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Moments in Chromecast's history

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Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#521

Post by jessfyi »

afavour wrote: post #425
jessfyi wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If something that sells 100 million+ devices isn't "super popular", I don't know what is. And not even counting the millions of TVs that have it built-in (Hi-Sense, TCL, Samsung) the brand is pretty ubiquitous.

The brand has been "Google Cast" for a long time, though. None of the TVs with this stuff built in have mentioned "Chromecast" in a very long time.

I was being generous and said "not even counting," but no despite the internal name change, most still maintain the "Chromecast Built-In" designation on their branding and sites which takes a mere second to Google and see.

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#522

Post by nucleardog »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #468
mbreese wrote: post #23

How much of this is an "end" to Chromecast and a rebranding of Chromecast to "Google TV Streamer"? It seems like the bare-bones experience of a Chromecast being tied to a phone (or browser) is getting replaced with an Apple TV like experience. If this is the case, it might be a (rare) example of a good branding shift from Google. I have had two Chromecasts (the original and an Ultra) and I feel like both were hampere…

>It seems like the bare-bones experience of a Chromecast being is getting replaced with an Apple TV like experience. Weird thing about this is the best thing about Chromecast is it’s not an Apple TV form factor and experience and the worst thing about Apple TV is it’s not a Chromecast style stick. I just don’t see where a TV would even exist that doesn’t offer what’s in the box built in already, but I definitely know…

Yeah the whole reason I ever recommended a Chromecast to people was that it was basically dummy simple. You know how to watch Netflix or YouTube on your phone? Great, you know how to watch it on your TV too.

My mother who hates every piece of technology and gets frustrated to the point of tears when things don't work like they did yesterday was just fine with a Chromecast. There's no separate Chromecast to learn, manage, or deal with. It's, effectively, a way to mirror your phone to your TV.

I regularly recommended them to people even with Smart TVs and stuff. There were often bugs, UI issues, general confusion... "Just plug this thing in and then use your phone as a remote" added a lot of value.

I don't know why I'd ever want a "Google TV". For $100 what does this give me over the crappy Smart TV UI I've already got? Do I really want to deal with Google's privacy track record over Apple's to save $40?

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#523

Post by mikelward »

wkat4242 wrote: post #373
vanshg wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google TV is already the name of their software platform (based on the Android TV OS) that TVs run

Yes but that's really the same as this just in a separate box. Makes total sense to bring it under the same naming tree. I'd call it "Google TV Box" though. Streaming is too contrived and not everyone knows what it means. Xiaomi use the Box naming too and that seems to go down well.

Or maybe Google TV Hub if it has Matter and/or smart home functionality.

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#524

Post by wkat4242 »

copperroof wrote: post #398
wkat4242 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that's really what kills it for me. Why do I have ads on a device I paíd for??

This drives me nuts. When I first got the original fire tv it was fast and had no ads. I could easily recommend it. Now it’s stuffed to the brim with ads and is incredibly slow. When this one dies I’ll likely not buy a hardware device from Amazon ever again.

Yep that's what I have now. Same story. It started with ever bigger ads for prime shows, then ads for shows on other streamers I don't subscribe to. And now half-screen apps for chocolates and perfumes etc. In Spain by the way.

Also now I have to pay extra to skip ads on prime :(

I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV but considering how expensive it is I'm waiting for the next version. I don't want to pay top dollar for the 2022 version.

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#525

Post by jauntywundrkind »

kelnos wrote: post #517
jauntywundrkind wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately no sign of Google Cast protocol being opened for general purpose use. Open Screen Protocol exists and is very similar. It works and you can use it today (via the one and only reference implementation in the Chromium source tree)! It's even pretty good & makes sense! This was kind of part of the bargain for adding Presentation API to the web back in 2014/2015. Your site can itself trigger Chromecast! I…

> Open Screen Protocol exists and is very similar. Like any client-server protocol, it's useless if the devices and apps you use don't support it. Exactly zero of the apps I use to cast to my Chromecast supports Open Screen Protocol. And this isn't a case where I can just switch to a new client app. Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Jellyfin, etc. would have to all support it.

