Google Chromecast now available at Amazon!

Almost bit and made the impulse buy. Early reviews are talking about choppy or pixelated playback. Think I'll stick with the HDMI cable for now. Really wish Google had included AC compatibility. Would gladly pay a little more. Surely they will release an updated wireless AC version.
 
This will mirror whatever is playing in chrome broswer right? I can stream xfinity tv online to it?
 
Just placed my order. I'm going to be plugging this into my receiver and stream Pandora to my sound system from my phone with the ability to adjust volume and skip songs. My only concern is that my iPad is running iOS 5 albeit my iPhone is running 6.

Sure, I also have an HTPC connected to the receiver too, but why be forced to turn on a powder hungry plasma TV and fiddle with remotes or wireless keyboards? For this much simplicity and for $35? Take my money Google.

This seems like more of a fit for your needs, and it's a bit cheaper: Belkin Blue Tooth Receiver. I use one of these to pair my phone and touchpad (running Android) and listen to music.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Of course we could all do that it's about clicking a button and for 35 bucks I will get one instead of carrying my laptop to tv and plugging it in. For me this is more for my smartphone and tablet than anything else. It's almost a must have for the price. I am grabbing one as soon as it comes back in stock.

I think it's safe to say most [H]s here already have some sort of PC attached to their TV, either an HTPC or gaming PC. This is much more geared towards those who aren't as connected as we are. As one of those who's got a HTPC plugged into the TV already, this is not going to save me cable clutter anyway. Good device for those who don't have rat's nest of cables though :p
 
This looks perfect for my bedroom tv.
It has no media devices attached (other than God awful basic cable).
 
I think it's safe to say most [H]s here already have some sort of PC attached to their TV, either an HTPC or gaming PC. This is much more geared towards those who aren't as connected as we are. As one of those who's got a HTPC plugged into the TV already, this is not going to save me cable clutter anyway. Good device for those who don't have rat's nest of cables though :p

I actually have a very decent HTPC, but the whole hassle of using an RF kb/m that constantly drops signal, jacking around with windows updates, etc has annoyed me to the point of looking for other solutions. I think this guy will work just fine. I'm ready to go home and tinker, dammit!

55MCJfH.jpg
 
Almost bit and made the impulse buy. Early reviews are talking about choppy or pixelated playback. Think I'll stick with the HDMI cable for now. Really wish Google had included AC compatibility. Would gladly pay a little more. Surely they will release an updated wireless AC version.
Picked one up this afternoon, so far its been ok with playback, when streaming from my laptop it can get a little choppy with playback. But from my tablet & phone it has been fine so far.
 
The more I see of these the more im glad I didn't follow my 1st impulse & buy 4 of them.. Now if plex gets ported for it then it could be a very nice front end assuming that it plays as good if not better then the roku's.
 
The more I see of these the more im glad I didn't follow my 1st impulse & buy 4 of them.. Now if plex gets ported for it then it could be a very nice front end assuming that it plays as good if not better then the roku's.

Considering the API is out there, I'd be surprised if something like Plex doesn't support Chrome cast in the future.
 
Considering the API is out there, I'd be surprised if something like Plex doesn't support Chrome cast in the future.

lotsa requests for it on the plex forums also.. So it will be here some day, just going to be a matter of how well it works.
 
Am I missing something here? My 2013 Vizio 60" with wifi to the home network already does this on my S3....

Every single video I play on my phone gives me the option to push it to the TV. YouTube, MX Player, etc.
 
Difference between DLNA and Chromecast is first off that most of the stuff is not streaming from your PC (unless you're using the Chrome browser feature). This means its not using the resources of your device, the dongle is running a stripped down version of the Chrome OS that your device pushes a link to and then opens. You also have more control from more devices, and allows active content pushing from multiple devices and playlists, so you have a party going on, one person after another can push, pause, or mute content.

I haven't played with Chromecast yet, I've been trying to buy it locally for 2 days now (both BestBuys in the area sold out).
 
Am I missing something here? My 2013 Vizio 60" with wifi to the home network already does this on my S3....

Every single video I play on my phone gives me the option to push it to the TV. YouTube, MX Player, etc.

lol, because we all have 60" smart TVs in every room of the house. Come on man...
 
lol, because we all have 60" smart TVs in every room of the house. Come on man...

It goes a little further than this too. They are judging this on what it can do now, not in 2 months. Plus, can you send a web link from your PC, phone, tablet, or other device to your "smart TV"?

Some clarification on what it actually runs, its not chrome os, its a variation of Google TV. Bootloader has already been identified, good times ahead .:)
 
Yes it does stream, local content only though, such as certain types of media from a computer, external hard drive, etc...

Check out this video (at 4:54) that demonstrates it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7btJpFF-Lo

I am trying to watch that vid but having trouble at work. Do you have more detail as what media "types" could be streamed from other PCs on the local network? And couldn't I also theoretically "host" any content via Apache (just a directory listing even) and send that http link to the thing?
 
I am trying to watch that vid but having trouble at work. Do you have more detail as what media "types" could be streamed from other PCs on the local network? And couldn't I also theoretically "host" any content via Apache (just a directory listing even) and send that http link to the thing?

You're not streaming the content directly, though. You're streaming anything you can open in the Chrome browser.

There's currently nothing available yet to be able to directly stream content to the Chromecast. I'm guessing someone will figure it out soon enough, though.
 
Am I missing something here? My 2013 Vizio 60" with wifi to the home network already does this on my S3....

Every single video I play on my phone gives me the option to push it to the TV. YouTube, MX Player, etc.

Not every TV is a smart TV, the whole point of this is to allow all TV's this functionality, assuming you are willing to pay 35 dollars. Personally I rather have a more expensive ARM based HTPC type device, but after Googles last device... you can not blame them for overly focusing on price sensitivity. In the end spending thirty-five dollars to upgrade a TV is less than one thousand dollars for a new sixty inch TV.

Smart TV functionality is going to becoming increasingly important. I expect Apple, Google and Amazon to be slugging it out in this market eventually and maybe some cable providers. Honestly I am surprised we have not had more products already. A nice ARM powers device would be fun to play with...
 
You're not streaming the content directly, though. You're streaming anything you can open in the Chrome browser.

There's currently nothing available yet to be able to directly stream content to the Chromecast. I'm guessing someone will figure it out soon enough, though.

Yes ok that is helpful to see spelled out even though I guess I pretty much understood this already. The browser on the thing is really the limiting factor when it comes to what it can "play" at this point.
 
As I said, I wonder if you can stream your desktop via Chrome Remote Desktop? Someone with the Chromecast, please try.
 
Back
Top