Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Yes, I'm all in favor of using cables for moving data and that's why I use gigabyte ethernet on my main workstation to connect with Rita's workstation when I want to move large video files. My external drive for backup is connected to my workstation with eSata. What I am trying to do is install a home media delivery system that everyone in the family can access without cables running on the floor to each room. So far, I have not had a big problem with the Wi-Fi tuned in to Netflix - there's probably going to be some buffering on videos, but so far I can live with it. Access to my mp3 music files with the Wi-Fi has not been a problem. So, I've got the broadband at 14 bps into the Motorola Surfer, the wireless NAS on RAID, the headless Windows Home Server, the smart BD player, the Roku, WD Live, Chromecast, and an Ultra Book with wireless N. Wireless -now that's better! On 9/21/2013 8:39 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I deleted my first response to this because my mind was glomming onto a recent article in the Source about using Chromecast with tablets or phones, which are, themselves, crude interfaces to the Internet. If used with a real computer, I can see how Chromecast is handy for playing Internet content on a TV, but I would still opt for sending the video and audio from my Macbook over cables, which are far more robust and reliable than WiFi. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2:
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Originally AV enthusiasts found that wifi wasn't the way to go with streaming video. For one thing with .11G someone running out to the kitchen to microwave some popcorn could shut the stream down. These days even with .11G I don't get knocked off my wifi streams. I'd like to have an N router but U-Verse only has G routers (cheapskates) though I think the gateway you get for video may be N. I wanted N to install a camera facing my front door so I could see who was at the door while working. The one I was looking at requires N. It was cheaper to put up a $3 No Soliciting sign. Works for me. On 09/23/2013 12:25 PM, Richard J. Williams wrote: Yes, I'm all in favor of using cables for moving data and that's why I use gigabyte ethernet on my main workstation to connect with Rita's workstation when I want to move large video files. My external drive for backup is connected to my workstation with eSata. What I am trying to do is install a home media delivery system that everyone in the family can access without cables running on the floor to each room. So far, I have not had a big problem with the Wi-Fi tuned in to Netflix - there's probably going to be some buffering on videos, but so far I can live with it. Access to my mp3 music files with the Wi-Fi has not been a problem. So, I've got the broadband at 14 bps into the Motorola Surfer, the wireless NAS on RAID, the headless Windows Home Server, the smart BD player, the Roku, WD Live, Chromecast, and an Ultra Book with wireless N. Wireless -now that's better! On 9/21/2013 8:39 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I deleted my first response to this because my mind was glomming onto a recent article in the Source about using Chromecast with tablets or phones, which are, themselves, crude interfaces to the Internet. If used with a real computer, I can see how Chromecast is handy for playing Internet content on a TV, but I would still opt for sending the video and audio from my Macbook over cables, which are far more robust and reliable than WiFi. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2:
RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
When we move out to CA and buy the pot farm we are going to build a house and pre-wire it with Ethernet and cable. Right now, with all the grand kids around it's a lot of work running cable all over the place - and these kids just can't sit still long - they've all got wireless devices and they are out of control! Thanks for info. It must be nice out there with all the quietness where a guy can just sit back and hear himself think! On 9/23/2013 6:35 PM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: When our DirecTV receiver was connected to the Internet with a WiFi device, video streaming to the iPads was not very robust. When I discovered that there's also a wired device available, I ran Cat 5 down to the living room, and now the streaming works much better. And, one of the webcams was wireless until I moved the wireless router and cut it back to 25% power; the new config put the webcam out of range of the router, so I hooked up the cat 5 cable going out to the garage; now the webcam works much better. With computers connecting to the wireless router's USB NAS drive, transfers are vastly quicker over Cat 5 than WiFi, and when playing video off the NAS, wired doesn't have the occasional video glitches like wireless does. Except for the Macbook, everything that can hook up with ethernet is connected with it. The iPads, my phone, and the Macbook are now the only devices using WiFi. As wonderful as it is to have all these nifty wireless devices, wired ethernet is a vastly superior network technology. That said, if yer gonna go wireless, N routers are the only way to go. They're much faster, and they have better range. