What does everyone think about Chromecast?  From what I've been reading/hearing, any screen can be turned into a receiver with just a bit of HTML code.  That really changes things and removes the dependence on the dongle!  In theory I should be able to code a simple page for my AppleTV and then be able to cast to it.  I can do this in a limited way currently by using XBMC and a Chrome plugin, but this isn't limited to any particular stream provider.

I've also done similar things for some customers using these.

So whatcha all think about this?

I've not read enough into it but I'm struggling to think what I'd do with it. It seems priced so it's nice and cheap and something you could just buy and not worry about the price even if you don't use it much.

Since I use XBMC to watch Live TV I prefer everything to be centered around XBMC. I can send YouTube videos from my phone to my TV/XBMC system nice and easily. I think you can do similar with XBMC and other media with iMediaShare and some other apps.

Looks interesting. But the fact that it streams from the cloud rather than a local device limits it to legit  paid for content. So what the fuck use is that?!?!?!?!?!!?!??!!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

There is already talk about how they can incorporate this into XBMC or even run XBMC right on the stick.

Drew, I don't know if that's true or not yet.  I see your point for sure, but in theory it should be smart enough to know to grab the content you are viewing from where ever you're viewing it right?  Even so, I have my setup in such a way that I could easily enable XBMC access over the internet using some bizarre port and that /should/ allow this thing to access it.  I hope I'm right about that, because we can already do Youtube, like Ant has said, and Netflix.  This is supposed to play anything you can view in a browser.

Looks like Page 3 of that thread is where it finally starts to click, at least click the way I'd want it to work.

Another consideration is codecs.  All of my video is .mkv, and I /think/ the talk is that it doesn't support that at the moment.  I could be very wrong about that though. I'll be fucked if they think I'd convert 1-2TB of video just to use this thing!

I don't know. I dunno whether it's geared up to accept media from kinda anywhere or whether it's a few specific services. The latter is the impression I got though.

Hmm, I got the opposite impression.  In fact the podcast I was listening too specifically said that with just a few tweaks of code they would be able to use it.  And Google is asking app devs to incorporate this into their apps.  I guess time will tell!

Well this answers my previous question.  This is why I love Google.

 

Fuck this has my mind reeling.  We could potentially turn a Pi into a Chromecast receiver!

That would be the ideal thing. Being able to use a different device (especially running XBMC) as a Chromecast receiver (instead of buying a dongle) so it makes use of the tablet/phone/browser control/interface.

A chromecast addon for XBMC to make it act as a dongle would probably be the best implementation for me.

eyup, that would be pretty great.  I've already got a power friendly device hooked to my tv, just let me shoot anything and everything I'd like to that screen.  That would make me a very happy person.

Is that just if they're stored on Google Play though?

That's not clear yet. In fact the code is very locked down at the moment.  You have to get Google's permission to use it in an app and, from what I can gather, they assign you a unique ID to use.  I don't know if this is related to DRM or porn.  Probably both.

S'very interesting though. I'd love to see what games can do with that tech.

Yeah, can't wait to see what this will enable!

http://blog.gtvhacker.com/2013/chromecast-exploiting-the-newest-device-by-google/

Somewhat interesting. I guess they'll have more info soon.

Is that link still working for you? Isn't here.

Heh, nope. Was working a few minutes ago.

Well fix it man! I must read it!

It does load eventually for me. I'll mirror it.