Chromecast


Thank you, Google. You might have just finally unleashed the potential of my mom's HDTV. My mom is a technophobe. She can handle email and some basic stuff just fine, but once we get beyond that it requires going through hand written notes. And, let's face it, if she can't find that note on how to do that thing in a minute she'll just forget about doing that thing. This is why I think Chromecast, a new HDMI dongle thingy, will find its way into an HDMI port or two.

TV one is the main TV. It is a 42" LED LCD dumb Vizio HDTV. This isn't to say it's stupid, it's just not connected to the web. To make that connection for her Netflix needs we have a smart Samsung home theatre system. It's fairly easy to operate; grab remote 3 (TV remove, cable box remote, and home theatre remote), press Netflix, go make something to eat, get back, wait some more, and you're in Netflix where the response time is measured in seconds. Basically it works, but I feel like it's punishment. Getting out of Netflix requires picking up Remote 1 (TV) and changing the input source back to cable.

The Chromecast scenario sounds easier. Take a device you're already familiar with, in this case an iPad, fire up the Netflix app, select what you want to watch, then tap the Cast button. Chromecast looks like it will turn on the TV and select the right input source and have you watching in no time. You control the video from your iPad (or Android device, or computer), including pause, scrubbing, and volume. My only hope is that it easily dumps my mom back into the cable input source after watching Netflix. I don't think it would be a deal breaker if it didn't do that. Plus it's only $35!

The cool thing about this is it doesn't stop at Netflix. Stream YouTube, your Google Play library of movies, TV shows, and music, and currently in beta form, the web. And, if I didn't make it clear, Chromecast works with iOS, Android, OS X, and Windows desktop operating systems. Maybe my mom can make more use out of her TV, without having to figure out how to change sources and use multiple remotes.

More information, and to order, here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Panoramas From the Road

Image
Before we get into the meat of this post, if you're viewing this on a mobile device, these photos really don't translate that well on it. These are large panoramic photos and really need a large screen to do them justice. Now on with the post.

Occasionally during my Eastern Sierra trip I had the idea to take panoramas to try and take in the full view of what I was seeing and feeling. I tried to focus on a part of the view I was seeing that would fill up my frame, but I felt that it didn't full get the whole feeling with only part of the view, but this led to other problems. All the panoramas I took were literally on the side of the road, meaning I was in the middle of driving, with someone who's not a photographer. So, not wanting to annoy them I left the tripod in the car and took these panoramas free hand. When taking handheld panos my general rule is to take many photos and to go well beyond and after my intended start and stop points so that the photo software has …
Read more

Manzanar

Image
If you find yourself in the Eastern Sierra, I highly highly recommend taking a few hours and stopping by the Manzanar National Historic Site. It's tells the story of out not too distant past that we like to conveniently skip over. If you're not familiar with the significance of this site, this is where, shortly after the bombing of Hawaii by Japan in 1941, some 10,000 Japanese, most with US citizenship, were incarcerated. This site is one of ten sites around the country that would come to hold over 110,000 people, again most of which were US citizens, from 1942-1945.
Read more

Burney Falls

Image
Burney Falls, in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, has been on the list of waterfalls to shoot from the second I discovered it. This made all my previous waterfalls look like little trickles. But shooting here exposed a number of issues with gear and timing and so I left with photos that I was pleased with, but not thrilled with. In fact, it has taken me about a month to come back to these photos, that's how disappointed I was with them.
Burney Falls is a unique waterfall in that it has the typical waterfall action of a river falling over a 129-foot cliff, but it also has underground springs coming out the side of the cliffs, which you can see off to the sides of the main fall. So the falls look like this pretty much year round, which is good when trying to plan a trip.

I had originally planned to shoot these falls in late fall/early winter of November 2017 on my Thanksgiving trip that ended in Lone Pine, CA. Due to time and weather issues, that was abandoned. At that tim…
Read more