The progress in the use of home appliances is amazing, but most users are forced to face the problem of lack of compatibility between electronic devices. Yes, Smart technology turns your TV into a great multimedia entertainment center. But, firstly, the lack of control using touch technologies, manipulators or keyboard does not allow working with such a TV with the proper level of comfort. And secondly, due to technical reasons, the capabilities of Smart-TV are still much inferior to computers and modern smartphones. Chromecast addresses one of the compatibility issues. This device is thus an intermediary between a mobile gadget and a TV, which provides the ability to broadcast streaming video directly from your phone, tablet or computer. Intrigued? We read on.
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What is Chromecast and how to use it
Formally, the Chromecast, developed by Google in 2013, is a digital media player, but there is no such familiar accessory as a remote control. However, the method of connecting to a TV receiver is standard – via the HDMI port, but communication with the transmitting device is carried out over the air.
Setting up a wireless network connection is simple, as a result you will be able to broadcast video content or music to a large screen or monitor from a computer, tablet, smartphone or Google Home Smart speaker.
Since its own power supply is not provided here, the device requires a USB port to operate – modern TVs are necessarily equipped with such connectors, and more than one. An appropriate adapter is supplied with the device. Due to the lack of a remote control, the media player is configured and controlled from the transmitting device, for which a special application must be installed on it.
How Chromecast works
The proprietary Cast protocol is the intellectual property of Google. It is he who is at the heart of the Chromecast device and a number of counterparts from other manufacturers. This protocol is originally focused on transferring images from a mobile device to a TV (in the case of streaming audio, the receiver can also be a smart speaker). Of course, the Cast protocol is integrated into almost all of Google’s media apps. And what is important, it is cross-platform, that is, it provides the ability to pair a TV with a device operating under any platform.
The Chromecast uses Wi-Fi to connect to the same home network used by your smartphone or laptop. This allows collaboration devices to sync with almost no lag.
The principle of operation is quite simple: if the Chromecast is connected to the network, then the Cast icon appears in the application that supports this technology – it is this icon that is used to initiate the transfer of content to the end device connected to the Chromecast.
How to connect phone / PC to TV using Chromecast
Of course, not all applications support Cast technology. But no one forbids developers to add support for this protocol to their software products, since it is implemented in such a way as not to depend on a specific platform.
Therefore, on everyone’s favorite YouTube, the corresponding button appears regardless of where this video service is running – on a Mac, a computer running under Windows, or on a smartphone. Cast compatibility is provided by many well-known streaming (and not only) platforms, including Netflix, Facebook, Spotify. And the number of such compatible applications is constantly growing.
But not everything is so rosy. For example, the video service, which is quite popular abroad (not many people know it in Russia), Amazon Prime Video does not cooperate with Google on this issue. But Amazon has its own development, which is an analogue of Cast technology – this is Fire TV. True, the ability to broadcast from Prime Video using Chromecast is still available – for this you need to use the mirroring capabilities. The essence of this function is to transfer the contents of the screen of a smartphone or tablet to the TV screen. Of course, we are not talking about great interactivity here, but with the help of such a clever workaround, almost all services that do not officially support Cast technology can be broadcast on the big screen.
As for the maximum resolution, when connecting a Chromecast, it is possible to provide video broadcast with a resolution up to 4K. The mirroring function enables the transfer of any content, from slideshows and presentations to photos and documents.
Gamers can also use Chromecast to allow others to watch the gameplay. For the sake of fairness, we note that today there are not too many applications of a purely entertainment nature with support for the Cast protocol. If we talk about very popular, then it is worth mentioning Monopoly, as well as the famous Angry Birds Friends.
How do you connect your Chromecast to your TV? Let’s take a closer look at the procedure. The device connects to the source of media content via Wi-Fi, and we’ll talk about this in the settings section. It connects to the Google Chromecast TV by simply inserting it into the HDMI connector. The package describes the connection procedure in sufficient detail. If your TV is not equipped with this port, the device cannot be used. On the contrary, if your TV has multiple HDMI ports, they are usually numbered and you need to remember the number to which the Chromecast is connected.
As for the power supply of the device, the HDMI connector is not intended for this, you need to connect the Chromecast to the USB port of the TV receiver. For this, a Micro-USB adapter is included in the package. If the TV does not have a USB connector, you should not despair either – you can also power the device from a regular outlet using the supplied adapter.
Now let’s consider what needs to be done next for the technology to work.
Setting procedure
Chromecast cross-platform allows you to work with it on devices with any operating system, provided that the main condition is the presence of a Chrome browser. Before setting up your Chromecast on your TV, you need to download and install a dedicated app, which is essentially the interface between your smartphone and Chromecast, on the one hand, and your TV, on the other. On computers, as a rule, the role of such an interface falls on the shoulders of a browser plug-in. Where to get such software?
