Last week, Google surprised almost everyone with the announcement of the HDMI-streaming dongle: the Chromecast. Mostly a surprise due to the company’s current efforts to merge the web with your TV with Google TV. They haven’t been selling well. They have been out on the market since 2010 w/ many hardware partners like Sony, Logitech, Vizio, and LG to name a few. Google also announced a streaming accessory w/ the Nexus Q, which never made it to consumers hands before getting scrapped. Now this is more or less take three to Google’s attempt to enter your living room. Is the Chromecast the ace up their sleeve or just an inexpensive, impulse buy? Read on for our answer.
First and foremost, I love how Google makes things easy for getting started w/ their products and this is no exception. Setting up your Chromecast is super-simple. After opening the packaging, just plug the dongle into your TV’s HDMI port followed by powering it with a USB cable. If you TV has the HDMI port in an awkward position, you can add the extender that comes with the packaging.
Now its time to move to the software side of the setup. Don’t worry, the instructions for this part is now on your TV. First you need to add the Chromecast to your Wi-Fi network. I achieved this by downloading the Chromecast app for Android. Then name it and install the supported app extension on your computer, and that’s it. Let the streaming begin.
This dongle turns your HDTV into a Smart TV (or a smarter one).
Straight off the bat, the Chromecast works like the
Send to TV YouTube feature that sends content to your HDTV w/ no wires. And like the Send to TV, you have access to a queue to add more videos to watch from your desired YouTube videos. For now, you can cast media using Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, or Google Play Movies + Music from your Android device. On iOS devices you can just cast from Netlfix or YouTube. Using the Chrome web browser, you can cast pretty much anything except for QuickTime & .mov files. You know Apple wouldn’t allow that.
Though not truly advertised, the dongle allows you to stream while watching different content on your device. So won’t have to be stuck with the same content on your device and TV. You can also cast local content + non-supported content via Chrome browser. The latter of which is more or less their secret weapon. Apps are now in damn-near everything but playing content from your web browser to your TV gives this a leg up on the competition.
It uses your device as a link between the Internet and your HDTV.
All is not perfect with the Chromecast as there can be some latency issues when streaming from the Internet giving you a noticeable delays. Also, there are no direct controls (play/pause, rewind, fast-forward) other than just hitting play/pause from whatever device you are casting from. If you are the type to pay attention to detail, you will notice that content isn’t as sharp as you would like it to be. That is because at the moment, the Chromecast caps out at 720p HD…for now. A software update can expand that as well as add more apps for content
like these. Not a lot to cry about but noteworthy nonetheless.
Google just created a $35 AirPlay & Apple TV competitor w/ the Chromecast.
At its current/initial state, I would call the Chromecast an instant hit for Google as wireless display dongle in a nutshell. Sure there is plenty of competition out there that can stream content to your HDTV but this is one of the few (if any) that streams from the Internet for a $35 price point. As much as I enjoy using it, there are some drawbacks as this may not be for everyone since Netflix & YouTube apps are on other streaming boxes for your TV. This does, however, open some doors as this has the potential to be Google’s Airplay/Apple TV competition. But at the end of the day, the Chromecast was made for users who happen to love watching web content on a big screen. Making this the ace up Google’s sleeve to penetrate your living room better than their previous efforts. Kudos to the folks at Google behind this.
The Chromecast is not merely an impulse buy. Easily the best $35 spent for HD web content. If you are into to that or would like to be, pick one up.
