Seeking "help for dummies" re my Chromecast

Thank you all for trying to help. Somethings are not meant to be, I guess. I finally dragged myself out to the RV lot this morning and went to all the trouble to fire up the idiot Chromecast again - all with the same results.

I finally gave up once again and brought the parts and pieces into the house and figured I needed a second network since Chromecast warns that it shuts down the hotspot I use in the coach to get on the net.

Even here at the house with two networks the damn thing is nothing but frustration. I can stream or use hulu or lots of other options with just this laptop and my hotspot on my android. Screw the useless Chromecast.

The hopeless piece of******will go back in its box and back to Walmart and some 9 year old kid can take it home and use it. I'm done!

I have never considered chromecast but I just got a new computer with Windows 8.1

The Windows app store has an application to work with Chromecast.

YOU need something on your computer (A TSR or background app) that can monitor the video and "Cast" it to the chromecast receiver.. Or you need a hardware device to do it external to the computer. I'm considering getting a Chromecast since two of my 3 TV's can support it and on one of them the USB functions are a pain and do not work reliably (The thing uses a USB stick to time shift shows, but it does a sloppy job of it and can only delay one show and if you return to live you loose the rest of the recording, the other one plays MP3 or MP4 files just fine if you load the flash drive from a computer. NOT sure if it can do MP2, yet.. (Will find out) I have a lot of MP2) The chrome case would go on the 1st.. NOTE: that one already monitors one computer (VGA though) There is an issue with the VGA so putting Chromecast app on the XP box it monitors might work too.

While your android hotspot allows multiple devices to talk to the internet, I don't believe it's going to allow them to talk to each other. That's a far more complicated function.

CoachPotato wrote:
I have tried in vain to cast from my laptop to my flatscreen TV in the coach using Chromecast and my Android "hot spot".

I can get the TV to recognize and connect to my galaxy network. I use the Android hot spot and am trying to see the laptop screen on my TV but it just won't show.

I've tried a number of forums but cannot understand much of the lingo used by the techies.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong in plain English?

Thanks.

What version of Android are you using, you need 2.3 or up if you are casting from an Android devise. If you are just using the Android as a hot spot the version should not matter. You will have to install the Cromecast extension to your Chrome browser. Then it is as easy as clicking on the Cast box and sending the browser window to the TV. Here is the Chromecast help page. You do not have to have the TV connected to your network, you do have to have Chromecast connected to the TV. The laptop does need to be connected to the network and the Chromecast devise does too. If you are using a windows laptop it must have Windows 7 or higher.

I would start here and follow the directions. If you get stuck or have problems let us know.

Is your phone hotspot a true wifi router, or is it an ad hoc network? I don't think chromecast will work on an ad hoc network.

Fred

You can only cast approved apps from an Android device and can only cast from the Chrome browser in Windows if the previously mentioned extension is installed.

There is an app called AllCast in the store and on Xda that allows you to stream more stuff.

There may be minimum Win and Android version requirements.

You DO have the CC app installed and running on your phone?

For me, CC is a bust but may grow into something great.

You have to have wifi, chrome browser, extension for chrome...in the chrome store I think it is called google cast. Open tab to what you want to cast...click little square upper right corner and cast to whatever you named it in the setup. It worked for us. Google tablet is basically same way. We also used iPad to cast stuff. The other night I watched a full movie off of YouTube. Good luck!
Forgot...yesterday I had to lower dpi to 470...helped because Internet was slow.

I read on a different post on here that the one thing you CAN'T do with chrome cast is the very thing you are trying to do. I think that you need something else to send the pc screen to your tv which is actually via your wifi network, unless I am misunderstanding this, myself.

My guess would be many are trying to use it with internet explorer which probably isn't going to work. Get Google chrome and in the upper right corner of the screen you should find a small icon that looks like a half of a rainbow. When clicked on it will list whatever chromecast devices it finds that have been setup. Just pick the one you want and begin casting.

I have been searching around to get a good answer on my setup as well. I was just wanting to use it as a wireless connection between my LAPTOP and VIZIO HDTV. All I need here is to show what is on my DELL M90 Screen running Windows XP-PRO on the VIZIO screen selected by my TV REMOTE.

Everyone I talked to has a different thing to use with the CHROMECAST dongle that works for them. I think if you sign up for HULU it will work with that for a fee but you may only get HULU over it...

I am going to just run a HDMI cable between the two systems when I get too it again... Don't need anymore monthly fees... I can view downstreaming HDTV broadcast videos from the internet for free on my DELL M90 setup..

I will need the extra DATAPLAN on my internet provider however to do this.

Roy Ken