Multiple Chromecast devices

[Sh0wtime04]

So I have been pondering my "man cave" setup for a couple weeks for the upcoming football season (college and pro), and it seems like Chromecast may be the most cost-effective solution for what I want. But I am wondering if it is entirely feasible, here is my idea:

I have Xfinity, and a HD-DVR on my main 60" plasma (which will show my favorite team), and 2 23" 1080p computer monitors. I plan on purchasing 2 more identical 23" monitors, for a total of 4 23" monitors. Now my idea is/was to get a nice graphics card to handle the output from my desktop to each monitor as I can watch live TV on any computer/mobile device as long as I am within my home wifi. However, buying 4 Chromecast dongles would be much cheaper. I could ease the burden off my desktop and use some other tablets/laptops/phones to run the Xfinity AnyPlay app to watch live TV.

Would I run in to network congestion when doing this? Does anyone else see any potential issues with this setup? Also, I bought Sunday ticket from DirecTV (via Madden 25 promo on Amazon) so I'll be using their app to stream all games on that too.

Thanks in advance.

*EDIT* each Chromecast dongle will be no more than 10ft away from wireless router.

 

[Devlyn16]

My concern is you are talking about streaming MULTIPLE HD video streams over a single wi-fi network simulteniously. Someone smarter than me should be able to calculate how much data you are moving and then tell you if your Wi-Fi router can theroretically handle that.

On top of which I'm not clear on how you are going to CAST to the various devices. Has the Xfinity anyplay App or any other Football related app Incorporated Chromecast support yet? if not it could be a very long season as you wait for them to do so.

 

[AlphaVictor87]

Also wouldn't you need at least 4 different devices for the 4 different chromecasts? I don't have more than 1 so i'm not sure of how it works, but i don't think one device can be casting something to two different chromecasts.

 

[Craig King]

Also wouldn't you need at least 4 different devices for the 4 different chromecasts? I don't have more than 1 so i'm not sure of how it works, but i don't think one device can be casting something to two different chromecasts.

I think this is mostly accurate, but i would think It could be application dependent. It does appear that with netflix atleast it wants to only stream per controlling device.

Here is a question though. Could you have multiple Chromecasts that use different apps. Like have a nexus 10 stream netflix to 1 CC and then music to another in another room. I don't see what that isn't possible. With that same thought why couldn't a developer design there app to allow the controlling device tell different CC's to get different content if they so choose. Don't forget that the tab or phone aren't streaming to the CC, they just tell the CC what to go get and stream.

I think the big question here though is also bandwith. If this guy gets everything needed to actually provide all 5 streams at once what will the bandwith requirements be like, and will his wifi be able to handle it.

Not sure about what the CC gets but i know as an example Vudu states a minimum of 4.5mbps is requires for their HDX stream. So looking at a good 22.5 Mbps needed the whole time with no blips. Depending on what he has that may or not be significant.

 

[PhantomPhreak53]

If your are getting a graphics card that can handle all 4 monitors, why not just extend your desktop to each and then open up 4 browser windows on your computer and use something like vipstand.com to stream each of the games you wish to watch? Then you wouldn't even need a chromecast. You would just place a browser in each monitor. I do that for my two monitors right now if there is 2 games on at the same time that I want to watch.