By Mihir Patkar
Google Chromecast turns any TV into an internet-connected smart TV. And with it, the TV can also talk to your PC. Some simple apps can cast movies, music, and photos from your hard drive to the TV, bypassing the internet.
Note: The Chromecast requires an active internet connection to run. While these programs use your local Wi-Fi network, the Chromecast itself won’t work if you don’t have internet.
What You Will Need
- Google Chromecast: The original Chromecast, Chromecast 2.0, and Chromecast Ultra with a normal setup will all work with this guide.
- Windows computer: The guide works with both desktops and laptops, or any other type of Windows-running PC.
- Active Wi-Fi connection: Make sure both the Chromecast and the PC are connected to the same home network, and that neither is running a VPN.
- Google Chrome: While it’s not needed for everything, get Google Chrome for Windows.
How to Stream Movies From Windows to Chromecast
These are the best Windows video players for Chromecast:
- Airflow
- Soda Player
- Videostream for Chromecast
Several Windows programs claim to let you cast movies stored on your hard drive. Only these few do it well. And while you can stream videos from VLC to Chromecast, it’s not something I recommend yet. How to Stream Videos From VLC to ChromecastIt turns out that the ability to stream from your PC to your Chromecast using VLC is available in the nightly builds. So what are you waiting for?READ MORE
Airflow
- Smoothest playback
- Hardware-accelerated transcoding
- Supports 4K video
- Automatic subtitles from OpenSubtitles
- 5.1 channel surround sound
The best Windows software to cast videos is, unfortunately, a paid program. But Airflow is worth every penny. What makes it superior to the free apps? Try the free trial and you’ll find out.
The performance is the main aspect, as Airflow supports hardware-accelerated transcoding. It also has 5.1 channel audio support for surround sound. Airflow includes intricate control over subtitles and remembers playlists and last positions too.
And it doesn’t hurt that Airflow is a gorgeous app. It’s the only one from the entire list that I would give the “it just works” tag too.
If you have a Chromecast Ultra for 4K videos, you can see the performance difference on unsupported native Chromecast file formats like MKV. In fact, on Intel Skylake or later processors, Airflow has faster hardware transcoding. Is the New Chromecast Ultra Really Worth Buying?The Chromecast Ultra is a brand new Chromecast offering support for 4K video and more besides. But is it worth buying? Find out everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra.READ MORE
The free trial is a good way to figure out if you want to pay for this. With it, you can watch up to 20 minutes of video at a time. Once you’ve realized this is the best, pay the $19 and use it.
Download: Airflow for Windows 32-bit | Windows 64-bit ($18.99)
Soda Player
- Hardware-accelerated transcoding
- Supports 4K video
- Automatic subtitles from OpenSubtitles
- 5.1 and 7.1 channel surround sound
- No playlists
- No thumbnails while scrubbing
If you don’t want to pay for a program, get Soda Player. For anyone who wants to quickly play any video on Chromecast, it works flawlessly. Open the file in Soda Player, click the Chromecast icon, and it starts.
Soda Player has several of the features I like about Airflow. This includes hardware-accelerated transcoding for any file format, automatic subtitles, multiple audio tracks, and so on.
But it lacks two major features:
- Scrubbing has no thumbnail previews. So when you are fast-forwarding or rewinding to a different point, you have no idea where you’ll end up!
- And Soda Player doesn’t let you make playlists, for some reason. How weird is that? So if you downloaded a great TV series, there is no binge-watching experience for you. You’ll have to open a new video every single time the previous one ends. What is this, 2013?
Download: Soda Player (Free)
VideoStream for Chromecast
- Free remote control app on Android and iOS
- No playlists or “autoplay next video” in free version
VideoStream has been the longest-running app to successfully and easily cast videos. It’s still pretty good, and the only one with a free remote control for mobiles. The app can even sync with a folder of videos on your PC, controlling everything from the phone. That said, Google Assistant acts as a remote already for basic playback: play/pause, rewind, and fast forward. How to Control Chromecast From a Phone With Google AssistantDid you know you can control a Chromecast with voice commands using nothing more than Google Assistant?READ MORE
VideoStream started off as a Chrome app, but Google is now killing those for Windows. So you’ll need to download the native program.
While it works as advertised, it’s good for a single video you want to watch. Many important features are in the paid version, including playlists, extra subtitle settings, night mode, and auto-playing the next video. VideoStream premium costs $1.49 a month, $14.99 a year, or $34.99 for a lifetime license.
Download: VideoStream (Free, Premium optional)
Download: VideoStream Remote Control for Android | iOS (Free)
Download: VideoStream Remote Control for Android | iOS (Free)
Don’t Use VLC 3.0 Yet!
