Chromecast - Do you use it ? If yes then how ?

raksrules

raksrules

Northstar
If you own a chromecast then can you tell how and what all apps you are using with it ?
I know there is some sort if chromecast store which link to many apps. I am not sure what additional functionality these new apps offer to help with the chromecast.
Will be good for people sitting on fence about buying chromecast dongle.
 
I mostly use youtube and stream movies/TV series from my laptop.
Stop thinking about what all you can do with it.Think about what you want to.
P.S-Google music app doesnt work.Maybe due to country restrictions.There are alternatives though.
 
sarthakk250193 said:
I mostly use youtube and stream movies/TV series from my laptop.
Stop thinking about what all you can do with it.Think about what you want to.
P.S-Google music app doesnt work.Maybe due to country restrictions.There are alternatives though.
Click to expand...

Can Android screen can be mirrored on TV?
(like for playing games with the mobile as controller :p)
 
sarthakk250193 said:
I mostly use youtube and stream movies/TV series from my laptop.
Stop thinking about what all you can do with it.Think about what you want to.
P.S-Google music app doesnt work.Maybe due to country restrictions.There are alternatives though.
Click to expand...

This.

mathrisk said:
Can Android screen can be mirrored on TV?
(like for playing games with the mobile as controller :p)
Click to expand...

Officially very few devices are able to mirror to chrome cast. I have successfully managed to mirror my Nexus 5 with it. Though by rooting the phone I can easily mirror my OnePlus as well. And mirroring works like a charm even with quite a few action based games.

It has limited use as of now but watching for Youtube its the best device ever built for the price. You need a good net connection though cause buffering is b***h with a Full HD TV. Honestly if you are an avid YouTuber its a must get device otherwise you can give it a pass.
 
I have it but I seldom use it. Youtube works good. I use Synology NAS and with one of Synology's apps, I can stream movies to the screen but I really prefer turning on my PC and watching there. The cast screen feature works with my nexus 7 and I can play candy crush but honestly its more of a novelty than of any use.

My device is sitting there idle, plugged to my AVR. Should probably sell it.
 
Youtube: For dtreaming 1080p to my HDTV which works without buffering. I and now @raksrules are blessed with the ISP. ;)
Localcast/Allcast/Plex/etc to cast movies stored on my Linux headless machine and Android Device to TV.
Mirroring to cast pics stores on my device to TV.
 
mathrisk said:
Can Android screen can be mirrored on TV?
(like for playing games with the mobile as controller :p)
Click to expand...

It's worthless to play games on big screen while using phone as controller.
Cause unlike physical controller there is no way to FEEL the individual buttons so you will end up looking at phone screen only...
Good for may be speactators of your gameplay.
 
Wanted to Update here. Finally got the chromecast from amazon US.

Youtube - Primarily used for Youtube. It works fine with my 1 Mbps connection. I don't think I have any control over quality once chromecast takes over. Probably I have to stop the casting and change video quality (like say force 720p) and then start casting again to get continuous 720p on TV.
Also I am not sure whether we can pause the cast video to let it buffer and then start after a minute or so to avoid buffering issues.

Screen Casting - Tried it couple of times just to see how it is. I used Nexus 7 2012 (thanks to mirror enabler APK). Don't really see any much use of that for now.

Ezcast App - This app was first only compatible with its miracast dongle but now also works with chromecast. Local photo casting and camera casting works(massive lag here). There is always a lag between changing photos on the phone/device and on the TV. This is expected. Also my router is an old 54Mbps one. May be that also contributes for the lag.

LocalCast App - This is pretty awesome. Installed on my nexus 7 and I could easily cast locally stored videos to TV. My videos are not 720p and usually are 300MB or so for 42 Minutes (you get the idea). I see no lags or audio video sync issues with the videos that I have. This is like airplay (although i have never used airplay). I am not sure what else the localcast app can cast as I haven't explored it yet.
 
Just FYI, for some weird reason, amazon.com is not shipping chromecast to India anymore (at least for now). It is shipped and sold by amazon, still. I had ordered it from there just 1 Month back to my home address in Mumbai.
 
I search a lot about following question but not able to get proper answer...

1. Is it Possible to Stream Movies / Video File via Chrome Cast to the Big Screen and also able to hear the sound at the Laptop/PC via Headphone Jack ?
2. Is it applicable to Android / iOS Devices ? Like want to watch the video file via Chrome Cast @ Big Screen but want the Audio via Headphone / Ear buds ?
3. If Chromecast setup done from Mac / Windows - Is it really matter if I use Linux (Ubuntu) machines (Net Book - Laptop - Desktop) all the time.
4. If the above question is Yes, (As I read in the net) other than browsing web page / casting the tab, there is some mirroring possible - Is it anyway we can replicate the Desktop screen ? Preferably use to create document / spreadsheets ?