The address is usually indicated inside the box or in the instructions. If we are talking about a mobile gadget, then this is the Google Home application, for a PC you need to type chromecast.com/setup in the address bar in Chrome.
After installing the plugin / application, you can proceed directly to the initial setup of the device. If the TV has already recognized the Chromecast, then your gadget has yet to do so. To do this, you must have a functioning Wi-Fi network. Scan it on your smartphone / laptop – Chromecast will initially be a standard access point, and this network can be easily identified by the name of the same name. True, situations are not uncommon when this device is also present in the neighbor’s network, and then you will need to determine which of the networks is yours and which is the neighbor’s. Usually there is nothing difficult about this, because the signal level will not be the same.
In any case, after choosing the Chromecast and clicking “Connect”, you will need to enter a four-digit password, which is a guarantee that you have chosen the right gadget and that sly neighbors will not be able to use it in the future.
But that’s not all: in order to install Chromecast on a computer, it must be tied to your home network, which is running on a PC or smartphone.
This can be done in the installed application, and it is possible to change the default device name and set a new password. As soon as the Chromecast is connected to the local network, you can immediately use it for its intended purpose – to watch videos on the big screen.
For the device to work, there is no need to keep a computer or mobile phone on all the time – it is enough for the router to work.
If you need to change the Chromecast settings, you can do this using the button located near the USB connector. She needs to press and hold for about 20-25 seconds. The flashing indicator will indicate that the settings have been reset to the factory settings.
Using Chromecast on Different Devices
Now let’s move on from theory to practice. The methods of using the media player on a PC under Windows and MacOS, on “apple” and android smartphones are somewhat different, so we will give small instructions for each of the devices.
Chromecast on PC
There are many ways to use Chromecast on a laptop or desktop computer, but you need the Google Chrome browser either way. Through an Internet browser, you can broadcast video from a single tab to your TV, or stream your entire desktop, or launch a video or music file on your PC and transfer it to TV.
So, in the browser section with plugins, click on the Cast icon and select the “More” item. A new window will open, where all Chromecast devices available on the network will be displayed, select the one you need by clicking on it. Next, you need to click on the “Sources” button and select one of three viewing options: using a tab, the entire screen, or a separate file.
When broadcasting a streaming video from a tab or file, you can use the computer at your discretion, without fear that the contents of the screen will be displayed on the TV – only the area of the screen in which the broadcast is taking place will be shown there. Of course, the browser must remain open, and if you want to continue working with other applications, it must be done in the background.
If you want to broadcast your entire desktop, make sure that no strangers can see confidential information on the TV, not for prying eyes.
Chromecast on Mac
Now let’s look at how to enable Chromecast on Apple computers. The principle of operation is the same – you can broadcast streaming video / audio in three modes, just like on Windows.
Step by step guide:
- launch the Chrome browser;
- click on the More icon (3 vertical dots) and select Cast;
- select the device and click on the “Sources” item;
- the browser must be open for the duration of the broadcast.
Chromecast on Android
The functionality of Chromecast on Android is richer than on smartphones running iOS, especially when it comes to broadcasting content on the big screen. The fact is that the Android OS is endowed with the ability to broadcast the full screen, and not just individual applications.
How important is it? If the app you want to capture does not support the Chromecast protocol, then casting the entire screen is the only way to transfer its content to your TV. So the answer is yes, the function is really in demand.
To activate the screen, you need to go to the smartphone settings and find and select Cast in the connected devices section. After that, a list of available devices will be displayed – choose our own, as we did for a PC.
Many Chromecast-optimized apps have a built-in Cast button that resembles a miniature TV. When you press it, the video will be simultaneously broadcast on TV. In particular, the YouTube app has such a button.
In this case, only the YouTube screen will be displayed on the big screen, the rest of the phone interface will be hidden from outsiders.
Chromecast on iPhone
Unlike Android smartphones, here you can use Chromecast only if the application you are using supports this technology. The ability to broadcast the entire screen is absent here – the developers from Apple are very picky about their products in terms of security, excluding the potential for loss of confidential data.
You can guess about support by the Chromecast application by the presence of the corresponding icon, which can be located somewhere in the application menu or on the home screen. Click on this icon and select our device, after which the broadcast will start.
Chromecast without wifi
On Android smartphones, it is possible to broadcast video content without connecting to a network via Wi-Fi. How is this possible? The smartphone has its own Wi-Fi module, which will establish a connection with the Chromecast.
The connection procedure itself is similar to the usual one, with the only exception: when you select the Chromecast to connect to, you will need to enter a four-digit PIN each time.
This option is not available for the iPhone, so if you often work without Wi-Fi, you will have to spend money on a router, at least the most budget one.
So, we looked at how to connect, configure and use Google Chromecast no matter what device you are currently working with. And this is one of the most affordable ways to turn an ordinary TV into a “smart” one. We hope that you can easily cope with its connection. If you have any problems – write their essence in the comments, not forgetting to indicate the details. Together we can solve them!