Got it yesterday and set it up in 2 or 3 minutes tops. Other than testing for a few minutes I haven't had a chance to really try it out. Netflix worked flawlessly though. I'll let you know what I think after the weekend.
It should work through your receiver, as long as it has HDMI ports. Now I want to upgrade mine so I can listen to music via the chromecast
That's kinda what I was thinking. There's only one HDMI port on the receiver. I'm thinking I would plug the Chromecast dongle into that and then, either, lose the dvd player or perhaps plug it into the optical port. We shall find out when it shows up.
Give us a full review when you can porkchop! Could you do me a huge solid when you've got the time and see how it works with firstrowsports.eu? And will it play non-youtube and non-netflix video? I'm speaking specifically of illegally uploaded shows onto sites like gorillavids. Would love to be able to stream anything while having my Chromebook at my bed to browse the web or control the stream.
Anything you can watch in chrome you can cast to your TV. It isn't as great as the apps like Netflix, but my 30 second test on espn3 worked well. But yeah, I'll give a full review tomorrow.
I'll update this as I use the Chromecast more. Setup: Chromecast plugged in directly to my TV (no A/V receiver), power via USB port on the TV. Also, I live in a studio, so the wifi signal to my laptop, phone and Chromecast is VERY strong (according to reviews, wifi signal needs to be strong). One thing that I was unclear about was that this has no battery. I was thinking the charger was to charge a battery, but this has to be powered at all times. If you have a USB port on your TV, you can just plug it straight into that. I think most people will power it this way as I think most TVs with HDMI also have USB. If you don't, you'd have to use the AC adapter, which would be a pain (my power strip is already full from everything I have hooked up). Oh, I think on new TVs the HDMI port actually supplies enough power for this. I know that was the rumor when it came out, but I haven't heard anything definitive one way or the other. My TV is 3 years old, so I doubt it has that capability. The Netflix app worked very well. The one caveat is that for some reason the Nexus 4 on Android 4.3 freezes once the screen goes to sleep. This is only an issue with the Nexus 4, which I have. I'm sure it'll get fixed soon, but I find it funny that the only phone with this issue is a Google phone. Tonight I'm going to try via my iPad to check and see how well that works. Google Play Music: I played a few songs via my google play music that is stored in the cloud. Music loaded quickly and I like that you can queue up songs (you can do this in iTunes too, but is a pretty recent addition). I'm not sure if I like Google music better than iTunes, but its not bad. I still use iTunes when playing from my laptop, but if I get a receiver to hook this up to, that might change. I don't have any downloaded movies, so I haven't tried to stream video via Google Play. Youtube: No issues. It worked really well and looked good on my TV. Casting via Chrome: I watched ESPN2 via chrome all morning today. This doesn't work as seamlessly as the Netflix/Youtube/Google Play apps, but it is technically in beta, so hopefully it'll get better. The most annoying thing is it sends the whole tab (not just the video portion), so in order to get it full screen on your TV you have to go to full screen on the laptop. This eliminates the ability to browse other tabs or do anything else while the video is playing. It is still a step up from connecting with an HDMI cord (which I've done a lot in the past), but still annoying. My feed got a little choppy once or twice, but that was an issue with the video itself and not the Chromecast. Unlike the Netflix/Youtube app, the video is still playing on your laptop. Once once the video starts on your TV, the sound cuts off from your laptop, which is a nice feature. It doesn't work well for browsing the internet because there is a little lag. It's not an issue if you're just loading a video to play, but if you were scrolling through an article, it'd get frustrating. Even though that isn't an intended use, hopefully it gets fixed. Local files: you can drag and drop local video and audio files into your chrome browser to play. This doesn't make much sense for audio, since it plays songs once at a time, but if you had a movie stored on your computer, it would work well. I don't have any videos, so I couldn't try this out. I don't think you can send local files from a phone/tablet at this time. It'd be nice to be able to view photos from your iPad on your TV, so hopefully some developer makes an app for that. So far I really like it, but still haven't used it too much. It is really simple to use, which is nice. I'm going to get one for my mom and dad to use for Netflix and I don't think they'll have any problem figuring it out (which is saying something since my mom is no tech genius). Once Hulu+, HBOGO and Amazon (hopefully) update their apps, this thing will be really huge. At that point, I'm not sure I'd keep my Roku 3. I like the Roku interface, but at that point it'd do nothing this couldn't. One thing, is that i REALLY want a new receiver. I might wait a few months to do that, but if anyone has a recommendation for a good one for under $400, I'm all ears. Hope that helps. If I run into any other issues in the next few weeks I'll update this.
I just did a quick check and HBOGo works from the chrome browser. I know they've announced they are working on updating their app, but who knows how long that'll take. I don't have another Android phone handy to test out. My old one is completely dead, otherwise I'd try.
I was casting the PGA Championship for a couple hours today and it worked really well, but after a while I did notice that my fan was blasting and my laptop was running really hot (95ยบ C). I know Apples get hot when playing video, so I'm not sure if that was entirely due to the Chromecast or if it would have been just as hot if I was just watching on my laptop screen. Since I had to have the video full screen on my laptop to fill the TV screen, I'd never need to have the laptop on my lap when casting, which is a good thing cause it would have gotten pretty uncomfortable. It probably didn't help that I had 5 or 6 safari tabs and 15 or more chrome tabs open as well.
That's a tablet right? That works perfectly from what I can tell. Since Netflix has the feature built into the app, the video streams directly to the Chromecast. Once you send the video from your tablet to the TV your tablet is nothing more than a remote controller.
Don't update your chromecasts! http://gizmodo.com/google-is-crippling-chromecasts-best-feature-1200683643
Still haven't gotten mine and I ordered on July 26th. The last delivery estimate I got was October 17, 2013 - October 30, 2013.
That sucks. I don't have any local media, so that update won't really affect me. It sounds like, at least for now, Google wants all of the apps to have a chromecast feature to be approved by them. Who knows when those approvals start to roll out though. They just have said "soon", but who knows when that'll be. For me, Netflix and streaming stuff like ESPN3 and NBCSports via the Chrome browser is worth way more than $35. Anything else I get beyond that will just be like a bonus.
I was on some Android forum and supposdedly people have found them at Best Buys and bestbuy.com. And, it apparently still has the Netflix deal. I checked bb online and it looks to ship within a day. Might be worth checking out since your delivery date is still 2 months out. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Chromec...3308425&skuId=9071056&st=chromecast&cp=1&lp=1
