Cool things to do with a Chromecast?

Ian

Ian

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I bought a Chromecast yesterday, which I'm about to set up tonight :). I mainly bought it so that easily stream music to our speakers in the lounge that we use with the TV, rather than use it for streaming iPlayer, etc... which we can do direct anyway.

Are there any must-have apps for the Chromecast, or anything really useful that doesn't come by default?

I quite like the ability to mirror a laptop screen on to the TV, so I imagine I'll be using that at least :).
 
I use mine for streaming music now and again and a lot of casting Youtube (CC is actually faster than my smart TV lol)

Now and again putting pics and whatnot from your phone on the TV for all to see.

Have to say, I dont use it as much as I thought I would....


If you run a Plex server it works great for that apparently. But I've got a Mede8er 1000 for that.
 
I don't have Plex, but my NAS can run it so I may give it a whirl. Am I right in thinking that Plex will sort out any transcoding to CC, so I can play pretty much anything?

At the moment I use the PS3 for any media streaming, but it's a bit clunky and it can't use Deezer - that's my main goal :).
 
As far as i know yeah , Plex does pretty much everything. Can install it on your phone etc and stream to pretty much any device. You can also setup to stream to devices from your NAS while your out and about too, could be handy. :)

I've not used it too much, but its something I would like to setup, Just dont have much need for it at the mo....
 
Sweet, I'll give the free version of Plex a go and see how it works :).

The Chromecast is up and running (very easy indeed!) and streaming music to it works a treat. That's worth the £30 cost for me as we'll get so much use out of it, so anything beyond this is a nice bonus :). Sounds like Plex may be easier than the PS3, so interested to see how it works.
 
Yup, I've got a few stored up. :D

90 days of Google music unlimited or whatever they call it for one, saving it for when I go on holiday. :cool:

Keep checking back they add stuff randomly it seems.
 
V_R said:
90 days of Google music unlimited or whatever they call it for one, saving it for when I go on holiday
Click to expand...

Oh, so I can click on it to redeem it, but not activate it yet? I saw the Google Music one, but I've got a Deezer subscription at the moment, so didn't bother - but if I can claim it then activate it after the Deezer sub expires, I'll do that.
 
Urm, I am assuming that when you redeem it it is activated, which is why I haven't clicked it yet.

I'm also hoping it doesn't expire, should really check that out now I think about it. lol
 
Perfect! I use VLC all the time so that will be ideal.

I got Plex installed last night and it works really well, although it seems my NAS isn't fast enough to do on-the-fly transcoding for high bitrate files. Not a huge problem though as it can parse them automatically in the background.
 
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