Seems to be a bit of an awkward hybrid - you can't use it without another device to act as controller, but you also can't use it without an independent internet connection to act as a source. So no OOB video from the device, and no video streamed from your mobile device.
Is that right?
Great question! I don't know the answer to that one though.
How would a family stop duelling devices? If any Chromecast enabled application can work, and you have four family members each with a device, ... anyone with an IQ over 80 can see where this is going.
With AppleTV you have one remote to rule it all. Not with this thing... anarchy in the living room.
Obviously, there has to be some form of pairing taking place, which never is as quick and smooth as people say it is. But if there isn't, Lord help the family.
Seems to be a bit of an awkward hybrid - you can't use it without another device to act as controller, but you also can't use it without an independent internet connection to act as a source. So no OOB video from the device, and no video streamed from your mobile device.
Is that right?
Yes, I believe so. Any content played through Chromecast has to be available on the web/cloud. There is no streaming of any content that resides on your device or on your home servers. That's one of the main reasons I'm not considering one. I already have a solution for playing local content. Though for $35 it might be worth playing with.
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
This is identical to apples airplay in that sense. However a lot of content can be "flung" without needing to mirror and thus no battery drain.
Will the mirroring option allow for playback of a movie file stored on a tablet then? Sure you'd want to be plugged in while doing it, but it sounds like that would address Crowley's concern.
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
In cases where Chromecast is playing video streams, and not mirroring Browser Tabs, it does not use your mobile device after the movie starts playing. YouTube, NetFlix, Google Play, anything that has a codec supportable by Chrome (H264 or VP8/VP9) is streamable from the cloud and does not require the device.
Lots of denials in these threads. You can wire up several rooms in your house for 1/3 the cost of Apple TV, it takes less space and stays elegantly hidden behind the TV, most modern HDMI sets have USB connectors to power it, it controls the TV via HDMI-CEC. You can control it with any Android, iOS, or laptop, it can work unassisted afterwards.
Apple TV is overkill for this application. Maybe if it starts supporting games and becomes a game console, but for just streaming console, the idea of using your smartphone to control a $35 streamer is a much better value proposition.
And you can bet that soon there will be Google Now integration with touchless-voice "Ok, Chromecast, play House of Cards"
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
Nice. Now all content visible on your device is being read by google servers. Brilliant exploit of users for advertising purposes.
Will the mirroring option allow for playback of a movie file stored on a tablet then? Sure you'd want to be plugged in while doing it, but it sounds like that would address Crowley's concern.
Good question. From PC/Mac perspective the mirroring can only happen inside a browser (Chrome) window, I'd guess it is same for phone. You can only mirror a chrome browser window, nothing else.
Good question. From PC/Mac perspective the mirroring can only happen inside a browser (Chrome) window, I'd guess it is same for phone. You can only mirror a chrome browser window, nothing else.
Or in other words you can only stream local content after you allow google servers to access it. Very doubtful you can use this device without signing into a google server as the content must come from google server
This device looks better than AppleTV for the simple reason that it works with both iOS and Android devices, whereas AppleTV only works on iOS devices. It seems that it would be nice if friends were able to stream stuff to your TV regardless of whether they coincidentally happened to have the same brand of device as you.
I wonder if it can stream from Mac/Windows computers?
But you have code specufically for it. Google could have licensed AirPlay and it could work for all apps on both platforms.
Mmmm.. I don't think you got my meaning when I said 'ties up' . How about 'required' instead? Try leaving the house with the device that was streaming to the Google thingy, to go shopping or whatever, and see how the rest of the family enjoy looking at a the blank TV screen after you left!
You clearly haven't seen the presentation.
In their example, they were streaming from an iPhone to Chromecast. Then they switched it over to the Nexus 7. They even scrubbed the vid and it synced to the iphone.
What make you think the content was ON the iPhone. Seems to me only thing iPhone was doing was acting as controller of google service which actually contained the content. Or are you suggesting iPhone sent content to nexus 7 and it sent the content back again to iPhone.
This is identical to apples airplay in that sense. However a lot of content can be "flung" without needing to mirror and thus no battery drain.
There is no battery drain on Chromecast, either. Once it starts playing, you can power off your phone, put it to sleep, do something else with it, etc.
Did anybody actually watch the presentation? I watched it live instead of seeing this headline and making up my mind based on other things than it not saying "Apple."