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: Originally AV enthusiasts found that wifi wasn't the way to go with streaming video. For one thing with .11G someone running out to the kitchen to microwave some popcorn could shut the stream down. These days even with .11G I don't get knocked off my wifi streams. I'd like to have an N router but U-Verse only has G routers (cheapskates) though I think the gateway you get for video may be N. I wanted N to install a camera facing my front door so I could see who was at the door while working. The one I was looking at requires N. It was cheaper to put up a $3 No Soliciting sign. Works for me. On 09/23/2013 12:25 PM, Richard J. Williams wrote: Yes, I'm all in favor of using cables for moving data and that's why I use gigabyte ethernet on my main workstation to connect with Rita's workstation when I want to move large video files. My external drive for backup is connected to my workstation with eSata. What I am trying to do is install a home media delivery system that everyone in the family can access without cables running on the floor to each room. So far, I have not had a big problem with the Wi-Fi tuned in to Netflix - there's probably going to be some buffering on videos, but so far I can live with it. Access to my mp3 music files with the Wi-Fi has not been a problem. So, I've got the broadband at 14 bps into the Motorola Surfer, the wireless NAS on RAID, the headless Windows Home Server, the smart BD player, the Roku, WD Live, Chromecast, and an Ultra Book with wireless N. Wireless -now that's better! On 9/21/2013 8:39 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com mailto:j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I deleted my first response to this because my mind was glomming onto a recent article in the Source about using Chromecast with tablets or phones, which are, themselves, crude interfaces to the Internet. If used with a real computer, I can see how Chromecast is handy for playing Internet content on a TV, but I would still opt for sending the video and audio from my Macbook over cables, which are far more robust and reliable than WiFi. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com mailto:fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2:
RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
I've had no problems with wifi and my Android devices watching video streams. I was just given an NVidia Shield which is like a little game handheld console running Android. MPEG-4 displays fine at 3 mbps for 720p. I've encoded TV shows 720p at 900 kbps using MPEG-4 and it still looked acceptable. Broadcast MPEG-2 transport streams are 38 mbps for 1080i. On 09/23/2013 04:35 PM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: When our DirecTV receiver was connected to the Internet with a WiFi device, video streaming to the iPads was not very robust. When I discovered that there's also a wired device available, I ran Cat 5 down to the living room, and now the streaming works much better. And, one of the webcams was wireless until I moved the wireless router and cut it back to 25% power; the new config put the webcam out of range of the router, so I hooked up the cat 5 cable going out to the garage; now the webcam works much better. With computers connecting to the wireless router's USB NAS drive, transfers are vastly quicker over Cat 5 than WiFi, and when playing video off the NAS, wired doesn't have the occasional video glitches like wireless does. Except for the Macbook, everything that can hook up with ethernet is connected with it. The iPads, my phone, and the Macbook are now the only devices using WiFi. As wonderful as it is to have all these nifty wireless devices, wired ethernet is a vastly superior network technology. That said, if yer gonna go wireless, N routers are the only way to go. They're much faster, and they have better range. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: Originally AV enthusiasts found that wifi wasn't the way to go with streaming video. For one thing with .11G someone running out to the kitchen to microwave some popcorn could shut the stream down. These days even with .11G I don't get knocked off my wifi streams. I'd like to have an N router but U-Verse only has G routers (cheapskates) though I think the gateway you get for video may be N. I wanted N to install a camera facing my front door so I could see who was at the door while working. The one I was looking at requires N. It was cheaper to put up a $3 No Soliciting sign. Works for me. On 09/23/2013 12:25 PM, Richard J. Williams wrote: Yes, I'm all in favor of using cables for moving data and that's why I use gigabyte ethernet on my main workstation to connect with Rita's workstation when I want to move large video files. My external drive for backup is connected to my workstation with eSata. What I am trying to do is install a home media delivery system that everyone in the family can access without cables running on the floor to each room. So far, I have not had a big problem with the Wi-Fi tuned in to Netflix - there's probably going to be some buffering on videos, but so far I can live with it. Access to my mp3 music files with the Wi-Fi has not been a problem. So, I've got the broadband at 14 bps into the Motorola Surfer, the wireless NAS on RAID, the headless Windows Home Server, the smart BD player, the Roku, WD Live, Chromecast, and an Ultra Book with wireless N. Wireless -now that's better! On 9/21/2013 8:39 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com mailto:j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I deleted my first response to this because my mind was glomming onto a recent article in the Source about using Chromecast with tablets or phones, which are, themselves, crude interfaces to the Internet. If used with a real computer, I can see how Chromecast is handy for playing Internet content on a TV, but I would still opt for sending the video and audio from my Macbook over cables, which are far more robust and reliable than WiFi. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com mailto:fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2:
RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
[FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
[FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
The key word here is 'casting', as in broadcast. You can broadcast anything you see on your computer screen using Chrome to any Chromecast device in any room. With the Google Chromecast you don't need an HDMI cable running across the room from your lap top to the back of the TV set. You can broadcast using your home Wi-Fi. You'll need to be having Wi-Fi N network in your house and a speedy broadband connection. Then you can unplug the Comcast - get rid of cable. Now this may be impractical for some and something a rich guy living in heaven on earth wouldn't even want to bother with, because: 1. You can afford cable and all the premium channels 2. You can't get free HD reception from a local station 3. You have built-in cabling to all your devices including cable, ethernet, and HDMI, built inside the walls of your house, basement and attic and patio floor. P.S. I used to connect my Ultra Book to the TV set using a 25 foot HDMI cable, which cost me at least $100. After the grand kid tripped over the HDMI cable FOUR TIMES IN ONE DAY, and one time jerked the whole laptop out onto the floor, I decided do get rid of he cable. Also, Rita didn't like the cable running across the room. On 9/21/2013 8:24 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I'm completely baffled by the enthusiasm for turning TV sets into crude interfaces to content on the Internet when computers are vastly better suited to the task. If I need to see Internet content on my TV, I connect the TV to my Macbook. So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2: .
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
Alex: crude interfaces to the Internet.,, Maybe so, but there's nothing more crude than the interface you see at Time-Warner, where you pay your cable bill! LoL! And, the on-screen menu from Time-Warner is no piece of art. I checked out the TiVo interface menu and it was pretty crude too. Go figure. However, the interface we're now using, Google Chrome, is outstanding as an interface on our big screen screen TV. I am using DIVX for the video player. For awhile, we were using the Windows Media Player. On 9/21/2013 8:39 AM, j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com wrote: I deleted my first response to this because my mind was glomming onto a recent article in the Source about using Chromecast with tablets or phones, which are, themselves, crude interfaces to the Internet. If used with a real computer, I can see how Chromecast is handy for playing Internet content on a TV, but I would still opt for sending the video and audio from my Macbook over cables, which are far more robust and reliable than WiFi. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote: So, what is Chromecast? Broadcast to your TV with the Chrome browser on your laptop computer. Anything you see on your computer screen, you can cast it to your big screen TV. That way you can see your YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. And you can subscribe to Google Channels. Get rid of cable! Did I tell you that the Chromcast is $35.00? You plug in the Chromecast dongle using HDMI, Then you install the Mozilla Chrome browser on your laptop. After you complete a short setup on the internet you can connect and cast via your home Wi-Fi network. Casting from my Ultra Book: Chromecast dongle on HDMI2:
Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Re: Chromecast, was Apple TV, was Roku
On 09/21/2013 08:55 AM, Richard J. Williams wrote: The key word here is 'casting', as in broadcast. You can broadcast anything you see on your computer screen using Chrome to any Chromecast device in any room. With the Google Chromecast you don't need an HDMI cable running across the room from your lap top to the back of the TV set. You can broadcast using your home Wi-Fi. You'll need to be having Wi-Fi N network in your house and a speedy broadband connection. Then you can unplug the Comcast - get rid of cable. Now this may be impractical for some and something a rich guy living in heaven on earth wouldn't even want to bother with, because: 1. You can afford cable and all the premium channels 2. You can't get free HD reception from a local station 3. You have built-in cabling to all your devices including cable, ethernet, and HDMI, built inside the walls of your house, basement and attic and patio floor. P.S. I used to connect my Ultra Book to the TV set using a 25 foot HDMI cable, which cost me at least $100. What was it, a Monster cable? I think I spent $10-15 for a 25' no name brand one at Fry's. Works perfectly.
