Chromecast

[Fuzzy]

I completely agree that a tactile remote is far superior to a direct attention required remote. That said, I DO see the advantage in browsing content via a touchscreen instead of a 10' interface - but if I had to choose one or the other, I'd definitely stick to a tactile remote and 10' interface.

[rwc]

I agree-those other devices are very similar.

Compared to the other devices, I think the biggest advantages are the price ($35 is GREAT) and the size (you don't need another "box" in your "rack")

[TRiddle]

I come from a long history of programming remotes for people that stems from the job I had in college. I've programmed everything under the sun it seems (pronto, harmony, urc, etc.). For eons, the only remotes that resided in my house have been tactile universal remotes (mostly the harmony), until about a month ago. I had a best buy gift certificate, so I went and purchased a Samsung Tab 3 and loaded up Touchsquid Pro on it. After a few days of making my own graphics, configuring, and testing, my harmony now collects dust. Sure, I don't have the tactile feel that I once had, but the inteface that I've created on my tablet just blows people away when they come over to see. Plus, IP control of my main system just blows away the harmony. I still keep the harmony in the main area so that the wife can use it as it's something she is familiar with, but I walk around my house with a tablet able to control any and every room I walk into because of the profile ability with Touchsquid. One tablet (that I basically got for free) plus 49 dollars worth of software that controls every single room in my house seems to be working out pretty good for me thus far. Not to mention, I can also play candy crush on it while the wife is watching something that I don't want to watch

[will]

Originally Posted by TRiddle

I went and purchased a Samsung Tab 3 and loaded up Touchsquid Pro on it.

What an interesting solution. Could you by any chance share a screenshot of your configuration?

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by will

What an interesting solution. Could you by any chance share a screenshot of your configuration?

or code?

[panteragstk]

I think with the price of the chromecast it's a neat device. I've read a few places that although it has CEC, it doesn't have volume control capability. There are ways around that though.

[TRiddle]

Originally Posted by will

What an interesting solution. Could you by any chance share a screenshot of your configuration?

I'll get some screenshots of it tonight (hopefully) and post them up here in some form or fashion. I guess I could also explain my setup a bit better as well...

For the time being, I'm playing around with WMC, only because some clever folks over at xbmc are working on using WMC as a backend for xbmc. As of this morning, the initial release of the code was offered up for testing. With that being said, I also obviously use xbmc for the rest of my media. What I've done with Touchsquid is this: setup my "htpc" activity to kick everything on and do the input selection (standard stuff). From within that activity, I've mapped touchsquid to do the basic controls of my WMC machine. However, what really makes Touchsquid cool is the ability to launch external apps from within the interface. So, also on this page, I have some custom buttons that I made that will launch Ceton's My Media Companion as well as the YATSE remote for xbmc. I've decided to use those for the time being as the IP control Touchsquid is offering right now is still in it's infancy. The xbmc json controls that they have are working fairly well, but I just am finding it hard right now to get away from YATSE because it looks beautiful on a tablet (will get some screenshots of this as well). As far as Ceton MMC goes, I much prefer the look and feel of my (as of now ir controlled) activity screen for WMC, but the Ceton app lets me cruise the guide, view upcoming premieres, and view upcoming movies right on my tablet without me disturbing what is on the television. So, my wife can be watching whatever awful version of real housewives is currently on air while I can be cruising in the background setting up new recordings and such. I guess another nice added bonus that I can think of with this setup is the ability of YATSE to stream directly to my tablet so that if I don't want to watch Real Housewives trash, I can jump into and watch anything I want on the tablet, all from within Touchsquid (to a degree...).

The real kicker to me though is this: I stumbled upon the tablet solution because my harmony one is starting to get cranky. When I went searching for a possible replacement, I stumbled upon the Touchsquid approach. Realizing a tablet + the cost of Touchsquid would run me no more than a new tactile universal remote, I pulled the trigger.

I should probably also note that even though I much prefer the full blown customization ability of iRule (99 dollars I believe), Touchsquid allows me to use any combination of: ir, global cache ip2ir/wifi2ir/etc, or native ip control while iRule only has use for the global cache type devices. Right now I'm using: ir control for the tv, ip2ir for my gear up in a closet, and a mixture of ip controls and ip2ir controls for WMC and xbmc. This all can be done with Sage as well as I keep a test rig in my study with Sage loaded up on it.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by bialio

It streams content from the source, not the phone. But there will be outrage none the less

but if I am watching Netflix/YouTube/Phoenix on my phone via my cell companies data plan, and then viewing on TV via Chromecast, I AM using cell data bandwidth, yes?

I watched the Google press conference, and 'the cloud' is mentioned as a source, but I guess I am not following that part....does Chromecast shut-down the link to my cell phone if an approved wifi source is attainable? What if there is no wifi available?

oh yeah...Amazon: usually ships in 2/3 months......pfffft

[will]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

but if I am watching Netflix/YouTube/Phoenix on my phone via my cell companies data plan, and then viewing on TV via Chromecast, I AM using cell data bandwidth, yes?
Obviously, if I connect my phone to a wifi router then that's different

I'm not sure for the Chrome tab feature, but I don't believe Chromecsast uses your phone for anything other than a remote. When you select a Netflix movie to watch it streams it directly from Netflix. This is different than using AirPlay with an iOS and Apple TV. Netflix on the Chromecast works the same as it does on the Apple TV (the device connects directly with the service).

