
New Chromecast 2015 - fumar
https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_2015
======
bkjelden
I more or less accidentally found out that Google released an ethernet adapter
for the original Chromecast[0]. Purchasing that has given me a lot more
utility from my Chromecast.

I love the device. I am loving how much support there is for it among sports
streaming services: WatchESPN, BTN2Go, and NFL Sunday Ticket all support
Chromecast streaming.

My biggest issue with the device right now is the lack of official Spotify
support. I would _love_ to be able to stream spotify from my phone to my
Chromecast.

[0]:
[https://store.google.com/product/_ethernet_adapter_for_chrom...](https://store.google.com/product/_ethernet_adapter_for_chromecast)

~~~
aembleton
"This product is unavailable in your country."

:(

~~~
cubehouse
Not available in UK apparently, clearly shows a UK plug too. :'(

------
news_to_me
Finally 5GHz wifi support. I wish they had a "What's New" section though.

~~~
simonlc
As far as I can tell, that's the only difference. I just bought mine yesterday
knowing there was a new one on the way, I don't think I'm missing much.

~~~
seedifferently
The original model was 802.11 b/g/n, the new model also supports 802.11ac.

~~~
izacus
More importantly, original model supported only 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n which can
be a very very congested band in cities.

~~~
simoncion
> ...original model supported only 2.4GHz...

That's what's implied when you say 802.11b/g/n rather than 802.11a/b/g/n or
802.11ac. Both 802.11a and 802.11ac are 5Ghz-only protocols [0], and 802.11ac
implies[1] support for 802.11a/b/g/n. :)

[0] And 802.11b/g are 2.4 Ghz-only protocols.

[1] Or it might dictate support, I haven't read the text of the standard.

~~~
CountSessine
802.11n can be and commonly is 5GHz as well. If I saw a device advertising
802.11b/g/n I would not assume 2.4GHz only.

~~~
simoncion
> 802.11n can be and commonly is 5GHz as well.

It only is 5Ghz when there is a 5GHz radio in the device. I gather that world-
wide 5Ghz operation not-infrequently requires the ability to do DFS. [0] This
is an added engineering and testing burden that -I guess- many companies just
don't want to undergo. [1]

I've spent an _absurd_ amount of time looking for and at WiFi network
adaptors. Devices that advertise _just_ b/g(/n) support contain _only_ a
2.4Ghz radio 99.9% of the time.

Look at the first-gen Chromecast, the 3G Nexus S, or the 2012 Nexus 7. They
_all_ advertised b/g/n support, and all operated only in the 2.4GHz band.

[0] There are regulatory domains in which the _majority_ of 5Ghz channels
require DFS and/or transmit power control.

[1] You'd think that all the engineering work would be done already, and only
the testing would be left, but who knows?

------
Omni5cience
I wonder what prompted the new form factor. I rather liked the simple HDMI
stick aesthetic.

~~~
JoshTriplett
Two likely reasons. First, the previous form factor didn't fit in all TVs, so
they had to include a tiny HDMI extender cable; this form factor has built-in
tolerance for tight fits. Second, the new form factor allows more room for
hardware bits and heat dissipation.

~~~
bduerst
Also probably because some television sets can block wifi signals up close. I
had a weak wifi connection on mine and a 3 ft hdmi extender fixed it (which
was probably overkill).

~~~
pan69
I had this as well. Took me a while to figure out it was my Chromecast. When I
watch TV I basically have to turn of my Chromecast because of the otherwise
interference it causes.

------
ecobiker
To summarize how great chromecast is - my mother who could not figure out the
smart tv (or apple tv or a computer), streams youtube/netflix effortlessly via
chromecast and a tablet.

------
mdeslaur
Three exciting colours to hide behind your tv! :)

~~~
choward
The bragged about how it's smaller and easier to hide. Who gives a crap what
color it is. They shouldn't have focused on the looks at all but made sure it
had the lowest possible profile.

~~~
bostonvaulter2
Ah, in the pictures it looks larger than the previous one. Glad to hear that
it's actually smaller.

~~~
degenerate
Yeah it looks HUGE in the opening pic. They goofed on that.

