Google Chromecast is an cheap device that allows you to wirelessly transmit a wide variety of content on TV.
A Chromecast is one of the few devices designed to receive content from a wide variety of sources. The only thing unclear, it is about the limitations on file types that it can display.
What you need to use Chromecast?
On any Mac or PC, a vital thing for interaction with Chromecast is Google Chrome, the official browser of the tech giant from Mountain View. On top of this, you will need Google Cast, a Chrome extension. If it has any problems, such as lack of a constant audio stream, try Google Cast Beta. In case you quite often interact with Word, PowerPoint or Excel files, Chrome Office Viewer extension allows you to display in Chrome, so that the next moment it will be shown on the TV.
The next step is to install Chromecast on the TV. It connects directly to one of the TV’s HDMI ports, and gets power from either a USB port or an outlet. Chromecast will automatically create a WiFi network. You need to connect to that after you install the similar application on iOS or Android. From that time, Chromecast can be part of your normal wireless network.
The Google Cast extension installed in Chrome is displayed as a additional rectangular button in the upper right corner. When you click it, the first option is to transmit on the TV, the content of the current Web tab – “Cast this tab”. Within seconds, no matter what you are running on Chrome, it will be displayed instantly on your TV. No matter if it is an online movie clip on YouTube, or your favorite website news. Want to stop the transmission? Click on the same button and choose the “Stop casting” option.
Several different people can simultaneously use the “Cast this tab” button, but they need to be on the same WiFi network with the HDMI stick. All the time, the last click on “Cast this tab” will define what is seen on TV. In other words, if you have set a YouTube clip to play on your TV through casting, and you open a new tab on the same PC or another computer, the initiation of a new casting session will interrupt he previous one.
What I play or display in Chrome is clearly visible on TV
You can see MP4, 3GP, AVI, MOV, M4V, MKV, OGV, OGM or WEBM files. From the moment you drag such files from My Computer to Google Chrome, it will start playing instantly, and you’ll have a few buttons available for interaction with the video stream. You can pause playback, you can rewind in one direction or another, and enable “full screen mode”.
How to view all your desktop on TV through Chromecast
Although it’s not very well suited for games or windows with very rapid action, including dedicated movie players, it is to be appreciated the fact that you can send all open windows at a certain moment in time to the TV.
This function is not perfect, but you can experiment it after you clicked on the Google Cast extension and you have selected from the menu on the upper right corner the option – “Cast screen / windows” (experimental). Immediately a window will appear where you can choose one of the open windows on your PC at that time or all the windows together – “Entire Screen”. To pause the video broadcast to the TV, click on the same casting button from the Chrome window and select “Stop Casting”.
It is very likely that at that time, you will have a button marked as “Stop Sharing” in the bottom right corner of the desktop.
How you play only audio content by Chromecast
If you’re on a web page with audio content, or simply want to watch a YouTube video on your PC, just to listen it in the speakers from the TV, first click the casting top right button . The next step involves choosing the triangle in the upper right corner of the new window and tick “Cast this tab – optimize for audio”. Since the moment you do that, the window of that audio stream will be broadcasted exclusively on the TV, and will not be heard on your PC. As long as the setting remains active, volume adjustment will be made using the TV remote control, not the laptop or PC.
You can apply the same manner above to offline audio files dragged in a window of Google Chrome. MP4, M4A, OGG, OGA, WAV and of course MP3 playback formats are natively supported.
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