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Google’s Chromecast graced the market back in July (2013) in the USA to much praise as a unique take on the idea of turning a standard TV set into a ‘Smart’ one.
Since then however, it is still yet to officially expand its range elsewhere, being available as an import on Amazon UK with Prime delivery for approx £37 (at time of writing), considerably more than the $35 price tag, but still within an affordable price point.
There are plenty of reviews out there by now; but this one will look cover it all from the perspective of a UK buyer.
What Is It & How Does It Work?
It’s not often you need a section like this in a review, but with Chromecast it maybe necessary. Simply put, there is nothing quite like it. Having learned a harsh lesson with the Nexus Q, Google went back to the drawing board and returned with the much more appealing $35 dongle. The device is nothing more than a thumb drive sized HDMI dongle with built in WiFi, capable of receiving & playing streams of data, most commonly in the form of video. More specifically, it can playback YouTube, Netflix, Google’s Play services including TV/Movies and Music, and more recently; a host of other third party apps including Plex, Avia and RealPlayer Cloud amongst others.
Sounds great right? Well, there might be one catch for some. Chromecast is controlled entirely via an Android/iOS device or a browser. There is no way to control this via a remote, but that’s the whole idea. You browse and select what you want on the normal app for the given service, then hit the Chromecast button to choose to play it out on your TV instead of the device. It doesn’t work as you might first think, in most cases it is not that Chromecast receives a stream from the device in hand, the device sends the command to Chromecast, which then independently loads the stream. This is a far better approach, allowing for minimal hardware requirements and low battery drain for the operating device.
If you like a traditional TV interface and remote, this is not for you. If you don’t use a smartphone or tablet, this is not for you. If you already have a setup that can do most or all these things, this might not be for you.
Since then however, it is still yet to officially expand its range elsewhere, being available as an import on Amazon UK with Prime delivery for approx £37 (at time of writing), considerably more than the $35 price tag, but still within an affordable price point.
There are plenty of reviews out there by now; but this one will look cover it all from the perspective of a UK buyer.
What Is It & How Does It Work?
It’s not often you need a section like this in a review, but with Chromecast it maybe necessary. Simply put, there is nothing quite like it. Having learned a harsh lesson with the Nexus Q, Google went back to the drawing board and returned with the much more appealing $35 dongle. The device is nothing more than a thumb drive sized HDMI dongle with built in WiFi, capable of receiving & playing streams of data, most commonly in the form of video. More specifically, it can playback YouTube, Netflix, Google’s Play services including TV/Movies and Music, and more recently; a host of other third party apps including Plex, Avia and RealPlayer Cloud amongst others.
Sounds great right? Well, there might be one catch for some. Chromecast is controlled entirely via an Android/iOS device or a browser. There is no way to control this via a remote, but that’s the whole idea. You browse and select what you want on the normal app for the given service, then hit the Chromecast button to choose to play it out on your TV instead of the device. It doesn’t work as you might first think, in most cases it is not that Chromecast receives a stream from the device in hand, the device sends the command to Chromecast, which then independently loads the stream. This is a far better approach, allowing for minimal hardware requirements and low battery drain for the operating device.
If you like a traditional TV interface and remote, this is not for you. If you don’t use a smartphone or tablet, this is not for you. If you already have a setup that can do most or all these things, this might not be for you.