CHROMECAST AND GOOGLE CAST
If you mostly want to send streaming movies and TV shows from your laptop to
your TV, the Google Chromecast is an easy way to do this wirelessly. Just plug it
into the back of your TV and connect it to your network. You’ll be able to stream
any Chrome tab from your notebook to the TV with the click of a button; that
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means YouTube videos, animated gifs, interesting web pages, and any other
content you can load in Chrome.
If that isn’t compelling enough, it’s a very inexpensive physical device: The
1080p Chromecast is available for $35 and the 4K-capable Chromecast Ultra for
$69. If you have an On Android TV, Google Cast is built in.
Chromecast is very functional for computers, but it’s designed more for mobile
devices that support Google Cast. If you have an Android phone or a
Chromebook, you can stream the device’s full screen to a Chromecast directly
without going through a Chrome tab. A wide variety of streaming apps also
feature Google Cast support, so you can stream media from those apps to the
Chromecast and use your phone as a remote. PC control is a bit more limited,
focused mostly around the Chrome web browser as a front-end.
Pros: Inexpensive. Streams video or web browser tabs. Chromecast Ultra and
some Android TV devices support 4K.
Cons: PC integration and support are limited compared with Android devices.
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