
Mirror Your Android Screen to the TV with Chromecast - prashantv
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2014/07/mirror-your-android-screen-to-tv-with.html
======
sandesh247
This is much smoother than I thought it would be. Even full screen youtube
videos seem to have a passable framerate. Too bad the audio doesn't work.

Edit: Yep, restarting did the trick. Have media apps without Chromecast
support suddenly become Chromecast capable? This is pretty awesome.

Edit 2: Why yes, yes they have! Now if only I could stream audio only ...

~~~
notatoad
full screen youtube videos work pretty well with the cast button in the
youtube app, no?

~~~
danieldk
But that's different, it will effectively send the URL of video to the
Chromecast, which will directly get the compressed stream.

Screen casting with Youtube is a good benchmark of screen casting. Of course,
for daily use you'd want to cast from the app directly.

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kayoone
Both my TV and my HTC One have Miracast support so i had this working a couple
of months ago, making the connection is very unreliable though, so i hope the
Chromecast can improve this.

A general thing is that as more and more devices become "smart" in terms of
features and protocols etc, it becomes more and more apparent to me how bad
the software is on many of these devices. My TV and my router are just some
recent examples of buggy firmwares on top of very good hardware. The router
supports lots of features like DLNA and VPN which can hardly be called stable
and the interface and usability is really dated. Hardware and performance
(Netgear R7000 Gigabit Wifi Router) is pretty awesome though.

~~~
fredsted
I think there's a huge startup opportunity somewhere in building reliable,
stable router software with a slick webinterface built in Bootstrap (without
framesets).

Of course, there's the Apple Airports that have excellent stability and UI,
and while I have one and far better than any router I've owned, it doesn't do
stuff like VPN.

~~~
Someone1234
Depends on which Apple Airport you're utilising. In my experience the Airport
Express line (wall socket mounted range extender/WiFi AP) is pretty bad. Seems
to get quite hot under medium loads and needs to be reset a lot. Seems like a
design trade-off in the sense that Apple went with something small and easy to
conceal, but in doing so kind of ignored the heat dissipation.

The Airport Extreme base stations seem pretty solid. But are 100% more
expensive than a comparable Asus offering. I'll leave it to the reader to
decide if they offer 100% more value to you.

I would also like to say that in this day and age having to use an
app/application to configure your router just feels wrong to me. Every router
on the market has had a web-server/webUI since the Linksys WRT54G became
popular. It is obvious Apple does it as an ecosystem lock-in technique, just
to stop Windows/Linux/etc clients from trivially configuring the devices.

~~~
fredsted
AirPort Express is not in wall-socket format anymore. I own the latest one - I
only use it for AirPlay streaming/WiFi bridge, but it has been 100% stable (as
long as you connect it to another AirPort - other routers will cause random
disconnects). Yes it gets hot - any fanless device gets hot - but hot enough
to damage anything. Only bad thing is it doesn't have 802.11ac.

Also, sure, you're probably right about the vendor-lock in thing. But I also
think Apple wants to make sure the user gets a good experience. With a Web app
it's harder to do that. But the apps are _really_ nice and simple to use, and
after I set up a device I don't mess with it besides opening up ports. That's
just the tradeoffs you live with when you get Apple devices.

That's why I think there's a huge opportunity in creating well designed, good-
looking, user friendly network equipment.

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fenomas
Will this let me broadcast my device screen to my laptop, asked everyone who's
ever given a presentation on Android app development ever?

(serious question)

~~~
avighnay
We have always been using AShot successfully till now, though the name is
misleading, it basically streams the Android screen to your laptop, try it
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/ashot/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/ashot/)

~~~
fenomas
Hmm - this is basically transmitting screenshots via the Android SDK, right?
If so, then yeah, I've been using a similar library called droidAtScreen. I
just wish there was a simple way to broadcast Android to a PC at full
framerate, a la iOS' Airplay...

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Zikes
I just tested this with my Nexus 5's camera and it even works with video!

[https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/hvideo-ak-
xfp1/v/t43.1792...](https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/hvideo-ak-
xfp1/v/t43.1792-2/10542151_430697577071162_1227339606_n.mp4?oh=26cfe267df410f7c6dd803eb8725ef9b&oe=53BE604A&__gda__=1404984937_21dfb57e26228d0be7f17a507b6e345c)

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hughdbrown
Now if ChromeCast would only reliably work with my Linux machines.

~~~
izacus
Chromecast DOES work reliably on Linux.

It DOES NOT however not work on bad wifis and networks. Verify you your router
configuration (there's tons of routers that block multicast over Wifi by
default which doesn't work well with Chromecast) and wifi network quality.

~~~
lnanek2
It doesn't work well on good WiFi either. My work WiFi requires a username and
password, so it isn't possible. My home WiFi isolates all clients. Any hotel
WiFi I ever saw requires a click through agreement.

~~~
izacus
Um... I think you mixed up Wifi quality and authentication schemes.

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jahmed
Seriously this is awesome. Its magical. No wires no configuration. I just got
home, tried it, and it worked.

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rahimnathwani
I bought a Moto E, and am running the stock firmware (Android 4.4.3).

I can't use Google Cardboard because the device doesn't have the sensors to
detect movement or the magnetic 'tap'.

I can't use GoShow (which seems to be the most popular app for watching 3D
video) because it crashes.

Today I finally had a reason to buy a Chromecast, until I saw no Moto devices
are on the list of supported devices.

