Chromecast Discussion Thread


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Anyone got their Chromecast yet and can post impressions? My order is pending and 3-4 weeks out last time I looked. I am specifically interested in anyone who is using it with an AV receiver. I have a Pioneer receiver under the front panel that opens there is an array of ports including an HDMI and USB. I'm anticipating I can just plug it into that and then get full surround sound just like I do with Apple TV. I'm excited about this because I like the idea of controlling it with my new Nexus 7.

 

Does it work well with an A/V receiver setup and do you get full digital surround?

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I got mine in the mail earlier this week, and I was pretty surprised how well it worked.

 

Streaming from my PC, iPhone, iPad all worked really well.  The only issue I came across was when I tried to stream stuff from ESPN3.  The audio would lag pretty bad for some reason.  But I think it was due to whatever crappy Flash scripts they use.  Otherwise everything was crisp and smooth.

 

It's still technically Beta, but it's already damn good.  I'm excited to see it expand.

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My friend got his, its pretty sweet.

 

I can't imagine it not supporting full surround, but that would probably only work with Netflix.  I don't think theres too many YouTube videos pumping out surround sound :/

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I posted a bunch of pictures and setup info in this thread: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1166675-googles-android-chrome-breakfast/

 

I haven't plugged mine into a receiver, but I can't see why there would be any issue with it. It should have 5.1 surround just fine that way.

 

I've quite enjoyed it so far. I don't use it all the time or even every day, but for $35 it's a great little addition. I want another for my bedroom TV and one for my parents now too!

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I received mine yesterday (ordered from Play store an hour after it was announced). I've only tried Youtube/Netflix/Play Music casting from Nexus 7 (2013) and HTC One. It is very simple to use/setup. App support is limited right now on devices - Google Play Music/Netflix/Youtube, more services coming soon (Pandora). For $35, it's well worth it to have something like to stream to your TV. There is so much potential in this device - especially if there are more services added (including some that Google may be working on). 

 

The response is pretty fast - when you perform an action on your phone, it happens within a second (ex: Volume up/down, skip position in video, etc.). I'm a big fan, and no longer have to use my (comparatively) power hungry Xbox 360 to stream content. I haven't tested out the ability to cast tabs, but I like that the functionality is there. It's almost like having a wireless display. 

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I don't see mention of Google Play movies, but that obviously must work with it right now right?

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Netflix and Youtube work well as advertised.  I loaded some locally stored videos in a tab and had issues when I casted them.  The video was very choppy until i edited my Chomecast settings and lowered the video quality.  Then it was smooth.  This feature isnt fully supported yet so hopefully once things are updated, it will be and I can keep video quality high where it should be.

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Netflix and Youtube work well as advertised.  I loaded some locally stored videos in a tab and had issues when I casted them.  The video was very choppy until i edited my Chomecast settings and lowered the video quality.  Then it was smooth.  This feature isnt fully supported yet so hopefully once things are updated, it will be and I can keep video quality high where it should be.

I sent you that message about this. I can't tell if it's more connection speed or PC speed that makes it choppy. I was going to say connection speed at first, but my laptop and Chromecast were both connected 802.11n with a perfect signal. I did notice though that browsing in other tabs made my stream a little choppy. I was just streaming a tab with Play Music open and playing. The music would get choppy at times when I was loading pages. My laptop I was streaming from definitely isn't the fastest in the world, so I could see that being a limitation. Were you streaming from a fast laptop? Mine is a C2D.

 

Either way, I'm sure they'll optimize it in time. Unfortunately Extreme is only 720p right now and still choppy. I want to be streaming 1080p if possible, but maybe that's too much to ask. I know the Chromecast can handle 1080p because Netflix can do it. It's all about the processing speed on the laptop side.

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The device doesn't "mirror" like iOS devices do with AppleTV though right?

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I hope they come out with a Google TV + Chromecast device.  A guy at work got his Chromecast this week and although it sounds nice I don't always WANT to stream Netflix from my phone.. i might actually want to _use_ my phone while watching Netflix.  You could watch netflix on Google TV w/o your device streaming it... seems like there is a best of both worlds compromise that cost a bit more and has a feature set closer to the Apple TV.  A dedicated Audio Out port would also be nice so you don't have to have your HDTV on if all you are doing is streaming music or a podcast.  If it has an audio-out port, I'd probably just get one so I can add a music streaming device for my living room but I don't want to put an HDTV in there.

