Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew miskovic from cnet and today we're going to take a look at the google chromecast this is Google's $35 streaming stick that made a big splash when it was announced back in July and recently it's gotten a few updates in the last couple months now there's not much to the hardware it's a gray stick with a solid feel and it's designed to plug right into a spare hdmi input on the back of your TV it's a sleek look but that spoiled just a little bit by the fact that it also needs power so you'll have to connect the included micro USB cable either to a USB port on the back your TV or to the included power adapter setup is surprisingly easy using either an Android or iOS device which leads you through the simple step-by-step process once you're ready to go using the chromecast is as easy as opening up a supported app on a phone or tablet you hit the cast button and it beams the content straight to your TV you can pause and fast-forward right from your mobile device and even adjust the volume you can even have multiple devices controlling the chromecast at once which is pretty fun if you have a group of friends and your training YouTube videos on your TV now you may have noticed two crucial details to how the chromecast works the first is that apps need to support the device and right now the list is a little short there's Netflix YouTube Pandora HBO Go Hulu Plus and Google music plus android users can also access google movies and TV it's better than what the chromecast offered at launch but it's still not much compared to Roku or Apple TV chromecast also doesn't support photos music or videos stored on your tablet or smartphone and it could be a little frustrating that you can't do something simple like beam your photos right to your TV screen the other important detail with the chromecast is that unlike Roku or Apple TV you need to use a tablet or smartphone to control it there's no remote control there's also not a traditional user interface at all so if you're in a household we're not everyone has their own mobile device it's not a great choice there's one other way to get content to the chromecast and less using screen mirroring fire up the Chrome browser on a pc mac or chromebook and the chromecast extension and you can mirror any tab in chrome on your TV including any streaming video that you can find on the web it sounds great but in practice I found it doesn't work that well with poor image quality and a lot of dropouts and glitches a lot of it depends on your home networking and laptop performance but don't expect a flawless experience from the screen mirroring feature so where does that leave chromecast even with the recent updates I still don't think it's quite as good of a value as Roku's boxes which can be had for just fifty dollars for example the roku LT supports a lot more services including Amazon Instant MLB TV rdio PBS watch ESPN and Disney Channel plus it also has a traditional on screen interface and it lets you listen to music and view your photos stored on your phone for most people it's a better box that's worth the fifteen dollar extra but if you're fine with chromecast limitations it's hard to deny the $35 is a tempting price especially if you've purchased movies and TV shows in the Android ecosystem and need a way to watch them on your TV chromecast has made some solid improvements over the last few months but it needs to go a little further to become a truly great streaming device I'm Matthew miskovic and this is the google chromecast