When I saw the ads on TV for the Chromecast I got the impression that anything you could see on your smartphone, tablet or laptop could be sent to your big screen TV. Cool. Well, it doesn’t work that way. I ordered a Chromecast from Amazon for one purpose only, to see Watch TCM from one of my tablets to my big screen TV. My wife works out of town, and since she loves TV far more than I do, I let her have the cable TV. However, she’s let me have the streaming apps for HBOGO and Watch TCM. HBOGO however has a Roku channel, so I watch it through my Roku. I love TCM, but watching TV on an iPad is no fun for me, so I didn’t watch TCM. Then I saw the Chromecast and thought, wow, I can now watch TCM! Quick review: No such luck.
It turns out the Chromecast is designed to work with only a handful of optimized apps. Of the twelve apps listed, I only like three, and all three are available on my Roku. So the Chromecast ends up being useless for me. I went on the net to see if I could hack it for some other fun use, and discovered some people casting from the Chrome browser – but evidently that’s only from laptops. I can’t cast from Chrome on my iPad or Nexus 7.
From Googling around I discovered other people trying to do the same thing I’m doing, buying a Chromecast in hopes of seeing TCM on their TV from their laptop. Through this research I discovered Watch TCM is online and I can now watch TCM on my big screen TV via the computer that’s attached. So I really don’t need to Chromecast at all. However, since I don’t like sending things back I started looking around for other fun things to do with a Chromecast. I hoped there might be a way to put Android on my TV using the Chromecast, but couldn’t find anyone that had done that. About the only thing I found even slightly useful was to play YouTube on an older flat screen TV that doesn’t have a Roku. And even this works very flaky.
I started a one hour lecture on speeding up Python, but I couldn’t shut it off. Once the film began it appears the Chromecast might not be getting the film from the iPad, but off the net. I haven’t tested this thoroughly, but closing the YouTube app doesn’t stop the film. Neither did shutting off the iPad screen. I didn’t try shutting off the iPad. I did shut off the TV. Then turned it back on and the film was still playing. I then started the iPad back up, launched YouTube app, and found I could then shut off the film.
The Chromecast is a nicely made product, that comes in packaging that reminds me of something from Apple. The trouble is, Chromecast is so limited in what it can do, especially if you have a smart TV or Roku, that it’s practically useless. My guess is its useful to people that have a TV with a HDMI port, but no other connected devices or smarts. If Chromecast had merely mirrored my Nexus 5 or iPad screen to my TV it would have been wonderful to me. And such a feature might be forthcoming in future updates. So I don’t know if I should keep the Chromecast or send it back. I was hugely disappointed.
Evidently, there’s a lot of us old baby boomers that love old movies that don’t want to buy a zillion cable channels we don’t want to watch. Our alternatives to TCM are improving.
Note #1. To TCM: Put Watch TCM on the Roku and charge $7.99 a month like Netflix and Hulu Plus. TCM is the gold standard for old movie watching, but not worth buying cable just to watch old movies.
Note #2. For you old movie fans, try Warner Archive Instant on the Roku. At first it looks like it has a very limited selection, but poke around. Plus new films are cycled in each month. I find plenty to watch, except that in the past few weeks net traffic keeps it from working during prime time hours. Warner Archive focuses on the 1920s through the 1980s.
Note #3. If you live in one of these cities, Sony is now broadcasting old movies over the air for something called getTV that appears to be capitalizing on the TCM craze for old movies.
Note #4. Try Classic Flix. It’s a disc rental service like Netflix, but focuses on old movies. Unfortunately, it has only one mailing location – California, so it takes 3-4 days for me to send back a movie. I get about 4 movies watched a month for $10.99.
[Translation. By old movies I mean movies from the 1920s to the 1950s. I keep meeting young people that translate old movies to mean movies from the 1980s and 1990s.]
JWH – 3/23/14
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