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Google Chromecast

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Most of the last few posts have been in a foreign language to me :biggrin:  , 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

 
Sezze786 said:
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
Click to expand...
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.

 
bluedave said:
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.
Click to expand...
Yh I amI 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?

 
Sezze786 said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.

 
Sezze786 said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
Thanks guys

Sounds really interesting

Will prob mess around with all this when I go home for Christmas

P.s what nas servers you guys have?

 
Ive a WD 4TB, its pretty good and even has its own android app.

 
Sezze786 said:
Thanks guys

Sounds really interesting

Will prob mess around with all this when I go home for Christmas

P.s what nas servers you guys have?
Click to expand...
Mine's an NSA310, which is a pretty cheap and basic model that I bought about 4 years ago.By the way, if you have an Ethernet port in your room then you might be able to connect a wireless router (you can get a second hand cable router on eBay for less than a tenner) and set up your own WiFi network, which should help with casting local stuff. I'm not entirely sure how things work though in student halls so I'd definitely do a bit of googling before spending any money.

 
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bluedave said:
Mine's an NSA310, which is a pretty cheap and basic model that I bought about 4 years ago.

By the way, if you have an Ethernet port in your room then you might be able to connect a wireless router (you can get a second hand cable router on eBay for less than a tenner) and set up your own WiFi network, which should help with casting stuff. I'm not entirely sure how things work though in student halls so I'd definitely do a bit of googling before spending any money.
Click to expand...
yh I've done that

Had a router which is literally 7 years old but it's still managing to do a job

Still not really helping in terms of speed

 
Sezze786 said:
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
Click to expand...
What you are trying to do is not really what Chromecast was designed to do.

 
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So guys

I have managed to cast the stream I play on Acestream from my android tablet to my TV (which is connected up by the chromecast)

I have also managed to cast any files I have on the tablet to the TV

So to cast a stream, you first need to have Acestream on your device

Link is here: youtube.com/watch?v=GTYo-s9hzf4

Then, you get the Chromecast app

You click on it, then make sure both the Chromecast and your device are connected to the same network

From there, all you simply do is click "Cast screen" from the navigation tab and it should appear on the TV like magic

I'm sure a similar process could be used for files on the device but I use a different method

For casting files, I have an app called BubbleUPnP

Once you have the app, make sure the Renderer is set up to the Chromecast and then all you do is simply find the file and play it

The Chromecast is technically not intended for this use but it works

I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab S which has nice specs so I don't know how older devices may fare

I am also using internet which goes up to 50 mb (yes I'm back home for the holidays :)) and I'm assuming this process would be internet intensive 

 
You can also cast the £5 per month Sky Sport Mobile direct from the Chromecast app (on Galaxy Note3, but not Galaxy Note 10.1). The app switches off if you connect an HDMI cable, but not via Chromecast. A win win for me.

As above this is not direct from the app. You "cast screen", then open the Sky Sports Mobile app.

 
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