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GeneralRe: Very Surprised that it wasn't solved Pin
Motor Viper7-May-14 1:16
professionalMotor Viper7-May-14 1:16 
GeneralRe: Very Surprised that it wasn't solved Pin
Keith Barrow7-May-14 1:30
professionalKeith Barrow7-May-14 1:30 
GeneralThought provoking. Pin
Mitchell J.7-May-14 0:19
professionalMitchell J.7-May-14 0:19 
GeneralRe: Thought provoking. Pin
OriginalGriff7-May-14 0:34
mveOriginalGriff7-May-14 0:34 
GeneralRe: Thought provoking. Pin
_Maxxx_7-May-14 0:56
professional_Maxxx_7-May-14 0:56 
GeneralRe: Thought provoking. Pin
harold aptroot7-May-14 1:01
harold aptroot7-May-14 1:01 
GeneralRe: Thought provoking. Pin
Mladen Janković7-May-14 1:42
Mladen Janković7-May-14 1:42 
GeneralSo...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
OriginalGriff7-May-14 0:14
mveOriginalGriff7-May-14 0:14 
I got my Chromecast, and I've been playing with it for a week now, on and off. So I thought I'd let you know how I got on.

You may remember, I wanted to replace my media player because the HDD is starting to get loud, and that's never a good sign. So I wanted (ideally) to be able to play videos from my NAS instead, direct to the TV.

Does it work? Yes, mostly.

It needs an HDMI input on the TV, and a USB for power, or the supplied external PSU. The box includes a short HDMI extension, incase the body of the Chromecast won't fit in the socket on the TV, and a 1.5m USB to micro USB cable (which is either way too long if you use the TV USB, or annoyingly slightly short if you use the PSU...)
Setup is easy: really easy. Plug it in and follow the instructions. Piece of cake, except for entering my WLan password, but that's my fault for making it so complicated...Sigh | :sigh:

Played with lots of software for Android, and a couple for the PC - ended up with LocalCast on Android and Plex on the PC (though I have removed Plex as I don't want to do on-the-fly transcoding)
LocalCast seems to play from anywhere - it supports DLNA/UPnP, and SMB addresses, so once I'd fed in the NAS IP and login details it was a happy bunny.

It works: start a video from the tablet, watch it on the TV. You can use the tablet as a remote, or turn it off. Hi-Def works fine. You can also cast music, and any video that plays in Chrome - so YouTube casting works fine as well.
Now running the LocalCast Beta, since it supports the tablet in landscape mode rather than just portrait.

There are annoyances. It doesn't play AVI at all, and it plays some MKV but not all, and doesn't seem to play any sound from them at all. It plays MP4 and M4V files brilliantly. Unfortunately, my ]previous media player didn't like MKV files for a long time, so I have a large collection of AVI files, so I'll have to either re-rip them, or transcode the AVI files (which takes a while with Handbrake).

The executive summary: Good. £30 is a good price for this - it works, in some ways better than the box it replaces, which cost a damn sight more than that! Wish it played AVIs though...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)

GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
Simon Lee Shugar7-May-14 0:35
Simon Lee Shugar7-May-14 0:35 
GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
OriginalGriff7-May-14 0:43
mveOriginalGriff7-May-14 0:43 
GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
Simon Lee Shugar8-May-14 8:13
Simon Lee Shugar8-May-14 8:13 
GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
OriginalGriff8-May-14 8:26
mveOriginalGriff8-May-14 8:26 
GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
Simon Lee Shugar8-May-14 22:08
Simon Lee Shugar8-May-14 22:08 
GeneralRe: So...Chromecast...Is it any good? Pin
OriginalGriff8-May-14 22:31
mveOriginalGriff8-May-14 22:31 
GeneralMQOTD Pin
V.6-May-14 22:12
professionalV.6-May-14 22:12 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Johnny J.6-May-14 22:23
professionalJohnny J.6-May-14 22:23 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
OriginalGriff6-May-14 22:23
mveOriginalGriff6-May-14 22:23 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Karen Mitchelle6-May-14 22:33
professionalKaren Mitchelle6-May-14 22:33 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
OriginalGriff6-May-14 22:37
mveOriginalGriff6-May-14 22:37 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Karen Mitchelle6-May-14 22:45
professionalKaren Mitchelle6-May-14 22:45 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Chris Quinn6-May-14 23:05
Chris Quinn6-May-14 23:05 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
OriginalGriff6-May-14 23:14
mveOriginalGriff6-May-14 23:14 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Mohamad M. Mohamad6-May-14 23:27
Mohamad M. Mohamad6-May-14 23:27 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Simon_Whale7-May-14 0:11
Simon_Whale7-May-14 0:11 
GeneralRe: MQOTD Pin
Rajesh_Francis7-May-14 1:21
professionalRajesh_Francis7-May-14 1:21 

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