the added bonus of storing 8GB of files. How is it controlled on screen? Surely I don't need a laptop running too. Perhaps use my tablet or phone as a remote? Fuck knows. Too many choices usually means I never make a decision.

EDIT: Read that it has a control. So this looks better than the Chromecast from what I know of both.

biggytitbo

Chromecast uses an existing device as the control, you cast videos from the YouTube, Google play, Netflix , chrome apps on your ipad, android, PC etc.


That android stick can be controlled with a mouse or a remote so you don't need another device, it's more versatile but less slick. One thing I like about the chromecast is you can cast a video from YouTube on an ipad to your tv, then cast it back to the ipad to continue watching in another room, which you can't do with a normal android stick.

biggytitbo

The BBC is quick off the mark, Iplayer is already chromecast enabled, works very nicely. They've actually implemented it even better than the google apps in that it has a built in remote control on the app.


You can also toss the current video between multiple devices which is nice, eg from ipad to tv, and back from tv to phone etc.

MojoJojo

Well amazon.co.uk seem to have sold out (it's not entirely clear - the item page says it's available but when you click on add to basket it says it's no longer available from that seller).