Yes, my desk is so messy I have to stream my content, wirelessly, from a distance.
We have seen content streaming before with portable devices. I myself, reviewed a Netgear
device a few months ago. But when the big hitters release their own versions of the
technology, the mainstream audience sit up and pay attention.
Google's Chromecast is precisely that, a budget device targeting a still new concept to the
mass market.
It's designed to do the most important thing above all else: work. Any other fancy stuff
is merely a bonus.
The Chromecast comes with a small HDMI dongle, a small HDMI wire extender, if your television
is in a awkward position such as flush against a wall, a plug and a USB cable that can plug
straight into you television's USB port (if it has one) to power device which means you
can eliminate the use of a plug.
The Chromecast dongle has a reset button and a micro usb port that you plug the power cable
into. Simple stuff.
Plug the Chromecast into a HDMI port on your television and tune you television to that
channel. That's the receiver part of the solution solved.
Next comes the transmitter. For portable devices such as smartphones and tablets (and this
includes iPhone and iPad Apple products) you need to download the Chromecast application.
After some very simple setup instructions, which as usual, Google make very clear and
almost completely automated, your Chromecast and smart device will be linked to each other.
This now makes your device (to use the official terminology) ready to cast. So with an application
such as Youtube you want to use this casting icon in the top right hand corner. When you
press it, it automatically starts streaming the content from your device to the Chromecast
plugged into the television. As you can see in this demonstration the whole process takes
around 10 seconds.
The video and audio are synced perfectly and you still control the video through controls
on your tablet. It's simple, clean and efficient at its job.
You can also download plenty of applications to use Chromecast in move inventive ways.
If you have content stored locally on your device you can use an application such as
BubbleUPnP to play local videos. The result is much the same: perfect, wirelessly streamed
content.
In you jump to different locations in the video, there is a slight delay so performance
isn't lighting. But to date I haven't seen any streaming service that can instantly jump
from one location to another. For applications that are designed to use Chromecast it reliably
works and, of course, it frees you up to put distance between the transmitter and the receiver.
Chromecast works and it's an excellent tool for quickly dumping content to a large television.
Admittedly there is the question of duplicating technology. The chances are, if Chromecast
interests you, you already have some sort of smart box (like Sky or a Smart DVD player
that includes streaming services). But for just £30 Chromecast is worth having around.
And as an additional benefit Chromecast works through the Chrome browser on your computer.
Again, download the Chromecast application from the Chrome store, do a bit of simple
setup and you'll find a casting button at the top right of the Chrome browser that enables
you to broadcast a web page, or even your entire computer screen, again wirelessly,
to your television.
This, however is not an exact science. There is a certain element of lag as you can see
here with my Chromebook a second or two ahead of what's being shown on screen. But audio
is synced to what's on the television which is handy.
Chromecast might not be the most sophisticated streaming device out there. But, if you stick
to applications and services designed for streaming it works perfectly. And because
it's a Google product, is so cheap and a lot of them have been sold, there's all sorts
of experimentation going on in the developer world to further unlock its potential.
So, in summary, Chromecast has something for everyone at an everyday price.