I have to admit I don't entirely understand why many Apple customers make a virtue of the company having high profits. I mean: I like my iPad, but I would like it even better if I hadn't paid a considerable portion of its price directly into Apple's enormous pile of cash.
Maybe all the people who feel this way are investors, which is a different and more obvious story. But why ordinary customers?
If the assertion here (correct me if wrong) is that "The iPad is over priced" -- Then why haven't competitors seen any success? If it is as offensive as you state -- there would be no problem for competition to undercut them and take market.
General consumers, at large, will very much so compromise.
We've gone though throngs of different tablets from Dell, Motorola, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung with different levels of hardware at different levels of prices from $199 to $999. Yet, consumers so far remaining largely disinterested in them.
So I don't think there is as much credit there as you imply there is. Rather I don't entirely understand the "virtue" of opposing Apple charging a premium for their obviously desired product.
I mean, you don't oppose Sony for charging a premium for their electronics, do you?
What make you think the content was ON the iPhone. Seems to me only thing iPhone was doing was acting as controller of google service which actually contained the content. Or are you suggesting iPhone sent content to nexus 7 and it sent the content back again to iPhone.
Think before commenting. Simple.
I believe that's the case, the Chromecast compatible service (netflix or youtube whichever) is serving the content from the cloud, the Nexus7 gained control of the content by connecting to the Chromecast device and attaching itself to the cloud served stream. Obviously you need the same suite of apps on both devices to be able to do this.
Its basicly an android airplay box. What is funny is most TV sets already allowed to "cast" something from a lot of android phones and tablets. Problem is a lot of people with android devices dont know they can do that.
Apparently a lot of Android users don't know they can surf the internet either...
In their example, they were streaming from an iPhone to Chromecast. Then they switched it over to the Nexus 7. They even scrubbed the vid and it synced to the iphone.
Read before commenting. Simple.
AirPlay is peer to peer. This sounds like it requires ALL content to come from the cloud. If its on your device you have to share it with google servers first. Google cant make advertising dollars if they can't see the content you want to stream in peer to peer fashion
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowley
Seems to be a bit of an awkward hybrid - you can't use it without another device to act as controller, but you also can't use it without an independent internet connection to act as a source. So no OOB video from the device, and no video streamed from your mobile device.
Is that right?
Great question! I don't know the answer to that one though.
How would a family stop duelling devices? If any Chromecast enabled application can work, and you have four family members each with a device, ... anyone with an IQ over 80 can see where this is going.
With AppleTV you have one remote to rule it all. Not with this thing... anarchy in the living room.
Obviously, there has to be some form of pairing taking place, which never is as quick and smooth as people say it is. But if there isn't, Lord help the family.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crowley
Seems to be a bit of an awkward hybrid - you can't use it without another device to act as controller, but you also can't use it without an independent internet connection to act as a source. So no OOB video from the device, and no video streamed from your mobile device.
Is that right?
Yes, I believe so. Any content played through Chromecast has to be available on the web/cloud. There is no streaming of any content that resides on your device or on your home servers. That's one of the main reasons I'm not considering one. I already have a solution for playing local content. Though for $35 it might be worth playing with.
When it's mirroring content:
http://allthingsd.com/20130724/sundar-pichai-on-the-difference-between-chromecast-and-google-tv-interview/
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
Google's television strategy in a nutshell:
1. Google TV: a copy of WebTV but with broadband and HD.
2. Nexus Q: a copy of Apple TV, but 3X the price and spherical.
3. Chromecast, totally different from 1. and 2. in every way, because 1. and 2. didn't work.
4. Wait until Apple rolls out their real television strategy.
5. Copy Apple's real television strategy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
When it's mirroring content:
http://allthingsd.com/20130724/sundar-pichai-on-the-difference-between-chromecast-and-google-tv-interview/
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
This is identical to apples airplay in that sense. However a lot of content can be "flung" without needing to mirror and thus no battery drain.
Will the mirroring option allow for playback of a movie file stored on a tablet then? Sure you'd want to be plugged in while doing it, but it sounds like that would address Crowley's concern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
When it's mirroring content:
http://allthingsd.com/20130724/sundar-pichai-on-the-difference-between-chromecast-and-google-tv-interview/
"“Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player,” Pichai said. “Once you say ‘Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,’ it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser.”
Internally, Pichai said his team calls this process “flinging” content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.
Chromecast will also support a second behavior: “mirroring” Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any Web site, not just supported apps — though you’ll draw down the battery on the device that’s being mirrored."
Some media content will have proprietary decoders (DRM) that can only be decoded on the hardware. Netflix is usually done that way but I think they have web streaming alternatives. This happens with Airplay mirroring too but native Apple TV apps have the advantage, even just iTunes streaming.
In cases where Chromecast is playing video streams, and not mirroring Browser Tabs, it does not use your mobile device after the movie starts playing. YouTube, NetFlix, Google Play, anything that has a codec supportable by Chrome (H264 or VP8/VP9) is streamable from the cloud and does not require the device.
Lots of denials in these threads. You can wire up several rooms in your house for 1/3 the cost of Apple TV, it takes less space and stays elegantly hidden behind the TV, most modern HDMI sets have USB connectors to power it, it controls the TV via HDMI-CEC. You can control it with any Android, iOS, or laptop, it can work unassisted afterwards.
Apple TV is overkill for this application. Maybe if it starts supporting games and becomes a game console, but for just streaming console, the idea of using your smartphone to control a $35 streamer is a much better value proposition.
And you can bet that soon there will be Google Now integration with touchless-voice "Ok, Chromecast, play House of Cards"
Nice. Now all content visible on your device is being read by google servers. Brilliant exploit of users for advertising purposes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DroidFTW
Will the mirroring option allow for playback of a movie file stored on a tablet then? Sure you'd want to be plugged in while doing it, but it sounds like that would address Crowley's concern.
Good question. From PC/Mac perspective the mirroring can only happen inside a browser (Chrome) window, I'd guess it is same for phone. You can only mirror a chrome browser window, nothing else.
But you have code specufically for it. Google could have licensed AirPlay and it could work for all apps on both platforms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Mmmm.. I don't think you got my meaning when I said 'ties up' . How about 'required' instead? Try leaving the house with the device that was streaming to the Google thingy, to go shopping or whatever, and see how the rest of the family enjoy looking at a the blank TV screen after you left!
You clearly haven't seen the presentation.
In their example, they were streaming from an iPhone to Chromecast. Then they switched it over to the Nexus 7. They even scrubbed the vid and it synced to the iphone.
Read before commenting. Simple.
Think before commenting. Simple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patpatpat
This is identical to apples airplay in that sense. However a lot of content can be "flung" without needing to mirror and thus no battery drain.
There is no battery drain on Chromecast, either. Once it starts playing, you can power off your phone, put it to sleep, do something else with it, etc.
Did anybody actually watch the presentation? I watched it live instead of seeing this headline and making up my mind based on other things than it not saying "Apple."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arlor
I have to admit I don't entirely understand why many Apple customers make a virtue of the company having high profits. I mean: I like my iPad, but I would like it even better if I hadn't paid a considerable portion of its price directly into Apple's enormous pile of cash.
Maybe all the people who feel this way are investors, which is a different and more obvious story. But why ordinary customers?
If the assertion here (correct me if wrong) is that "The iPad is over priced" -- Then why haven't competitors seen any success? If it is as offensive as you state -- there would be no problem for competition to undercut them and take market.
General consumers, at large, will very much so compromise.
We've gone though throngs of different tablets from Dell, Motorola, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung with different levels of hardware at different levels of prices from $199 to $999. Yet, consumers so far remaining largely disinterested in them.
So I don't think there is as much credit there as you imply there is. Rather I don't entirely understand the "virtue" of opposing Apple charging a premium for their obviously desired product.
I mean, you don't oppose Sony for charging a premium for their electronics, do you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by snova
What make you think the content was ON the iPhone. Seems to me only thing iPhone was doing was acting as controller of google service which actually contained the content. Or are you suggesting iPhone sent content to nexus 7 and it sent the content back again to iPhone.
Think before commenting. Simple.
I believe that's the case, the Chromecast compatible service (netflix or youtube whichever) is serving the content from the cloud, the Nexus7 gained control of the content by connecting to the Chromecast device and attaching itself to the cloud served stream. Obviously you need the same suite of apps on both devices to be able to do this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by herbapou
Its basicly an android airplay box. What is funny is most TV sets already allowed to "cast" something from a lot of android phones and tablets. Problem is a lot of people with android devices dont know they can do that.
Apparently a lot of Android users don't know they can surf the internet either...
AirPlay is peer to peer. This sounds like it requires ALL content to come from the cloud. If its on your device you have to share it with google servers first. Google cant make advertising dollars if they can't see the content you want to stream in peer to peer fashion