Chromecast

[PiX64]

This device coupled with Plex web ui (html5 video player)

Or

Phoenix App Android support for "Casting" could make SageTv live for that much longer. Any PVR backend for that matter. You know XBMC and MythTV will be all over this despite its narrow video/audio playback requirements.

I would strongly consider droping my extenders if this thing works as well as I hope. Between roku(s) and this device, it could def change the way media is viewed in my house.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by IVB

I got one, put my thoughts up on google plus

Reading your blurb, I'll keep using my Google TV (Sony) thank you. And I can play back my Amazon content too.

[QueOnda]

Inside Chromecast: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422366,00.asp
Ifixit: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Chrom...ardown/16069/1

[IVB]

Originally Posted by phelme

Reading your blurb, I'll keep using my Google TV (Sony) thank you. And I can play back my Amazon content too.

oh, i def don't think this can be the *only* device one has. But I haven't found a single option to play Amazon, HuluPlus, Netflix, and google play. And lets not ignore locally stored movies.

Although honestly, even SageTV can't do that. I reject the notion of playing Amazon, HP, or NF via plex to SageTV, that GUI is something only a mainframe programmer could use.

[stuckless]

Here's another write up http://phandroid.com/2013/07/26/chro...-review-video/

Interesting that only MP4 "local" files were playable and then only playable in 720p. (that might be a limitation of Chrome's implementation, not sure)

[panteragstk]

For $35 I got one. Just ordered it today so we'll see how long it takes. Neat idea.

[reggie14]

I ordered one, too. At $11, after factoring in the Netflix promo, there was no reason not to. I sometimes, albeit rarely, buy videos off Google Play to watch on my Android tablets, but I don't currently have a way to play them back on my TV.

By the way, I just got my Netflix promo code, but it was sent to a weird email address. I ordered the device from the Play store using my Gmail account. However, the promo code was sent to my work email address. My work address is my "alternate" email address in my Google account, so I'm guessing they accidently sent out the codes to the wrong address field.

[QueOnda]

OMG. Is someone really going to by this for $999 and without the netflix code?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=400540897360

Well, I guess so. 4 available / 47 sold

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

OMG. Is someone really going to by this for $999 and without the netflix code?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=400540897360

Well, I guess so. 4 available / 47 sold

That is outrageously stupid! Amazon said they will have them in stock shortly.

anyway: I was lucky enough to get one and to score the 3 months netflix deal,

The chromecast is def what Bialio described for me so far. It changes the way my home media is played. Yes it only does netflix, youtube, google play movies/tv/music and chrome browser casting, but i tell you waht, There is something that Strikes my fancy about NOT having to doing things on a hard to navigate 10ft gui.... as AWESOME as they are (i.e. Phoenix) There is something to be said for just having it in front of you in your hands, find what you want, play, done.

I dig it. I have read many posts about people complaining that you can't use said device once you start streaming.. thats just not true at all. since the chromecast pulls from the cloud and NOT the device you can use the device as you would normally.

One of the coolest things in my opinionis that ANY device for the most part can a remote. So i start a show from netfli on my phone.... switch to ipad or android tablet with netflix, and a blue banner shows at the top and says this is playing on chromecast (click to control) click it and BAM another device is te "remote"... go to a computer and login to netflix on chrome.. same thing. Its super cool.

Once plex and a few other apps get on board itll be "solid gold jerry"

[will]

Originally Posted by PiX64

One of the coolest things in my opinionis that ANY device for the most part can a remote. So i start a show from netfli on my phone.... switch to ipad or android tablet with netflix, and a blue banner shows at the top and says this is playing on chromecast (click to control) click it and BAM another device is te "remote"... go to a computer and login to netflix on chrome.. same thing. Its super cool.

I agree, it is a really cool product. We don't watch a lot of Netflix so not sure if I will use it a ton but I love the execution (if only it could be powered by HDMI and be a Sage client).

Originally Posted by QueOnda

OMG. Is someone really going to by this for $999 and without the netflix code?

I always suspected that those auctions that have crazy prices are a front for money laundering or some other nefarious activity.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by will

I always suspected that those auctions that have crazy prices are a front for money laundering or some other nefarious activity.

I always figured it was the internet gadget equivalent of ticket scalpers. Whenever they can get in early on something desirable that they expect might sell out, they buy as many as they can with the specific intent of re-selling. They just need to put them at a price point where they will sell their stock before the product becomes widely available again. I suspect they have not done that here.

