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Google Chromecast buyers and owners thread (1 Viewer)

Parker Clack

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I will probably be picking up one of these too. I have always found it odd that with an HDMI dongle type of device you have
to power it with USB. You would think it would be built in to the standard.
 

DaveF

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The chrome cast ad is great! On par with Apple ads. How does this work with iOS? If all I care about is airplay-ing video to my TV--and not buying movies on iTunes -- is this a better product than AppleTV?
 

Ken Chan

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I've read that if your TV has HDMI 1.4 it can provide enough power directly.AppleTV does push from a device through AirPlay (1) with an already encoded stream stored on the decice, sent directly; or (2) with on-the-fly encoding, i.e. mirroring. It can also (3) pull content from the cloud -- iTunes, Netflix, MLB, etc.Chromecast clearly does #3. It will also enable (3a) your device to 'cast' the URL of any (supported) content you're watching. So you're watching YouTube on your phone, you hit the button and it will start pulling that content, perhaps even continuing where you left off.It will do #2, but only for the content of a tab in the Chrome browser. That requires a Chrome browser extension and currently beta. No indication it supports mode #1.
 

Sam Posten

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Interesting Ken, thanks.

I'd like to go on record noting that the Google Play website is a steaming pile of junk. First of all you can't tell right away that the new tablets can't actually be ordered yet and once something is ordered there is no cancelling it. Amazon is set to deliver my Chromecast today and Google might not even ship till friday, so i tried to cancel that and it just generates an error.

You can tell that customer service is not in their DNA.
 

Sam Posten

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Jeeeeez (not my pic)
BP_7rJ2CQAI7nbv.png
 

mattCR

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No. Really only if you have an android device and want to transfer videos from device to tv. It does no decoding.
 

Steve Tannehill

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Sounds like if you have an Apple TV and can AirPlay from iPhone, iPad, or Mac (or PC with the right software) then this would not be necessary.

Plus, the Apple TV has a native YouTube client.
 

DaveF

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Ok, thanks. Ken verifies whate I read and Ars and DF, that its more a sharing of URL from mobile to dongle. It isn't a stream-to-TV device. I see the use, and this would suit me for a lot of my youtubery. I'll keep it in mind. But it's not a must get miracle product.
 

mattCR

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Quick Review: It's cheap.
Long Review: It's cheap and it shows.

Sam, did you want to write this up for HTF later, or should I start taking pictures and do it up? Maybe both of us put in point/counterpoint because I'd love to know what you think..
 

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