Google Chromecast.. So far so good...
Courtesy: Google |
CNET's review of the device.
You see most times when good ole Nigeria national soccer team is playing, of course none of the American TV providers show the matches, so I am constantly searching the internet for a website that steams the match, and in the past, once found it means only watching it on either my laptop or desktop. Not long ago I actually did connect a desktop to the TV to solve this problem and it did, save for the untidy cables. Enter Chromecast and problem to a large extent solved! Yup! I am fairly quite happy! Fairly happy due to the fact that the speeds you get on your TV are subject to the speeds of your internet connection and home network, so without a good internet connection you will possibly be subject to less than ideal images and also frequent buffering. But the device has performed really, really well.
It still impresses me when I can sit on the couch with my Nexus 7, pull on something on Chrome or You Tube and cast it right to the to the TV. My latest use is to not only cast Naija soccer but also cast premier league soccer from NBCsports Extra when a game is not on any of the TV networks. And a few weeks ago, I actually cast a Movie from Amazon to the TV. A downside remains the need to connect a power cord, for those of us with no USB port on our TV.
But Google really hit the ball outta the park with the price point. $35 is simply an absolute steal and I do wonder for how long it will remain at the price. I suspect it will until the capabilities of the device are expanded, and mark my words, the capabilities WILL be expended in the very near future. For example I just read that Hulu Plus is now available via Chromecast. I had noted on G+ when the device came out, the end game here is to go to to toe with the cable box providers. With the increasing original online only content from Netflix and Amazon, the future of this device remains bright!
For all those Nollywood fans, I can't imagine how much you must all be in paradise, as anytime I am on YouTube and search for some videos, tons and tons of Nollywood movies show up!
NB: if you have Roku and subscribe to some African TV channels and then get NTA / AIT et al, you can also watch Nigerian content that way. I actually subscribe to a service that shows NTA channels and thus I can cast that to the TV now as well.
Comments
Post a Comment