“Google is making another foray into the living room with the Chromecast, a small $35 dongle that allows users to stream videos from a phone or tablet to their TV using Chrome. Essentially, it turns every TV into a smart TV, but it uses the same basic interface as whatever device you’re on.” Looks like an absolutely fantastic product, especially with the low price point and SDK for developers. I want this. Now. Too bad 95% of the world can’t buy it for now.
TBH, I wasn’t impressed with this (I already own a Vizio CoStar GoogleTV) until they announced the low price of $35. Then it perked my attention. However it makes me worried that GTV may now be a dead product.
My only small complaint, is what if I hook this up to a my stereo for 5.1 surround sound? I doubt it would it work just as seamlessly.
Edited 2013-07-24 17:29 UTC
I doubt it has a sound output. I think all audio-video output is through HDMI. So if by chance your stereo has HDMI input you are out of luck.
Or you can connect your stereo to your TV that might support 5.1 surround sound…
I’ve been waiting to by a device like this, because I don’t have Netflix or Amazon. But at this price I can buy it for fun. Maybe I can upgrade to the new Nexus 7 and my current one can become my TV remote.
Yay! More single-purpose junk under the TV. I mean, HDMI ports are infinite, right?
The first of the big guys that will make a really all-in-one device will make it big. And by all-in-one I mean recording, playback of local content supporting formats you actualky want (MKV), web browsing, internet services like YouTube/Netflix and social. Canonical had something interesting with Ubuntu TV, but it turned out to be vaporware. Google TV showed promise, but it doesn’t record and I don’t know if it plays local files. The best thing you can do today is a game console, a Google TV and a Bluray DVD HDD recorder combo with Divx and MKV support. Or a HTPC if you don’t mind the boot times and complexity.
Also, the idea of controlling your TV from a mobile/tablet sounds neat for the first five minutes, but after you realize that for everything, from pausing to backing up a little bit, you need to reach for your mobile device, unlock it and then take your eyes of the TV to see where to touch the mobile screen, you would will start demanding a normal remote.
Edited 2013-07-24 20:41 UTC
Ya, other than Youtube junkies who are constantly watching cat videos on their TV, I’m not sure who this thing is made for. With no Amazon, no Hulu, no MLB, no HBO Go, etc, this thing ain’t replacing a Roku any time soon. With Netflix, you can already queue up vids on your PC and watch it on any one of 9,000 set-top boxes that support it, so that part doesn’t really impress me.
Sure it has Hulu support. Browse to Hulu in Chrome. Find your video, start watching it, send it to your TV. The same is true for the others. The point of Chromecast is this – instead of having little applets for different services (Hulu App, Netflix App, etc), such as on ROKU and Smart TV’s, ANY video service you can access in the Chrome browser can now be shown on your T.V. This way, you don’t have to wait for developers to support your favorite video service. I think it is great and I bought one.
There are two factors here:
1. I’ve heard that airplay can get a bit laggy going directly from device-to-device. How much worse is it going to be when using a wifi router? I suppose reviews will tell us this in the near future …
2. On Android and iOS, not every video service is playable in a browser, esp not without Flash, which is no longer being supported anyway. You could do it via a Chrome tab on a desktop/laptop, but if you don’t have one close by, you’re not going to be able to make adjustments to the video, or whatever. This sounds a lot more cumbersome than just using a Roku-like device and a remote control. And assuming you did have a PC close to the TV, you could just hard-wire it with HDMI and save yourself from needing the dongle in the first place.
Cat videos on my T.V, can’t wait!!!!
But seriously, I am looking forward to slinging a few videos to my TV as I drift off to sleep. I do agree that the HDMI ports are getting crowded on TV’s. In my bedroom, I have a ROKU on one port and the connected PC on the other. Do they make HDMI switches? For now, I’ll disconnect the PC, since it was mostly used as a server, and for some Web videos – won’t need that any more!
They do. Not sure how well they work, but I’ve seen them at Wal-Mart.
For some reason, you have to sign an agreement and google must approve your usage of this? So like, a generic media player or existing games wont work 😐
Up with dumb screens that I can pipe anything to! Down with overly complicated TV-things!
Wonder what happened with that orb-like Nexus thing? Had a bunch of wires coming out the back, making it resemble those squid machines from The Matrix films. All the Android people were waxing all sorts of hypothetical lyrical about it a year ago. Did it ever catch on, or did Google kill it or something?
On topic;
This Chromecast thingy sounds alright. Not on my radar, but can’t argue with the pricing.
Edited 2013-07-24 21:45 UTC
Nexus Q was abandoned, however you can treat Chromecast as Q2. Basically the same functionality, with cut down hardware, uses TV as a peripheral.
As I value public security over privacy I’m interested in PRISM COMPLIANT technologies only! I’ll wait to be 100% sure this device can improve our security 😉
Aren’t almost all devices PRISM COMPLIANT?
Almost is not enough. I want to be 100% sure before my purchase decision. You know, this is a real thing, our own “security”.
I didn’t think anybody would want a device that is PRISM compliant…
If you ask me I would want a device that is as much PRISM proof as can be.
Thom, sorry to disappoint you, but it seems that this thing cannot stream content from your phone or tablet, it can open the URL you provide from your phone and streams content from there.
That’s… Exactly what I want from it.
Well… It would be nice if it could connect to your NAS and play stuff from there.
If true that seems a bit of game stopper. I was also wondering about music streaming. Currently I have an Apple Airport Express attached to some powered speaks in my kitchen so I can stream music from my phone using Airplay when I am doing the washing up. I don’t just want music from my TV.
Maybe wider streaming will come with a future version.
Price is nice though.
I keep hoping that the next version of Apple TV will be a major upgrade (Apps?).
Does anyone know if it plays these audio formats. I know it plays Netflix but would it support DD+ (aka E-AC-3)? They talked about surround sound, so just wondering.