I gave up cable TV years ago due to the quality-to-cost differential. I get 5-6 channels with my rabbit ears, and the rest of the TV usage is from my PS3, from which I play games and use Netflix, YouTube, and (extremely rarely) Hulu Plus.
I saw a commercial for Google Chromecast which advertises it as only $35, so I checked the website and it lists the various services that can be used with it: Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, and Google Play (which I could connect to my phone, if I were inclined).
Does anyone have Chromecast? Does it offer me anything my PS3 doesn’t already?
We have one. It is possible to cast your current google chrome tab onto your tv screen. It won’t cast local media (they broke that functionality), although I have been able to drag and drop mp4 videos into the Chrome browser, cast the tab, and watch the movie. But it only works with mp4s, which I assume is an unintended bug and thus susceptible to being broken. And even mp4s don’t play at full resolution, either.
Not really worth it. Even for Netflix, you have to recast every single episode from your pc/mobile device. It won’t autoplay. Pretty meh, IMO.
I just bought one since we only get crappy analog reception for FOX and it just wasn’t cutting it for Cosmos. So I bought a Chromecast so I could cast Cosmos from fox.com to the TV. Cosmos in HD - yay!
We have a smart TV so we can watch Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, etc. through our TV. If it hadn’t been for Cosmos, I would have been perfectly happy without the Chromecast. I will say that it’s much easier to pull up a Youtube video on the tablet and cast it to the TV than going through the terrible TV interface. Some apps (like YouTube) are already configured to work with Chromecast so it’s pretty straightforward.
And apparently the Chromecast extension for Chrome is only a beta version and is quite buggy. Google and you will get lots of examples of people not being able to cast from Chrome. I had problems at first, but somehow it is working now. There can be issues with wireless modem compatibility too. Plus, you can’t get the Chromecast extension if you are running Chrome on Android. I ding Google pretty hard for that - It’s their own OS, for chrissake!
TL;DR: Handy for playing videos from your Chrome browser, but only if you are lucky enough to get it to work properly.
We have a PS3 and a Chromecast, and I much prefer to use the Chromecast for Netflix. Probably just because I find it a lot easier to grab my phone out of my pocket and fire up the app then to power up the PS3 and log in. For some reason half the time I can’t get to Netflix until I install a required update.
And I find navigating youtube or pretty much anything on the web way more painful via the PS3 than through a laptop or even my phone.
Also, I find that I have far more connectivity issues with the PS3 than I do with the chromecast.
Most of the streaming tools are a feature-here, function-there difference from each other and as all are firmware- and licensing-based, tend to move towards a common center
Tangent: I will say I am puzzled at the insistence of the PS3 crowd that their choice makes some kind of good general solution, especially for people who aren’t interested in the, you know, game console features. Expense alone makes it a non-contender unless it’s bought for gaming and the other features are just perks. You can get any of a half-dozen excellent streaming tools - faster startup, better controller and interface, makers who are actively progressing the streaming concept instead of just tagging along - for $100 or less, including BR players to add disc play to the mix. (Some even have GAMES! :D)
The idiocy of the XBox model is that all the streaming, including otherwise free services, are behind the Live paywall. It makes about as much sense as the toll booth in Blazing Saddles - and people just go along with it for reasons no better than Slim Whitman’s.
