Finicky Chromecast & General Questions

[radef]

I got my Chromecast through Amazon and have been playing around with it a couple days. I'm curious if my experience is anything like others... I have found the Chromecast and associated programs to be finicky - is this the typical user experience? I think I'm looking for a sanity check here.

During my setup - I had all kinds of issues. I connected my Chromecast to my surround receiver - I can see the "setup" screen on the TV. The Chromecast phone app used to setup the device wouldn't work. It never found my Chromecast. So I switched to my Macbook Air - it could find the Chromecast, but couldn't configure it. Finally, I went to my desktop PC - it wouldn't work until I turned on the Wifi Connection and disconnected the LAN...then it found the Chromecast, I was able to configure it, etc. But then my Macbook air couldn't cast to it...nor could my phone. After messing around for 30 minutes or so - I gave up - and disconnected the device and took it to another TV. From there - I was able to configure it from my desktop PC and everything was happy.

After setting it up on the 2nd TV - I moved it back to the first location (surround sound RX). Then I could cast from my phone & desktop PC. The Macbook Air had some issues casting the tab in Chrome - but I saw another thread on here that described solving that on Haswell's - that's on my to do list today.

The finickyness continues... If I open the Chromecast app on my phone - it doesn't find the device any more - it says "No Chromecasts found on" my network. My desktop PC can find it just fine. Yet my phone can still cast Youtube videos to the device.

I'm now up to Day 3. I've yet to find the cast button in Google Music - could someone send me a screenshot? I have the latest version - I'm going nuts looking for it.

Is my experience typical? Are others struggling with "normal" operation? Maybe I'm confused on what normal should be...

Once my Chromecast is configured (like I said, I did so with my Desktop PC) - should my Android phone find the Chromecast using the Chromecast App?
Where's the cast button in the Google Music Android app? Like I said - I haven't found it yet.

I'm using Ubiquiti UniFi hotspots in my house for Wifi distribution. Is anyone else use the UniFi devices in their Chromecast setup? I suspect these are a bit rare in the "typical" config and wonder if they are related to my problem. (as a side note, I love these UniFi devices - automatic roaming between the hotspots...flawless operation since installation 1.5 years ago...great aesthetics...PoE...etc)

 

[ziggy682]

It sounds like your Chromecast is having WiFi reception issues. Have you tried connecting it with the HDMI extender to pull it away from the body of the TV a bit? I hear that can help.

I don't have my Chromecast yet, but the cast button already pulls up in Play Music when I'm connected to Bluetooth. It's very obvious, and you can't miss it. The cast button only appears if the phone senses another device.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[WwonderLlama]

My setup was completely smooth. I plugged in the Chromecast and it directed me to google.com/chromecast/setup. I used my Nexus 4 to do that (it basically redirected me to the Play store to download the chromecast app). It looked like the Chromecast app activated my phone's wifi AP and the chromecast auto-connected directly to my phone. I followed the onscreen prompts to set up the chromecast to use my WPA2 wifi. It then connected to my home wifi network and the chromecast app complained that I was on the 5Ghz network while the chromecast was on the 2.4, but I just clicked 'Okay' and it found it anyway. Bing-bang-boom, I was up and running.

I have the Cast button in all the apps that support it. It sounds like you may have wireless issues.

TL;DR: You should be able to do setup with your mobile device. The install (typically) should be pretty painless.

 

[gabbott]

My experience so far has been very smooth. Even streaming hulu from a chrome browser. I suspect Wi-Fi reception and performance plays a big part.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jase33]

Can anyone tell me if chromecast works with chromebook? thx