Google Chromecast Review - An Awesome $35 HDMI Dongle
by Brian Klug on July 29, 2013 9:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Media Player
- Android
- Mobile
- HDMI
- Chrome
- Tablets
- Chromecast
Conclusions
Chromecast is everything the Nexus Q should’ve been. As its spiritual successor, the Chromecast finally delivers on the promise of an accessory to the Google Play and Chrome ecosystem for the TV. Chromecast works, and it works well, the Netflix and YouTube apps I’ve used from Android since getting it are quick to control the playback functions and reliably discover the Chromecast all the time.
After spending a week tearing my hair out over Miracast (which frankly has the worst interoperability in the entire industry), having Chromecast actually just work was a breath of fresh air. The Chromecast cloud-to-cast architecture makes a lot more sense than other models which try to decode on the phone, then re-encode and ship it over the same network, doubling compression artifacts, increasing battery drain, and requiring good signal. I can see why Google would not even bother including Miracast on the Chromecast at this point, and without a vast improvement to Miracast I frankly don’t even want it anymore.
For the price, the Chromecast is an amazing device that plays surprisingly well with the services it’s compatible with, and for everything else there’s always that browser tab streaming mode. I’d like to see more services added, but for now I’m totally pleased with how it works, so much so that I already bought a second Chromecast to hook up my second 55-inch TV.
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matt30 - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
iMediaShare is just a DLNA server. And it doesn't stream in HD.burger2227 - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
WTF does it do? If I did not know any better, I would have thought this was a bad review of the Nexus Q! How does it work? How well does it work? That's a review, not this crap.Heartdisease - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Nexus as a hotspot & make it work on the hotel tv? I assumed so until you mentioned cloning on a laptop.Heartdisease - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Don't know what happened there. Can I use just my Galaxy should precede the former.Marthisdil - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
It's $35 worth of useless to me. I'd have spent the money on it if it included 3 months of netflix (then the true cost would have been $11).But it offers no extra functionality for me, or anyone I know, that doesn't already have a smart tv or a media pc connected to their tv
dev_d1 - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
This stick may not be of much value once the android community figures out how to receive chromecast signal on Rockchip quad core android mini PCs. Granted its cheaper, but the mini-PCs can do so much more than just receive and display whats being cast.IdBuRnS - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
I bought one yesterday. Casting chrome tabs is slow, trying to play video from those tabs is unwatchable.Sweet, it's just another Netflix/Youtube device in my house...
IdBuRnS - Monday, August 5, 2013 - link
And I returned the Chromecast to BestBuy yesterday.random2 - Saturday, August 3, 2013 - link
There's a whole host of devices that do just this and more. They are called media players and they work great:)epoon2 - Sunday, August 4, 2013 - link
When would google sell ads on Chromecast ?