I received my chrome cast from Google. After watching You Tube via my Note 2 on my HD tv, I try to switch to regular TV on HDMI 4. It would not switch to regular tv. So I had to reset the FIOS receiver which brought the tv back. This happened again today. I have a Sony HD tv.
Also, how do i turn off chrome cast.
Have you tried turning off CEC? This is what allows HDMI devices to tell your TV to turn to the right input (if you on standard TV on HDMI 1 and chromecast is HDMI 3 it'll automatically change input when you cast content)
So, I finally bought a chromecast and after 30 minutes was left wondering "why did I buy this instead of just getting a 15' HDMI cable to dual monitor my laptop on my TV.
It seems like casting from a tab uses more resources, uses double the bandwidth, and has limited features compared to just dual-monitoring.
In order to continue using a VPN and chromecast I have to mod the firmware on the router. chromecast uses a fair amount of resources when casting video. And as far as I can tell there's no benefit (besides it being wireless) compared to HDMI out dual monitoring... am I missing something or is it really just nothing that special?
codecobalt said:
So, I finally bought a chromecast and after 30 minutes was left wondering "why did I buy this instead of just getting a 15' HDMI cable to dual monitor my laptop on my TV.
It seems like casting from a tab uses more resources, uses double the bandwidth, and has limited features compared to just dual-monitoring.
In order to continue using a VPN and chromecast I have to mod the firmware on the router. chromecast uses a fair amount of resources when casting video. And as far as I can tell there's no benefit (besides it being wireless) compared to HDMI out dual monitoring... am I missing something or is it really just nothing that special?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Codecobalt,
The main benefit is convenience. There's something just very natural about selecting content from your phone and then having it play on the TV - with how the chromecast connects it's actually the device that creates the connection to the provider and as such there shouldn't be any increased bandwidth usage (only control information is sent via your phone in most cases - excepting applications that pass your data via external services).
If you wish to use a VPN you may have to mod your router however you can normally just add a route or some mechanism to stop it's connection to google DNS servers which will force the device to fall back to locally defined DNS servers if that helps. If you require assistance with the whole router thing let me know (as I've done many of them in many different ways).
Again as I said, the main reason for the device is convienience - I personally although being a tech head don't like the idea of having to launch movies with a mouse and keyboard off a laptop and all the rigmarole that comes with it (since purchasing chromecasts I haven't used my local movie stash in around 3 months).
Well that's my speel about it, if you have any specific requests please do not hesitate to ask and I hope you grow to love the device as much as I do.
I have no real gripes about it, I just don't see the real benefit to me, but I'm a laptop user who always has my laptop in front of me. I can understand though how you like the ability to use your android phone to launch videos wirelessly. I love to use my phone to launch youtube videos on my PS3.
It just seems like so long as you already have an HDMI out connection (and a laptop infront of you at all times) it's more universal to just dual monitor. for instance while casting "Watch ESPN" on my PC to TV, I can't fullscreen the video in the tab so that the video on my TV is fullscreen and still use the PC.. which kind of defeats the purpose. but with dual monitor I can have the video fullscreened on my TV while still using my laptop screen for everything else.
If it were a wireless option to dual monitor I would LOVE IT! but that's not what it was intended to be. I like it being wireless, but since I already have a 15' ethernet cable (just prefer it to wifi when available), usb to mini usb cable to charge my ps3 controller, and a wired headset for my ps3, one extra cable (the hdmi) running across the floor doesn't really bother me too much.
It's cool tech and very affordable for what it is, but it just left me wanting much more... thought I had to be missing the point.
For people without a ps3 or xbox or multiple TV's/chromecasts I can see the advantage.. just not for me I suppose.
I mostly wanted it so that I could watch my comcast xfinity online account (watch espn/2/u, FX, FXX, etc to stream live TV as an alternative to my netflix while I'm away from home and have a real screen. the ps3 doesn't have an xfinity app and I liked the idea of being able to stream only 1 specific tab. but then I have to use the zoom function on the tv to make it fullscreen and still use the laptop.
codecobalt said:
So, I finally bought a chromecast and after 30 minutes was left wondering "why did I buy this instead of just getting a 15' HDMI cable to dual monitor my laptop on my TV.
It seems like casting from a tab uses more resources, uses double the bandwidth, and has limited features compared to just dual-monitoring.
In order to continue using a VPN and chromecast I have to mod the firmware on the router. chromecast uses a fair amount of resources when casting video. And as far as I can tell there's no benefit (besides it being wireless) compared to HDMI out dual monitoring... am I missing something or is it really just nothing that special?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Casting from a tab (or the entire desktop) is not Chromecast's core use case. If that's all you're doing, then you are better off using HDMI or WiDi.
Chromecast's advantage, in addition to the sheer browsing/usage/convenience factor that @Kyonz mentioned, is "offloading" the playback duties. Chromecast's power usage is far less than your laptop, and you're free to take your laptop/phone/tablet and run if you need to while Chromecast continues to play. Someone else in the household can easily take over control of Chromecast from another device as well (there's some annoyance/bad to this too, but it's good as long as everyone plays nicely).
Likewise, I can move where media is being played back in most apps by pausing the playback, and resuming it on another Chromecast. Sadly, it won't turn off the TV though.
The previous paragraph deals solely with Chromecast-native applications, ie, not tab-casting or desktop-casting with the Cast extension from Chrome. Like I said in the beginning, if you're mainly trying to cast your computer's tab or screen, Chromecast is not the ideal solution.
I find the chromecast handy in my TV room... No hdmi cables everywhere. Just pull out my phone or tablet and pull up whatever I want to watch then send it to the chromecast and put the phone down.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
rans0m00 said:
I find the chromecast handy in my TV room... No hdmi cables everywhere. Just pull out my phone or tablet and pull up whatever I want to watch then send it to the chromecast and put the phone down.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
also a nice way to upgrade an older non-smart TV to semi smart......
