Chromecast: I LOVE IT!

Ok so the Chromecast finally arrived and I LOVE IT! I ordered one on google and one on amazon – turns out the google one arrived after about 4 weeks and the amazon order is looking like it will take a total wait time of 3 months. I guess this little gadget is in pretty high demand! And now that I have it, I understand why.

What is it? It’s a very small dongle that plugs into the HDMI port on the TV, plus either a USB port for power or a wall outlet if you don’t have a USB port. It provides apps that serve up content on the TV screen by casting (or flinging) the content from any device. This can be done not only from a cell phone but also from a tablet, laptop, or desktop PC – regardless of operating system (Windows, Android, Apple iOS, or even Linux!). And you can have multiple dongles connected, so I could sit on the back porch and use my cell phone to send a particular Netflix show to Logan’s TV, a YouTube video to Jacob’s TV (if he had one), and a web page to the living room TV – all at once! I can foresee many pranks in our future once we have more than one Chromecast in the house. Hmmm…

It was very easy to set up and has some great features. It’s all about convenient access to streaming and browser-based content. I understand there will be a lot more apps released, but for now there are only 4. I’ve tested all except Google Music.

Netflix
The first thing I did was use my cell phone to fling a Netflix movie to the TV. I normally use the PS3 app to stream Netflix movies, but this was nice because I didn’t need to mess with the PS3 controller (which is often out of battery juice because my kids use it 18 hours a day). Also, I was able to pause a movie from my phone, as well as adjust the volume with my phone’s volume rocker and skip to different points in the movie by sliding the progress bar marker in the phone app. I could also use other apps on my phone once the movie started because the Chromecast isn’t streaming from my cell phone, it’s streaming directly from the router. Very cool.

YouTube
The next test was YouTube from my phone. I had my friend Joni over and wanted to show her a cuttlefish video, so I pulled it up on the TV. I could pause the YouTube vid from my phone, use other apps while it was playing, and I could even stack multiple videos up into a queue so they play sequentially. Very nice.

The next morning I flung a 3-hour Dave Matthews concert from my phone to my TV and I was just blown away. The HD quality video and crystal clear audio was just *WOW* on my TV. And it played without any skip or lag – for the entire 3 hours! I probably have a YouTube app either in my TV widgets (Samsung smart tv) or on one of the many consoles that are hooked to it (Wii, PS3, Ouya) but this was so quick and easy, and perfectly sized to the screen. I just can’t say enough about how awesome this is.

Chrome Browser
The final test was the Chrome browser. Same concept – pull it up from any device and fling it to the TV. This did require an extension to the Chrome browser, but I suspect this may be included with the latest version of Chrome – I didn’t think to check that. I just noticed I didn’t have the little fling-it icon and immediately searched for an extension.

Here’s a shot of me perusing my flickr albums on the laptop (and the tv).

Last night I used the browser feature to show my son how to blog; he’s into designing graphics using Blender and currently publishes his work in YouTube and facebook. I gave him loganpederson.com for his birthday last year, so I’m happy to see he’s finally interested in using it. 😉
Side note: If I give my son a domain name for his birthday, does that make me a geek?
ANYWAY, so the cool thing about casting the browser to the TV is that my younger son was able to watch what we were doing, too. We all had a perfect view despite being sprawled out in 3 different areas of the living room.

With the browser feature you can also stream things that aren’t supported by Chromecast yet, like Hulu for example. To test this, I browsed to pandora.com and flung the browser to the Chromecast. Much to my surprise, the audio went with it – stopped coming through the chinsy laptop speakers and immediately started pumping through my awesome speakers in the livingroom! Ok now THAT’S cool. I do have a sweet Pandora widget (app) on my TV that has a nicer visual display so I’ll probably continue using that for Pandora in the living room, but it’s good to know Chromecast brings audio over with the casted browser tab.

Summary
In summary I think it’s a great device and at an affordable price (only $35!). I’ll take my Chromecast to hotels when I’m travelling – mostly for Netflix. Compared to the Roku and Apple TV, I think the Chromecast is way more convenient and I like that it plays nicely with all devices and operating systems. It’s $35 well-spent.