Sony Arouje

Recently I received a Chromecast, it’s a really great addition to my TV and can stream online videos and browse web very easily. Thanks to my brother in law for gifting me one.

Installation

Installing Chromecast is pretty simple, just connect the dongle to the HDMI slot and connect the power source to the TV’s USB slot. If your TV don’t have a USB slot then don’t worry it packed with an external power adapter and can connect to a power outlet.

When I first connected to my TV it is showing only a blank screen with some colored dots. Some google search revealed that it’s because of the Reset button. After doing some analysis of the dongle I realized that, when I insert the dongle to HDMI, the core is pushing backward and jamming the reset button. Thus the device enter into a reset state. If the same issue is happening to you then connect the device and try to pull the cover a little bit so that the reset button wont get stuck and you should be able to click the reset button.

Configuration

Next issue is installing the Chromecast app for my Android tab. I can’t install the app from Play store as I reside in India and the Chromecast is not released here yet. So I downloaded the apk from http://www.apkmaza.com/2013/07/chromecast-111.html and installed it. The setup was quite simple and the Chromecast Android app will guide you through each step. Once the setup is complete the dongle will check for the latest version and update it, if found. So make sure your WiFi router is connected to Internet.

If you don’t have any Android or iOS device then you can install a desktop app to configure the Chromecast dongle.

My Experience

Even though my TV is a smart one, means I can connect to my Wi-Fi. But browsing sites or watching YouTube is bit difficult with the aide of that remote control. With Chromecast I can browse any site in my computer and if required just cast it to my TV. That means my TV can show any Chrome tab from my computer, if it has photo, video or text. Even I can do multitasking when I am casting a tab to TV, that means my son can watch his favorite video from YouTube running in one of the chrome tab and casted to TV, mean while I can browse Facebook in another tab and is available only to my computer.

One thing I really missing in Chromecast is streaming the videos or music I stored locally in my computer. I am not sure why Google is not provided any option to stream local videos as it’s a very important feature for an awesome device like Chromecast. Hope in future Google will come up with a desktop app to stream local videos.

Not for you, If

• you are looking to stream local videos.
• you have no Wifi device.
• your TV have no HDMI slot.