Tell me about your experiences with Chromecast! (Resolved - Please Close)

Enc

My two Roku devices are aging and their apps are very limited. With a bunch of my favorite programming leaving youtube this year for their own apps (such as Rooster Teeth Red for RWBY), I was looking at getting a Chromecast to replace my roku devices since it is a more open platform for small content providers to access.

Anyone have any tips, suggestions, or bad experiences you are willing to share about the Chromecast before I spend the money to get a pair of them for our household?

Quid

We love our chromecast. Between the chromecast phone app and the browser extension there’s not much it can’t do. If I can pull something up on my browser I can put it on the TV. Most apps work with the chromecast app on my phone too. For the latter it’s especially nice to type something in to YouTube with my phone than use a remote to click out letters.

We still have a fire stick, but only because we were getting poor performance with Amazon and Hulu when using my wife’s Surface. Your mileage may vary with that.

Phasen

The chromecast is great! The only place it lags is it requires a strong wifi connection. Before I bought the google mesh wifi, my roku had no problems with my wireless signal but my chromecast struggled.

Dirtmuncher

Chromecast is great! I also have an Audiocast to stream music to my stereo.

I used my Chromecast up untill my son killed our old TV with a ball. My new TV is a smarttv and does everything my Chromecast did, but with wired internet.

azith28

I used mine maybe a half dozen times (call it one netflix series per time) on my TV, then couldnt get it to boot up, took it out of the TV and found it was almost hot enough to burn my hand. threw it away.

That_Guy

I've got a Chromecast in my Kitchen and a Roku Express in my bedroom. The only thing Chromecast can do that a Roku can't is download those fancy screensaver pictures. You get to look at Roku's screensaver. I really don't like how Roku plasters my home screen and screensaver with ads but that's really the only downside. You can cast to a Roku in the exact same way you cast to a Chromecast. It just also does a lot more.

Enc

Is that a feature of all Roku devices? Because I never knew that was possible.

dispatch.o

I have a Chromecast and a Google Home Mini.

Netflix and YouTube actually run on the stick as applications so you can say, "Hey Google, play altered carbon on Netflix" and it will play where you left off with no further interaction.

With HBO Go and Amazon Prime, you have to stream from a browser, or application. Most mobile applications have a "Cast to TV" shortcut so it's no big deal. You can always just cast a tab or full desktop in Chrome if all else fails too.

That_Guy

Enc wrote: »

Is that a feature of all Roku devices? Because I never knew that was possible.

I can't speak to all Rokus but the newer ones support casting. I can even screen share with my phone for stuff that doesn't have a native app.

Morran

TL;DR: make sure you don't have crappy wifi.

Have a Chromecast, and it is great.

I did have some issues when I relied on the crappy wi-fi router which came free with my internet. Things like apps unable to cast at random points, only to be solved by restart of apps/phone/Chromecast in some random order i never figured out . Note that i had simular issues also for my wireless sound setup (Heos speakers).

After upgrading my home wi-fi (using Google wi-fi) i never had those problems again.

Figgy

You can get ethernet adapters for it. I did.

mts

dispatch.o wrote: »

I have a Chromecast and a Google Home Mini.

Netflix and YouTube actually run on the stick as applications so you can say, "Hey Google, play altered carbon on Netflix" and it will play where you left off with no further interaction.

With HBO Go and Amazon Prime, you have to stream from a browser, or application. Most mobile applications have a "Cast to TV" shortcut so it's no big deal. You can always just cast a tab or full desktop in Chrome if all else fails too.

browser streaming is not that good , at least in my experience.
i think you can tell google to cast from any app as long as its linked.

also, amazon is slowly adding support for chromecast. at least now the music app can stream to google devices, the prime tv does not ( at least since the last time I checked)

Quid

I think the browser streaming might be tied to the video card and/or processor. My desktop never has trouble with it but my wife’s surface stutters with HD stuff.

mts

Quid wrote: »

I think the browser streaming might be tied to the video card and/or processor. My desktop never has trouble with it but my wife’s surface stutters with HD stuff.

Possible. Should try my new pc to see if there is a difference

dispatch.o

I have a laptop I use for streaming and browsing the web. I had quality and performance issues until I disabled hardware acceleration in chrome for the various video plugins. Generally though very few things need to be streamed from tab or desktop so it may be that I haven't used it enough to notice poor performance.

Enc

I got my roku to connect with my computer, and between that and VRV I have solved my problems without needing a chromecast! Thanks to @That_Guy for the suggestion!

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