Let's Go Blues

So, we're a Chromecast house. We have two. One in the basement on the 60" plasma and one in the kitchen on the smaller 24" LED.
We've had one since they launched, and I just got the 2nd one last night at Target as I had a gift card I wanted to use.
Love 'em. I was streaming Gamecenter Live from my laptop to my tv last night...worked great.

If you don't know what a Chromecast is...it is an HDMI dongle you plug into your tv that allows you to stream audio, video, photos & websites from your phone, tablet, or laptop/desktop to your tv over your local wifi connection using specific apps or a Google Chrome browser extension. They cost about $35...no monthly fees or anything to use it.

It's very similar to Roku and the Amazon Fire Stick...but you can cast your laptop/desktop screen to your tv. That feature is the main reason why I chose Chromecast.

Anyone else have a Chromecast? If so, what do you use it for?
I'm sure some of you have a Roku. If so, which one? What are your thoughts? Pros/cons?
Apple TV?
Amazon Fire Stick?

I use my Chromecast primarily for:
- Casting NHL Gamecenter Live to my TV
- Casting my Google Play Music & Movies
- Casting any movie I find online from any site to my TV
- Casting a Google+ Photos album, which basically acts as a slideshow with the local time, weather and info about the photo as an overlay. You can also ask Google Now "What is on my Chromecast?" and it will give you info about the photo on the screen. Just found that feature. Kind of neat if you are displaying Google's nature or space photos...which is the default.

I haven't done this, but anyone with an Android phone can cast content to my Chromecast if they have access to my WIFI network. They just have to pull it up on their phone or tablet and cast it.

I don't subscribe to Hulu Plus or Netflix. If I did, I'd use it for that quite a bit I am sure. I do cast the occasional Hulu free content.

What I want to do, when I have time, is to start using a Plex server I recently set up here at home. I just need to rip and convert my DVD collection to my PC so I can use Plex to cast any movie from my collection straight to the tv.

We just got a Roku 3 for Christmas from my folks. We aren't too picky about that sort of thing, we really just wanted a device to watch Netflix back in our bedroom. So far, so good on that front. My wife has used it more than I have but we like it a lot. I wasn't too cracked about about the Chromecast because I didn't want to have to use 2 devices to make the thing work. As for the Roku 3, the picture is great, we haven't run into any slowness or issues or anything like that.

dmiles2186 wrote:We just got a Roku 3 for Christmas from my folks. We aren't too picky about that sort of thing, we really just wanted a device to watch Netflix back in our bedroom. So far, so good on that front. My wife has used it more than I have but we like it a lot. I wasn't too cracked about about the Chromecast because I didn't want to have to use 2 devices to make the thing work. As for the Roku 3, the picture is great, we haven't run into any slowness or issues or anything like that.

Roku and Chromecast require the same number of devices to function.
The Roku has a remote...and the Chromecast uses your phone/laptop/tablet as the remote.
Same thing really.

I torrent just about everything except for live sporting events. I have a seedbox that I use to gather all my media, then download to my home server. I've stream the videos to my two htpc's for my two main tv's running kodi (or xbmc). I've been using an app on xbmc called genesis recently to stream directly from internet movies and tv shows, very impressed with how that's been working.

I've had a roku in the past streaming from a plex server and it worked okay for me but not good enough. It had a hard time keeping up with the HD videos, fine for lower quality but if I wanted true HD and surround sound it didn't really work very well. Forget skipping around or fast-forwarding a HD movie that was impossible.

I've been tempted to get chromecast to play around but how many more ways do I need?

I've got a couple Rokus (a 3 and a 2) and they're great. I like that they are standalone and don't require a phone or laptop to generate the content. My kids can grab the remote and go without having to mess with my phone or the computer. My biggest beef with it is still the NHL Gamecenter channel could be better and drives me nuts sometimes.

I was Chromecasting some seemingly 1080p stuff last night... The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It was the highest quality stuff I have ever seen streaming. Looked amazing on the PC. But when I cast it to the tv using the Chromecast Chrome browser tab extension, it ran a little choppy over the Chromecast.
That's the first time that has happened...but then again, it wasn't from a Chromecast app. I have cast movies over Google Play and it ran smooth, and I've also cast Gamecenter live and it was smooth.
I ended up just watching it on my PC.

So I guess the real high quality stuff cast from Chrome on a computer can be a little choppy at times. I'm not sure what Gamecenter live streams at, but I'm guessing it's not 1080p. Probably 720p max, eh? All their site says is "HD Quality".

big d note wrote:I've got a couple Rokus (a 3 and a 2) and they're great. I like that they are standalone and don't require a phone or laptop to generate the content. My kids can grab the remote and go without having to mess with my phone or the computer. My biggest beef with it is still the NHL Gamecenter channel could be better and drives me nuts sometimes.

