I bought Google Chromecast because I wanted to play catch-up TV from the media libraries of public and private radio stations in a convenient way on my somewhat older Sony flat screen TV. Until now I had always done a bit awkward with my notebook on the PC port of the TV. With Chromecast now everything should be easier and better (I thought). The installation was mediocre, as on the box Chromecast explanations can be found hardly and not accompanied by a guide. Unfortunately, I was on my Android Tab 4.1.1 Despite the app is not installed because it lt. PlayStore it is not suitable .. On my Windows 7 desktop is not found after installing the plugin, Chromecast although measured distance from the TV 5 meters. (Six are allowed). For the plugin resulted in the films of the Arte +7 library with Chrome no longer be loaded. You only see a small rotating circle. So I sat down with the Windows 8 netbook my wife right in front of the TV and at least now closed the facility Chromecast and were shown to me constantly changing really nice pictures on the television. Here, I then also learned that Chromecast for Windows is a beta version and that's true! It transfers the contents of the public service and private media libraries with stuttering sound and mostly with still images. As our budget still has some other devices, launched another attempt with my Sony Xperia phone. The Chromecast app was installed quickly and the first experiments with the BR library went well. However, working from the start not the correct Chromecast (connecting lift). To this desire to Chromecast has not taken care of, that home is at home could only be terminated by abschaltete Chrome Cast electricity. Also not working on my phone the Arte App. Despite repeated install the Chrome Quantcast icon does not appear in the app and you can therefore no stream content. Now only the Nexus 7 my son remained and thus Chromecast worked well. All worked flawlessly. A negative aspect is however noticed. As you get streaming content of private media libraries with the app 7TV worked with variable bit rates which are sometimes so low that you can no longer recognize the faces of the actors. This is now but probably not at Chromecast. In summary it can be said that Chromecast currently is very limited to recommend. Whether this will change significantly, is seen. Probably the technical development of the TVs on Chromecast ignore and I will, if my son is not there, must return to my original solution.
Addendum: If you want to use Chromecast under Windows (mirrors), apparently is the processor of the PC is the bottleneck. My old i5 2.67 Ghz creates slight stuttering just 480p (you have to specify in the settings of the Cast extension). For smooth playback of 720p a i7 is required (Note from a forum). I myself would never have thought that it could be due to the processor. 2. Supplement: Something's happening at Chromecast or the associated apps. In the public broadcasters work on my Tab (other devices I have not tried) now BR, ZDF, Arte and properly! ARD and 3Sat not work with me. Although they run on the tab, but you can not connect to Chromecast. Even with Android Firefox Beta I did not succeed, although I proceeded exactly as the manual that was posted by the support. If Firefox should work, which would indeed be ideal because then any website including embedded videos (as it is in any case in the announcement) could be reproduced through Chromecast. 3. Addendum: Meanwhile, use it as intended. 5 stars only failed because it took so long until it was as far (perhaps also to me located). With Chome (Android) I can now, for example, films of ARD library properly reflect on websites embedded videos. Turn on the TV and set Chromecast. If the beautiful pictures running on the television on the mobile phone, the app Chromium Cast restart and connect to the device. Then the app Chrome launch, go to the desired page (eg ARD library), there start the video you want and tap the launched video. It appears Chromecast icon (top left of the video with me or in the taskbar), tap it and ultimately connect to device. With Firefox Beta Firefox and it does not work still.
