Chromecast and Chromecast Audio User Reviews

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Bananabob

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#207696 9-Jan-2017 17:15

I was going to buy one each of the Chromecast and Chromecast Audio, but the other night I stumbled across the Google Play Store page for Google Home and I read the reviews. Now I am not so sure. Is there any one out there in Geekzone Land that has these devices and can confirm or deny the reports in those reviews.

Perhaps I should think about another device.

What I want to do is to be able to watch On Demand TV on the the big screen rather than my tablet/laptop, and also You Tube and other video.

I also have another room in which I was going to attach the Chromecast Audio so I can stream my music to my audio setup.

If the Chromecast turns out to be a lemon what would do the jobs for me?

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#1700584 9-Jan-2017 17:25

I got a Chromecast for Christmas and it works fine for me. Youtube and Netflix work fine. We also cast a webpage from Skygo - this had the occaisonal glitch though I couldn't tell is this was from skygo to the PC or from the PC to the Chromecast. So far I am happy and the setup was surprisingly easy.

Haven't tried the Chromecast audio so can't comment on that.

Bananabob

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#1700585 9-Jan-2017 17:36

wongtop:

I got a Chromecast for Christmas and it works fine for me. Youtube and Netflix work fine. We also cast a webpage from Skygo - this had the occaisonal glitch though I couldn't tell is this was from skygo to the PC or from the PC to the Chromecast. So far I am happy and the setup was surprisingly easy.

Haven't tried the Chromecast audio so can't comment on that.

Thanks - That was a quick reply!

blakamin

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#1700586 9-Jan-2017 17:40

I have 2 chromecast V1's and they rock (only using one now as Android TV has it built in).

I also set one up for the in-laws. They wouldn't be without out it.

I also have a chromecast audio on the way (due today, but auspost suck) to play with my outdoor speaker. If it's anything like the original, I'll be more than happy.

edit: fix spelling due to stupid spacebar

michaelmurfy

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#1700588 9-Jan-2017 17:40

I've been using Chromecasts for years and really like them. They're perfect for my streaming and music needs and I have not found anything better (maybe apart from Android TV)

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Bananabob

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#1700590 9-Jan-2017 17:48

OOOH I like the sound of Android TV. Will look forward to that when I replace the big screen.

Jaxson

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#1700591 9-Jan-2017 17:51

Have used the Chromecast, gave 1080p youtube when the PS3 would only give 720p

Now have an Xbox one, so no longer using that.

Do now have a Chromecast Audio, used to send Spotify to my old receiver, so I can route this to my outdoor Zone 2 speakers, which only work off RCA audio input. hdmi chromecast wouldn't work here, so hence the audio option. Works well, would easily recommend.

May require spotify premium, just watch out for that gotcha if you don't have that already.

blakamin

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#1700594 9-Jan-2017 18:04

Bananabob:

OOOH I like the sound of Android TV. Will look forward to that when I replace the big screen.

Android TV is really amaze! :p

I got rid of our LG for a Sony just for Android TV... It's the best thing I did for home entertainment.

I never used the smarts on LG, now I never use anything else except our foxtel box. Plex, Netflix, Amazon, Qello, all the local catch up, youtube, redbull TV... The list goes on.

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richms

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#1700624 9-Jan-2017 19:04

I went and got an HDMI audio extractor so that I could use my HDMI chromecast with analog speakers before the audio only one came out. Worked fine to deal with braindead receiver, and better than my other method of taking the optical from the TV into a D-A converter into an analog input since that meant the TV had to be on.

As for the other chromecasts - Audio one - depends on the app, noway near as reliable or fast as spotify connect is, if the phone leaves wifi and comes back it will frequently end up out of sync with the tracks that are playing on the device, and the only way to sort that is to take it back to the phone and then cast it again, casting spotify takes 15 seconds or so to start, whereas spotify connect to my LG speakers, a fire TV or to the amazon dot is a couple of seconds at most. If your prime audio service is spotify I would suggest sourcing an amazon dot instead.

Group play to more than one if them is also pretty erratic. Latency is not constant between them so while you can change the latency for each playing device in a group, when you stop and start those adjustments will be wrong. Its mainly made it seems for when you have a speaker doing DSP making considerable delay, not fixing the 5-20ms differences that it seems the chromecasts have from each other. If you have 2 sets of outside speakers, best source them from one chromecast if you are inbetween them. My attempts at using several amps and chromecasts to multizone things was not sucessful because the delay totally ruins it.

