Google Chromecast now available in New Zealand

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muppet

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#1204670 27-Dec-2014 22:34

I bought one. Great device.
Though I find if I'm switching between asking it to do things on my phone things seem to get out of sync now and then. My phone will forget it's currently doing a Youtube cast, and can't connect to the device for ~30 seconds. Then it can. Small things.

Otherwise, very good.

Thanks for the heads-up re: Data usage robjg63, will have to look at our usage over the last couple of weeks.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1204679 27-Dec-2014 23:03

I find it is most usable with an android device(eg smartphone), as there are lots of android apps which will work with it. Far more than on IOS. I had some english tv channel streaming to it, and it continued to stream throughout the day even when the phone wasn't connected. So you only seem to need the device connected to make the initial connection. For what it is, it is a very good device.

richms

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#1204683 27-Dec-2014 23:17

I find that as the phone goes on and off wifi it will lose the chromecast and then not reconnect to it, so if I start a video playing and then close the phone, the phone will go to sleep, wifi drops because samsung wifi is crap and then the youtube app on the phone will start playing on the phone over 4G.

Richard rich.ms

joshhill96

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#1204684 27-Dec-2014 23:19

I purchased this device today and so far its been fantastic expecially with the Media Server Plex
Simple and easy to set up and great HD quality!

I'm sure more apps will be available in NZ in 2015 but in all enjoying this and worth the cost. Youtube is much better than my Smart TV app and is a great replacement as I have a 2012 Samsung Model

richms

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#1204689 27-Dec-2014 23:21

Anything is better than the old samsung youtube player.

The issue I have is that the mobile youtube clients all ignore the categories that I have put my subscriptions in, and will often not show all of them when I scroll thru the big not properly sorted list on the phone. Best youtube player I have found is the one on the 360 for actually showing all the subs, but only the desktop browser uses the categorization of them to let me see ones of interest at the time.

Richard rich.ms

Jaxson

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#1204777 28-Dec-2014 09:59

Had a very quick play last night my the inlaws Chromecast. iPhone YouTube app spotted it straight away, just like the send to option when using the ps3 YouTube app.

Tried the screen cast thing to mirror galaxy tab to the TV and this worked well. Started the tvnz on demand app and via the mirroring thing and a lot of the actual show video content didn't display on the TV. The pre show ads displayed on both, but then the TV show area went blank once the show started, but was still displaying fine on the tablet. Is there another way to send the tvnz on demand content direct to the Chromecast without the basic/sledgehammer approach of the mirroring?

Pulled up Facebook on the tab and displayed it on the TV via mirroring and that was an awesome way to display content to the grou of family in the lounge. This approach leaves you with a much much better ui than smart TV apps via a remote control. Urgh, I've never liked tho things and Chromecast offers a cheap way to do smart TV with a touchscreen interface to steer it.

lchiu7

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#1206569 31-Dec-2014 16:22

Well I solved my Chromecast problem with the DNS.

For some reason creating static routes to prevent access to Google's DNS servers didn't work for me (when the Chromecast worked, my phone would not), I ended up avoiding static routes but instead, using the Firewall settings in Gargoyle to block the Chromecast MAC address from eaching Google's DNS servers. So the impact on the network is minimal.

Once I did that Chromecast worked (tried Netflix and Hulu+ so far successfully) and my phone is unaffected.

I get to HD quality which is all I want. So I can now save having to power up a media player like the PS3, Sony BD player or Google TV box to watch Netflix which is convenient.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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