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chromecast - 10 new apps added

Plex easily make this a justifiable purchase. Shame it didn't launch with it. Would've saved me the difference on the Roku I recently bought.
 
Right on schedule. Exactly one week after the Cast Dev conference, we get the first 10 apps. Expect more over the next couple of weeks.

Plex is the number 1 reason to purchase a Chrome cast now. Just waiting for Google to whitelist Mirroring mode now and there will be little reason to bother buying an ATV or Roku.
 
Nice, hopefully it is like Airplay. XBMC support would be incredible, that is the main reason I use my jailbroke Apple tv
 
Stooby Mcdoobie said:
Plex easily make this a justifiable purchase. Shame it didn't launch with it. Would've saved me the difference on the Roku I recently bought.
Click to expand...

Completely agree and timing couldn't be better. I'm traveling over the holidays and throwing the Chromecast in the bag now means full access to my entire home media library on the in-laws TV. :D
 
Ahh official Plex support. I've been Chrome tab casting from my Plex Media Server's webpage and now I shouldn't have to worry about dropping the cast due to Chrome tab casting causing my Chromecast to lose connection.

I have said too many Chrome and casts in this post.
 
Plex is a $3/mo subscription... they'll make it free in the future. My friend just got Avia and said it works really well at streaming to his TV from his laptop. I had him power the phone off to make sure it's not doing the same thing that the Chrome tab extension is doing... and nope, it streamed just fine still.

Good news! :)
 
Plex was needed ... Thank god I have a return policy on my android tv box... Though I like using a raspberry pi with a controller
 
Well I've just ordered one of these from amazon. I do have an Apple TV, but thought why not as it's cheap.
 
Dontazemebro said:
What exactly is Plex? Is it like a Netflix competitor similar to epix.
Click to expand...

No, PLEX is a media server/player--I believe it's a fork of XBMC. I began using it years ago as the media interface on my Mac Mini that I was using as a HTPC. It's functionality as grown over the years. In it's current iteration, it allows for serving of your media from a home 'server' (another Mac Mini in my case) to any device that runs the PLEX media player (Plex app on mobile devices or Roku, another computer, jailbroken :apple:TVs, and I believe some SMART TVs).

I love it because it can playback nearly any codec and transcodes on the fly as needed for streaming to your playback device.

Having it now work with Chromecast means I can just grab the Chromecast when I travel, plug it into an HDMI port on a television and use my Android tablet or phone to stream anything from my personal media library using a local wifi network.

I'm fairly certain my description isn't entirely technically accurate but should cover the gist of it. All I know is it's going to make my week at the in-laws in Buffalo quite a bit more tolerable. ;)
 
Dontazemebro said:
What exactly is Plex? Is it like a Netflix competitor similar to epix.
Click to expand...


In short it's a way to play media from your computer to another device. In this case chromecast.

So if you have a movie on your Mac/PC you can watch it on your phone/tablet/etc from anywhere.

Think of it like netflix except you are the netflix server. It also works with music, pics, etc.

The same can be done with AppleTV and iTunes but there are a lot of limitations in comparison to plex.
 
tbayrgs said:
No, PLEX is a media server/player--I believe it's a fork of XBMC. I began using it years ago as the media interface on my Mac Mini that I was using as a HTPC. It's functionality as grown over the years. In it's current iteration, it allows for serving of your media from a home 'server' (another Mac Mini in my case) to any device that runs the PLEX media player (Plex app on mobile devices or Roku, another computer, jailbroken :apple:TVs, and I believe some SMART TVs).

I love it because it can playback nearly any codec and transcodes on the fly as needed for streaming to your playback device.

Having it now work with Chromecast means I can just grab the Chromecast when I travel, plug it into an HDMI port on a television and use my Android tablet or phone to stream anything from my personal media library using a local wifi network.

I'm fairly certain my description isn't entirely technically accurate but should cover the gist of it. All I know is it's going to make my week at the in-laws in Buffalo quite a bit more tolerable. ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, sounds interesting. Now are you uploading your home media into the clouds or are you using your home internet connection? How does it work.

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cynics said:
In short it's a way to play media from your computer to another device. In this case chromecast.

So if you have a movie on your Mac/PC you can watch it on your phone/tablet/etc from anywhere.

Think of it like netflix except you are the netflix server. It also works with music, pics, etc.

The same can be done with AppleTV and iTunes but there are a lot of limitations in comparison to plex.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think I get the gist of it. It sounds similar to Slingbox.
 
Dontazemebro said:
Thanks, sounds interesting. Now are you uploading your home media into the clouds or are you using your home internet connection? How does it work.

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Yeah I think I get the gist of it. It sounds similar to Slingbox.
Click to expand...

Well, it's changed a bit and to be honest, I'm not entirely familiar with all of the available functionality--I use it solely to stream from my home computer to my tablet. With PlexPass, I believe you can access media store in the Cloud (says it supports Dropbox, Box, Google Drive). As I use it, my home computer serves it directly from my Mac via my home internet connection. Depending on available bandwidth on the device used for playback, my home computer will also transcode it on the fly, say to a lower resolution and playback bitrate.

It's basically doing the same thing you'd do on your home network to an Apple TV, just remotely and with a lot more functionality.
 
My Chromecast arrived this morning, wasn't expecting it until after Christmas so that was good. I've set it up now and it works quite well. Very slick. All in all a good buy.
 
Dontazemebro said:
Thanks, sounds interesting. Now are you uploading your home media into the clouds or are you using your home internet connection? How does it work.
Click to expand...

I use Plex on a daily basis. I am a huge supported of Plex and I love what they are doing.

Ultimately, your computer is the server. If your computer is off, the server is essentially offline. So to play movies on a Plex app (or the Chrome extension) your computer has to be on.

For their subscribers they recently released a beta version of what they call Cloud Sync which can put your video files on Dropbox, Google Drive, Box (if you pay for Box), and Copy (which gives the most free space out of anyone). However, it is extremely buggy and has multiple issues. It's been out for maybe a month, possibly more, and I have yet to get it working.
 
I am still really learning this Chromecast thing, just bought it a few hours ago and have been enjoying watching YouTube videos on my 60" plasma but what else can I do with this neat little toy? What is the Plex thing everyone is talking about? Still learning here! Didn't want to invest $99 for ATV with all the rumors of a new one coming, or an iWatch which I want even more, so I picked up this little Chromecast for a fun toy. Suggestions greatly appreciated!
 
ladytonya said:
I am still really learning this Chromecast thing, just bought it a few hours ago and have been enjoying watching YouTube videos on my 60" plasma but what else can I do with this neat little toy? What is the Plex thing everyone is talking about? Still learning here! Didn't want to invest $99 for ATV with all the rumors of a new one coming, or an iWatch which I want even more, so I picked up this little Chromecast for a fun toy. Suggestions greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

You can push HBO GO, Netflix, and google play movies to the chromecast like airplay on appletv. The biggest difference is once the movie starts you can "kill" it on your phone and have it continue to play on the TV. If you have an android device download chromecast remote and you can still have access to the controls after you kill it.
 
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