Be Excellent To Each Other

What is this? (Eurogamer article)

This is the first time I hear of any of this.

Well Amazon are one of the few companies I'd credit with the ability to make a success of a "lite" console and media system, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

Looks like the pad will be perfectly designed to be impossible to use effectively without severe pain.

I agree with The man with the christmas name Nijel Henge

It looks mighty uncomfortably.

Hmm. My name really ought to be changed back now shouldn't it? Where's the mods when you need them?

Though actually I still have my christmas tree up in my living room...

I, er, what?

What would you like to change it to?

Oh, it seems Eurogamer got it a bit wrong, it would be a HDMI dongle, not a USB one, which makes a lot more sense.

Why's that weird? The Google ChromeCast is a dongle.

Ah, yes. I see your confusion now.

This is actually also the first time my attention has been brought to Chromecast. I think I'm getting old or something.

But yes, it makes perfect sense that Amazon would want to compete with that, especially with all their new Amazon Prime stuff going on.

Chromecast is rather lovely.

Want one

that does look funky

If someone would buy me one... that would be lovely.

They come out tomorrow, say the papers. They're ever so cheap, so just buy one yourself.

Well... if you insist.

For some reason* I keep struggling to understand Chromecast. Does it do anything on it's own at all, or do you always need another device to stream stuff from? Obviously if you're 'casting' the view of a Chrome tab from your PC or whatever you're doing so from a separate device but do things like Netflix run on the dongle itself or are you always streaming from a separate device?

*Because I'm quite stupid, obviously.

Using Plex or YouTube (and Netflix, I believe) you need a phone (or something) to control it and choose what you want to watch, but once this is done you can then use the phone for something else, as the ChromeCast App connects directly to the source.

I want to want one, but as much as I try and find a use, I just can't think of why I would need one!

Oh... wait. Plex casting is now free? That might make a difference. I could bin the Boxee Box connected to the bedroom tv in that case.

Hmmm...

What I really want is the ability to send stuff from my sky box to the bedroom tv really, is there a better way to do that these days than my old slingbox?

Like that ever stops you.

I only buy this sort of shit as a service to the forum, you think I want to buy random useless tech?

All seven of us thank you!

A long cable?

Can a HDMI signal stretch that far? I expect I would need 30m+ if I wanted to chase the cable around the walls rather than across the middle of the floor.
Not an awful idea though, I have a HDMI splitter already, and you can control your sky box from the sky app these days!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet%C2%AE-Exte ... B002ECYEYA

Ooooh! I already have Cat5 run to the room.

Those are neat....

Make sure you get the gold-plated version.

Mrs Grim... can advise further.

Sky boxes provide for an additional TV, don't they? Our old one did - it had an IO socket and we just had a little box in the bedroom connected to it.

No RF out on the HD boxes anymore.

would http://www.skifta.com/ work for your set up?

Really? What a swiz. A long RF cable and the in-line 'sky-eye' remote sensor was a quick and easy way to get sky up to the bedroom telly.

Cant you use sky go, and plug that device into a tv?

Sky Go blocks Airplay, irritatingly.

Really? What a cunt.

To be fair, I'm willing to bet 80% of Sky Go usage is by people who are just using it because the account holder doesn't. It makes sense to restrict it in that way.

*looks sheepish*

Sky go doesn't let you play the content that is saved on your sky box though, that's what we really want.

No help to you, but you can to that with Virgin.

Anyway, surely "big cable" is the best bet (although I have no idea if you are allowed to drill holes or anything).

Nope, I can already do all that. It doesn't solve my problem

Heh, no Virgin in my block of flats

Big cable is the best bet, I agree.
I'm pretty certain I'm allowed to drill holes, i'll ask the owner though... Apparently I said it is fine

Bed in the living room.

We have had the living room for a while now, it's pretty well understood and settled.

:applauds:



Done.

Got my Chromecast this morning. I've had a quick play in the office and it's pretty nifty. It should be perfect for the second tv.

"In practice, the video quality is low and the display can lag and skip frames."

These sort of comments in online press reviews i've read worry me. I'd be interested in a proper review if you get the time

I didn't see any lag in the few youtube vids and netflix stuff I've tried, but i've literally only tried it for 10 minutes. The boss told me to turn it off. Fair do's, I was watching Avengers on work time

I've not seen any difference between streaming to Chromecast and my (wired) TV's built in app at all, except Chromecast is faster.