Google Chromecast (2015) review: Still a cheap way to make your TV smart

Google Chromecast review: Netflix and Google Play Movies

If you want to use your Chromecast to watch movies from online, the two best options at the moment are Netflix and Google Play Movies. Sadly, there’s no support from rival services, including Amazon Prime Instant Video (even though this now has an Android App) or Blinkbox. Sky’s Now TV service is supported (see Catch-up section below for more information). Netflix is a great example of the Chromecast in action. You just use an app on your smartphone or tablet (iOS and Android), or via the web app, to pick what you want to watch, tap the Chromecast button and the content appears on your TV. There are a few seconds’ worth of buffering to get through, but it’s short enough not to be too annoying.

Netflix automatically connected to the highest quality stream in all cases and we were soon watching the high-quality 1080p content with absolutely no problems. If there’s one minor complaint, it’s that the Chromecast doesn’t easily support some of the third-party services for watching US Netflix in the UK, such as the excellent Unblock US. The problem with these services is that they need you to edit a device’s network settings, but the Chromecast doesn’t let you do this and has its settings hard wired.

There are ways around the problem but they depend on your router supporting them and they’re certainly not for the faint-hearted. For some this may be enough to put them off the Chromecast completely, opting for a more flexible platform, such as the Roku Streaming Stick or the Apple TV, which both have a Netflix client built-in. If you do want to give it a go, you can read our how to get US Netflix on Chromecast article.

Support for the Chromecast has grown a lot since launch, and as well as Netflix you can watch TV and film using Google Play Movies & TV, Wuaki.TV and Blinkbox. It’s a little disappointing that Amazon Prime Instant Video still only supports AirPlay, particularly as Amazon manufactures its own Android-based tablets.

Google Chromecast review: Surround sound

Where available, the Chromecast supports surround sound, such as 5.1 from Netflix content. If you want to use this, you’ll be best off plugging the Chromecast directly into your surround-sound amp. You can run an optical cable from your TV to your amp instead, but this doesn’t always work, as many TVs only pass on stereo sound in this way.

At the moment, this is one area where the Chromecast is ahead of the Apple TV, as a current bug means that there’s no surround sound from Netflix. Apparently, this is being worked on, but the issue has been there for a few months.

Google Chromecast review: TV, catchup TV and iPlayer

Catch-up and live TV is another area where the Chromecast should be useful. It’s good to see that iPlayer is supported. As you’d expect, it works really well: just select the content you want to play, tap the cast option and after a short delay the content starts playing on your TV. It’s good to see that there’s BT Sport support, so you can stream live TV from the app to the player.

A recent addition to the mix is Sky’s Now TV, the subscription-free paid-for streaming service, which lets you get some of the top Sky channels, including Sky Atlantic, Sky Movies and Sky Sports. With a recent update, Sky has now enabled Chromecast, so you can just stream from your phone or tablet directly to your TV. While Sky’s on Now TV box is just £10, the Chromecast is still a great deal if you want other services, such as Netflix.

As good as iPlayer, Now TV and BT Sport are, it’s a real shame that there’s no ITV Player, 4oD or Demand Five support at the moment. Nor is there support for Sky Go. Admittedly this is the same as with the Apple TV, but it’s frustrating that so many of the UK’s big TV stations won’t take this kind of technology seriously and enable support.

Google Chromecast review: DLNA/UPnP

Strictly speaking the Chromecast doesn’t support DLNA/UPnP media servers, as it has no client. However, it can support them indirectly, just as you can connect an Apple TV to a DLNA server. As long as you’ve got an app that supports DLNA servers and Chromecast, you can browse for media using your smartphone or tablet and then cast the content.

This works brilliantly, just like any other ‘proper’ video streaming app, but there are some caveats. First, the Chromecast doesn’t support a lot of video codecs (you can view a list of supported codecs on the Chromecast developer site), with H.264 video the main one. This may mean that you need to convert video files – our guide on how to convert video for Apple TV will also work for Chromecast.

Secondly, you’ve got to find an app capable of doing it. On Android, BubbleUPnP does a brilliant job and is the app of choice. If you’ve got an iOS device, it’s a bit trickier. We love 8player for AirPlay DLNA, but this app doesn’t support Chromecast. That leaves GoodPlayer, which isn’t a patch on it. A third alternative is to use Plex. The server is free and will transcode video on the fly, letting unsupported formats play on a Chromecast (or indeed other device). Along with the server you need to pay for the Android or iOS client, or you can use the Chrome web browser. Check out our guide on how to use Plex with Chromecast for instructions on configuring the server and using the client software for more information.

The Plex server is available for a wide range of devices, including Synology NAS drives. However, there are some limitations, based on the server type. If you’re running the Plex server on a Synology NAS, only the DS214play and DS415play can transcode video up to 1080p, some other NAS models can transcode video up to 720p; the cheaper models can’t transcode at all. You can see Synology NAS transcoding support for more information. The PC and Mac versions of Plex support transcoding of all resolutions, although you’ll need to have a fairly decent processor if you don’t want to slow your computer down. If you are streaming local content from a computer or NAS, this is where the Chromecast’s lack of 802.11ac might become a limitation as the slower file transfer speeds of 802.11n can become a bottleneck for high bit rate video. This might mean you need to transcode video to a lower resolution or bit rate to accommodate any network speed limitations. The Google Nexus Player, which also supports casting, has 802.11ac support  Continues on Page 3