Video. What works well is the apps that support it, but again have issues if you lock the phone and walk outside and then come back in again - youtube will forget its casting and when you press onto the cast option will often start the TV queue from the beginning again rather than just jump to showing the comments etc for what is playing. Same happens sometimes if you lock the phone then unlock it.

Tab casting non supported things has never looked good for me. I have AC wireless and the casting machine was wired and it still looked like a crap twitch stream and loads of missed frames and audio sync issues at times. Supported apps have all cast great, looked rock solid good and never skipped or had sync issues.

Not really tried my chromecast ultra out yet, its still in the kitchen plugged into the not even HD small TV there from when I set it up. May get around to re-doing the cabinet under the 4k tv soon, but need to get a HDMI switch that actually works at 4k HDMI 2.0 before I can really be bothered pulling everything out and redoing it to put it there. Not used its wired interface yet but its wireless works as well as all the other puck ones do. The old dongle one had terrible wifi and I couldnt even get it to reliably stream 1080 youtubes since its N only single chain.

Richard rich.ms

richms

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#1700626 9-Jan-2017 19:05

If you want android TV, then the mibox that there are other threads about is pretty good. Remote is a bit laggy I find, and CPU wise could be a little quicker but its played all the 4k stuff I have asked of it (which admitidly so far is just netflix and youtube) - UI is very nice and responsive when an app isnt bogging it down.

Richard rich.ms

mdf

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#1700636 9-Jan-2017 20:08

Ours seem to work fine.

The v1 chromecast has been replaced with an Android TV with Chromecast built in. Works well, though I occasionally have issues when casting from my notebook. I end up with screen mirroring rather than a proper cast. Works fine from my phone, though I hardly ever bother with that since the apps I use are all mostly built in to the TV. Android TV overall is super powerful, but the UI could definitely do with some polish (certain menu items are in odd places and the experience varies between areas of the UI).

Literally received my Chromecast Audio today. I've only tested with Google Play Music (i.e. music already on my phone) and Youtube Music. But I didn't have the 15 second lag richms mentioned for Spotify. Probably depends on your choice of music service. Bonus for me was being able to fiddle with sound volume and forward/backward skipping from my Pebble.

NzBeagle

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#1700648 9-Jan-2017 21:24

I've mainly only used the videos for native casting, only tried the tab cast a couple of times, it is, OK. Gets used almost daily and have had zero issues, put v1s in many friends TVs as well, for YouTube and Plex.

Audio I use probably weekly, with speaker groups with no issues. I'm a Google play music user and haven't tested out Spotify, but it works great for me and my setup. No latency issues, using the same model of speakers throughout the group.

acetone

181 posts

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#1700706 10-Jan-2017 06:09

I have been using the Chromecast Audio with my HiFi setup for around 6 months. I use it mostly with Spotify and occasionally with Google Play.

I have had on and off issues with Spotify on my phone(Android). Little things like the current song being played not showing correctly on my phone.

There was an update recently to the Spotify app which has made a huge difference and I have no complaints currently.

With Google Play it has always been seamless for me.

So on the whole I am very happy with the Chromecast Audio and would buy it again.

russelo

328 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1700708 10-Jan-2017 07:25

I have 3 chromecasts at home used daily for Spotify and for casting a chrome tab playing a streaming video. My chromecast are powered on 24/7 and never had any problem, works all the time.

I'd say the chrome tab casting has improved drastically from before. The delay in local chrome tab video and the casted video in the TV is now only milliseconds difference. Before I've noticed a couple of seconds lag.

I'd recommend chromecast anytime.

tanivula

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#1700714 10-Jan-2017 08:20

Been using V1 chromecasts for a long time now and has been the birthday gift of choice to most of our relatives.

Picked up 2 chromecast audio's for my birthday last year, they're the cheapest multiroom audio you can get! 1 in the kitchen + 1 in the lounge and you can pair them up (with lots of them) to play the same source at the same time. Unfortunately only works with the audio versions so you can't pair normal chromecasts and do hdmi audio splitting.

My v1 chromecast will soon be replaced by a Mibox (beefed up nexus player / kinda like chromecast ultra) which you can cast to like a normal chromecast but also just use as a set top box. Bonus is that it is HEVC compatible so the ol plex server wont chugg as much transcoding x265 to x264.

ddowns

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#1749534 28-Mar-2017 16:02

Does anyone have a good setup for an outdoor speaker setup running with Chromecast? In an ideal world there would exist a great integrated Chromecast device that can go outside, is splash or waterproof. Powered even, with a small integrated amp. Failing that, a good outdoor speaker setup with an input a Chromecast can plug into.

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