Just found out that the Chromecast won't run on the 5 GHz wifi band. Kind of ticks me off. No issues streaming, yet.
Yeah, it's a hardware limitation I believe, kind of silly. Been holding off buying another one to see if an updated one comes out. But for $40 it's really no big deal.
So that 20 buck promotion is available in Canada, not just those who order online. Go into your Chromecast app on your phone or tablet, click the setting button on the top right then hit "Check for Offers". You should get 20 dollars in Google Play credit.
No subscription fees for the Chromecast, also the Chromecast is not locked down tighter than a fruit flies... ahem... Google has opened up the support for it, so look for a whole lot more apps to use it in the future. Probably the best $35 I have ever spent.
I can play anything from my Phone/Computer Media Server directly to my TV. I have all my movies stored digitally and have an app that can access them and cast them. You can stream netflix/youtube from your phone to your TV. Also, if you have the Chrome browser on your computer, you can cast that browser window directly to the TV.
Basically what I use mine for is Netflix, Youtube, Avia (Media Server Browser), Google Play Movies directly to my TV, and the odd item from my Computer Browser to the TV.
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I sold one of my apple tv units and have held off on a Chromecast because I wanted my setup to be kind of an all-or-none solution. Since discovering Plex I'm realizing how well the two environments can co-exist. I was using my PS3 to access my library on the tv that no longer has an Apple TV, but I might just spend the $40 and have a slightly better experience.
Question for those of you using the Chromecast to play video from your PC (or media server): is there a good interface for doing this? I've been using XBMC on a jail broken AppleTV to play all my movies and TV shows and I love the integration with the movie and TV databases for fetching episode/movie info. Does this exist for Chromecast?
I just use Avia, what you see is the folder structure on your PC, and just scroll through the list, tap what you want to play and you are good to go. I have not tried PLEX yet, but since its free not I have heard some good things.
is there anyway to run xbmc and mashup nativley on this?
There's a post above from me
about how to get xbmc streaming through to the chromecast. Works great, watching a movie now. Sorry, no idea on what Mashup is. That setup is for a phone or tablet not a pc .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsenal14
Question for those of you using the Chromecast to play video from your PC (or media server): is there a good interface for doing this? I've been using XBMC on a jail broken AppleTV to play all my movies and TV shows and I love the integration with the movie and TV databases for fetching episode/movie info. Does this exist for Chromecast?
My post a few back will set it up on a tablet but not a pc. I use xbmc to set everything up and once I press play Avia takes over and sends the stream over to the Chromecast. So far it works off of my database and any streams I've tried.
Installed one at home so that I can throw Netflix from my tablet to an unconnected TV....works like a charm. MLB.TV (Which is AMAZING value if you're thinking about it....) works like a dream.
Installed the other at my Mom's to give her the gift of Netflix. It's so simple "Even she can use it", and it works great. Frankly, it's worth the $40 just as a Netflix enabler.
My only complaint is that the iPhone app is clunky and unresponsive. Could just be Mom's phone (iPhone 4) but the experience isn't even comparable to my Nexus 4 or 7. Laptop functionality works really well, fwiw.
No. Only can cast from computer or tablet to TV.
For my money OUYA is the best out of box solution (standalone) for Xbmc. But it's $100, not $40
You can setup Avia to handle the casting from xbmc from a tablet or phone. Once setup it works pretty much like Netflix. Select your media and hit play, Avia takes over for the casting and had the controls. Works on local or cloud content (streaming).
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Don't forget to "check offers" when you boot up your Chromecast! I found a $20 Google Play credit and 3 months of Google Play Music waiting for me today!
Also, I tried mirroring from my Nexus 4 and it works well enough for some games. It's a bit laggy, but not bad!
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Tried it briefly and it casts the screen on my Nexus 5 just fine, but for some reason it seems to disable my audio on my phone, and end up with no audio at all. The latency is surprisingly low though, so that's good.
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