:(

~~~
danieldk
[1] says that support for other devices is coming soon. Given that Motorola is
at the moment still Google, runs nearly vanilla Android, and is usually quick
to get new features, I wouldn't be surprised if at least the Moto G and X get
this soon as well.

The Moto E is really a low-end device, with a relatively weak CPU, so I
wouldn't expect too much at all. Of course, having a Chromecast is still great
for apps that support Chromecast.

[1]
[https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461](https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461)

~~~
rahimnathwani
> The Moto E is really a low-end device, with a relatively weak CPU

Yes. Low-end CPU I can handle, as it's still turing-complete :)

It hadn't occurred to me that I would soon want to use apps that require a
compass and gyroscope :(

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tone
Does it bring up a phone and display apps as they would appear on a phone? Or
do you just get a fullscreen, list of apps etc? I just basically want a
bigger, 1 to 1 direct display of my phone on the screen for demonstrating and
testing apps. Anyone know if this is possible with Chromecast?

~~~
SixSigma
I use a £15 thing I got from eBay that does Miracast and DNLA and outputs
HDMI, the phone/tablet sends over WiFi.

It is a direct mirror of the screen scaled up.

The Chromecast is twice the price.

I use mainly it to watch YouTube stuff with my gran when I visit her.

~~~
RachelF
What's this £15 thing called? I'd like to get one.

~~~
SixSigma
iPazzPort WIFI Display Receiver TV Dongle DLNA Miracast

they are a shade over $20 on ebay.com

There are others. I just took a punt because my Dad bought a Chromecast on the
same day.

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lelandbatey
The use cases they list (images and google maps) are great for static or slow
loading sources. Does this work for video? Can I stream video that's playing
on my phone to the Chromecast and have it look decent? Because that'd be
_amazing_ and I would be extremely happy!

~~~
mikeryan
I doubt it.

I've not yet seen a consumer device were video rendering is done on one device
then displayed wirelessly on another that works well at all. (Note, most
Chromcast apps - Netflix etc) just tell the Chromecast what to play and it
does the rendering.

~~~
rahimnathwani
Eh? I can run XBMC on my MacBook Pro, mirror to AppleTV using the feature
built in to OS X, and watch video on my TV without dragging my laptop to the
living room.

~~~
casperc
Personally I get a fair amount of stuttering when I mirror any device (iPad
mini retina, iPhone 5s, MBP retina early 2013). Its not alot and some people
would not notice/care, but it bugs me. Is yours running as smooth as with
AirPlay streaming (e.g. what the youtube app does)?

I have tried looking into my wireless network, with no result. I am just not
sure if it is as good as it can be but some people don't care, or I should
keep looking.

~~~
izacus
You should keep looking - it should not stutter. Check your actual wifi
bandwidth.

~~~
casperc
I should mention that it is only the video that stutters, not the audio.

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someperson
I wish Galaxy Nexus was supported!

KitKat really should have been released for the device before official support
was discontinued. I kind of feel fleeced given it was a flagship Nexus device
(for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich!)

~~~
jrockway
I believe there were a couple problems; the SoC manufacturer getting out of
the SoC business (TI) made driver development difficult, and the fact that the
image didn't fit in the Galaxy Nexus's flash anyway.

Though it does appear that CynaogenMod eventually ported ICS, so I could be
wrong.

~~~
someperson
Interesting point on TI driver development.

On the second point, KitKat is supposed to run reasonably well on very weak
cheaper mobile hardware with 512mb RAM, which is popular in developing
countries.

Galaxy Nexus has fairly high specifications with 1gb RAM, and at least 16gb of
storage (which presumably is where the operating system is on this device), so
I doubt the image size was the issue.

There is indeed a Cyanogen Mod ROM available (but I'm not sure how much trust
CM). I wonder if Chromecast Android screencasting would work with the CM ROM..

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segmondy
Reminds me of www.tinystic.com ,Tinystic promises to deliver the same thing
and allow you to use your phone as a computer, video game, movie playing
device, etc.

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nospecinterests
Well that kinda takes the wind out of the sails of the cyanogenmod peeps. I
wonder what the quality is. Anyone know if it will have decent frame rates?

~~~
kelnos
I'm confused... this feature has been available in CM11 nightlies for at least
a month now (Nexus 4 here).

Frame rate seems good enough for YouTube, though audio stopped working (didn't
get sent to the ChromeCast, and wouldn't play on the device either) while the
video was playing.

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laichzeit0
Is it technically possible to do this on iOS? I have a Chromecast but no
Android devices.

~~~
matt_heimer
Google doesn't support it. From
[https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461](https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461)
\- "Casting your mobile screen is currently not supported on iOS devices."

~~~
laichzeit0
What I want to know is if it's technically possible with iOS to actually do
it? I mean with the existing APIs available to developers?

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sreyaNotfilc
Time to bring out those NES emulators and Wiimotes again!

~~~
matt_heimer
There is a slight lag with Chromecast mirroring. A HDMI adapter
(MHL/Slimport/etc) with a wireless controller (I use a PS3 controller) is
still going to be a better option.

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ericflo
I wonder why HTC One M7 is supported but not M8.

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nb1981
magical

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nnutter
"these things came to iOS two, maybe three years ago"

~~~
Too
Android has had it for quite some time also if you have a smart tv with dlna
support(most of the newer ones). What's new is the support in chromecast. Does
the ios solution work with any smart tv or do you need an airplay?

