Google chrome cast

Hello. I’m looking at a product to mirror films from my iPad/I phone. Would the chromecast do the job plugged into the back of the TV ? Thanks

That’s certainly what it does on an android device. Not sure about iphone. Apple tv is Apple’s equivalent but it is pricier (obviously)

Yes works fine with apple devices. That’s when it works – see my other thread today.

I’m kinda interested in this question too. Both from phone and computer. Is it only certain apps it works with, or can you stream pretty much anything?

I use it all the time on Android. LocalCast is my app of choice, although the likes of iPlayer etc will cast natively.

It’s a bit clunky casting from iDevices (I find anyway…) unless the app casts natively like, say, You Tube, Netflix or iPlayer. I think AppleTV is probably a better device for this…and is maybe £20ish more expensive. According to macrumors, a new AppleTV will be announced next week. It;s one of those things that Apple have supported but not put a great deal of effort into, as they know they have to be in the game over the coming years (to compete with Amazon, Google, Netflix, etc.) and an actual Apple television has to be on the way at some stage. I like my chrome cast, but it hardly gets used.

We use Chromecast with Android and apple stuff in the house works well
Got it on an amazon deal cheap as well ours is used a lot !

On an apple device
No not easily
On a computer – yes by casting it through a Chrome browser

OP the Apple TV does more so you could argue it justifies the price difference, for me the way it works with iPhone / iPad or stand alone makes it worth the money. I watch RedBull TV on mine all the time, great for UCI DH, ski and snowboard etc plus YouTube and Vimeo (either sent from iPhone etc or you can access your accounts direct from the device). You can also rent movies from Netflix or iTunes.

Note is is widely rumoured that Apple will announce a new model at a press event next week. It will have much more functionality inc an App Store for third party developers to write apps but will likely be much more expensive, say £140 vs £79 for current one. If you can find a used Apple TV say a year or two old (ie latest model) for £20-30 that would be a good buy as its a solid state device so little to go wrong. Make sure it has the remote as you need that to set it up, after that you can control it via a phone app if you want

a question for the techies please…..

last night i tried casting a streamed film from chromebook to chromecast, and watch on tv. it was blocky.

i plugged the chromebook in by hdmi cable and it made the world of difference, spot on.

what would be the bottleneck? my wifi connection, or the chromecast itself?
spose what im asking is, is the cc spec good enough for streaming films (its fine with music from spotify etc)? i just dont know about bit rates, transfer speeds or anything.

thanks

The Chromecast will do streamed HD no problem. Something else is going on. How were you casting?

opening up a film stream within a chrome page on chromebook, clicking the ‘cast’ tab top right.

my router/modem is in the adjoining building, so its possibly that then, we do get a dropped signal from time to time watching iplayer etc. if the chromecast will do HD no probs its got to be that.

thanks

EDIT: just while im thinking about it, when im casting spotify/deezer (im trialling both), the music stutters a bit when im opening web pages/general browsing on the same laptop as im casting from. i assume this is a limitation with the RAM on a chromebook? and again, nowt to do with the chromecast?
weirdly, it only does this with spotify, not deezer.

I use Allcast from my tablet via xbox 360.

Chromecast does not generally stream content from your device to the TV.

Rather you control the Chromecast from your phone/laptop but the Chromecast connects direct to the service.

The main difference is if you cast a tab from your device. This is a direct connection between the two devices and can get janky.

Without any details. It sounds like your network is at fault rather than either your Chromebook or cast.

My experience support kellies heroes, using an app iplayer, red bull, youtube, netflix seems fine, but screen sharing is more hit and miss. I thought i would use it for streaming locally but not really up to it for some reason, mainly i think because its not what it was designed for.

I use Apple TV works fine you can mirror what’s on the device or send it to the TV using AirPlay
Use it with the Mac as well good for music as well I have it linked to my hi fi think they are about £50 sounds like the advantage is you don’t have to use an app to beam it

Chromecast does not generally stream content from your device to the TV.

sorry, im confused, i thought thats exactly what it does?

Rather you control the Chromecast from your phone/laptop but the Chromecast connects direct to the service.

again, what am i missing? surely the cc doesnt have apps loaded onto it like an amazon fire stick?

The main difference is if you cast a tab from your device. This is a direct connection between the two devices and can get janky.

which is whats happening to me but i didnt think theres an alternative.

am i missing something here? how else can i use the chromecast other than ‘casting chrome’?

thanks

how else can i use the chromecast other than ‘casting chrome’?

Chromecast works best when it connects direct to the service. i.e the service (like iplayer) has to support it. If it doesnt then you are just sharing your screen across your own network (amazon prime does not support chromecast), which means you are transmitting the same data twice across your network 1. to your device. and then 2. to the tv. i am not surprised it gets all stuttery

load up a youtube video, within the you tube player embedded in the page if your chromecast is recognised you will see a chromecast logo. click on this and your device will tell the chromecast to go and play the video direct from youtube. you can prove this point by turning off your device. the chrome cast will continue to play.

if you have installed the chromecast extension in chrome, you get a chromecast logo in the top right hand corner of the chrome application. clicing this shares the screen, not connects to the service.

in summary, the chromecast is great, if the service you are trying to stream supports it, if you are just trying to stream random videos from your computer screen, it does not work well.

