Chromecast

Hi People,

I recently invested in a Chromecast due to my dislike of cables and lack of a laptop hdmi. I was wondering if anybody here knows of any cool/unusual things it can do, or some particularly good apps to make use of?

Just want to push the device to its full potential!

Ben

There's not a lot of fancy stuff it can do, the Chromecast is a pretty simple single purpose device.
It usually just plain works.

The one neat thing is that Google uses the Chromecast app for giveaways, there's a menu item you can check that usually has a couple free movies or a month of free Play Music up for grabs.

This I did not know, and will definitely look into...

Just got a free three months of sky boxsets! Thanks, I appreciate it.

In addition to the chromecast capability built into many apps, the chrome browser on your laptop can be used to cast a tab to your television. This is an imperfect solution for video, but is really handy sometimes.

This capability also exists on many Android phones and tablets. It will cast whatever is on the screen. Usually available in the pull down menu when on the same network as a chromecast. I love mine and use it all the time.

Just discovered the 'Show Box' app which has all the films and tv on it one could ever wish for. Just stream it to your chromecast with something like AllCast and then goodbye Netflix, Prime Video and anything else that costs!

Now got another £8 a month to spend on this new shaving hobby I appear to have picked up somehow....

ben139 said:

Just discovered the 'Show Box' app which has all the films and tv on it one could ever wish for. Just stream it to your chromecast with something like AllCast and then goodbye Netflix, Prime Video and anything else that costs!

Now got another £8 a month to spend on this new shaving hobby I appear to have picked up somehow....

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Do be aware that the content you're watching via ShowBox is illegally pirated and distributed. There's a reason legitimate streaming services cost money.

Two main uses for me are netflix and bloomberg live tv

jamesspo said:

Do be aware that the content you're watching via ShowBox is illegally pirated and distributed. There's a reason legitimate streaming services cost money.

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This I was not aware of - so thanks. I just assumed all the programmes were paid for by the adverts on the app.

Might have to rethink this saving money on tv thing now..

ben139 said:

This I was not aware of - so thanks. I just assumed all the programmes were paid for by the adverts on the app.

Might have to rethink this saving money on tv thing now..

Click to expand...

Yeah, the ads there would be for the app itself, not the content that's streamed through it.

I was an early adopter, and find it to be cumbersome and glitchy. I much better enjoy my Roku box than the Chromecast. Roku has a nicer menu, a handy remote, and just simply works. Plus Roku is mostly compatible with my Harmony One remote system, so I can use it with my single touchscreen remote. I wanted the chromecast primarily to mirror photos and videos from my Android devices to my TV. And I find the latency and degradation in quality unbearable.

Thanks for that tip about the free stuff. Maybe I can use this chromecast for something. i will check it out later today.

My experience somewhat parallels @BradWorld. My most interesting experience with chromecast was using it along with chrome on laptop (or smartphone) to read and post here on B&B, but the lag between typing and seeing the characters displayed on the TV was too long to make that practical. Also I wondered if the key presses were being mirrored through the google cloud, so stopped even trying.

Even though Roku added YouTube support which others like well enough, I still prefer using Chromecast for youtube viewing, especially concerts or documentries, since it better integrates with my personal viewing history. Chromecast smartphone integration is fairly good and getting better, but for general OTT content viewing Roku is better.