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by will

I'm not sure for the Chrome tab feature, but I don't believe Chromecsast uses your phone for anything other than a remote. When you select a Netflix movie to watch it streams it directly from Netflix. This is different than using AirPlay with an iOS and Apple TV. Netflix on the Chromecast works the same as it does on the Apple TV (the device connects directly with the service).

the casting of the tab only works from a chrome browser on a mac or windows machine. When doing that it uses said machine as the "server transcoder". When accessing netflix or youtube from a machine though, THAT will cast to your TV in the same fashion as from an ios or android device. it sends the url to the chromecast and it plays directly on the TV from the cloud i.e. netflix or youtube, rather than streamind from the device like airplay does.

only difference is that if you close the tab, and no other devices are "controlling" the chromecast, the stream will stop.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

but if I am watching Netflix/YouTube/Phoenix on my phone via my cell companies data plan, and then viewing on TV via Chromecast, I AM using cell data bandwidth, yes?

I watched the Google press conference, and 'the cloud' is mentioned as a source, but I guess I am not following that part....does Chromecast shut-down the link to my cell phone if an approved wifi source is attainable? What if there is no wifi available?

oh yeah...Amazon: usually ships in 2/3 months......pfffft

AFAIK, i haven't tested, but to cast something to chromecast the device MUST be on the network. The option is taken away from the application if you are on your cellular or any other network for that matter.
** Just tested and chromecast option is not available when not on my home network... so the same would stand true for a machine not on your network. so your use case is not possible

once you tell chromecast to go out and view something from netflix it has nothign to do with your phone or other device anymore, other than a small html5 page which allows "control" of the stream...the physical data is not stopping at your phone and then being thrown to the tv... its direct like many other have commented

[sic0048]

I've had Chromecast for about a week now and I really like it. I love the idea of being able to browse for content on a tablet and then send it to the TV for viewing, but I agree that I like using a hard button remote for control. Obviously I can control volume via the hard remote, and with the API being released publicly I should be able to get a driver written to control the device through my CQC system which my IR remotes integrate into. That should give me transport control as well from the hard remote.

It is a billion times better than trying to use the Netflix plugin for SageTV. Finding content on that was a lesson in patience. (Let's look at all the movies that start with "A"........).

There are already a bunch of apps written that will allow people to cast just about any content they have on their phone, tablet, or network. Developers are just waiting for Google to make the SDK "public" so they can legally release their work. Right now the SDK is in "beta" mode and since parts of it might change and therefore "break" any work already done, Google won't let developers release any apps to the public yet.

I think Chromecast will be the device that forever changes how we view on-line content on our TVs. I think it will be what the iPhone was for cell phones. It's a perfect blend of simplicity, price, and power to really make people stand up and take notice. That along with the open API and SDK makes it very attractive and easy to develop for, so just about any content you can think of should be easily cast in the future IMHO.

[BobbyDing]

Regarding Tactile feedback....Perhaps Google could look into Haptic Touch Display Technology for their Nexus line.

http://techreport.com/news/24793/tac...screen-buttons

I thought I remember seeing on engadget that a company (maybe this one) was working on this type of technology where the tactile buttons are software controllable, so the haptic buttons would always mimic the on screen buttons, even when the screen changes.

And I'm sure they wouldn't be expensive at all!!

Would be neat thought. Using the tablet to search for media, then using it as a tactile remote.

[Fuzzy]

The point of of a tactile remote control is the blind operation of the device (so focus can remain on the screen), NOT the physical sensation of pushing a button.

[TRiddle]

Attached is a PDF of some screenshots I took of my tablet running Touchsquid Pro. I'm by no means a photoshop expert, so go easy on my ability to create custom buttons with transparent backgrounds...

The first screen in the PDF is my main htpc screen that I spend 99% of the time on while controlling things. I made a custom WMC "green button" as well as a button for Ceton's My Media Center and for XBMC. The Ceton button runs an app that jumps me to ip controls for WMC and the XBMC button runs a macro that minimizes WMC and launches XBMC, then launches YATSE. The other buttons are pretty self explanatory.

The second screen is the favorites section in Touchsquid. Right now, I just have one set of favorite channels, but you can make these favorite buttons do anything. They'll hold any remote command, run apps, jump to websites, etc. Pretty cool.

The third screen is all of the buttons that you can customize per activity page. As you can see from the first screen, I'm not even utilizing all of them for my htpc activity.

[panteragstk]

Got my Chromecast yesterday and it's a pretty cool device. I do like the fact that once cyanogen mod 10.2 comes out it is eventually going to get the ability to chromecast everything. Pretty sweet.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/08...n-cyanogenmod/

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Got my Chromecast yesterday and it's a pretty cool device. I do like the fact that once cyanogen mod 10.2 comes out it is eventually going to get the ability to chromecast everything. Pretty sweet.

While it sounds interesting, I'm not sure how useful it will be. What apps does it work with? I mean, it's not "everything." I doubt it will work with Netflix/Hulu/HBO Go and other streaming apps with protected content.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by reggie14

While it sounds interesting, I'm not sure how useful it will be. What apps does it work with? I mean, it's not "everything." I doubt it will work with Netflix/Hulu/HBO Go and other streaming apps with protected content.

Huh? It specifically does work with Netflix. The other stuff remains to be seen.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by wayner

Huh? It specifically does work with Netflix. The other stuff remains to be seen.

Sorry, I could have written that better. I meant specifically the functionality that's being built into Cyanogenmod. I bet that won't work with Netflix, although of course you'll be able to use the Netflix app to send things to the Chromecast.

[wayner]

Is Cyanogenmod only useful if you have an Android phone and want to Jailbreak it and install this mod?