[sic0048]

I'm glad I got my Chromecast early. It is certainly a neat device that is only going to get better once Google gets the API out of beta and allows developers to release their apps.

Given the amount of development already done (although not released) on the device, I do think this device will change how people use their TVs. It won't be long and people will be able to stream ANY content to the device - either from the web or stored locally on the network. It will likely also act as an Airplay type device and screen share what you see on your device if you want.

I can't wait to see what else developers are able to do in the coming weeks/months and to see what other content providers jump on this bandwagon.

[reggie14]

Maybe I'm just getting old and unimaginative, but I don't see much happening with the Chromecast. I mean, how different is it from a Roku, in practice, other than using a phone/tablet to control it rather than a remote? I don't see a huge appeal. I was excited about the Phoenix android app and thought that I'd rather use that instead of 10ft GUI and remote, but in practice I still prefer the remote. The main advantage that I see would be for things that that fairly difficult to do with a remote. Youtube is a pain on a TV, since searching for things is painful. Netflix is a little less of a pain, mainly because one search gets you 20-120 minutes of material rather than 1-5 minutes.

It's great that it's dirt cheap, but I think as long as you come in under $100 you're pretty comfortably in mass-market territory for consumer devices (as long as its useful). At the $35 level you can pretty much sell it even if its not particularly useful.

Chromecast is still going to suffer from the same content restrictions as Rokus. You're not going to be able to send a regular Hulu video to your TV without Hulu Plus. It will be interesting to see how HBO Go works. Will it be supported by any cable TV provider that works with the website? Or will it be more restricted like the Roku app is? These are the sorts of things that kill the streaming experience.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Maybe I'm just getting old and unimaginative, but I don't see much happening with the Chromecast. I mean, how different is it from a Roku, in practice, other than using a phone/tablet to control it rather than a remote? I don't see a huge appeal. I was excited about the Phoenix android app and thought that I'd rather use that instead of 10ft GUI and remote, but in practice I still prefer the remote. The main advantage that I see would be for things that that fairly difficult to do with a remote. Youtube is a pain on a TV, since searching for things is painful. Netflix is a little less of a pain, mainly because one search gets you 20-120 minutes of material rather than 1-5 minutes.

It's great that it's dirt cheap, but I think as long as you come in under $100 you're pretty comfortably in mass-market territory for consumer devices (as long as its useful). At the $35 level you can pretty much sell it even if its not particularly useful.

Chromecast is still going to suffer from the same content restrictions as Rokus. You're not going to be able to send a regular Hulu video to your TV without Hulu Plus. It will be interesting to see how HBO Go works. Will it be supported by any cable TV provider that works with the website? Or will it be more restricted like the Roku app is? These are the sorts of things that kill the streaming experience.

I think it more of a shift in the way we view content.. there is no GUI, there is no 10' on the tv clunky slection to make. Everything is in your hand. because of this, one could theoretically do just about anything with it including live tv and DVR provided there is an HLS or HTML5 stream available.

I def think its a game changer and see huge things coming down the pipe. Every other device to date still abides by the same "old school" my tv needs a ui to do anything... this breaks that mold in my opinion and allows for the sleek and fresh UI of the handheld/tablet devices we see and know today.

I personally don't think it will suffer from the same issues that roku runs into for the simple fact that google has content provider contracts already in place for the likes of GoogleFiber.. I think they will leverage those to include live tv and dvr direct to the chromecast.

but what do i know.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by PiX64

I def think its a game changer and see huge things coming down the pipe. Every other device to date still abides by the same "old school" my tv needs a ui to do anything... this breaks that mold in my opinion and allows for the sleek and fresh UI of the handheld/tablet devices we see and know today.

Perhaps. I'm struggling to figure out what kinds of completely new things it would enable that people actually want to do. If anything I see it as more of an evolutionary change than a revolutionary one. We'll be doing the same things, just with a different interface.

More generally, the model seems a little backwards. Current trends with the younger folk seems to be towards enabling content on mobile devices that's traditionally viewed on TVs, rather than trying to get content on mobile devices to TVs. I realize that's not quite what Chromecast is doing, but it's along those lines.

Part of my problem is that for this to really have a good user experience you really need your entire TV experience to be looped into the phone. If I'm using my phone, I definitely wouldn't want to have to use my remote too. So I'd want everything with my TV and AV receiver to just magically work.

