Chromecast question

[jlittle]

I have a friend who has been told by her telco that she can watch Netflix using mobile data on her android phone without tethering through her chromecast, by mirroring netflix on her phone to the chromecast.

I'd have thought that to see the chromecast the phone would have to be connected to the wifi, and if connected to the wifi it won't use mobile data. But some people say it can be done, but no-one can tell me how. When one first sets up a chromecast, you get another device to connect to it, so the chromecast hardware can accept inbound connections.

Does anyone here know how?

Does trying to do this make any sense?

[claydoh]

I believe I have cast netflix from my phone to my chromecast when my cable internet was down (wifi still working of course).

Now, having said that, I am realizing that this was done via my android tv box, which has chromecast built in, and it definitely requires a wifi connection. . I do have a normal Chromecast sitting in a drawer, can't recall ever using it without wifi, but I found this:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/28299/...-without-wi-fi

For apps like Netflix , it doesn't do screen mirroring per se, ie your notifications etc do not show up, just Netflix as if it were running on the TV itself, though it seems you can do actual mirroring for apps that don't have native support for casting

[kenj70]

That would be quite a trick if you could do it. I won't say you can't but I don't really think it can. "Cast" means that a supported application such as Netflix, YouTube and perhaps a few others that support the casting technology switch the source to the target viewing hardware. Once the video has been "cast" you can then shut off the device it was cast from! Although I no longer own a Chromecast I own two Roku devices which I consider to be superior technology. It has the advantage of having its own remote control and a much wider array of video sources for about the same price. I "cast" videos from an iPhone or an Android tablet on a regular basis and it works pretty well.

I would not expect to cast from a cell phone data connection running Netflix and YouTube to a Chromecast not connected to the Internet. (speculation) Perhaps if you had a wi-fi router running "stand-alone" ie no Internet connection it might work but I don't know if that is possible either.

-=Ken=-

[jlittle]

Thank you. In my googling, when I found

http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/28299/...-without-wi-fi

I hit their ad-block blocker, and my usual methods of overcoming this^* failed, so I moved on. To read it on my desktop just now I resorted to wget and editing the html to remove the forward to the blocking page; conveniently it is in a different domain so finding the reference to it was easy.

We'll give that a try. I don't have a chromecast, my TV speaks ethernet, so maybe I'll be visiting an old friend across town, not a bad thing.

<rant=on>
^* Some may question the morality of this, but I'm quite willing to micropay to see content, and I consider it my duty to not supporting business models that have huge downsides for me and society.</rant>

[GreyGeek]

.... I own two Roku devices which I consider to be superior technology. It has the advantage of having its own remote control and a much wider array of video sources for about the same price.....

-=Ken=-

I bought two Roku devices from Amazon for $25 each. There is no monthly charges because I do not subscribe to any pay-to-view services, but still have 100's of channels to choose from. IMO, Roku is better than Cable TV because I never paid for or received any of the movie channels but half of my channels were ads, many 18 to 24 hrs a day, and almost all of the other ones show TV shoes and movies from before 1990, unless the movie was a real stinker. I can see the same stuff on Roku without paying $30-100/month.

[kenj70]

Ah yes, John. The link you provided gives us the answer.

But using it without Wi-Fi wasn’t an option until a few years back when an update to the device meant that it could be used anywhere without having to set up the Chromecast on a wireless network.

To use Chromecast without Wi-Fi is a very simple process. Simply ensure that the streaming stick’s firmware is the most up to date beforehand.

My devices predated the upgrade. I still think the Roku is a more versatile device. And, we saved over $100 usd by dropping Comcast cable TV. I installed a deep fringe outdoor TV antenna for the rare times we want to watch local channels. We still need the Internet service though.

-=Ken=-