| Price: | $35.00 |
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
- Supports Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO, Hulu Plus, Pandora, MLB.TV, and Google Play Movies and Music mobile apps as well as select content through Chrome browser, works with recommended modem
- Box includes Chromecast, HDMI extender, USB power cable, and power adapter
- Easy setup: Plug into any HDTV and connect to your home WiFi network
- Works with Android, iOS, Chrome for Mac, and Chrome for Windows
- Stream online video, music to your TV using your smartphone, tablet, or laptop; Available for Windows computers running Windows 7 or higher
about Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player
After years of struggling to get traction with Google TV, Google finally found its living-room hit: the remarkably priced $35 Chromecast.
Google's streaming stick has been an instant hit and although it was rather limited at launch, the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player has steadily improved, adding Hulu Plus, Pandora, Google Music, Plex, Vevo, and HBO Go since its debut. That's in addition to Netflix, YouTube and Google Movies & TV, making it a basic, but competent streamer -- especially for the price.
However, the recent improvements still don't make the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player my favorite budget streaming-video device. TheRoku LT ($50) is just $15 more and offers up hundreds more channels, including prominent services like Amazon Instant, MLB.TV, Rdio, PBS, Vudu, Watch ESPN, and Watch Disney. Roku also has other niceties such as excellent cross-platform search and a true onscreen interface, which some will prefer over the Chromecast's smartphone/tablet-only control. It doesn't have the Chromecast's awesome-sounding screen-mirroring capability, but that feature doesn't work all that well in practice. The Chromecast is sure to catch up, especially with the recent release of the Google Cast Software Development Kit, but at the moment Roku still has the lead.
****click here to get product****
Google Chromecast review
Google’s Chromecast is a small dongle that plugs into a spare HDMI port on your TV to stream media from the internet to the living room screen using your smartphone, tablet or computer as a remote.
The tiny stick requires a connection to your home Wi-Fi network, and is powered by USB like most smartphones and tablet computers. It promises to stream content like Netflix, YouTube and the BBC iPlayer straight from the internet using your Android, iPhone, iPad or computer as a remote.
Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player, which looks like a chunky USB flash drive, is discreet and is designed to be plugged into the back of a TV and forgotten about. It comes with a USB power adapter, but can be powered directly by USB ports on most TVs, saving the need for yet another power plug.
Setting up the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player is straightforward. An app called Chromecast is available for iOS or Android that connects to the streaming stick via Wi-Fi and allows you to configure the settings for your home Wi-Fi network.
From there, the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player automatically logs on to the internet via Wi-Fi and waits until you command it to do something with one of your other devices.
Simple to use
Unlike most other set top boxes or streaming devices, such as the Apple TV or Roku, Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player acts like a window through which you broadcast media. It is purely a receiver and has no real interface of its own to navigate around, solely reliant on the commands from your computer, smartphone or tablet.
That lack of buttons or menus makes it dead simple to use. Find the content you want to watch, be it a Netflix, iPlayer or YouTube video, or some music from Google Play Music and hit the broadcast to Chromecast button.
The Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player then connects directly to the source, be it Netflix or another, and streams the video or music from the internet allowing you to turn off your smartphone or use it for something else.
Some apps, such as Plex, support streaming media from a network connected computer, while others allow users to stream media directly from a smartphone or tablet to the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player.
Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer Google Play and RealPlayer Cloud
What the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player does, it does very well. Streaming from Netflix or YouTube is easy and works great, and so does streaming music from Google Play music or other Chromecast-enabled apps like RealPlayer Cloud or Plex.
However, what you can do with Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player is quite limited at the moment. Beyond Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer and a small handful of apps like Real Player Cloud, your options are currently limited. There is no ITV player, 4oD or Amazon Prime Instant video streaming for instance, or any of the other catch up services right now.
The Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player is capable of mirroring a Chrome browser window from a computer, however, which makes it possible to display video from unsupported services or anything else that can be viewed in Chrome on the TV.
In practice, the video quality is low and the display can lag and skip frames, so it is not a real alternative to a dedicated streaming app for things like 4oD.
Price
At £30, the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player is currently one of the cheapest streaming options - beaten only by the £10 Now TV box, which lacks Netflix or Amazon or many of the other services.
It significantly undercuts the competition from the likes of Roku’s £50 Streaming Stick or Apple’s £99 Apple TV.
Verdict
The Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player does what it claims to do very well and makes streaming video from Netflix and YouTube very easy indeed using a smartphone, tablet or computer as a wireless remote.
The problem is that Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player doesn’t do a lot more than that. It lacks a lot of the streaming services that competitors offer, but it promises to do a lot more in the future with rapid automatic updates in the background.
Chromecast is certainly an experiment for Google, and has the potential to be a one-stop streaming shop controlled easily from the sofa via a myriad of devices.
One £30 stick can turn any “dumb” television into an open smart TV in minutes, and offers developers a chance to innovate through apps that other smart TV platforms hamper with long and rigorous approval processes.
The appeal of the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player, then, is the promise of what it could do in the future, not what it can do right now. Whether that is enough to justify its £30 price tag is debatable. It is certainly an interesting gadget to watch, if not necessarily buy right now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Still, the Chromecast's success and its now-proven record of continued support make it much more attractive than when it first launched in July. If you're invested in the Google Play marketplace for music and videos, the
is the best way to get that content on your TV and you can't argue with the price. For everyone else, Roku's line of boxes are still best in class -- especially the Roku 3 -- at least until the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player adds a lot more content options.