- Best all-around media player for Windows
- Only player to also support music casting
- Jittery playback
- Still has lots of bugs
- Might lack video transcoding on-the-fly
It has been a long time coming, but the best video player on Windows finally has Chromecast support. It’s not perfect though. In fact, it’s far from it. The Top 5 Free Media Players for WindowsStrong media player apps always rise to the top and it's not important which one you use. The best media player for you is the one you most enjoy using. We suggest the following...READ MORE
I actually couldn’t get VLC to play any video that isn’t in Chromecast’s native support. Remember, even if the file format is MP4, that doesn’t mean the video codec is supported. MKV videos had a similar problem.
Could it be a lack of transcoding support? And it’s not just me, PC World had the same issue.
As for the videos that did play, it was still an unpleasant experience. The playback was jittery often, and it lost audio sync on an AVI file with 5-channel audio.
If the file format and codecs are the right ones, then you can still use VLC. First, start your video in the program. Then click Menu > Playback > Renderer and choose your Chromecast device.
Hopefully, VLC fixes all these issues soon. But for now, forget about it.
Download: VLC (Free)
How to Stream Music From Windows to Chromecast
While a Chromecast is best for videos, you can also cast music or podcasts to it. And then there’s the Chromecast audio for speakers as well. No matter which device you use, these are the programs you should use. How to Set Up and Use Your Google Chromecast AudioIf you just got a Chromecast Audio, this is everything you need to know to get it up and running.READ MORE
VLC 3.0
- Supports all audio file formats, including FLAC
- Audio normalization
- Limited features as a music player
It might be riddled with problems for video, but VLC 3.0 works perfectly as an audio player for Chromecast. You’ll want to download and set up the media library plugin.
The program is decent enough to make playlists as well. That’s about all you will get to do with VLC. And if you have the ID3 tags for it, you get the album art bopping around on the TV too.
Apart from that, VLC has a few hidden tricks up its sleeve, including scrobbling tracks to Last.FM. You’ll probably want to normalize the audio as well. You’ve experienced the discomfort of changing a channel to come to one that’s blaring away; why do that with changing music tracks? 7 Top Secret Features Of The Free VLC Media PlayerThat VLC pretty much plays everything that you throw at it is old news. It is also a media genie when it comes to other things apart from playing movies. We looked at some of...READ MORE
Download: VLC (Free)
Chromecast Audio Stream
VLC isn’t a great music player, even though it gets the job done. If you want to use one of the best music players for Windows, get Chromecast Audio Stream. It sends the audio from your PC to the Chromecast. It’s like using Bluetooth speakers, but over Wi-Fi instead. The 5 Best Free Music Players for WindowsDownloading music still has its benefits. For one, you can play music even when you don't have internet access. But which music player should you use? Find the best free music players here.READ MORE
Here’s what you need to do:
- Download Chromecast Audio Stream.
- Extract the ZIP file into a folder.
- Double-click the audio-cast.exe file to run it.
- You will now see the Chromecast Audio Stream icon in the system tray.
- Click the icon in the system tray, and choose the Chromecast.
- Now, any audio from your PC will be played through your TV’s speakers.
Warning: It duplicates the audio, playing it on both the computer and the Chromecast. In fact, the Chromecast has a tiny lag. For best results, I recommend muting the computer.
How to Stream Photos From Windows to Chromecast
Currently, no native program lets you show off photos from your hard drive on the TV with Chromecast. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Actually, it isn’t.
Chromecast downscales high-resolution images to 1280×720 pixels, so it’s not the best medium for a slideshow. But if you still want to do it, there’s one app.
PictaCast
- Automatic slideshow
- Background music with MP3 files from your hard drive
- Control via mobile phone with Google Home app
Right now, PictaCast is the only software to create a slideshow to cast photos. It’s a Chrome app, so it might be removed sometime soon. Keep an eye out on the official website above.
For now, here’s how to make it work:
- Download the Chrome app.
- Click Add Folder and navigate to your album of photos.
- (Optional) Click Add Music and choose MP3 files from your hard drive.
- Go to Chrome’s Menu > Cast and choose the right Chromecast.
Among the many options, you can choose fit-to-screen or full-screen mode, automated photo collages, shuffle, speed of slideshow, and rotate images.
The free version of PictaCast restricts users to 30 minutes of usage per day. You’ll need to pay $3 for PictaCast Premium for unlimited usage.
Download: Pictacast (Free for 30 min/day, Premium)
Best All-In-One App: Plex
- Supports all video formats
- Supports all audio formats
- Free remote control apps for smartphones
- Rich media library
If you want an all-in-one media player instead of different programs for video, audio, and image files, then there’s one obvious option: Plex.
Download: Plex Media Server (Free)
The installation takes some time, but it’s worth it. Just follow our guide to set up a Plex media server. Then tap that Chromecast icon whenever you want to stream anything. Your Guide To Plex - The Awesome Media CenterIf you have a lot of locally-saved movies and TV shows, you need to install Plex. And this is the only guide to getting started with Plex you'll ever need to read.READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment