Chromecast

[adk highlander]

Anyone try one of these yet? For $35 bucks it seems like a no brainer purchase. I am waiting for the new Nexus 10 2 tablet to come out and will order one of these at the same time. Wife wants netflix in the bedroom and this seems the cheapest solution.

 

[Hi Ho]

I have one. I like it so far. It works quite well. I control it with my Galaxy SIII and my iPad as well as Chrome on my desktop. The only issue I have run into is I cannot get 5.1 audio from Netflix. It seems this is an issue with Dolby Digital + that Netflix uses and the fact that my Yamaha RX-V2700 doesn't decode DD+. I hope they can make a software change that will convert the DD+ to plain Dolby Digital like the Xbox does because the whole idea of the Chromecast was to stop paying for Xbox Live just to use Netflix. I want my 5.1 audio though and I'm not replacing a perfectly good receiver just to get that.

 

[Ponzio]

Anyone try one of these yet? For $35 bucks it seems like a no brainer purchase. I am waiting for the new Nexus 10 2 tablet to come out and will order one of these at the same time. Wife wants netflix in the bedroom and this seems the cheapest solution.

Mine arrived last week, took it out of the box & promised myself I would install it when I had time. So what do we do this week? Buy a new Samsung 40" LED TV with Smart Hub on sale at Costco. DOH!!!

Sometimes I feel like we're single handedly saving the economy. I'll be more than happy to sell it to you for $25 + shipping. I paid $43 something total from Amazon. I have enough gadgets I've bought over the years in my "little electronic stuff I might use one day but probably won't" boxes.

 

[Adam]

I'll be more than happy to sell it to you for $25 + shipping. I paid $43 something total from Amazon.

A good deal for folks, but you can return it to Amazon. If you didn't open it, all you end up eating is the shipping cost.

 

[Ponzio]

Of course I opened it; I'm a moron .

i'm like a 4 year old at Christmas when it comes to electronics; no patience or self-control.

 

[Grador]

Well if the smart functions of that TV work as well as those in my panasonic, you might want to keep that chromecast around...

 

[Ponzio]

Well if the smart functions of that TV work as well as those in my panasonic, you might want to keep that chromecast around...

Two years ago I would have agreed with you. I purchased a Samsung stand-alone Blu-ray player with the Smart Hub software and it was the worst imaginable; constant lock-up's, firmware updates every month it seemed and I gave up on it. I gave the player away to my daughter who was going to use it just for playing DVD's.

Flash forward to last week and my wife comes home to tell me that there was a nice 40" Samsung LED ($500) on sale at Costco which would be perfect for the office. I've been looking for a while to replace my old 26" Samsung LCD, which has done yeoman's work for us the last 6 years without a hiccup but no streaming video feature; the main reason I purchased the Chromecast unit. I was very leery of purchasing it because of the Smart Hub interface but figured what the hell, maybe they worked out the kinks in the software and Costco has a very generous return policy. Knock on wood, it's working like a charm. Not a single issue to date; granted it's only been a week. But the old DVD player was crap from the get-go so I'm encouraged. Another reason I have faith in this unit is that the Smart Hub software has definitely been changed. In fact the Netflix interface is exactly like my Oppo BDP-105 has. Did they farm out the code on the software, did Oppo or Netflix provide it or another third party vendor; not a clue. Some of the more knowledgeable folks around here might know. All I know is it works and I couldn't be happier.