Chromecast - the new Google TV

BrutulTM_sl said:

As others have said, the roku can do stuff that the chromecast can't. The main advantage of the chromecast is for YouTube. It is great at that and roku isn't. For $35 though, I think it's worth picking one up as a complement to your roku.

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Youtube is on the Roku 3 now and I think it gets rolled to the other devices soon. I think the Chromecast is good if you don't have a streaming device already, but if you do it doesn't make sense to replace since it's pretty limited still.

It made sense for me because the boxxee was getting limited support (and probably zero future as far as apps go) so either way I was going to have to buy something new to get more support than already exists. And it was acting up anyway, not playing certain videos, constantly losing netflix data, shit like that. Really it has never been ideal, I lost the game when I chose boxxee over roku back in the day.

I already enjoy the chromecast more than I did the boxxee, even if I can't get 1080p over plex yet. Easier to use and just an overall better user experience.

Anyone else having problems with Plex syncing? I synced my content on my tablet yesterday, everything worked fine then come back today and there is nothing there. Apparently this is a huge problem for them. Kind of makes the whole thing useless.

I had a lot of minor issues with Plex initially, and they all kind of magically disappeared by themselves in the first week or two. I dunno. It works awesome now.

I haven't had syncing issues, the only issue I had was with the transcoder pegging out my cpu and generally being an asshole.

Right now, if I want to stream last nights episode of say,Almost Human, I plug an HDMI cable into my laptop, the other end of which is always plugged into one of the HDMI ports on my A/V receiver and with the right switches thrown, I get a picture on the TV and 5.1 sound out of the room speakers. Do you think I could plug a Chromecast into my receiver instead of my TV or would I have to plug into my TV and then cable the sound out to my amp? TIA

I have my Chromecast going directly into my receiver - works great, and I get DD 5.1 output.

darkmiasma_sl said:

I have my Chromecast going directly into my receiver - works great, and I get DD 5.1 output.

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Thanks, That's perfect.

Plex support for the chromecast is having some issues at the moment. Basically, Plex is having trouble transcoding AC3 audio to the CC, so shit stutters and freezes all over the place. Frustrating the hell out of me, since just about anything torrented in 720 or up is an mkv with AC3.

I have not had any issues with stuttering or freezing, and I am definitely streaming shit with .AC3 audio. weird.

So I got a Chromecast for Xmas and it seems basically worthless. I have my PS3 for netflix etc. If I want to stream movies from my PC, I put them on my homegroup and stream them from my PS3. I can do the same for family videos, pictures, music, etc stored on my PC. The only thing I did try that my PS3 couldn't do, was stream a flash video from my PC in the chrome browser, to my TV, but it was laggy and out of sync with audio/video. It was just easier to download it, and drop it in my homegroup and play it on my PS3.

Google really needs to open up dev support for this thing. Now if we would get streaming on something like MX player, or one of the other video apps, for me it would take this thing from useless to pretty much invaluable.

BrutulTM_sl said:

It is way better than a PS3 for streaming youtube videos. When they finally get off their ass and release the API this will probably be true for all other video sites as well but I don't know why in the hell that hasn't happened yet.

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I could see that, but I have never watched or felt the need to watch youtube on my TV. I rarely watch it on the computer as is, only really to check a walkthrough if I am stuck in a game, or a video on how to repair something, etc.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Well if it's "completely useless" because you have a much more expensive device that does most of it's functions and you aren't interested in the other functions, then it's not "completely useless", it just wasn't a good purchase for you.

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This is true. As I said it was a gift, I was just hoping to get some use out of it, I mean it is Google after all, supposedly innovators. The thing that bothers me the most is that Google refuses to make the source code open for developers like they had initially said they would. It's capable of being so much more of a better device, but Google holds it back for some reason. I mean just look at this, which Google intentionally blocked this 2x after he made this. Anyways, whatever, it's not a huge loss, I just wish they would open it up more is all.


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