Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Worthy Gadget- Chromecast Ultra

For anyone with an aging TV or AVR, but still having HDMI inputs, the Chromecast Ultra should get you by for another couple of years. It has great video and audio quality, very good response times from casting devices and is solid for wireless network connectivity. Netflix, Youtube and Spotify all work great.

I can vouch for it being very reliable with 2 in the house streaming Netflix on separate displays on separate floors at the same time. Solid.

I still prefer the Chromecast Audio for 2ch Spotify Streaming over the Chromecast Ultra, but this could be due to limitations imposed by Spotify or some other hidden setting that cannot be altered. The perceived differences are extremely slight however, if not imagined. Both are very good and it probably comes down to the quality of the DAC in your AVR vs the chromecast audio. Probably inaudible.

Even if you are not in the market for the "Ultra" capabilities of 4K and HDR streaming, the speed, stability and response of the Chromecast ultra makes it a worthy upgrade to the Chromecast v2 which I also own.

For anyone who bought an Anthem AVR or similar (like me with Arcam) with stellar audio but no "smart" features, the Chromecast Ultra is an excellent choice to bridge the gap for $90 -even without a 4K display.

We are up to 4 Chromecast devices in our home now. Happy with all of them.

New dog chewwed the cable.
Chrome cast free at the moment.
I'd like to get the Ultra for my HT.
Love how simple it is to use.

Thanks for the observations. I've been waffling on one for awhile, wasn't sure if it'd be worth it or not - you've moved me closer to the edge. Plus it's cheaper than wireless Axioms!

The wireless Axioms are anywhere from 10 to 40 times less than the Model T Active.

Its great! Really cool to watch projector reviews on youtube on a projection setup. So meta! Lol.

Im pretty sure an android phone charging cord fits the chromecast power jack in a pinch.

This is a topic of great interest.
Long have i been contemplating dumping the satellite and going with some different option. The spouse loves to channel surf though so Netflix doesn't provide quite the same experience. That and content we want to watch isn't always on Netflix.

That being said, i'm thinking about dumping the Movies option on satellite and setting up with Netflix but i would need a streaming device that does 4k (future proofing) and of course proper Dolby surround sound (variations but atm just DD 5.1 is fine).

If Chromecast does that, then the last thing to check out is difference in cost, cost savings.
How much is the Chromecast (would need 3)?
How much is Netflix monthly and can i stream on 3 devices, different shows simultaneously? (realistically only 2 at a time at most would be necessary)
Are there any issues with wireless dropouts? (been having some inconsistent dead zones in the house and have been thinking about a router upgrade or having to do something different such as mesh networking or adding a repeater)

I have the original Chromecast and I also have an Android Box... Google puts too many restrictions on the Chromecast :-)

Still doesn't quite reproduce the "channel surfing" experience you get with cable boxes, but some of the content available on Kodi type platforms is mind boggling. 4k capable Android Boxes are also dirt cheap! I can't see myself ever going back to cable TV.

Restrictions?

The problem is this; 3 TVs on 3 separate floors of the house all that get used regularly.
How to get the same content accessible by all 3, with 4k for at least 2 of them and DD 5.1 sound for just 1 of them?

Note that one is a bedroom and given the location of the home router, wifi may not work effectively enough for high resolution streaming, and i'm not running ethernet cable all through those floors.

Although streaming options have come a long way, such as Chromecast, i'm not sure that the wireless and streaming has come far enough yet for a solid all around solution in this case.

Chess, just run the Cat6 on the side of the house. I ran regular Cat6 along the underside of the aluminum siding on my last house and it was like that for 5 plus years. If we dont have extreme weather then i dont know who does. A pair of cat6 pliers and some plastic ends and bobs your uncle. When my kid was living in the yard in his trailer i ran some over the garage roof across my camper and into his trailer ,never an issue.

I think by restrictions he means you have to use streaming sources/apps and hardware that support googlecast. If you own a smartphone or tablet its all you need. It is HD or 4K, looks good blown up to 100+ inches and a lot of content is in DD 5.1. It is not a replacement for disc media quality wise. A bluray or CD will deliver better sound/video. But the differences are getting smaller and smaller.

The restriction part is the apps and content are not like android boxes. In my view this is a good thing. The OTT android boxes use streaming apps too, the most popular one being Kodi. The Kodi app is based around user created ripps of content (illegally) and streamed from overseas servers. It is being cracked down on hard and you have to constantly reconfigure your box to maintain streaming. Remember stealing satellite with the cards? This is the modern equivalent. The only difference is the streams are usually poor quality, or subtitled, or constantly stop to buffer. I wouldnt waste your time. Very buggy.

You dont need to buy a box to try it out. Kodi will run on a PC.

Chromecast/Roku/Amazon Fire etc are all legal, high quality streaming methods. Spotify premium is $10 a month. Netflix is around that too. Its a couple bucks more for 4K streaming.

Yeah chromecast!! I can be the program manager for my own network. We are 10+ years cable free in my house. You don't miss it after its gone.

Antenna (terrestrial UHF over the air HD broadcasts) and Netflix give me local news and sports with all the content I need. We still buy blurays too and will continue but don't buy CDs anymore. If you didn't know an antenna will get you free local HD content from CBC, Global, CTV etc you're welcome!

Plug your address in here and it will tell you what networks broadcasting in your area over traditional terrestrial antenna. FYI, this form of broadcasting signal is regulated by the CRTC and entirely legal.

http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29