Looking forward some suggestion/input from this device owners / users.

Right now Snap Deal Selling ChromeCast and Play Store Saying 'Coming Soon' - Please suggests from where to buy safely ?
 
Last edited:
dissel said:
I search a lot about following question but not able to get proper answer...

1. Is it Possible to Stream Movies / Video File via Chrome Cast to the Big Screen and also able to hear the sound at the Laptop/PC via Headphone Jack ?
2. Is it applicable to Android / iOS Devices ? Like want to watch the video file via Chrome Cast @ Big Screen but want the Audio via Headphone / Ear buds ?
3. If Chromecast setup done from Mac / Windows - Is it really matter if I use Linux (Ubuntu) machines (Net Book - Laptop - Desktop) all the time.
4. If the above question is Yes, (As I read in the net) other than browsing web page / casting the tab, there is some mirroring possible - Is it anyway we can replicate the Desktop screen ? Preferably use to create document / spreadsheets ?

Looking forward some suggestion/input from this device owners / users.

Right now Snap Deal Selling ChromeCast and Play Store Saying 'Coming Soon' - Please suggests from where to buy safely ?
Click to expand...
1.yes it's possible, audio also plays nicely
2.haven't tried out yet
3. Can stream from one device at a time only but multiple can connect to it
4. Mobile screen mirroring is easily possible.
 
devesh38 said:
1.yes it's possible, audio also plays nicely

3. Can stream from one device at a time only but multiple can connect to it
4. Mobile screen mirroring is easily possible.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply....

About my Query No 1 & 2 - My intention not to play audio via TV Speaker (If it plays no problem - just need to Mute it) instead channeling the audio via Head Phone / Ear Phone. The real concern (question) is when the video play via Chrome cast,Is it possible the Audio of the source (Media) file can still route/ available through audio port / Head Phone Jack of the Laptop / PC ?

This is my prime query. If this not possible for Mobile Device - then Ok...

About my Query no.3 Yes I want to use 1 device at a time but after initial setup which requires Windows / Mac - the device will be using all 3 machine which running Ubuntu and Occasional one iOS device.
 
dissel said:
Thanks for your reply....

About my Query No 1 & 2 - My intention not to play audio via TV Speaker (If it plays no problem - just need to Mute it) instead channeling the audio via Head Phone / Ear Phone. The real concern (question) is when the video play via Chrome cast,Is it possible the Audio of the source (Media) file can still route/ available through audio port / Head Phone Jack of the Laptop / PC ?

This is my prime query. If this not possible for Mobile Device - then Ok...

About my Query no.3 Yes I want to use 1 device at a time but after initial setup which requires Windows / Mac - the device will be using all 3 machine which running Ubuntu and Occasional one iOS device.
Click to expand...
I played with my chromecast this weekend. I was not able to play audio from phone/pc while casting. Maybe future updates will allow that. Overall the chromecast felt slow. Allcast application was hanging and disconnecting very often and was really pain to use. Youtube was running very well.
ES explorer came to rescue as it had built in chromecast player and handled nicely and quickly. It had some problems with some codecs but overall was better than all cast.
Screen mirroring is now possible and worked flawlessly but playing video through screen mirroring was not good. It was not running smooth.
Tried to watch a movie through ES Chromecasting, the movie ran for about 40 minutes and then disconnected. On checking I found that Chromecast had heated quite considerably. And the disconnection was possibly due that heating up only.
I also tried to screen mirror a tab from chrome browser on pc. It was able to handle it nicely at 480p. But was not able to do it smoothly at 720p. It will be good for presentations only and not for streaming.
Overall i felt the chromecast needs a better processor and better heat dissipation to do its job.
 
Glad I found this thread else would have created one.

Initially when I brought it just tried to cast my screnn and tried to play music via power amp, worked as expected. Nothing much.

Yesterday wanted to explore all I could do it with it. Tried youtube, its pretty awesome to have adding videos in que while one is being displayed on TV. You can make playlists as well. Not sure about the minimum bandwidth required but all videos were playing flawless.

Later found musixmatch app compitable with crome cast surprised to see the GUI it gives you on TV. Full HD album art with song seek bar and playing the lyrics of songs as if a Karaoke song.

Tried WDs app to stream videos from NAS but didn`t work, same happened with Netgears genie app.

My wishlist - Music player which can have enque playlist option to add songs from local drive (phone) or LAN / NAS etc.

Overall its good gadget to have with.
 
I have given up on chromecast as of now. It is lying behind my TV begging to be used. I will probably put it back in box. Since the time I got roku 3, the ability to control using remote (the natural way I have been doing all these years) has taken precedence over using the app to do the casting and such.
Also it was more of youtube usage and that I am getting using roku anyways.
 
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