Hello! I decided to prepare an interesting, useful and relevant article on Google Cast technology today. Why relevant, but because TVs that run on Android TV appeared relatively recently, and are only gaining popularity. And if you have an Android TV (for now, it's Philips, or Sony), then you can use all the features of Google Cast technology without additional devices. No need to buy a dedicated Google Chromecast adapter, which costs around $ 40-50.
Looking ahead, I will say that Google Cast is one of the functions of my Philips 43PUS7150 / 12 TV, which I really use, and I use often. Now I will tell you what this technology is, what its capabilities are, and how I use Google Cast on my Android TV.
What are Google Cast and Chromecast?
Google cast Is a technology that allows you to transfer an image, video, or music to a TV from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. All this wirelessly. All we need is a device with Google Cast support, from which we will transfer content, a TV with Android TV, or any other TV with a connected Chromecast adapter, and a home Wi-Fi network to which these devices should be connected.
Chromecast - this is a special adapter that connects to the TV in the HDMI connector, and allows you to use this TV to play video and other content from mobile devices, or a computer (from the Chrome browser). You can buy it at almost any digital store. The price, as I wrote above, is about $ 40-50.
Google Cast Features:
- You can display videos from the YouTube application on the TV screen (I use this option most often), and control playback.
- Watch photos from your mobile devices on the TV screen.
- Play music from your smartphone or tablet through your TV speakers, or through dedicated speakers that support Google Cast for Audio.
- Everything that happens on the screen of your Android or iOS device can be output to the TV through the Chromecast application. And even, play games (though there is a slight delay in displaying the picture on the big screen).
- And through the Chrome browser with the Google Cast extension, you can broadcast the tabs open in the browser to the TV.
If you have a TV that runs on Android TV, then Google Cast support is already built into it (as in my case with the Philips 43PUS7150 / 12 TV). And that means you don't need to buy an additional Chromecast adapter. You can simply connect your devices and use all the functions of this technology.
How do I use Google Cast on Android TVs?
In fact, everything is very simple and straightforward. We must have a TV with Android TV, to which we will output the image and sound. We must have a device from which we will broadcast photos, videos, music. Suitable for all smartphones and tablets on Android, version 2.3 and higher. Apple devices: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that run iOS version 7.0 and above. Laptop or computer with Chrome browser installed.
The main thing is that the TV and the device from which you want to broadcast content are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. One Wi-Fi router.
I already wrote how to connect a Philips TV to Wi-Fi. And your smartphones, tablets and laptops, I think, are already connected to the Wi-Fi network.
You don't need to set up anything on the TV at all. It just needs to be turned on and connected to your Wi-Fi network. We will operate from our smartphone, tablet, or computer. Go!
This is the opportunity that I use almost every day. I am streaming video from my iPad to my Philips TV screen. everything works very simply. We take our smartphone or tablet that runs on Android or iOS and launch the YouTube app on it.
Turn on any video, and press the button from aboveGoogle cast... Your TV will appear, select it.
The video starts playing on the TV. The Google Cast button turns blue. If you press it again, you can disconnect from the TV.
It still works with an Android smartphone.
When the video is playing on the TV, you can minimize the video on your smartphone or tablet. Moreover, you can completely minimize the YouTube application, while the playback will continue. You can adjust the volume using the buttons on your mobile device. I don't know how through the Chromecast adapter, but on a TV with Android TV, when adjusting the volume on the device, the volume was adjusted on the TV (though there is a big step there).
Another cool trick is that you can create a playlist. When the device is connected to the TV, just click on any video and a window will appear with a choice: either play now, or add to the play queue. Very comfortably. Everything is simple and clear, it is not at all difficult to understand.
We display everything that happens on the screen of a smartphone or tablet on the TV
We can display on the TV absolutely everything that happens on the screen of a mobile device. The TV will display menus, programs, games, etc. Everything that we see on the smartphone screen. Miracast technology works in a similar way.
We need an application calledChromecast... You can install it from Google Play, or from the App Store (use the search). After installation, we launch the application, and start broadcasting the screen to our TV.
The result looks like this:
And this is how programs from an Android smartphone look on a TV:
And even games can be displayed on TV via Google Cast.
The games were a little buggy. The image appeared with a delay. Perhaps if you connected a more powerful smartphone, then everything would work better. But even the minimum delay will be all right.
On the phone (Android) everything works like a clock. But for some reason I couldn't get the screen off the iPad. He simply did not find the TV, and kept asking to connect to a network with a Chromecast device. Everything was connected, though, and the YouTube video streaming worked.
We broadcast the image (tabs) from the Chrome browser to the TV
Another possibility is broadcasting tabs from the Chrome browser. TV and computer (laptop) must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. By the way, the computer can run both on Windows (from Windows 7 and above) and Mac OS X (from version 10.7 and above), or Chrome OS.
Not relevant: All you need is to install the Google Chrome browser and install the "Google Cast" extension in the browser. To install, open the browser settings, go to the Extensions tab, click on the "More extensions" link, enter "Google Cast" in the search box and install the extension. A button will appear in the browser, by clicking on which, you can start broadcasting the tab to the TV.
Update: as it turns out, the "Google Cast" extension is gone. The broadcast function is now built into the browser. Open the menu and select "Broadcast ..." If you do not have such an item, then update your Google Chrome browser.
To start broadcasting, simply select your TV.
An image from the laptop will immediately appear on the TV. Everything works stably and quickly.
You can scroll through the page and follow the links. All this will be displayed on the TV screen. And if you open a video on the YouTube website in this tab, then the broadcast will start not through the contribution, but through the application on the TV (like from mobile devices). Sound will also be transmitted. By clicking on the button in the browser, you can stop the broadcast, pause, or mute the sound.
If you use this function often, you can pin this icon to the browser bar. Just right click on it and select "Always show icon".
Now you can start streaming from your browser to your TV even faster.
Conclusion
I told you about the main features of Google Cast that I use myself. You can also play music from your smartphone through the TV speakers. This can be done through the Google Play Music application. Or broadcast photos from the gallery. Millet click on the "Google Cast" button and display the image on the TV.
If you have an Android TV or have a Chromecast adapter, be sure to take full advantage of this technology. Write in the comments how you use Google Cast. Good luck!
