Most of the televisions hitting the market are Smart but, they don’t always have the capabilities to do everything we would like. If you have an older TV that doesn’t have Smart Apps or any Smart technology, you will have to get a streaming player or some type of add-on. Sometimes with these boxes you can’t even get a webpage or a video from YouTube on your TV. Well, Google sees this issue and the Chromecast is what they have come up with. It is not similar to the Google TV platform, as the Chrome cast does not have a User Interface per se. The Chromecast comes in at only $35 and is a lot smaller than a Google TV or any other streaming player on the market. It is essentially a HDMI dongle and on the other side you have a micro USB port that is used for power. Does the Chromecast get the job done and offer enough? Let’s dive into the full review to find out!
Unboxing
Jacob Krol of NJTechReviews unboxed the Google Chromecast very soon after the announcement event. You can see an unboxing and a quick tour of the Chromecast below.
Setup
Setting up the Chromecast is incredibly simple and Google wants to make sure this is a hassle free simple experience. In the box you are going to find the Chromecast, a long micro USB cable, a wall adapter, and an optional HDMI extender. The HDMI extender is great if you don’t have a lot of room behind your TV, it will give you some more wiggle room. Google and I suggest that you don’t plug the USB cable directly in to the TV, but instead use the wall adapter and power it directly from the outlet. Once you plug the Chromecast into the HDMI port on your TV or if you plug it in to the HDMI extender, the next step is giving it power. Plug the micro USB in to the Chromecast and your USB end in to the power source. With the unit I used for this review, I plugged the Chromecast directly into a power outlet. The Chromecast should light up and this end the hardware setup portion, from here we move on to software setup. Remember to have your TV on and switched to the correct input for the Chromecast.
Like the hardware setup, the software setup is incredibly easy as well. Simply visit Google.com/Chromecast/Setup on either your Android smartphone or your computer. You will be downloading the Chromecast application, from here the application will download. Then you will open it up and it is saying that it is searching for Chromecasts. Your TV will give you some information like a code, this is just to make sure you are setting up the correct Chromecast. Once you have matched up the codes, you will now connect it to your WiFi network. You will lose WiFi on your computer or Smartphone, but only for just a minute. Once you are connected, you really are good to go. Setting up a Chromecast is super simple and only took me around 5 or 10 minutes at most.
Chromecast Your Favorite Apps And Browser
On day one Chromecast works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Music, and Google Play Movies. Netflix is a very large and important partner to have, they are one of the largest streaming companies around. For Netflix and these other applications, you don’t have to update the application. The Cast button is automatically there and you don’t have to tell it to find the Chromecast. Since it lives on your network, it finds it automatically. It all just works, for the most part. Since Google has release the Cast SDK, it will be gradually coming to other applications. Google will be pushing for this as well and working to get more partners on board.
I love being able to stream YouTube directly to my TV and with the Chromecast this is a very easy task. You will search for any video from our Chromecast Unboxing to Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen. The entire YouTube library is at your fingertips and wants to be casted to your TV. Choose the video and then hit the Cast icon in the top right corner, it will show the different Chromecast’s that are available. Tap the one you want and it magically appears on your TV. If you give the Chromecast power from your outlet and not directly from the TV, the Chromecast will be always on. Meaning that if your TV is shut off, when you decide to Cast something, it will turn on the TV and switch to the correct input. Then magically you will see the YouTube logo and then the video you have chosen starts streaming. Quality wise really depends on good of the quality the video is, a HD music video from VEVO looks phenomenal on the Chromecast. You can make a TV Queue as well, this is a great feature. It is like a playlist but it works across platform, so from your smartphone, tablet, commuter, or Chromebook Pixel you can make a customer playlist. If you are having a party just put your friends on the WiFi network and they can pick the tunes or videos as well. When you have the TV Queue List is can get confusing as to who as the controls to pause or play the video. Some stuff can get lost in translation across all of the devices. While this is an issue or a bug for now, I am confident that Google will be fixing this. We did experience some buffering issues everyone in a while, but relaunching the video was a simple fix for this.
Google Play Music works great with Chromecast and it is an easy to pump the tunes at a party or gathering at your house. If you have Google Play Music All Access even better, just set it play or shuffle your library and you have music the whole night. It will show the cover art, name, song, and length on the screen and it has a nice transition between songs with visuals. Google Play Movies will let you stream yours movie that you have purchased from the Play Store. These will stream in 1080pHD and they did this during my testing. The quality of the movies was great as well and was very much so enjoyed.
Have you always wanted to send your browser to your TV in a simple way that required no wires to be connected? The Cast Extension for Google Chrome has you covered, but it is still in Beta for now. Even with Beta tagged on at the end, it still performed very well. You can stream once Chrome Tab directly to your television, this is perfect if you want to send a news article or share photos. It is a very easy setup for the Cast Extension as well, simply install it from the Chrome Web Store and you will notice the Cast icon in the top right hand corner of the browser. Simply click the icon and chose the Chromecast you want to Cast to. This will project the current Tab that you are in on to your TV screen. It will stream it in either Standard-480p, High-720p, or Extreme-720p High Bitrate. Out of the box it will be set to High-720p and during my testing with this feature, it worked perfectly. It was by far the easiest way to send my browser screen to my TV. It also provides away for you to get other content on to your TV. For instance HBOGo’s application does not have Chromecast built-in, but when you go to that website in Chrome and start playing an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, it will play very nicely on your TV. However, you do have to stay in that window on computer, the multitasking capabilities are not here yet on the Google Chrome Web Browser for the computer. When you go to YouTube you can cast right from that YouTube window and that multitasking capability is back. Casting from Chrome Browser works with Rhapsody, Showtime Anytime, Vimeo, Hulu, and many other websites. Hopefully, they will be adding native support in these applications in the coming months.
Bottom Line
The Google Chromecast is by far a phenomenal device, that would be a welcome addition to any TV. While the list of applications is short as of now, it just launched. Having a major content provider like Netflix on board, shows that Google is pushing for more provides just as good. YouTube is great to have on here and many videos that you have interest in are available from this source. There is a workaround via the Cast Extension for Google Chrome to watch HBOGo, Hulu Plus, and many other streaming sources. I am hopeful that Google will release an update to the current Chromecast application or a new application that acts as a remote control for the Chromecast. It will make it easier to control the device. With the Cast Extension you can very easily share your web browser to your TV. The Google Chromecast is by far the easiest product that I can recommend, for $35 you are getting an amazing device. You may even decide to get one for every TV in your room, but I highly recommend it to anyone who has a TV. It will let you stream your favorite content to you TV and it is insanely easy to use. The only issue I see for now is the bugs that I have mentioned earlier and that fact that it is extremely hard to find a Chromecast right now. You can order it from Google Play and it will ship with-in 3-4 weeks, Amazon is currently backorder, BestBuy is sold out online, but certain very luck BestBuy stores have them in stock or they can tell you which stores in your area have them in stock. The future is very bright for the Google Chromecast and I highly suggest you get one. Please note that Jacob Krol of NJTechReviews purchased a Google Chromecast himself, we were not provided with a review unit of this device.
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