I never got it to work with my jellybean android phone. installed the app but never saw a chromecast feature in anything... chrome browser, watch espn, gallery nothing... but again didn't really try too hard.. hdmi for me.
codecobalt said:
I never got it to work with my jellybean android phone. installed the app but never saw a chromecast feature in anything... chrome browser, watch espn, gallery nothing... but again didn't really try too hard.. hdmi for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all apps have the casting feature. Avia does YouTube does. ESPN and gallery do not
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
One of the Advantages is to be able to stream content to TVs in other rooms for Family and Friends without having to tie up your Laptop.
Truth is a Laptop has the fewest options available for using the CCast. None of the CCast compatible Apps will run on a Laptop and the only real benefit is you can launch a Netflix, Hulu and YouTube movie to the CCast from their Webpages.
So you can watch a movie on your TV while you do other things with the Laptop.
In the OP's case a secondary out from the computer doesn't "tie it up" much except for CPU and network usage. Well, launching a full screen game or something would likely jam things up.
Sent from a device with no keyboard. Please forgive typos, they may not be my own.
When using the hdmi out wont the graphics card be stressed also? Using the chromecast eliminates that altogether i thought...i use plex mostly for my entertainment system and debated getting a dedicated graphics card...in the end i chose casting between my devices because i have the bandwidth to support it and no desire to push my graphics card too hard if i chose to watch a 1080 trilogy....hows my logic?
That's reasonable logic too. Chromecast had hardware processing for the (limited) formats it supports, so it uses far less power than a laptop, perhaps even less power than a tablet because it's not also powering a screen. Personally I like the "start it up and let it go" aspect - no worries about what I do on my phone/tablet/computer once it's playing.
I cannot cast anything without it buffering on my chromecast anymore.
Youtube/Netflix can play but resolution is of lowest quality (probably because its built in), but casting tab from web browser will not work at all. At first I thought my internet speed was slow, but I do a speed test most days (on mac) and get an average of 30mpbs-35mbps. Mobile speed I get is 5mbps. Funnily enough I play Netflix through phone and it plays but like I said, quality is compromised. My other tv which is a smart tv (no Chromecast) plays Netflix/Youtube of the full 1080p and no lagging. So which leads me to believe that there is a problem with the Chromecast itself?
My only other option is to see if it works on the smart tv, but then it defeats the purpose of having a smart tv. And I will be without smart tv/chromecast in the bedroom.
Any advice please?
yep, I'm finding this too. I ended up hooking my laptop up via hdmi because casting was so poor. Really low resolution and it would lose connection (black tv screen, laptop still playing) for 3-4 seconds, every 15 minutes or so.
I'm very quickly losing patience with the CC.
After 3 chromecast (of which 1 returned) and trying 2 new routers specifically for making cc work I couldn't find any permanent solution. Where any phone or tablet works fine for streaming netflix, plex, etc, cc would struggle, I gave up, it's useless. Btw, the routers I tried for the past year are netgear r6200, Linksys ea6500 and currently netgear r7000.
Sent from my HTC One
Do you try speed4cast? You can see if the problem is from internet or from CC. Reboot router, enable upnp on the router and look for new update by rebooting CC.
If nothing works, make a factory reset and try to cast. If not, return the device.
I seem to be at an impasse. I currently use a cellphone from metropcs as my home internet connection. It has unlimited data usage on the phone and 8gb of hot spot data a month. In order to utilize the unlimited data on the phone I watch things like netflix and hbogo on the phone so I would love to be able to mirror my phone to my tv. I was able to set up a chrome cast to connect to the phone directly by connecting the it to the phones hot spot. The only problem is that the chrome cast uses hot spot data instead of the mobile data when I launch netflix on my phone and cast it to the chromcast. It's as if when I cast netflix, instead of the phone running it and mirroring it on the chromecast, the phone hands it off to the chromecast completely and it runs everything there. Is this the case? Is there anyway I can mirror netflix from my phone to my tv while using mobile data?
Thanks in advance.
I would like to do this too. Can you cast to CC using guest mode and still use your unlimited data?
Not possible with netflix cause it won't allow you to screencast which is the only way to send content to CCast without internet.
When you cast netflix to the CCast all it does is load up the Netflix app built into the CCast which needs internet to work.
Connect to the chromecast with your phones hotspot. Go to google home app, options, cast screen/audio. That will mirror your screen to the tv. Go to netflix app and play the video on your phone (without selecting the cast option). Since it's actually playing on your phone it will use regular mobile data. The hotspot is just used to connect to the cc since it's broken without it. Just gotta leave your screen on the whole time so lay it flat and plug it into a charger. Cool thing is that the netflix app stretches the screen automatically so don't worry about it flipping. Hope that helps.
Mirroring works... but... choppy
The mirroring method does work, but it is very choppy on with my phone (Note 8) and TV (LG circa 2015 model). Any suggestions?
Hi!
My wife is an Apple person and I'm trying to help her so she can watch her videos that are stored on a USB stick connected to the router on the TV.
The setup:
Asus AC86U with an 128GB USB stick (ext2)
old Panasonic plasma TV with Chromecast
I want an app on her iPhone/iPad that can access the videos on USB stick connected to the router and then cast it to the Chromecast connected to the TV with subtitle support. I have tried with VLC on her iPhone, but there's a known bug when the iPhone screen turns off, the streaming stops.
I'm currently trying the same thing for me but on an Galaxy S7, if anyone has some experience there, It seems like VLC can't use subtitles when trying to do this and I've tried LocalCast, but it's quite buggy.