------
darren
Any word on whether it will have support for wifi behind captive portal? I've
got a Chromecast v1 that I was excited to bring it on trips with me to watch
Netflix from the hotel room, but I could never get it to connect to hotel
networks which always have the stupid captive portal authentication scheme.

~~~
spinchange
Most hotel WiFi networks enforce device isolation too, so I don't think you
can 'see' the chromecast even if you could authenticate it. The workaround is
to create your own hotspot, bridging the hotel's WiFi to your own 'travel
router,' using a laptop.

At that point, it's probably easier just to watch Netflix on the laptop... :-/

~~~
habosa
Chromecast has guest mode now, you can set up without being on the same WiFi
network.

------
thekevan
Am I about the only one who considers my Chromecast almost useless?
Specifically, I don't want to use it with my phone because when I would use
it, I am already on my computer. I really dislike how when it came out and I
bought it, their tagline was all about casting what you have on your phone and
your browser, then they immediately seemed to move away from the PC browser
and straight to the phone.

About the only thing I use it for is sometimes when people come over, we go on
YouTube and take turns adding music to play, or sometimes go back and forth
showing each other ridiculous, stupid or funny videos.

~~~
moftz
Its meant for the family room or bedroom. Using it at your desk is a bit
counter-intuitive considering how much better support any video player will
have for a computer than a phone trying to do chromecast.

~~~
thekevan
Technically, I'm on my couch doing work, in the living room but I get what you
mean.

------
eatonphil
Does this still require a usb cable for power? That was a big disappointment
in the first iteration.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
Yes, because power over HDMI is rare.

My concern is - can it still work with power provided by a regular USB socket
on the TV? The specs claim it needs a 1 amp power supply, and most sockets
can't do that much.

Maybe the specs overstate it.

~~~
tokenizerrr
> My concern is - can it still work with power provided by a regular USB
> socket on the TV? The specs claim it needs a 1 amp power supply, and most
> sockets can't do that much.

I've used the old chromecast successfully like this. The manual also suggested
to do it. One downside was that this means the chromecast can no longer turn
your TV on due to lack of power. When casting to it, it will turn on my TV and
switch it to the chromecast input which is quite nice.

~~~
Yhippa
> When casting to it, it will turn on my TV and switch it to the chromecast
> input which is quite nice.

Wait, it can do this? I had no idea. Freaking awesome.

~~~
reportingsjr
Your TV has to support AND have the right HDMI CEC options. I had dig through
the menus on my TV to turn the options on.

------
evook
Still no AC3/DTS passthrough is a huge disappointment for a 2015 reskin.

~~~
LeonM
Source?

------
gwbas1c
No one really pays attention to Android TV. Just got the Nvidea Shield, and
apps run much more smoothly on it than via Chromecast.

It also acts as a Chromecast, so I can still cast from my phone if I want to.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Nobody cares about Android TV because the worst thing that can happen when you
turn on your TV is it displays "Optimizing app 15 of 189" for the next half an
hour.

~~~
coolnow
That only happens when you factory reset (and with less apps than that) or you
upgrade to another big version, doesn't it?

~~~
darkstar999
It notifies you of the update and asks if you want to install it. I haven't
been forced into an update.

------
Brakenshire
How is the Chromecast for direct local streaming? Does everything have to go
through Google's servers?

~~~
JaRail
The Videostream plugin works beautifully. No plex-style on-demand encoding
required. Just pick that 1080p mkv file or whatever and play, negligible CPU
usage.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-
go...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videostream-for-google-
ch/cnciopoikihiagdjbjpnocolokfelagl?hl=en)

~~~
rblatz
So then it runs everything through a browser on your computer, and you have to
navigate the file system? Seems like you aren't understanding the appeal/use
case of plex. I can use a nice clean interface on my TiVo, Phone, Computer,
Roku, AppleTV, X-Box... And watch TV, unless I'm trying to watch something on
the computer I don't have to get out a clunky computer to play anything.

~~~
lorenzhs
Videostream has a basic media library as well, and you can choose stuff to
play from your (Android) phone/tablet. Works quite well. I've used both Plex
and Videostream and find myself using Videostream most of the time.

------
coryfklein
I'm sorry, but what is new besides the form factor? Everybody must be upvoting
this for some reason other than the fact that they can buy something colorful
to hide behind their TV.

~~~
rkuykendall-com
> I'm sorry, but what is new besides the form factor?

