Just bought a ChromeCast.. Now what...

[majorpayne]

Ok so on the spur of the moment I bought this bad boy.

Now i'm trying to figure out what do use it with... my current gadgets hooked to TV

Xbox 360
PC running XBMC
RCA internet Music System (won from company party)

Stuff in the office (den)

Many PC's
Nexus 7 (2013)
2 Phones
Synology NAS
Bunch of External Hard Drive (deal to good to pass up)

So I'm not sure what formats the Chromcast will run nor not run.. mkv?
Will it read files that are still zipped? (XBMC does)

Did I waste money on a gadget that i'm not going to use?

 

[stlcards504]

I think the items it will run is pretty limited right now. I have one and have only used it for Netflix and YouTube at this point, not sure what else it will run, but haven't really looked into it either. The kids like it because they don't have any sort of internet TV connection in the bedroom so it's nice for them to plug it in and watch stuff on the big TV rather than on a phone or ipod.

 

[mavrrick]

The CC needs a 1080p video stream. It isn't going to do anything to manipulate a file and such.

You have to think of the CC simply as a portal. And not a complete play back solution. Some solutions are as simple as just sending the raw file to be played back, and some provide robust content management and metadata.

Plex is a great example of a robust playback solution loaded with features beyond simple playback.

I think the question is what are you trying to improve on from the devices you have.

Based on raw functionality, it won't beat the htpc with xbmc. What I like about it the CC is that I can use the touch interface on my tab our phone to send it content from plex or netflix. The remote interface most TV's use just doesn't compare to a well thought out touch interface in my opinion.

Posted via Android Central App on my Note 3

 

[majorpayne]

The CC needs a 1080p video stream. It isn't going to do anything to manipulate a file and such.

You have to think of the CC simply as a portal. And not a complete play back solution. Some solutions are as simple as just sending the raw file to be played back, and some provide robust content management and metadata.

Plex is a great example of a robust playback solution loaded with features beyond simple playback.

I think the question is what are you trying to improve on from the devices you have.

Based on raw functionality, it won't beat the htpc with xbmc. What I like about it the CC is that I can use the touch interface on my tab our phone to send it content from plex or netflix. The remote interface most TV's use just doesn't compare to a well thought out touch interface in my opinion.

Posted via Android Central App on my Note 3

So it sounds like is when i have something on the 7 or phones and want to put it on the screen this is the way to do it.. ok

 

[mavrrick]

Well depending on what you have for computers you could use Plex and have that serve all of your media needs through the CC.

Part of the issue is what do you need it to do that you can't already. With any htpc that has a decent setup it can't really provide more multimedia features. So then it is stuff other then multimedia. Like user interface and sharing content.

I am about to ditch my htpc and just use plex and the CC. If plex could use a tv tuner I already would have.

But i agree with all the stuff you have, it is hard to say what would be your best use. I suspect it could replace some stuff depending on what you want to do.

One more thing. Plex media server can also install on your Synology appliance.

Posted via Android Central App on my Note 3

 

[majorpayne]

Well depending on what you have for computers you could use Plex and have that serve all of your media needs through the CC.

Part of the issue is what do you need it to do that you can't already. With any htpc that has a decent setup it can't really provide more multimedia features. So then it is stuff other then multimedia. Like user interface and sharing content.

I am about to ditch my htpc and just use plex and the CC. If plex could use a tv tuner I already would have.

But i agree with all the stuff you have, it is hard to say what would be your best use. I suspect it could replace some stuff depending on what you want to do.

One more thing. Plex media server can also install on your Synology appliance.

Posted via Android Central App on my Note 3

I have never dealt with plex before so i'll need to look into this... I have a ds212j and it seems that transcoding is not supported will the chromecast do that?

 

[mavrrick]

I have never dealt with plex before so i'll need to look into this... I have a ds212j and it seems that transcoding is not supported will the chromecast do that?

Yea. That is a problem with some smaller home nas appliances. They just aren't made with the CPU to handle the transcoding. If you configure Plex to do direct play/stream you could possibly get it to work. Then you could run into issues with content out of the house if you don't have a robust enough Internet connection.

Plex can be a very robust multimedia tool if you take a bit of time to get familiar with all of it's features.

 

[majorpayne]

Yea. That is a problem with some smaller home nas appliances. They just aren't made with the CPU to handle the transcoding. If you configure Plex to do direct play/stream you could possibly get it to work. Then you could run into issues with content out of the house if you don't have a robust enough Internet connection.

Plex can be a very robust multimedia tool if you take a bit of time to get familiar with all of it's features.

I download all type of files.. avi, mkv so i'll just have to test.. my Raspberry pi seems to run everything fine and it's less powerful i think then my NAS

 

[mavrrick]

The pi probably has decent hardware decoding. If most of your content is downloaded it may not be HD which makes transcoding allot easier.

Posted via Android Central App