Latest Chromecast
50 bucks on Amazon. Clueless on model, etc. And I'm not going to look it up. You know what I mean.
This could be in review but I really wanted to fall into entertainment. Because this did up the game.
I had to get a couple more of these because I found that guests were casting to my Chromecast accidentally. I have a couple of smart-ish TVs downstairs which have a whole bunch of services on them already programmed in for guests. But people bring their entertainment with them as long as they have a good internet connection and I give them Wi-Fi to gigabit fiber internet. So they simply want a cast from their phones. So I had to get a couple more Chromecast.
I have a couple from a few years back that do the job but don't have a remote and have whatever their limited resolution/crispness is. So I figure I'll throw those downstairs and pick up a couple of latest and greatest.
Other than casting my phone while web surfing, most services are already built into my laser projector TV from LG. It works well with my remote and does the job for YouTube and prime and Netflix etc. So I never bothered with a third-party device feeding into it before.
My TV could be casted directly to but the connection was flaky. So I would always use the older Chromecast box simply as a cast receiver device.
I was missing out.
To start off, speeds and feeds, the interaction with the Chromecast device as a little smart TV box for various services is much much faster than doing it with my current Chromecast or TV. There's a tiny lag in the base interaction with the TV. So immediately you feel the crispness of the interaction with the new Chromecast on the menus and such. But then anytime you do anything that touches the network such as start a video or fast forward a video, it is much much faster. The network interaction is incredible compared to the TV.
Local network interaction is noticeably faster as far as screencasting the phone and simply scrolling or showing video. I use the phone as a touchpad to scroll while looking at the screen and there's always that hint of lag as the scroll goes up or down while casting. It doesn't happen with this device.
I've been trained to accept crap from the previous setup but now that I have the latest Chromecast I do not want to go back ever. And I won't.
Then add into the architecture and design of the menu system and the interaction and how it feeds the various selection possibilities to the top menus. It simply does it well. It pulls out a whole bunch of suggestions from your various services and free sources and throws them into the menus at the top level should you want them. You want to drill down into an individual service, go ahead, it's easy, but you don't have to.
That was always an issue with the previous systems I've worked with. They did it badly and they spent most of their time trying to sell me stuff. This offers a line of rental stuff but the vast majority of what it offers me I've already paid for and is free to me.
The tiny little remote that came with it automatically figured it out. No pairing or telling the TV or the remote with the TV system is. I assume it's doing it via talking to the HDMI channel.
The TV has a soundbar hooked to it and is capable of handling the volume in sub increments as compared to my main remote. I always disliked my main TV remote because the volume increments were too big as compared to the soundbar remote, but the soundbar remote simply sucks (it's huge and unwieldy) and I'm not holding on to it while using the TV.
When M is sleeping a door away I always want to cut the sound to the bare minimum of what I can hear clearly. Same thing for when I have guests downstairs and I don't want loud music or a car chase scene to disturb them. I hate wearing headphones or ear plugs so the stereo is for me. I have to get to the point of me being able to hear the dialogue and then I notch it down. Typically that drops that too far and makes it too quiet. I know there's sub increments in between there. This remote automatically handles that. I use my main remote to set the max volume and then I vary within the top level easily using the small remote.
Also, the main remote that came with my TV automatically operates the Chromecast menu system. So for the most part, there is no pain of multiple device/ multiple remote confusion. Both remotes work on the vast majority of the controls on both the TV menu system which includes applications and the Chromecast menu system. So now both M and I have our own individual remotes as needed rather than saying: hey, toss me the remote.
Then add in the live channel selection. I have not had live cable for about 10 years. That means I haven't dealt with commercials nor have I had the level of distraction possible with the hundreds and hundreds of various channels. I can't pause them, this is not a DVR system, so either watch them as they flitter by or track down the show if you really want to see it and watch it via whatever method is available.
M loves the assortment of murder porn running at all times and she does not care about the commercials. She might actually consider this a benefit. I can turn an hour-long show into 2 hours by telling her to pause while I ramble on about something. This can be annoying. Now she can tell me to wait until the show is done.
It's fast enough to run some decent racing Android games. So I have a full wall immersive racing game that I can play with while I wait for the next generation of CPUs in the next couple of months. I ordered a Bluetooth gamepad that should be here in a day or two.
On setup the actual cast did not work. The name was not presented to me after setup was done. I ignored it and worked on it the next day and the name magically popped up. I'm talking to it via a pixel so everything's Google here so there should be no technical interaction failure.
There's some type of further setup I have to do because if I have it paused for more than a certain amount of time it actually turns off my TV. That would be perfectly acceptable for most setups, but in my case, when that happens, the connection to my soundbar disappears and I have to reconnect that. I'm sure it will be simple enough, but I just noticed it while dictating this message. Standard power saving feature that I will turn off.