 

 

The device doesn't "mirror" like iOS devices do with AppleTV though right?

 

No.  It doesn't do mirroring.  I think its feature set and its price is about right.

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I hope they come out with a Google TV + Chromecast device.  A guy at work got his Chromecast this week and although it sounds nice I don't always WANT to stream Netflix from my phone.. i might actually want to _use_ my phone while watching Netflix.  You could watch netflix on Google TV w/o your device streaming it... seems like there is a best of both worlds compromise that cost a bit more and has a feature set closer to the Apple TV.  A dedicated Audio Out port would also be nice so you don't have to have your HDTV on if all you are doing is streaming music or a podcast.  If it has an audio-out port, I'd probably just get one so I can add a music streaming device for my living room but I don't want to put an HDTV in there.

 

 

 

No.  It doesn't do mirroring.  I think its feature set and its price is about right.

 

 

It mirrors from Chrome Desktop tabs basically.

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I sent you that message about this. I can't tell if it's more connection speed or PC speed that makes it choppy. I was going to say connection speed at first, but my laptop and Chromecast were both connected 802.11n with a perfect signal. I did notice though that browsing in other tabs made my stream a little choppy. I was just streaming a tab with Play Music open and playing. The music would get choppy at times when I was loading pages. My laptop I was streaming from definitely isn't the fastest in the world, so I could see that being a limitation. Were you streaming from a fast laptop? Mine is a C2D.

I was streaming for a 3rd Gen i7 machine running 8gb of RAM. So it is not a machine/bandwidth issues since I am getting over 100mbs on my wireless. Probably because the extension is technically still in beta. I am sure it will just keep getting better.

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I was streaming for a 3rd Gen i7 machine running 8gb of RAM. So it is not a machine/bandwidth issues since I am getting over 100mbs on my wireless. Probably because the extension is technically still in beta. I am sure it will just keep getting better.

Well damn! Yeah, I guess they just have to optimize the software then. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to run smooth with that kind of power. I'm excited for the future though. I'm hoping more companies jump on quick, especially Amazon Prime.

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Well damn! Yeah, I guess they just have to optimize the software then. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to run smooth with that kind of power. I'm excited for the future though. I'm hoping more companies jump on quick, especially Amazon Prime.

I believe Play Music uses Flash, so that's more than likely the source of the problem.  Hopefully they can find out ways to get around those issues.

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Well damn! Yeah, I guess they just have to optimize the software then. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to run smooth with that kind of power. I'm excited for the future though. I'm hoping more companies jump on quick, especially Amazon Prime.

Amazon, Hulu, Pandora, Vimeo, Redbox, and AOL are all rumored to be up next.

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I believe Play Music uses Flash, so that's more than likely the source of the problem.  Hopefully they can find out ways to get around those issues.

 

Play Music has a HTML5 player under their Labs Settings, just an FYI

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Play Music has a HTML5 player under their Labs Settings, just an FYI

Ooo, nice.  Somebody give it a try and let us know if that one works better.  (Y)

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I hope someone comes up with an actual media play to play movies and is designed to work well with Chromecast. Playing movies in a tab is all well and good, but it would seem a separate program would have more support. Would prefer something like VLC.

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I hope someone comes up with an actual media play to play movies and is designed to work well with Chromecast. Playing movies in a tab is all well and good, but it would seem a separate program would have more support. Would prefer something like VLC.

Yeah, I suspect that will happen sooner rather than later. In the mean time it would be nice if they would at least add support for the web versions of the Play apps like music. I don't always want to use my phone to stream music and streaming the whole tab is a bit much.

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Yeah, I suspect that will happen sooner rather than later. In the mean time it would be nice if they would at least add support for the web versions of the Play apps like music. I don't always want to use my phone to stream music and streaming the whole tab is a bit much.

I am sure more is coming. If they come out with a way to stream 1080 movies, then basically I will use it mainly for my movies.

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In Chrome you can press CTRL+O and just open a file, then broadcast that tab it loads in.

I know, but it needs work to use with CC. Video gets choppy unless you lower the quality.

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