It's still in draft (but seemingly has stabilized a lot in the past 2 years). And there's such a a chicken & egg between software & devices neither supporting OpenScreenProtocol. I get your skepticism but what do you want? The same could be said about any other option than Chromecast: it doesn't exist on devices or software.

The really good news is that At least for many many apps, the effort to port to OpenScreemCast should be reasonably minimal. Chromecast for much of it's life has - under the covers - been web o ly, and rejiggering for the mild differences between Cast and OSP shouldn't be that wild.

Where-as Matter Cast requires native apps on the target device, and the app has to be pre installed to work.

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#527

Post by jchw »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #410
jchw wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. It's a shame there aren't any good open source setups using stock computers like Raspberry Pi that can act as a good Chromecast replacement (or if there are, I missed on it; I tried Kodi but while it is pretty cool it isn't really great for streaming services like YouTube in my opinion.) but on the other hand, it's not th…

> I think honestly the best solution really is to just use a stock PC and forget all of this crap. I used to do that, with a Linux HTPC and Plex. I eventually switched to the physical AppleTV device, with all the content on a surplus Mac mini connected to the home network. It's just less work to maintain. On the old setup, it always worked perfectly whenever I was around and had plenty of time to tinker with things.…

I'm currently using Jellyfin to manage my media. With very few exceptions, it's been as turnkey as it gets. Anything with a web browser is good enough to use it, making nearly any kind of setup sufficient. Almost any OS can just browse the web very well. I run it with Docker on Synology DSM. Early on in Jellyfin's life, some Jellyfin server updates required manual intervention, but for a long time now, I just update periodically (every few months) and haven't run into a problem.

With that in mind, if I wanted a Linux HTPC setup for minimal tinkering, for the purposes of accessing YouTube and Jellyfin, I'd probably go with an immutable system; I like the look of Bazzite for this. Then, I'd probably disable automatic updates, and manually update things periodically when I have time. If it breaks, you can always roll it back, but manual updates will take the minimal potential disruptions to probably just zero. You could run this on a cheap mini/NUC PC. For TVs that are not mounted to the wall, you could probably even mount it to the back using a VESA mount adapter.

That said, I don't currently have plans to replace all of my Chromecast setups, so I haven't actually done this. That's because they've been working very well for years and there's really no reason to mess with something that works. They were cheap, they run Android apps, and I've cut out all of the unwanted advertising.

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#528

Post by firesteelrain »

randunel wrote: post #487
firesteelrain wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an AirPort Express back in 2004 timeframe that was precursor to Airplay that did beat Chromecast by close to 10 years with AirTunes. AirPlay came out in 2010. Then, in 2017, Apple released AirPlay 2. Chromecast first gen was in 2013. Apple actually beat Google on this one in terms of time.

How is a wireless audio technology comparable to chromecast? If it is, bluetooth audio streaming started in 1998, beating airport express by 6 years. And don't get me started on radio...

By your logic, AirPlay and Chromecast are just smaller versions of broadcast television.

Come on man

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#529

Post by pimlottc »

entropicdrifter wrote: post #491
cubefox wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google TV Streamer" pretty exactly describes what this thing does. It's from Google, and it streams things to your TV. "Chromecast" was more puzzling. What's "Chrome"? Isn't that a browser? What does this have to do with anything? And what is "cast"? Does it broadcast something? Etc.

On the other hand, "Google TV Streamer" also describes Chromecasts and is immensely less memorable or distinctive. It'd be like if Apple decided to rebrand Macbook to be "Apple Laptop". Sure, it's accurate. It's also crap.

To be fair, "MacBook" is basically a portmanteau of "Macintosh Notebook", so it's really not that far removed from "Apple Laptop".

Re: Moments in Chromecast's history

#530

Post by becurious »

xnx wrote: post #496

Like a lot of Google products, the branding story has been very confusing. Small possibility that this is a step toward cleaning up some of the historical mess: Chromecast Chromecast Ultra Chromecast with Google TV Google TV YouTube TV YouTube Premium YouTube Music YouTube Red etc.

Google TV for two completely different products. The initial one was an OS on Sony / Logitech devices that came out in 2010.
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