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Koushik Dutta’s “AllCast” app has been on a very interesting journey thus far. It started off as a Chromecast-equipped media streamer that would allow you to get your content up on the big screen using the $35 HDMI dongle. Google effectively killed the app by blocking third-party access to unofficial APIs, though, leaving AllCast pretty useless.
That wasn’t going to slow Koush down, as the developer roared back with an app that was made to cast your media to ALL the things. Ironically enough, the Chromecast was not included in the list of devices that could be used to stream content from your mobile device. That version of the app has finally exited beta, and is sitting in the Google Play Store for all to download.
Here’s a quick list of what you can cast to, in case you’ve forgotten:
- Roku
- Apple TV
- Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Samsung Smart TVs
- Panasonic Smart TVs
- Google TV (Logitech Revue, etc)
- DLNA Renderers
That’s no small crop of devices. Fittingly enough, Koush capped off his Google+ announcement with the following line: “Chromecast support coming someday. I hope.” We hope so, too, bro. AllCast can be had in both free and premium (no video length limits, no ads, and no overlays) flavors in the Google Play Store.
Anybody else having allshare issues on samsung 4.3? It sux having to enable Nearby Devices AND wifi direct just to stream to my TV now.
Can you be inside another app that allows this feature, or does it only work for locally stored media from your gallery?
Ok, 2 things. Great App. The other is I don’t feel so bad now; after looking at Marcus Brownlee’s videos and noticing how neat and orderly everything is, it’s comforting to see that Koush’s stand and wires look like crap too (he even has the same tv as I do).
I had to wipe my phone after 4.3 to get the screen mirroring to work
Seems to work on my N7, it found my Panasonic TV and was able to cast a video I could already do that so it’s no big deal.
What I don’t understand is why Google hasn’t done more with Chromecast on Android. All it can do is replicate services that already exist on smart TVs, for example Netflix, Pandora, You Tube. From the desktop Iyoucan cast from the Chrome browser which means that you can cast anything on the Internet as well as on your PC, for example you can cast a PDF File just by opening it in Chrome. Why can’t the Android Chrome browser do the same thing? If they added that capability you could use a tablet to give presentations, all you would have to do is put the Chromecast in your pocket and then plug it into the TV that’s found in every conference room in the world.
There are many tvs that are not smart tvs. The user experience of using a phone or tablet is infinitey better than any smart tv interface. More features are coming, be patient.
Koush’s app doesn’t help anyone with a dumb TV, the Chromecast does. The Chromecast is the best way to get Netflix on a dumb TV, at $35 it’s a no-brainer. For people with SmartTVs the CHromecast doesn’t add anything. The Netflix tablet app recognizes the TV directly (at least it recognizes my Panasonic Plasma and gives me a choice of the TV or the Chromecast to cast to). My point is that Google introduced this potentially very versatile device and then stopped doing anything with it.
Your rant was about Chromecast, not Koush and I never mentioned Koush. Chromecast is useful for a lot of people. For me, I have a smart tv and stopped using the “smart features” as soon as I got a Chromecast. Using arrows and typing names is horrible on a smart tv remote. $35 is worth the user experience alone. Google never stopped doing anything. Last I checked new apps and firmwares have been released. By patient young padawan.
No Sony TVs in the mix ? Mine has DLNA and Skifka works with it. Maybe ill just try it and see, if not, i have an xbox 360.
So is there an app that needs to be installed on the roku? Is there an actual website for how to make this thing work?