Chromecast - the new Google TV

Are you guys of the opinion that if I want this, but haven't bought it yet, I should go ahead and get it now? Or should I wait until v2 comes out in the future? I have no problem being an early adopter of tech, and I do want this now that it has PLEX, but I've gone this long without it that I don't need it right now.

Either way its $35 so who gives a fuck, but I'm still curious if anyone has heard any rumors of an updated one coming out soon-ish or not.

Eyashusa_sl said:

Are you guys of the opinion that if I want this, but haven't bought it yet, I should go ahead and get it now? Or should I wait until v2 comes out in the future? I have no problem being an early adopter of tech, and I do want this now that it has PLEX, but I've gone this long without it that I don't need it right now.

Either way its $35 so who gives a fuck, but I'm still curious if anyone has heard any rumors of an updated one coming out soon-ish or not.

Click to expand...

I saw them at Best Buy this week for $27.

BrutulTM_sl said:

There you go. If the new version comes out next month you can put the old one on your bedroom TV.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I just needed to be reassured.

Anyone else having trouble streaming the live stream of the state of the union? Works fine for other videos, but I think not for anything that is live. It now also tells me that none of the available formats are supported by my browser (latest version of Chrome).

edit: oh, looks like you can't chromecast live streams. Fail.

Intrinsic_sl said:

Yeah I was expecting this last update of mobile chrome to include the cast to chrome button. Hopefully they add that in.

Click to expand...

I doubt this will happen, or if it is added it will not work for tabs with video. When I've used it with flash video Chrome consumes a significant amount of desktop CPU, this would destroy any ARM SoC and absolutely kill your battery.

BrutulTM_sl said:

There you go. If the new version comes out next month you can put the old one on your bedroom TV.

Click to expand...

The stick is relatively dumb, I don't see what meaningful features could really be added that would affect the devices in the near term capabilities. Long term perhaps 4k or h265 hardware support, but otherwise changes might be adding 802.11ac support - probably not something most users would bother with.

Pandora on my Android now has a "chromecast" button. I didn't notice that one before, so I guess it may be a new thing? In any case, I tried it and although Pandora opened on the Chromecast, the streaming failed.

I also came across an issue with the coolest feature: having people build the playlist that goes on the Chromecast. It works fine if everyone does it from the same device, but when people use multiple devices, it seems it just overwrites the existing playlist (at least with YouTube). That's a big fail...

Still worth $35, I suppose. People can just queue things from my tablet as before. But it'd be nice for everyone to do it on their own device.

"Such features aren't available from the Chromecast, at least not yet" is the key line in that article.

I'm a retard. Could not figure out how to get Plex set up on my computer. :|

Kuriin_sl said:

I'm a retard. Could not figure out how to get Plex set up on my computer. :|

Click to expand...

Where did you get stuck? Download plex server, run it, and then go through the setup to point Plex to where you have all your media files. TV , movies, etc. And you are done. Little more complicated if you are trying to watch those shows not from the same network, but if you are on the same network, there's very little setup needed, because it recognizes it right away.

I downloaded and started the installation of the server on the computer. I placed it into my media HDD and then a failure-to-install popup showed. I thought it was looking for a specific file. But, nope. :|

Kuriin_sl said:

I downloaded and started the installation of the server on the computer. I placed it into my media HDD and then a failure-to-install popup showed. I thought it was looking for a specific file. But, nope. :|

Click to expand...

The server itself does not have to be installed on your media HDD, because after it's installed, you tell it where all your media is, and that's when you point it to your media HDD. Unsure how to fix though, if it's having issues even installing the program.

joeboo_sl said:

I've never, ever been able to set up the Plex server, it just can't connect. Not a big deal I can still access everything on my home network, I just wouldn't be able to use their web interface when away from home. Doesn't work when forwarding their recommended port, a custom port number, or even having all firewalls(windows and router) 100% disabled. Just nada, can never connect.

Click to expand...

That's odd. I recently upgraded to an SSD, and had to redo all of the app settings, and it took a while to get the ports worked out, but as soon as I forwarded the port again on my router, it all worked and connected. I'm sure there is a networking reason (obviously) it's not working, but no idea where to even start trouble shooting.

Hopefully the floodgates have opened -Google Developers Blog: Ready to cast: Chromecast now open to developers with the Google Cast SDK