Chromecast Question

[chicken12]

Hi, I have a synology NAS I am trying to cast from to a chromecast. I am trying to make it easy for my wife and kids to use but I am out of inputs on my TV. I was thinking I could just use a cheap auto switch HDMI switcher between the TV and my DVR so when they cast something it would auto switch as it sensed the HDMI output from the Chromecast and when they were done streaming it would just flip back to our DVR since the output of the Chromecast would stop. Well I just found out after I bought it that it looks like there is no way to sleep or shut off the HDMI output on the Chromecast. Am I missing something here? Any pointers on how to make this work easy for the family or recommendations on another Chromecast type device to stream from my NAS? Thanks!!

 

[itguyjax8430]

Hi, I have a synology NAS I am trying to cast from to a chromecast. I am trying to make it easy for my wife and kids to use but I am out of inputs on my TV. I was thinking I could just use a cheap auto switch HDMI switcher between the TV and my DVR so when they cast something it would auto switch as it sensed the HDMI output from the Chromecast and when they were done streaming it would just flip back to our DVR since the output of the Chromecast would stop. Well I just found out after I bought it that it looks like there is no way to sleep or shut off the HDMI output on the Chromecast. Am I missing something here? Any pointers on how to make this work easy for the family or recommendations on another Chromecast type device to stream from my NAS? Thanks!!

Welcome to Android Central!

Most streaming sticks are always powered on because they have their own power sources. You can always get the HDMI switcher and just put the least used HDMI source on the switcher and just plug the Chromecast directly in to the TV.

 

[Rukbat]

Chromecast comes on when you connect to it. That switches the HDMI switch. When it goes off, there's no active "switch back" signal (which, in most uses, would require memory in the TV, to remember which input was in use when Chromecast became active). Have you tried turning the DVR on when you're not casting? That may activate the switch to switch to the DVR input.

 

[sfringer]

I picked up a fairly inexpensive Apogee 3-port HDMI switch from Amazon a while back. It is an auto-switcher, which when detecting active input switches to that source. It has a sense of "priority" so that if two sources are active, the source in the lower numbered port wins. So, my Blu-ray player is in port 1 (it fully powers off) and my Chromecast is in port 2. Since the Chromecast is always powered on, when I switch my TV to the input where the switch is connected, the Chromecast is always displayed. When I power on my Blu-ray player, it takes precedence and becomes active. Seems to act like what you want, and I know in my house my wife/kids don't need to do anything but change input and turn on the Blu-ray.