You know we've done a lot of Chromecast videos lately,
but we've got some questions about the absolute basics,
so we're gonna cover that in today's video.
How to set up your Chromecast,
and a little bit about how to reset it,
just in case you need to troubleshoot a few things.
So let's dive in.
(upbeat music)
Now, the first thing to know
is how to set up the Chromecast initially.
Now, you may be getting a new device,
and it's just coming out of the box, that's one thing,
or if you've purchased a used device,
or maybe you've had some trouble with yours
and you just wanna reset it,
we'll go through how to do that.
So if it is a used device, what we're gonna do
is press down and hold on the little button
on the Chromecast for about 25 seconds,
and that's gonna do a factory reset.
You won't have to take this step
if it's a brand new Chromecast,
but either way, now we should be ready
to set up the device.
So now, it's telling me to get the app.
Well, luckily, I've done that.
I've downloaded the Google home app,
you can do that on IOS or on the Android platform,
I don't even know if they make Windows phones anymore,
so we're going to leave that one out of the mix.
Now that I've got the app,
I'm going to click on this plus sign right here, add,
and it will let me set up a new device.
So, when I set up a device,
it's going to ask me which home network I want to use,
so I'm going to choose the one I've named here,
and now it's going to start looking for devices.
And it should detect this Chromecast here
in just a moment.
There we go.
Okay, so would you like to set up the Chromecast?
Yes, I would.
Now, the trick here is that we need the Chromecast
and the phone to be on the same wi-fi network.
That's how they're going to talk to each other.
Now, it's connected, and I want to make sure
that I see this correct code on my TV, which I do.
Okay, so where is this device?
This one I did set up in the studio,
so let's click next there,
like I said, we want to make sure
this is connected to the right wi-fi network.
You guys don't get to see my password.
So now we're connecting to the wi-fi,
similar thing, it's going to show me on the screen
and on the phone that it's connected.
That's how you know that they are working well together.
And once that is all linked up, we are done.
Okay, so the studio TV is now ready.
So there are sample clips here on how to learn
how to cast, you can watch those,
or you can watch this one.
It's pretty simple, pick any app, and if it is compatible
with Chromecast, you will see the Chromecast icon
when you are watching a video.
So, say for instance, Netflix.
I'm going to pop into Netflix here,
Netflix is Chromecast ready, so when I watch a video,
this one, let's see, okay,
let's watch the new Dave Chappelle stand-up for fun.
Okay, so once I've got this playing,
you'll notice the Chromecast icon right up there,
and now it will ask me which device I want to play this on.
I only have one set up, so I can go right over here
to the studio TV,
and it's going to project that
right over here to the TV, now I can watch it here,
simple as that.
That's going to work that way with any app.
If we want one more example,
maybe a live TV example, let's pop into Hulu.
We'll pop into Hulu, and say I'm watching Hulu Live,
and I don't really care what I'm watching,
it doesn't matter, once I've activated that channel,
again, just look for that Chromecast app,
send it to the correct Chromecast device,
and it sends it right over and you can start watching.
This thing is your remote control now.
You still will need a remote control for volume
and TV power, that's one thing
that the Chromecast won't do for you,
but now, all of your content is here.
Now, the nice thing about the Chromecast
is that, with the video playing on the TV,
it's not taking up the computing power of my phone,
so it's not tying up the phone.
The Chromecast is actually taking care of that.
This just send the signal to the Chromecast
to tell it what to pick up and what to start playing.
So now that that's running,
I can go back to my homepage, and I can browse Facebook,
I can hop on Twitter, I can do whatever I want
while I'm watching TV.
It doesn't tie up my phone,
which is something I was afraid of
when I first heard about the Chromecast,
but that's not the case.
Anyway, so, simple as that,
we've got the Chromecast set up,
now you know how to launch an app.
If you're curious about what kind of apps
you can get for the Chromecast,
there are lists of them out there,
we've actually done a video,
"The top 10 free apps on Chromecast",
where you can get all sorts of free content,
the rule of thumb is, check it out.
In the play store, in the app store,
and it should say whether an app
is Chromecast ready or not.
There are a lot of unexpected ones out there,
but generally speaking, if you pop into an app
and you see that Chromecast icon, you're in luck.
You can send it to your Chromecast.
So that's it, simple as that.
If you have any other questions or comments,
or tips for us on the Chromecast,
hit the comments below, let us know.
Give this video a like if it was helpful to you,
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I'll see you next time.