Google Chromecast

joneve

Bit fucking good, aren't they?

£30 and my older, non-smart HD TV is now effectively a smart TV.

monquixote

Yeah I love mine.

Great that it works with tune in radio and Spotify via spoticast now as well.

Also used it for Santa tracker over Xmas which was cool

not_the_dj

Love ours. Mainly for the kids watching CBeebies shows, and I can watch a Doug and Pat on YouTube while doing the ironing!

strumjoughlamps

paid £18 for one, they are alright sometimes a bit clunky but in general you cannot fault it for the money, I mainly use it with a cheap projector with HDMI and USB so no extra power lead needed. I found my white 10x8ft portable studio backdrop acts as perfect projector screen.

joneve

Didn't know about Spoticast! Thanks for that.

The real clincher for me was that it works with NFL Game Pass, so I can cast NFL games from my iPad onto the TV.

The only downside, if I had to pick one would be that there's not an app that easily allows you to cast videos on your iPad to the TV or videos that you stream from a server (i.e. my macbook) to the iPad - I found one called "Goodplayer" which works fine, but you have to add the videos via the file share function in iTunes. Not a great hardship, and I can understand why it's not available as this is Apple TV domain.

Emp_Fab

Whassitdo then ?  ...or rather, what do you use it for.  The only thing I've worked out is that you can play Youtube vids on the telly - but my Raspberry Pi does that and more.  I think I need (want) one, but can't find a justifiable reason !

joneve

Well that's one part of it, but there are loads of other available Apps which allow you to cast stuff from your iPad/phone/laptop to your TV.

Netflix, Youtube, movies, photos, music (via TuneIn, Google Play music, Spotify etc).

It's a cheap solution to "smarting up" your TV.

strumjoughlamps

Emp_Fab said:

Whassitdo then ?  ...or rather, what do you use it for.  The only thing I've worked out is that you can play Youtube vids on the telly - but my Raspberry Pi does that and more.  I think I need (want) one, but can't find a justifiable reason !

https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/devices/chromecast/apps.html

joneve said:

Didn't know about Spoticast! Thanks for that.

The real clincher for me was that it works with NFL Game Pass, so I can cast NFL games from my iPad onto the TV.

The only downside, if I had to pick one would be that there's not an app that easily allows you to cast videos on your iPad to the TV or videos that you stream from a server (i.e. my macbook) to the iPad - I found one called "Goodplayer" which works fine, but you have to add the videos via the file share function in iTunes. Not a great hardship, and I can understand why it's not available as this is Apple TV domain.

can you not stream them from the chromecast add on through the chrome browser on your macbook using plex?

strumjoughlamps

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201206866-Cast-from-Browser-or-Desktop

joneve

strumjoughlamps said:

Emp_Fab said:

Whassitdo then ?  ...or rather, what do you use it for.  The only thing I've worked out is that you can play Youtube vids on the telly - but my Raspberry Pi does that and more.  I think I need (want) one, but can't find a justifiable reason !

https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/devices/chromecast/apps.html

joneve said:

Didn't know about Spoticast! Thanks for that.

The real clincher for me was that it works with NFL Game Pass, so I can cast NFL games from my iPad onto the TV.

The only downside, if I had to pick one would be that there's not an app that easily allows you to cast videos on your iPad to the TV or videos that you stream from a server (i.e. my macbook) to the iPad - I found one called "Goodplayer" which works fine, but you have to add the videos via the file share function in iTunes. Not a great hardship, and I can understand why it's not available as this is Apple TV domain.

can you not stream them from the chromecast add on through the chrome browser on your macbook using plex?

Yes, but that's a bit more of a faff as I always have my iPad to hand and the laptop is usually upstairs

Emp_Fab

Bugger.  It doesn't do anything I can't already do with the Pi.  Oh well, G(adget)AS foiled again :-(

strumjoughlamps

joneve said:

Yes, but that's a bit more of a faff as I always have my iPad to hand and the laptop is usually upstairs

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201812818-Cast-from-iOS

joneve

strumjoughlamps said:

joneve said:

Yes, but that's a bit more of a faff as I always have my iPad to hand and the laptop is usually upstairs

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201812818-Cast-from-iOS

Aha! I guess I hadn't really researched what Plex was, fully. I thought it was just like AirVideo. I might have to give this a go tonight!

mudslide73

Loving it so much I paid full price for another one for my dad for Xmas.. he's loving Showbox (freebie Russian Netflix).

I will look into Spoticast now... cheers @monquixote

joneve

strumjoughlamps;460233" said:

joneve said:

Yes, but that's a bit more of a faff as I always have my iPad to hand and the laptop is usually upstairs

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201812818-Cast-from-iOS

OH MAYTE! Plex is a game changer! Cheers Dave!

gubble

I like mine but I'd love to see more apps supported. Such as 4Od or ITV player.

I got it for netflix and also BT Sport - however the BT sport app simply doesn't work anymore

 

 

joneve

@gubble I guess it's still relatively 'new', so there will hopefully be apps continually added.

Now I have Plex media server set up, it's got everything I need it for! Netflix and Youtube (on occasion) and can now stream videos from my media server (laptop) straight to the TV by selecting on the iPad.

Winner.

holnrew

Can you watch USA Netflix on it?

joneve

holnrew said:

Can you watch USA Netflix on it?

If you can access US netflix via Google Chrome or you're nerdy enough to configure the proxy IP's on your network so that the netflix version on your iPad/Tablet is also US netflix then yes you can.

holnrew

Interessant

joneve

holnrew said:

Interessant

Indeed!