Originally Posted by PiX64

I personally don't think it will suffer from the same issues that roku runs into for the simple fact that google has content provider contracts already in place for the likes of GoogleFiber.. I think they will leverage those to include live tv and dvr direct to the chromecast.

I don't think the GoogleFiber stuff will help. They're not going to be able to give you access to TV content without either 1) unprecedented new content deals with the networks, 2) becoming a cable company in all major markets, or 3) creating a goofy Aereo-like system to bypass retransmission rules and copyright laws.

Google has a fair amount of pay content in the Play ecosystem, although I'm not likely to jump into that. They might be able to bypass some of Roku's troubles by associating it with mobile devices rather than TVs. It wouldn't be entirely accurate, but I think there's a decent chance the cable companies won't view it as the same kind of threat to their business model as they appeared to view the Roku. We'll see fairly soon, I think. A good test will be what happens with HBO Go and Comcast customers.

[stanger89]

It seems to me like this sort of thing is a nice option, ie being able to control something with a phone. That said Roku has an android app, but I never use it. Maybe I'm weird, but well first, I never enable wifi on my phone, there's no point I've got unlimited data and I don't really use that much data to begin with. And two, I don't carry my phone around with me once I get home. I set it on the table and leave it there.

On top of all that I despise touchscreens for transport controls. I like being able to pause/play/ffw/etc by feel, not have to unlock a phone, look down, find the right area of the screen to hit....

I don't know, maybe if I get a tablet I'll change my mind.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It seems to me like this sort of thing is a nice option, ie being able to control something with a phone. That said Roku has an android app, but I never use it. Maybe I'm weird, but well first, I never enable wifi on my phone, there's no point I've got unlimited data and I don't really use that much data to begin with. And two, I don't carry my phone around with me once I get home. I set it on the table and leave it there.

On top of all that I despise touchscreens for transport controls. I like being able to pause/play/ffw/etc by feel, not have to unlock a phone, look down, find the right area of the screen to hit....

I don't know, maybe if I get a tablet I'll change my mind.

I have a tablet a roku and Sage and Plex.... and I got tired of controlling anything with the tablet... had to keep looking down. I went back to my fatefull Universal remote. I thought it would be great controlling everything from a tablet boy was I wrong.

[dgeezer]

We just signed up for Netflix service about a on month ago, so it's still relatively new to me. My wife and I both didn't like searching through the playon app. My newest TV is a vizio which does have a built in Netflix app. This wasn't any easier to use than the playon app.
What we would do is search for movies on my phone or tablet and add them to the instant queue. That way they were easy to find. With the chromecast it's just one click on the tablet after we find something and it's playing.
However, I still have to use my old harmony remote. The hdmi cec will turn on my three or four year old Philips tv and switch the input to the correct one but it won't control my sound bar at all.
This makes it a rather clunky solution. I have to start, pause and stop playback on my phone but control the volume on my Harmony remote.
I've only seen this mentioned a few times but at least on my phone, the lock screen control works great. One of the complaints I've read was that you have to open the Netflix app to be able to control playback. This isn't the case, I can hit the power button on the phone twice and it will exit whatever app I'm in and return to the lock screen and then I can pause or stop playback.
Overall, I like the chromecast and I do think that it holds a lot of promise. A free cbs.Com app would be a great thing right now for TimeWarner subscribers. :-)

[tchapin]

This is an interesting device but really doesn't seem that different than an AppleTv with AirPlay or a Roku with their direct streaming of video, photos, or videos from your device and you have all of the channels available on the device itself.

And Roku already sells a stick version that's even powered from the port if you have the right kind of port (MHL?). Stick devices are pretty sweet; fewer wires and all that.

There's nothing preventing Apple or Roku from making their boxes more like the Chromecast in being totally able to be controlled by a phone / tablet. I'm not sure that's what people want, however. It'll be interesting to find out. I suspect it will be hard to change mainstream behavior away from their cable company / sat dish boxes will be tough. AppleTV has just over 50% of the market and they've only sold "only" about 13M AppleTVs.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by tchapin

There's nothing preventing Apple or Roku from making their boxes more like the Chromecast in being totally able to be controlled by a phone / tablet. I'm not sure that's what people want, however. It'll be interesting to find out. I suspect it will be hard to change mainstream behavior away from their cable company / sat dish boxes will be tough. AppleTV has just over 50% of the market and they've only sold "only" about 13M AppleTVs.

IIRC that figure doesn't cover consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) which absolutely dwarf the figures of Apple and Roku