My mate bought one of these little gadgets, pretty sweet!

Good for throwing YouTube onto the tv, iplayer, netflix etc from your phone, tablet, laptop etc.

Anyone else have one?

Edited April 28, 201410 yr by Zola

Sounds interesting, do you know if it only streams online stuff or can it play local media as well?

 

I've been hearing good things about the new NOW TV box too, it sounds similar and is only 10 quid but lacks netflix (although you can get various optional Sky subscriptions instead, hence the cheap price). 

 

https://shop.nowtv.com/

Mostly reads from the web mate, but I think there are independent developers working on other solutions

http://readwrite.com/2013/07/31/chromecast-what-you-can-watch#awesm=~oCJpBxzLEgEaAT

Got one of these yesterday, awesome little gadget!! Setup within 30 seconds. Great for playing YouTube, Netflix and iPlayer on your tv from your phone, tablet, laptop etc.

Seamless at the touch of a button! You can even turn your phone off once it starts and it wont upset the cast, it takes over basically. HD quality no worries. I even had it at the other side of the house and no hiccups from the connection.

Very cheap and very good! Theres not too many apps yet, but it is under development.

As of right now its fantastic, even in its early state!

Edited June 11, 201410 yr by Zola

I can watch youtube on my ipad.

You can, but can you beam it to your TV and then go back to your ipad and do something different?

Nope!

I can watch youtube on my ipad.

Which was approximately 15 times as expensive and many many times more locked down.

Question, why would you need this if you already have a smart TV ? 

I have a Samsung LCD tv that I got maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It doesnt have Youtube or Netflix built in etc.

But....I guess even if you had a smart tv with that stuff bolted on, the ease and speed of getting your content looked up on your phone/tablet and sent to the tv in seconds is still a big plus.

Edited June 13, 201410 yr by Zola

No one has mentioned it yet, but you can cast BT Sport as well. Same way as with YouTube

Chris / Anyone else who has one...

Have you successfully casted anything from your laptop via chrome browser?

I was in town earlier and noticed Currys were selling them for 18 quid each, I'm not sure I really need a Chromecast since I'm all XBMC'ed up but I love tinkering with stuff like this so I picked one up anyway. I think they're discounted in lots of places at the moment.

 

Zola - After setting up the chromecast I tried casting a tab from chrome on my PC using the browser extension and it worked first time.

Edited August 25, 201410 yr by bluedave

Hey guys

I've ordered one of these and it should arrive soon

 

I was wondering if anyone has managed to cast Sky Sports, BT Sports or even streams such as AceStream?

Another thing, has anyone managed to cast any files they have in their folders (such as movies) and if they have, is it limited to certain files?

 

This applies for both my laptop and my tablet (tab S)

I find streaming flash sites through this to be very juddery, you can go back to the laptop and see it playing fine but on the tv it's crap, starts off well though... Very odd

Hey guys

I've ordered one of these and it should arrive soon

I was wondering if anyone has managed to cast Sky Sports, BT Sports or even streams such as AceStream?

Another thing, has anyone managed to cast any files they have in their folders (such as movies) and if they have, is it limited to certain files?

This applies for both my laptop and my tablet (tab S)

You can cast Sky Sports (NowTV) and BT Sports using their apps. I don't know about Acestream, it would be really useful if you could. I've never even been able to get Acestream working on my tablet.

You can cast local files using something like BubbleUPnP or ES Media Player. I've found some types of file don't work though (like avi).

You can cast Sky Sports (NowTV) and BT Sports using their apps. I don't know about Acestream, it would be really useful if you could. I've never even been able to get Acestream working on my tablet.

You can cast local files using something like BubbleUPnP or ES Media Player. I've found some types of file don't work though (like avi).