Design: A stick for streaming
The Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player hardware isn't anything special, but it has a reassuring, solid feel. It's a 2-inch dongle that's compact enough to occupy a spare HDMI input on your TV without blocking adjacent inputs. (If you have a particularly cramped back panel, Google generously includes an HDMI extender cable.) The matte-black finish has enough of a texture to make it easily grippable, perfect for popping out the Chromecast and throwing it in your bag for travel. On the far end are a Micro-USB port, a small status light, and a tiny button you can use to reset the device to its factory default. In all, it's perfectly fine for a device designed to live behind your TV.
The only "catch" is that the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player requires a power source, a fact that's conspicuously missing from Google's beauty shots. If your TV has a USB input, you can probably use that to power your Chromecast using the included cable. Google also includes a USB power adapter for TVs without USB, which means you'll have a wire dangling from the back of your TV to a power outlet. Ultimately, while it's not quite "just a dongle," it's still a very clean setup.
Setup: Up and running in minutes
Google touts the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player setup as "plug-and-play," and that's not far off. Once you have the device plugged in, your TV will prompt you to visit the online setup using a laptop or smartphone, where you'll download the Chromecast setup app. The setup process takes a few minutes, and Google has done a great job of leading you step-by-step through the process with lots of helpful illustrations along the way.
Behind the scenes, the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player is creating its own local hot spot for the initial setup, but those technical details are all hidden. (The most arduous step is that you'll need to have your home Wi-Fi password handy.) If you're on a laptop, the final step is installing the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player extension, then you're ready to go. It's easy to take the painless setup for granted, but Google deserves a lot of credit for getting it right
The apps: Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, HBO Go, and more
Once you're set up, you can use a smartphone or tablet to watch or listen to content from several sources, including Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, HBO Go, Google Music, Vevo, Plex, Hulu Plus, and Google Movies & TV. In each of those apps, you simply press the "Cast" icon and select your Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player, and the video gets sent to your TV.
That makes using the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player feel like using AirPlay, although it's different in a few important ways. The big one is that AirPlay is supported by a huge number of iOS apps, while the Chromecast is currently limited to a handful.
The button is used to factory reset the Chromecast
There are some little design elements to account for, though. TheGoogle Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player needs its own power supply. It’s a 5.1V 850mA supply so is a bit too much for non-powered USB ports on computers or home cinema receivers. It can be powered by some TVs, though. Check your model to make sure. You do get a power supply in the box in case your TV can't power it, but you’ll need to set aside a socket.
The dongle itself is also a bit chunky – more so than an HDMI cable – so it will clutter up busy home cinema receivers a bit. However, the US version we’re looking at also comes with a little cable extender to help out. We're not yet positive if Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player UK will be the same. 
Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player – Apps and Streaming Performance
Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player does not come with a remote control at all. Instead, you use a phone or tablet to act as the middle man between streaming services like Netflix and your TV. Although this is a Google product and therefore plays well with Android, it does work perfectly well with Apple products like the iPhone 5S and iPad Air too.
In use, Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player works a lot like AirPlay. You stream whatever you’re watching – or listening to – from within the specific apps of the streaming services themselves. It’s not like Bluetooth, which uses a persistent connection regardless of what you're doing.
Here’s how the interface works in Netflix on an iPhone. It is currently the most useful Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player app.
Press the 'transmit' button and you'll see your Chromecast pop-up
The iPhone and Android apps are a little different from each other too – the Android version offers a bit more content, and suggestions of Chromecast-compatible apps:
Android phones and tablets also offer better app support than iPhones and iPads at present. While both have Netflix and YouTube, Androids can also use the default Google Play movie player and the Google Play music player. There’s also a bunch of other Android apps that work with Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player, including Plex, BeyondPod, RealPlayer Cloud and a handful of small-fry picks we can’t imagine many people wanting.
Anyone for the VikiTV Korean movie portal? Didn’t think so.
With an iPhone, Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player feels like a work-in progress. We could only get Netflix and YouTube to work with it. With an Android it’s already worth the investment. iPlayer is also now working.
There are obviously dozens of apps we’d like to see get Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player support, especially things like 4OD, LoveFilm, Now TV, Spotify, Amazon MP3 and MX Player. Part of investing in Chromecast is having faith that support will come. We'll have to wait for chromecast UK to be released to see which UK specific apps will be released to support it.
We found Netflix streaming to be rock-solid with a good connection, and once you’re hooked up with a film there’s no need to keep your phone or tablet on. Although it seems like Chromecast is streaming from your mobile, it actually makes a direct connection with streaming services over Wi-Fi.
The exceptions are when you’re streaming from one device directly to another – these are some of the Chromecast’s most interesting, and least talked-about skills. With a Chrome browser plugin on your laptop or PC you can beam your browser window straight to your TV. At the moment it’s quite flaky, but it does work (don’t rely on it for presentations just yet though).
The Chrome plug-in in action
What you can't do is stream content directly from the phone’s internal memory to the Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player. While the Google Play Movies app works with the dongle, when you head to the Personal videos section you need to use the ‘Videos’ app to play them, not Google Play Movies. This doesn't offer Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player support. The closest you can get are with the Plex app (currently £1.52), which creates a media server from your PC media library, and Avia. This is an app that lets you stream a limited array of video stored locally - but not many kinds of MKV files work perfectly.
We’re a little way off limitation-free pure, direct streaming, it seems. And that’s bad news for media pirates or those with smartphone photos and videos they want to see on the big screen. It also means you can’t stream any locally stored music to Chromecast. If you try it using the Google Play Music app you get this error message:
Great article Matthew. For those who live outside US like me, you can access Netflix, Hulu and similar media stations on your Chromecast by using UnoTelly or similar tools.
ReplyDelete