also try using it from your phone.. download the specific service app and stream that way.

ok, bear with me while i try and make sense of this. i think i sort of understand it a little as i was wondering what happens with deezer. when i open deezer in my chromebook, i play a track, then click the cc logo to cast it to tv, it opens a deezer app on the tv. i couldnt work out why this is, as i thought well thats not my screen, whats going on??

but…. it doesnt do this with spotify. i just get the same page on tv as my chromebook screen. however, ive noticed that the music stutters when i surf the net. so this is because its sending data twice?
it doesnt do this with the deezer app when i surf. youre saying this is cos its a separate app or something and not doing as much work?

ive just tried youtube and yes youre right, its the same. so the cc is actually opening apps then!! and not casting exactly what i see on my screen. btw, this was still the logo top right that i clicked. ive just had another look and youre right, theres another cc logo within the video screen, but clicking it still brings up the dialogue box top right again by the original logo. so it doesnt look like it matters which logo i click, its all the same and opens an app.

any idea why spotify doesnt open in an app? that just displays my spotify acc in a webpage, same as i see on the chromebook.

thanks, interesting stuff.

EDIT: also annoyingly deezer seems to have stopped working for some reason. i open the app, play music, cast it, as soon as the app opens on the tv, the music stops playing (the pause button switches to play button also) and i get nothing. clicking the play button doesnt play, its as tho its all frozen. stop casting and i can play it again.

any ideas?

deezer is a supported service, spotify until last week was not. Google announced spotify compatibility the other day, try updating your spotify app.

read this page and it explains it all. in a very geeky way.

Chromecast actually runs a version of chrome on your tv.

there are ways to stream local content, but that is not really what the device was designed for.

read this page and it explains it all. in a very geeky way.

thanks. surprisingly enough i understood a fair bit of it 🙂 interesting.

ive looked at updating the spotify app on my chromecast but cant see any way of doing it. do the apps not update themselves when theres newer versions?

and any idea why deezer is freezing when its being cast now? anything i can try?

thanks

just posted this in the spotify thread but realised it may be worth posting on this thread too?

just for anyone interested, ive had an email through from spotify saying that ‘spotify and chromecast are now playing nicely together’

‘just go to your phone app, play music, cast it etc etc’

ive had a look on my phone and its definitely better, more like the deezer app opening on the tv screen. however, it doesnt seem any different from my chromebook, it still just casts the spotify webpage.

anyone else had a play yet?

just trialling spotify and deezer premiums at present.
deezer opens over chromecast in its own app as its sposed to and works fine, spotify doesnt, it just casts the laptop screen rather than an app. this makes the music stutter when i open new web pages etc. they state theyre sposed to be integrated now, so ive asked spotify support for help.

ive had a message back asking to check whether ive got the latest version of spotify app, and the most recent firmware is installed on both devices.

how do i check this?

thanks

seems this is just the sadexpunk thread now, nobody else fancy joining in? 😀

todays question, is it worth upgrading chromecast from v1 to v2? original works fine, but £30s a cheapish upgrade and wifes badgering me for my christmas list and im struggling…..

on a v1 myself, havent seen a reason in the v2 specs to change yet. Am I missing something?

*holds sadexpunk’s hand*
YWNWA!

ive had a message back asking to check whether ive got the latest version of spotify app,

Download it and reinstall, then you’ll be sure.

I think the main difference with the Chromecast v2 is better wifi (including 5Ghz). So it should be better if using it somewhere with a poor signal. And apparently a slighter faster processor, so maybe a bit faster to load apps. I wouldn’t bother upgrading, unless you are having problems with the old one.

Though you can now buy a Chromecast v2 for £25, and it includes £20 credit for Google Play. So good value if you’re going to buy stuff from Google Play anyway.

I wouldn’t bother upgrading, unless you are having problems with the old one.

Though you can now buy a Chromecast v2 for £25, and it includes £20 credit for Google Play. So good value if you’re going to buy stuff from Google Play anyway.
nah, never use it so ill have to think of something else for my list 🙂

Download it and reinstall, then you’ll be sure.

chromebooks are sposed to update the apps automatically, so i updated the latest OS and rebooted, then installed spotify from there. it hasnt made any difference.
been doing some more tests, trying to isolate the cause. both mine and my wifes HTC M8s cast to the chromecast fine, spotify opens in its own app, plays perfectly, happy days.
my chromebook still doesnt open an app when cast, its still a webpage that stutters the music when i surf.
my wifes chromebook is even worse. she casts spotify, it flashes up on the tv for a second then a blank tv, thats it.

ive explained this to their support, but they just copy and paste generic replies which ive already seen on their site. not impressed with their CS really.
deezer are far better and have helped me iron out the problems that i had.

*holds sadexpunk’s hand*
YWNWA!

awwwwww thanks mate 🙂

Pornhub has a Chromecast option 🙂

Also 4od / channel 4 has recently added one too. Great improvement on the HDMI alternative.

resurrecting a chromecast thread rather than starting a new one……

just moved house, signed up to virgin, got a superhub 3 i think it is, and chromecast wont work with it. ive googled all the virgin forums and see its a common prob, but there doesnt seem to be a solution. im guessing a lot of users on here are with virgin, and if youre reading this thread you maybe got a chromecast (first gen), so wondered if you suffered the same problem and how you overcame it.

thanks