Okay, bottom line, I love it and it is well worth the money and will spend more time exploring this tiny little powerful device.
This could be in review but I really wanted to fall into entertainment. Because this did up the game.
I had to get a couple more of these because I found that guests were casting to my Chromecast accidentally. I have a couple of smart-ish TVs downstairs which have a whole bunch of services on them already programmed in for guests. But people bring their entertainment with them as long as they have a good internet connection and I give them Wi-Fi to gigabit fiber internet. So they simply want a cast from their phones. So I had to get a couple more Chromecast.
I have a couple from a few years back that do the job but don't have a remote and have whatever their limited resolution/crispness is. So I figure I'll throw those downstairs and pick up a couple of latest and greatest.
Other than casting my phone while web surfing, most services are already built into my laser projector TV from LG. It works well with my remote and does the job for YouTube and prime and Netflix etc. So I never bothered with a third-party device feeding into it before.
My TV could be casted directly to but the connection was flaky. So I would always use the older Chromecast box simply as a cast receiver device.
I was missing out.
To start off, speeds and feeds, the interaction with the Chromecast device as a little smart TV box for various services is much much faster than doing it with my current Chromecast or TV. There's a tiny lag in the base interaction with the TV. So immediately you feel the crispness of the interaction with the new Chromecast on the menus and such. But then anytime you do anything that touches the network such as start a video or fast forward a video, it is much much faster. The network interaction is incredible compared to the TV.
Local network interaction is noticeably faster as far as screencasting the phone and simply scrolling or showing video. I use the phone as a touchpad to scroll while looking at the screen and there's always that hint of lag as the scroll goes up or down while casting. It doesn't happen with this device.
I've been trained to accept crap from the previous setup but now that I have the latest Chromecast I do not want to go back ever. And I won't.
Then add into the architecture and design of the menu system and the interaction and how it feeds the various selection possibilities to the top menus. It simply does it well. It pulls out a whole bunch of suggestions from your various services and free sources and throws them into the menus at the top level should you want them. You want to drill down into an individual service, go ahead, it's easy, but you don't have to.
That was always an issue with the previous systems I've worked with. They did it badly and they spent most of their time trying to sell me stuff. This offers a line of rental stuff but the vast majority of what it offers me I've already paid for and is free to me.
The tiny little remote that came with it automatically figured it out. No pairing or telling the TV or the remote with the TV system is. I assume it's doing it via talking to the HDMI channel.
The TV has a soundbar hooked to it and is capable of handling the volume in sub increments as compared to my main remote. I always disliked my main TV remote because the volume increments were too big as compared to the soundbar remote, but the soundbar remote simply sucks (it's huge and unwieldy) and I'm not holding on to it while using the TV.
When M is sleeping a door away I always want to cut the sound to the bare minimum of what I can hear clearly. Same thing for when I have guests downstairs and I don't want loud music or a car chase scene to disturb them. I hate wearing headphones or ear plugs so the stereo is for me. I have to get to the point of me being able to hear the dialogue and then I notch it down. Typically that drops that too far and makes it too quiet. I know there's sub increments in between there. This remote automatically handles that. I use my main remote to set the max volume and then I vary within the top level easily using the small remote.
Also, the main remote that came with my TV automatically operates the Chromecast menu system. So for the most part, there is no pain of multiple device/ multiple remote confusion. Both remotes work on the vast majority of the controls on both the TV menu system which includes applications and the Chromecast menu system. So now both M and I have our own individual remotes as needed rather than saying: hey, toss me the remote.
Then add in the live channel selection. I have not had live cable for about 10 years. That means I haven't dealt with commercials nor have I had the level of distraction possible with the hundreds and hundreds of various channels. I can't pause them, this is not a DVR system, so either watch them as they flitter by or track down the show if you really want to see it and watch it via whatever method is available.
M loves the assortment of murder porn running at all times and she does not care about the commercials. She might actually consider this a benefit. I can turn an hour-long show into 2 hours by telling her to pause while I ramble on about something. This can be annoying. Now she can tell me to wait until the show is done.
It's fast enough to run some decent racing Android games. So I have a full wall immersive racing game that I can play with while I wait for the next generation of CPUs in the next couple of months. I ordered a Bluetooth gamepad that should be here in a day or two.
On setup the actual cast did not work. The name was not presented to me after setup was done. I ignored it and worked on it the next day and the name magically popped up. I'm talking to it via a pixel so everything's Google here so there should be no technical interaction failure.
There's some type of further setup I have to do because if I have it paused for more than a certain amount of time it actually turns off my TV. That would be perfectly acceptable for most setups, but in my case, when that happens, the connection to my soundbar disappears and I have to reconnect that. I'm sure it will be simple enough, but I just noticed it while dictating this message. Standard power saving feature that I will turn off.
Okay, bottom line, I love it and it is well worth the money and will spend more time exploring this tiny little powerful device.
