Google Chromecast dongle $35 and free 3 months Netflix

[staknhalo]

Any specs flying around?
I'd like to see what it can spit out.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/goog ... -inside-t/

I haven't seen specific codecs listed for this yet. There is a list of codecs required to be a Google Cast device (which this is a type of) - but as it says it's only a minimum requirement of codecs, so the Chromecast might support more - might not though: https://developers.google.com/cast/supp ... edia_types

[Diverge]

I ordered 2. As a Neflix subscriber, they kinda pay for them selves almost.

Also, for streaming chrome tabs to chromecast, I think it uses the initiating devices hardware power (not chromecast). Someone said running hulu in a tab and streaming it was a pretty crappy experience. Also in the event today they had to keep the tab open to continue streaming the tab, so the device needs to be connected as well. Unlike youtube and netflix apps that just pass the URL and offer remote controls.

But they did say the chrome streaming was in beta and not where they want it yet, or something like that anyway. So maybe eventually chromecast will do the work like other apps do.

[staknhalo]

So by typing in the path to a file - you can play movies in the Chrome Browser. So this would enable local/network playback on the device. Doesn't work with .mkvs though - they just prompt/start a dl in the browser.

[foxwood]

So by typing in the path to a file - you can play movies in the Chrome Browser. So this would enable local/network playback on the device. Doesn't work with .mkvs though - they just prompt/start a dl in the browser.

If you're watching a Netflix or YouTube video, you can redirect it to ChromeCast - the ChromeCast dongle talks to the NetFlix or YouTube server directly, and the stream stops going to your laptop/tablet (at least I presume it does - having two streams would be distracting).

If you're watching a video on some other site in the Chrome web browser, then Chrome is capable of "casting" the page to the Chromecast dongle - at a couple of frames per second, if you've got a fairly beefy processor in your laptop. Don't expect Chrome on your tablet to do well at this!

Casting of web pages should work OK for static pages, it's not going to be a satisfactory way of watching video.

[staknhalo]

Casting of web pages should work OK for static pages, it's not going to be a satisfactory way of watching video.

You don't know that. I'm merely showing it's capable/a method of doing so before another app comes along with Chromecast support that is better suited.

Plus the Chrome extension is still in beta - they showed off watching Vimeo during the press event via Chrome browser. They wouldn't have done so if they didn't intend it to be used that way.

[foxwood]

Casting of web pages should work OK for static pages, it's not going to be a satisfactory way of watching video.

You don't know that. I'm merely showing it's capable/a method of doing so before another app comes along with Chromecast support that is better suited.

You're not showing it's capable of sending your local video to a ChromeCast dongle, you're just showing that it's capable of playing the video on your desktop. But if the video is encoded in a reasonably modern codec and is sufficently compressed, then yes, there'll probably be tools available for streaming local content to the ChromeCast dongle sooner rather than later.

Plus the Chrome extension is still in beta - they showed off watching Vimeo during the press event via Chrome browser. They wouldn't have done so if they didn't intend it to be used that way.

If the video will play on an Android 4.2 tablet/phone that doesn't have Flash installed, then the Chromecast dongle can probably handle it. For the time being, that means services like Vimeo will probably work (because they seem to have convereted to HTML5 video as the site now works on my tablet), and video sites that rely on Flash probably won't. Any subscription service will either need native ChromeCast support, or will have to be transcoded.

[staknhalo]

You're not showing it's capable of sending your local video to a ChromeCast dongle, you're just showing that it's capable of playing the video on your desktop. But if the video is encoded in a reasonably modern codec and is sufficently compressed, then yes, there'll probably be tools available for streaming local content to the ChromeCast dongle sooner rather than later.

If the video will play on an Android 4.2 tablet/phone that doesn't have Flash installed, then the Chromecast dongle can probably handle it. For the time being, that means services like Vimeo will probably work (because they seem to have convereted to HTML5 video as the site now works on my tablet), and video sites that rely on Flash probably won't. Any subscription service will either need native ChromeCast support, or will have to be transcoded.

^Incorrect assumptions

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/24/45522 ... -streaming

They state HTML5 and Flash is supported, Quicktime and Silverlight aren't at this time.

The device receives a url of the source video from your phone/tablet/desktop and opens it up in a new instance of Chrome on the device essentially - you're not playing it from the phone/tablet/desktop to this device - so needing Flash on the phone/tablet isn't required.

[foxwood]

By the way, here's conformation that your local 'casting technique does work, with some dropped frames:

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/07/25/ti ... hromecast/

[crawfish]

So by typing in the path to a file - you can play movies in the Chrome Browser. So this would enable local/network playback on the device. Doesn't work with .mkvs though - they just prompt/start a dl in the browser.

"That's nice." /Shirley

But how nice is it, really? Don't you have to use your phone/tablet/PC as the remote? I've bought or tried several remotes for several devices for my iPod Touch, and I find they all suck for TV watching. And apparently the Google thing doesn't mirror the device UI, so when several people are there, it's back to huddling around the small device to choose what to play, right? And it can't play local content?

[foxwood]

But how nice is it, really? Don't you have to use your phone/tablet/PC as the remote? I've bought or tried several remotes for several devices for my iPod Touch, and I find they all suck for TV watching. And apparently the Google thing doesn't mirror the device UI, so when several people are there, it's back to huddling around the small device to choose what to play, right?

Of course not, each person uses their own phone to pick out the video that they want to everyone else to watch!

I was going to put a smiley in there, but then I realized that that's a real user-scenario that they didn't demonstrate. I'd hope that one user can't over-ride another users stream, but there must be some mechanism for multiple users to share the same device.

And it can't play local content?

It can, but that's not it's primary function, and not all local content will be supported. So you probably aren't going to be chromecasting your .wtv files, but you can be pretty sure that lots of torrents are going to start showing up in Chromecast optimized formats.