I have several Chromecasts in my TVs. Keeping them paired with mobile devices has become a nightmare. They frequently disconnect, often immediately after queuing videos. They never used to behave this way

The silver lining is that I have been finding some better alternatives to both Chromecast and YouTube. I have some Amazon Firesticks with Kodi installed that are pointed at my media-filled NAS, including videos I fetched previously with yt-dlp

I am also considering moving everything over to something like Intel PC sticks and possibly running Kodi off of those eventually. Then I can have all of the smart features I need without any ads or without any of the devices obsoleting themselves beyond my control

I've run Kodi for a while, raspberry pis and fire sticks mostly. Right now the best setup I have is on old Chromeboxes running libreelec or retroelec if I want gaming. It's pretty great. Chromebox G1 is like max $50 or less. They are way faster than any non X86 based hardware I've tried. The only downside is the lack of HDMI-CEC so I have to use either my phone, a gaming controller or some sort of Bluetooth remote to control it. I have installed Bliss OS on some Chromeboxes and it works well but haven't tried running Kodi on top of it. Might work well if I need access to any specific apps.

Lucky you.

I've got a couple nest protects that need to be put into a shallow grave.

They've kinda mucked up the rest of the nest ecosystem.

A pox on google.

I think you can just ignore the apps and cast like you’re used to, if you don’t care about the extra functionality.

(But in that case, I don’t see why you bought one in the first place.)

Yes, casting from your phone still works. However, it requires a Google login to set up and automatically downloads a bunch of apps you probably don't want if all you care about is playing movies and YouTube videos from your phone. I suppose you could create an account just for this, but you really shouldn't need an account at all.

It was a gift for a relative: a "Chromecast with Google TV." I didn't know what it really was when I bought it. Taking "Chromecast" out of the name makes sense.

The original concept was great, but I guess it doesn't sell anymore?

The original concept was great for some things, sure.

I bought an OG Chromecast over a decade ago. It was a one-trick pony: Push "cast" button on pocket computer, and whatever I was doing there would show up on the BFT.

Which is great, you know, for a person who lives alone and never has visitors: One can select an item from the slick interface provided by the service they subscribe to on their amazing personal computing device and it appears magically on the big screen. The control buttons are there on the pocket computer, too. It Just Works.

However, it is an awful experience for someone who wishes to watch a film together with others: My personal pocket computer is not really set up to be shared with others (and the live screencast function of Chromecast, while functional, has really high latency for interactive tasks).

And if someone else wants to pick something to watch using their own personal pocket computer, then they can of course do so -- but theirs is also not meant to be a shared experience, and they won't be able to use the services that I pay to use in my home.

So fine. A film is selected, however that is done, and it is playing. But it's time to pause it so someone can use the bathroom. Do I use my phone for my Chromecast for the movie my friend picked on their phone? I already had to hide the buttons from showing up in the notification area of everyone's pocket computer on the LAN, since my roommate kept being a dick and stopping my shit.

Or do I have my friend fumble around with this potentially-unfamiliar interface on their own (locked) pocket computer to pause it? What if they stepped away? Do I find the Home app on my own pocket computer, open it, find the devices page, find the appropriate Chromecast device, and then finally fucking pause it? (Fuck you. I just want to go take a fucking piss.)

Back then, it was a much better experience in my household to use a PS3 for streaming: It had a regular remote control that -- as a design intent -- anyone could pick up and operate. Browsing possible selections was done on the BFT that was visible to all interested parties. My roommate didn't get a notification on their phone that encouraged them fuck with me from a different area of the house. It was a much better experience for those who didn't live a life of absolute solitude.

Today, it's still that way -- except nowadays I have [what is sometimes referred to as] a GCWGTV. It can behave like an OG Chromecast (what UI???), or it can behave like a human-centric streaming device with its own GUI and dedicated physical remote control that anyone can pick up and use, browsing Netflix or Plex or whatever in a manner very similar to what we were doing on a PS3 back in the day.

This works fine.

> I already hid the buttons from showing up in the notification area of everyone's pocket computer on the LAN, since my roommate kept being a dick and stopping my shit.

Honestly that sounds far more like your roommate being an ass than some failure of the technology. If you had to tape over the IR sensor because your roommate kept blasting the IR power off signal for your TV, would you also blame the IR sensor?

Either way, my TV remotes which support CEC that have play/pause buttons on them can play/pause content on my OG chromecast.