Curt, this is what I was meaning by not having 2 devices to work the Roku. It's just a remote, I'm not having to turn on a laptop or tablet and run it from there. Just old fashioned remote, point, click, watch type of thing.

Big d note, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Gamecenter channel. Is it a Roku issue or is it just that Gamecenter sucks?

so, um...all of my televisions connect to the intarweb toobs and I don't use any of these things...what is the point of having them? Is there some magical content I could get that I wouldn't receive otherwise?

I know a few things on Hulu are PC only, but I got that covered in those rare instances. Beyond that, I have no idea why you would spend money on these things.

not_a_wings_fan wrote:so, um...all of my televisions connect to the intarweb toobs and I don't use any of these things...what is the point of having them? Is there some magical content I could get that I wouldn't receive otherwise?

I know a few things on Hulu are PC only, but I got that covered in those rare instances. Beyond that, I have no idea why you would spend money on these things.

Because my TVs don't connect to the interweb toobs, thus I have to have a secondary device that does so I can get my Netfligz and my HBOGOz and my Hulooz and such.

not_a_wings_fan wrote:so, um...all of my televisions connect to the intarweb toobs and I don't use any of these things...what is the point of having them? Is there some magical content I could get that I wouldn't receive otherwise?

I know a few things on Hulu are PC only, but I got that covered in those rare instances. Beyond that, I have no idea why you would spend money on these things.

Quite often, the Smart TV interfaces on most TV's more or less sucks.
The software on Roku is supposed to be vastly superior to the software on a Smart TV. And with Chromecast, your phone/tablet/pc is most of the interface.

Can you view a browser window on your TV? Or watch video from ANY website on your TV? If not, and you would like to, a Chromecast might be of interest to you.

dmiles2186 wrote:Big d note, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Gamecenter channel. Is it a Roku issue or is it just that Gamecenter sucks?

It's the way the NHL manages their servers. If you want to watch a game either live or a day later, it's fine. I actually love the condensed game option for watching a game later.

However, if you want to use Gamecenter for "time-shifting", then you're boned. I usually start a game an hour or two late after the kids have gone to bed and I have time to sit down and pay attention to the game. The problem is that the game disappears from Gamecenter as soon as it ends. It's available through the browser interface still, but not the Roku channel. So I have to grab my laptop and hook it up to the TV every time this happens.

When it works, the video quality is better on Roku than through my laptop, and it's easier for me to skip commercials on Roku, so I keep hoping they will fix it. It has gotten a little better this year.

big d note wrote:

dmiles2186 wrote:Big d note, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Gamecenter channel. Is it a Roku issue or is it just that Gamecenter sucks?

It's the way the NHL manages their servers. If you want to watch a game either live or a day later, it's fine. I actually love the condensed game option for watching a game later.

However, if you want to use Gamecenter for "time-shifting", then you're boned. I usually start a game an hour or two late after the kids have gone to bed and I have time to sit down and pay attention to the game. The problem is that the game disappears from Gamecenter as soon as it ends. It's available through the browser interface still, but not the Roku channel. So I have to grab my laptop and hook it up to the TV every time this happens.

When it works, the video quality is better on Roku than through my laptop, and it's easier for me to skip commercials on Roku, so I keep hoping they will fix it. It has gotten a little better this year.

You should get a Chromecast to have for instances like that. I used to get annoyed when I had to go hook up my laptop to my tv for something. Not an issue anymore for me.

I'm tempted to get a Roku just to play with. But I don't subscribe to anything. No Netflix, No Hulu Plus...so the best services wouldn't get used. I do have Gamecenter though...and I will have Amazon Prime Streaming here shortly...so... maybe I'll get one to check it out. I'd probably go with the Roku Stick if I did. $50 is do-able to play with. $100 is a bit much to get something just to play with though.

cprice12 wrote:You should get a Chromecast to have for instances like that. I used to get annoyed when I had to go hook up my laptop to my tv for something. Not an issue anymore for me.

I'm tempted to get a Roku just to play with. But I don't subscribe to anything. No Netflix, No Hulu Plus...so the best services wouldn't get used. I do have Gamecenter though...and I will have Amazon Prime Streaming here shortly...so... maybe I'll get one to check it out. I'd probably go with the Roku Stick if I did. $50 is do-able to play with. $100 is a bit much to get something just to play with though.

That's a good point. I keep seeing the Chromecast for cheap and trying to come up with an excuse to buy one. That would be a good use for it.

I got my parents a Smart Blu-Ray player for Christmas. The navigation is kind of terrible for streaming compared to Roku, but they don't subscribed to any services so I didn't think the Roku would be worth it for them. At least the Blu-Ray lets them watch discs too, and the streaming is there if you can navigate the crappy menus. So far my dad is enjoying YouTube on the TV and some other free stuff we found.

Anybody have any experience with Amazon Fire Stick? They are $30 today including remote with Alexa, but I don't really know this market at all.