I don't know what tablet your using but I've got Tab S and acestream works for me

The quality is brilliant but it does at times buffer (I think that's down to the poor Internet service I get at my student accommodation)

But it's well worth trying out

Thanks for the advice

Can't wait for it to come and have a play around with it

I find streaming flash sites through this to be very juddery, you can go back to the laptop and see it playing fine but on the tv it's crap, starts off well though... Very odd

Cheers

I do try and stay away from flash streams now though

Not as reliable as others I found out

I don't know what tablet your using but I've got Tab S and acestream works for me

The quality is brilliant but it does at times buffer (I think that's down to the poor Internet service I get at my student accommodation)

But it's well worth trying out

Thanks for the advice

Can't wait for it to come and have a play around with it

Thanks for the link, I'll have another go next time there's a match on as I only ever tried it on my old tablet and I've got a much more capable one now. If it works with Chromecast then that would be awesome. If not then there's a screen-mirroring function in the Chromecast app that might work (or not, it didn't like it when I tried to mirror 4OD).

Anyone on android should use the mobdro app, got loads of channels.

Most of the last few posts have been in a foreign language to me  , but I bought a NowTV box on Saturday for £15 which came with two days of Sky sports.  I really wanted it to make watching iplayer etc easier than plugging my laptop into the tv so the sky bits were a bonus.  I also expected the "day" to be a calendar day so was pleasantly surprised to find it was 24 hours so I could watch the Chelsea game and the Southampton game.  I was expecting only to see a bit of the first half of the Spuds game as I'd activated it at 4ish on Saturday but it carried on till 7!  Not bad for £2.50 I thought.  Shame that additional days are £6.99 each though.  But as I said I wanted it more for the ease of watching iplayer and youtube on my telly.  

So then I bought one of these

I got it for £20 with 3 months entertainment (Now TV)

I got to say it's not for me

I watch a lot of movies/TV series which I have on my local files (laptop and tablet)

I wanted to use the Chromecast to "cast" these as well as football streams

I have been unable to do so

I used plex for the local files but when casted, it kept on buffering (I may need better internet connection for this)

Better of just using a hdmi cable in all honesty when the files and streams are on laptop

When I watch BT sports, I have to use Internet explorer for some reason so I can't cast that

When I watch Sky Sports, I can't cast when the feed is in full screen (very frustrating)

I think it's good for people who go on Youtube a lot

Also if you have a Netflix account or/and Now TV this will be a good thing to purchase (same for google play movies)

All in all, I'm better of with a hdmi cable

So then I bought one of these

I got it for £20 with 3 months entertainment (Now TV)

I got to say it's not for me

I watch a lot of movies/TV series which I have on my local files (laptop and tablet)

I wanted to use the Chromecast to "cast" these as well as football streams

I have been unable to do so

I used plex for the local files but when casted, it kept on buffering (I may need better internet connection for this)

Better of just using a hdmi cable in all honesty when the files and streams are on laptop

When I watch BT sports, I have to use Internet explorer for some reason so I can't cast that

When I watch Sky Sports, I can't cast when the feed is in full screen (very frustrating)

I think it's good for people who go on Youtube a lot

Also if you have a Netflix account or/and Now TV this will be a good thing to purchase (same for google play movies)

All in all, I'm better of with a hdmi cable

Do you have have your own WiFi network or is it a public one? I think I remember you saying you're in student halls which might be a problem.

I use my Chromecast most days to to cast iPlayer, NowTV and local files from my NAS server and have never have any problems with buffering, but I do have my own wireless router that everything connects to.

Do you have have your own WiFi network or is it a public one? I think I remember you saying you're in student halls which might be a problem.

I use my Chromecast most days to to cast iPlayer, NowTV and local files from my NAS server and have never have any problems with buffering, but I do have my own wireless router that everything connects to.

Yh I am

I also have a NAS server back home so I guess the device would be brilliant for that

Am I right in assuming that you use plex on the NAS?

Yh I am

I also have a NAS server back home so I guess the device would be brilliant for that

Am I right in assuming that you use plex on the NAS?

You should be able to dial into that NAS server from anywhere too, but you will have to do open a port to it, which is a bit iffy security wise.

Yh I am

I also have a NAS server back home so I guess the device would be brilliant for that

Am I right in assuming that you use plex on the NAS?

Not Plex, I think it just uses Windows default file sharing (Samba). I usually browse to files in the NAS shared folder using ES file explorer on my tablet and open them with bubbleUPnP to cast to the Chromecast.