When an IR remote starts putting notifications on any and every phone that happens to be on the network that let them very easily fuck up my streaming experience, then it may be possible to start drawing parallels. Until then, they're very different concepts.

(And CEC is a curse for those with AV systems of even moderate complexity.)

Your roommate didn't even have to be on the same network to mess with the IR receiver. They just didn't think of it I guess.

https://www.tvbgone.com/

I'd still say its 99% having a shitty roommate. I don't know why you'd excuse their shit behavior on having a button to do it.

> And CEC is a curse for those with AV systems of even moderate complexity.

Eh. I've had a few dozen AV setups of "moderate" complexity (multiple game consoles/streaming boxes, AV receiver, BD player, TV) and never really had bad experiences. Often things just work when I've turned them on. And honestly most of the time with things running my OG Chromecasts its the only actual device on the setup (a stand-alone TV mounted someplace like in the garage or kitchen or patio).

Did the TV B Gone manifest itself from nothing and present that manifestation on my asshole roommate's personal pocket computer with zero action on their part?

No?

Then we're done here.

Mine worked great. Had Chromecasts in every room and a few Google Home minis. Anyone in the house could just say "Hey Google, play [WhatEverTheFuckTheyWant] from [AnyStreamingServiceIHave] on [TheTVOfTheirChoice]" it really was great, but for some reason it stopped working most of the time about 18 months and has continually degraded.

I can see how that works for you, but it’s a lot simpler for us. If I picked the movie then I pause it when someone asks. If my wife picked the movie then she pauses it.

With a Real Remote Control (that nobody owns except for the coffee table that nobody owns): Anyone involved in a group viewing can just push the pause button when that is useful for one or more members of that group.

Nobody's locked-down personal pocket computer needs to be involved at all for this most mundane task.

Simplicity.

At home, it just pops up for everyone on the local network so anyone can do it. Works nicely for us to be honest. I quite like it. And the remote works too. Overall, I’m quite happy with this stuff.

The only thing is that if you set up with all HomePods you can have your TV audio go to them too in stereo. Very cool. And Google doesn’t have that feature.

Why not both?

Can my neighbor not stop by and watch some TV with me and have the ability to pause it?

They can. It’ll pop up on their phone if they’re on the network or they can use the remote. I do it all the time myself because I set my phone aside.

So now I need my neighbor to be on my network in order let them pause the TV while they're over?

I might as well publish the SSID and passphrase on a billboard, or just go full Bruce Schneier and leave it open for all.

(Or.... You know, a real remote! With real buttons!)

The remote does work. This is an added convenience. To be clear, the remote continues to work. At no point does the remote stop working. If you use your phone to cast, the neighbour can still use the remote to pause. If you don't give the neighbour the SSID, he can still use the remote. Your neighbour does not need to be on your network. If he's on your network the remote and his phone will work. If he's off your network, the remote will work. The remote will not stop working. Hope that clarifies.

Yes, I know. I [can] have both.

The original argument was in favor of the OG Chromecast's method, wherein: There is no dedicated remote laying around that anyone can pick up and unambiguously make work.

It is good to have options.

(And modern Google-produced streaming devices, whether they are good or bad, do provide options.)

I've not been so lucky. Google went into partnership with Asus years ago and released the Nexus player, which I had. An expensive streaming player that within a year bricked itself due to Google's update. Many people were upset and when asked for support on the official forums, Google said it was in Asus' hands and of course Asus said the same of Google. I checked for updates at least a year thereafter but there was no fix, the thing was hard-bricked and hundreds of people had useless hockey pucks. Never again, Google.

Aww man, I worked on the chromecast SoC. It was a... difficult product. If there was a more perfect example of a product being killed by penny pinching, I can't think of one. It just didn't have enough flash for anything but a super cut down android. We had to drop multilib - the SoC and everything supported 64bit, just there wasn't enough space for the libraries. And the cheapest, bargin-basement flash as well - causing so many to be bricked trying to update. Plus 1gb ram, when even entry level phones were shipping with 2gb - just a couple of 4k framebuffers and the video decode reference frames meant there was pretty much nothing left for the apps themselves. So 1080p was it's limit despite having a capable video decoder and output.

And for ages afterwards they would use it as a reference device for google TV and testing for play store certification - just as they were pushing 64-bit only as a valid app path. So many things were only missing from the google tv play store for years afterwards because they just wouldn't function on those things.