That's actually WHY I found this really interesting. A slight change to the
form factor for easier connection to some TVs is all they changed. No features
only this model can use. New features every day coming to both models. That
means they got it right on gen 1, which is absolutely incredible.

~~~
simoncion
What new features are coming "every day" to the Chromecast? Other than new
software written for the thing, and bug fixes, I've noticed 0 new features [0]
over the year+ I've owned mine.

(I would _really_ like to be able to load an ICC profile into the thing. I
have a nice, but wide-gamut monitor that would become my Chromecast's new best
friend.)

[0] Edit: I guess you can set your own wallpaper and slideshows now? So, make
that one new -not really useful- feature that I've seen over the year+ that
I've owned the thing.

------
coda_
For the multi-room audio they talked about (to be released later this year),
has anyone seen anything that indicates if it will work with a non-audio-
specific chromecast? For example, I hope to be able to play music to my TV
through a chromecast (and be able to see album art on my tv), and then have
the same audio playing in my living room coming out of a chromecast audio. Man
i hope it will work regardless of type of chromecast.

~~~
biggc
I'd be willing to be not, unless Google invested a lot of effort in
synchronizing the two streams.

~~~
gregmac
Would they not have to do that to get multi-room audio, period?

------
unclek
Does this mean the Chromebit is dead in the water? Or a poorly timed April
fool's joke? Asus and Google have been silent since the april announcement.

------
anoother
Does it finally support MHL?

The specs seem to imply it:

    
    
        Requirements
        TV with an HDMI port
        Wi-Fi network
        Wi-Fi enabled supported device
    

But it still comes with a power supply...

I've been looking for a usable (high enough performance), MHL-enabled Miracast
dongle for a long time... The Microsoft Wireless Display Adapater comes close
but doesn't support MHL and is too expensive.

Hopefully this new Chromecast is it..

~~~
izacus
Chromecast is neither Miracast compatible nor does it receive power from HDMI.

~~~
anoother
How does it support Windows if not with Miracast? Is it just 'support' as in
'casting' (playing media locally) as opposed to actual streaming (eg. cloning)
of the display?

~~~
exacube
You can cast a chrome tab, so it actually supports streaming. They're just
protocols, why do you need to support Miracast for it to work on Windows?

~~~
anoother
I'd like to actually have a wireless _display_. AFAIK, the official mechanism
for that, on Windows, is Miracast.

EDIT: Sibling comment says it's also supported via a Chrome plugin. That might
be an option...

------
forcer
I would love if at least one streaming stick support VPN. Otherwise its mostly
useless for streaming shows outside USA.

~~~
jonny_eh
[https://support.unlocator.com/customer/portal/articles/12848...](https://support.unlocator.com/customer/portal/articles/1284813-how-
to-setup-chromecast)

------
dchuk
Is this thing just a new shape? What exactly has changed here?

~~~
guyzero
New SoC, 5 GHz Wifi, BLE for easier setup from iOS, Chromecast Audio is all
new, Chromecast Audio will support multi-zone.

~~~
cdnsteve
So if you have a current Chromecast nothing worth upgrading for?

~~~
fumar
Multi-room support is really neat feature that will compete with hardware like
Sonos. With Chromecast audio you can use existing speakers to create a multi-
room listening experience.

~~~
hamxiaoz
That means the music app needs to support chromecast, right?

~~~
Relys
I believe that is the case. I highly recommend just purchasing an RPI 2 and
throwing the OSMC distro (Debian+Kodi) on it. Kodi supports the AirPlay
protocol, so once you enable it in services you can use
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.airaudio&hl...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.airaudio&hl=en)
and basically pipe AUX out from your phone to multiple devices on your
network. :)

This obviously requires the dependency of your phone, but I prefer the
flexibility.

~~~
hamxiaoz
That sounds cool. So basically I don't need the chromecast audio if I have the
PI, right? I like the iOS' system level of audio output (AirPlay) and didn't
know Android is flexible enough that an app can do that!

------
Aleman360
Was excited about this until I saw that it doesn't support Amazon Prime video.

~~~
mkozlows
Amazon Prime video doesn't support any TV-connected Apple or Google device.
This appears to be a strategic decision Amazon has made.

~~~
Spoom
For a long time they didn't support Android at all, just their fork of it on
their devices. They seem to be very big on lock-in.

------
ParadigmBlender
For the last month or two, chromecast has not been able to cast Netflix for
me. It drops the stream evey few minutes. Looks like I am not alone as there
is a long thread[0] on the Google's Chromecast Help Forum. Has onyone else
been having issues with it?

[0]:
[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chromecast/Wwvt...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chromecast/WwvtHaI7PDo/Fbro99Q4BwAJ)

~~~
ewillbefull
Yes, god yes I have. Chromecast used to work just fine last year, but this
year it's been a disaster.

* Almost all youtube videos start playing before they're buffered, the video is paused but the audio continues playing until the video resumes and it catches up. Makes watching any 15 second video impossible. The buffering in general is really broken.

* Chromecast loves to play previous videos I watched when I start playing new ones. I frequently have to disconnect youtube from it and start a new session to get it to behave intuitively.

I pretty much have to transcode all of my media to h264/aac in order for it to
play on the Chromecast from my computer -- I thought this would get better
over time but it hasn't.

~~~
ParadigmBlender
It is pretty clear that a large portion of device owners are having severe
issues with the device. I am surprised it has not made the news nor been
addressed for as long as it has been happening. With every update my
experience seems to worsen though I still hope this will get addressed.

I am tempted to buy the new version to see if that would fix anything.

------
lucaspottersky
"Chromecast Audio" is a bad name for the product. It brings ambiguous search
results... say for instance you have a problem with your Chromecast audio
output

~~~
iridium127
Large companies appear to like to use common terms as product names for some
reason... e.g.: plus, alphabet, etc...

------
wenbert
I live in NZ. And not being able to easily change the DNS settings in
Chromecast sucks for me. If I would have known this, I would have bought
AppleTV. :(

~~~
ripdog
If your router can enforce local DNS server usage or allow creation of static
routes, you can redirect Google DNS to your own DNS server. Most half-decent
routers will allow you to make static routes.

Here's a good resource:
[http://help.unotelly.com/support/solutions/articles/192836-w...](http://help.unotelly.com/support/solutions/articles/192836-why-
do-i-need-to-block-public-dns-lookups-)

------
ericdykstra
Really happy with Chromecast. I can be watching something on my phone, and as
I'm walking up the stairs, hit the chromecast button and it turns on my TV and
is already continuing whatever I was watching. I mostly use it with Twitch,
and have no complaints at all. Will probably get a new one for the 5Ghz
support.

------
peter303
I believe you can write apps for it. I have not tried myself, but been to some
google/Android software meetups where people discussed the API and their apps.

I am not sure what kind of apps you'd want to write. i believe the media niche
has been pretty well filling, Gaming, engineering/science software probably
not.

~~~
IanCal
I've made a few, they're extremely easy to do since it's just a basic webpage.

------
ciupicri
> The Google Store isn't available here yet.

> We're working to bring it to more countries as soon as possible.

------
aeturnum
I used to use chromecast quite heavily, but ended up getting tired of their
relatively limited format support and use wireless HDMI now (which does
everything I wanted but does require dedicated source hardware - like a pc).

~~~
chc
Wireless HDMI also costs about 10 times as much as a Chromecast, doesn't it?

~~~
aeturnum
Closer to 5 times, but yes, it's more expensive.

------
robk
No HDMI passthrough is a real irritation for me. I hate the fact it hogs one
of the two HDMI ports in my office screen, meaning I need a HDMI switch for
the Logitech videoconf and the Apple TV.

~~~
JohnTHaller
That would be a decently large extra expense for a feature used by only a
fraction of users.

------
thoughtexpt
Does the Chromecast allow the user to change routing (set default gateway) and
/etc/resolv.conf (DNS settings)?

~~~
jordanthoms
No, there's very limited network configuration available and it's hardcoded to
Google's DNS. You'll need to use a static route on your router to redirect
that to a different DNS server.

------
myrmi
So with this new form factor, I plug it into my TV, and then it just... hangs
there?

------
bipin_nag
Why Google ? Why leave India ? I want to buy chromecast but not the old one.

------
brento
I'm curious why they changed the form factor. It seems like the last form
factor was simpler and more minimalistic. The new design seems like it would
just dangle from your TV, especially if you plug it in one of the side HDMI
ports.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Apparently it's to avoid interference. The old device came with an optional
extender cord for the same reason, but now you're forced to use it.

------
pbreit
Chromecast Audio is being reported poorly. Many articles suggest it works with
"most any home speakers" and "old school speakers" when it only works with
powered speakers.

~~~
Raphael
Well, hopefully you have an audio receiver. You don't really expect to run
speakers just by themselves.

~~~
nathanb
This may be dissonance between audiophiles and regular people.

When I see that it works with my best, old-school speakers, I wonder if it has
red and black posts for me to crimp my speaker wire to. But of course I know
better and know that it will just provide line out audio. When they say "old
school" they mean it has an RCA out jack, and when they say "speakers" they
mean boombox, receiver, or modern powered speakers (the sort which often have
an iphone connector on top to plug your phone into).

We as audiophiles know that the language used in the copy is imprecise and
implies the wrong thing (hopefully we're also smart enough to know what it's
actually implying). I suspect the average human would not be as confused.

~~~
cbr

        red and black posts for me to crimp my speaker wire to
    

They tried that and no one wanted it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_Q](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_Q)

------
gavazzy
No 4K?

------
sankoz
When I bought my TV supporting Miracast protocol, I thought I would not need
to buy a Chromecast. And it (the TV) worked beautifully with my Nexus 5 for
some days. But soon, the phone stopped casting the screen on the TV. Another
phone (Moto X Play) still works fine though, so pretty sure it is a phone
problem.

A conspiracy theorist would suggest Google intentionally breaking Miracast
support to boost sales of Chromecast ;)

~~~
com2kid
I've never had good luck with miracast.

It is supposed to have latency in the 10s of milliseconds, I have yet to see
it under 100 or even 200ms. (and I am pretty sure I have seen it a lot
higher!)

This is despite having a nice fast Intel chipset and what is supposed to be a
well reviewed Miracast receiver.

It is a great idea, but it works so poorly.

Next up for standards failure, DLNA!

I am saddened that there are standards body tech to do what I want, and that
none of them really work that well.

If I want to stream from multiple platforms to my sound system, I am best off
investing in a proprietary solution from either Google or Apple. :(

------
lvspiff
Is this intended to compete with the AppleTV/FireTV/Roku? If so Google just
failed miserably. Not having its own OS severely limits its abilities it would
seem. It looks like it continues to be nothing more than a wireless
audio/monitor cable that makes use of your phone as a remote.

~~~
TranquilMarmot
You would be surprised. I've always found the interfaces for
AppleTV/FireTV/Roku to be extremely clunky and not user friendly in the
slightest. There's no reason not to use your phone that has interfaces that
are much better designed and easier to navigate (a swipe of the finger to type
some text, versus a hundred button presses to navigate an awful on-screen TV
leopard). I think using remotes is pretty old-school and we're going to see
them phased out pretty fast. AppleTV's interface is especially jarring, the
Netflix app is borderline unusable.

~~~
vollmond
I like choosing media from a phone/computer, but I love having my Roku's
physical remote. Instant access to tactile playback controls is huge. I can
pick up the remote in the dark and find the pause button with no effort at
all. If I could have that on Chromecast, I'd be sold.

Last night, I was watching something on Netflix on my Chromecast (using the
Android app) and somehow the app and the CC got out of sync. It thought it
wasn't casting anymore, so it took away my playback controls and I had no way
to pause my show. IIRC, eventually I had to turn off the TV (and thus the CC).

~~~
TranquilMarmot
I've definitely had that happen with my Chromecast as well. Not sure if the
bug lies in Netflix's app, or the way Netflix and the Chromecast communicate.

My TV also detects when the Chromecast starts casting and automatically turns
on and changes to the input. Great if you want to watch something without
finding the TV remote, but I've woken up numerous times in the middle of the
night to find my TV on, just showing the Netflix title screen even though no
devices are casting. Never had that happen with YouTube or Plex or anything
else I use, so I wonder if it is just Netflix.

A physical remote for the Chromecast for pausing/fast-forwarding/rewinding is
a pretty good idea. I wonder how difficult it would be to interface with the
Chromecast and make a WiFi remote? Or would it have to emulate the signals
that the app sends over WiFi to the Chromecast? I wonder if you could sniff
the packets for pause/play/rewind and emulate them? (I smell a good idea for
that dusty ol Raspberry Pi that I have on my shelf)

~~~
vollmond
Hmmm, there is the HDMI-CEC stuff (where you supposedly can control your CC
from the TV remote -- my TV doesn't have it, so I can't try it). Given that, I
wonder if you could make a pass-through dongle, HDMI male-to-female, and put
some play/pause/rewind HDMI-CEC endpoints in it with some arbitrary
wifi/bluetooth control api.

------
lr4444lr
Dear Google,

Wake me up when you and Amazon can stop hissing at each other like cats on
opposite corners of the room so I can get Amazon Instant Video, and Firestick
users can get Youtube natively.

Until then, Zzz...

------
ser_tyrion
Heh, I saw the "Supported Operating Systems" list (w/ Windows and MacOS X) and
thought that was the OS that can be installed on device b/c of atom proc or
something... but of course it was the supported client OS.

