What does a chromecast actually do?

brendanxx

Hi,
I'm looking for a way to stream the many movies I have on my computer to my non smart tv. Will chromecast do this? Its ads just refer to netflix, iplayer etc. If it does is the quality the same or worse than direct attachment of tv/laptop via hdmi?
Many thanks in advance!
Brendan

Jamie

The Chromecast works in 2 ways.

The standard way is the streaming app (Netflix, iPlayer etc) sends the address of the requested video and the Chromecast streams it directly.

If I want to play my own stuff then I use either BubbleUPNP or Allcast on my Android phone, either to stream local files from my phone or files on a NAS or PC running a DLNA server.

The first option just uses your phone to control the streaming whereas the second has your phone streaming to the CC so your phone needs to stay local and it will use more battery.

I'm not sure what's possible if you're an iOS user. Official apps like Netflix etc should work just the same but I'm not aware of an equivalent to Bubble on iOS.

Streaming my own files I've not noticed any quality difference from orher methods of streaming but most of my files are 720P so no nothing too demanding anyway.