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It’s a little hard to find a Chromecast right now, but if you are jonesing to be able to beam your music and video content from your phone and tablet to a television, there may be another route to take. It’s called CheapCast, an app that will essentially turn any Android device into a Chromecast receiver. It comes in the form of an Android app that can be installed on any device that supports sideloading APKs.
The app allows you to name your device for Chromecast-enabled apps to identify it, and after both are up and running on the same WiFi network you can beam your music and video (in supported apps) to the CheapCast-enabled device just as if you had a Chromecast hooked up to a TV. Some have reported success with the OUYA, and there’s no good reason one of those portable Android multimedia sticks wouldn’t work.
Unfortunately the project is in the early stages right now. CheapCast cannot currently interface with the Chromecast extension for Google Chrome, meaning you won’t be able to beam your tabs at this time. There are also other potential shortcomings and bugs that might turn up.
CheapCast is in alpha, though, so we’re hopeful further app updates will bring us the full smorgasbord of Chromecast functionality. This open source project is sitting in the Google Play Store, so give it a whirl if you’re tired of trying to chase down an actual Chromecast. Watch the video above.
[via XDA]
That’s awesome. I will give it a try. I’ve got a decent Chinese tablet with broken digitizer (Matrix One that was bought for my son and then got stepped on), that I can totally see hooking up to the living room TV and use it with this. I was planning to get XBMC on it, but I’ll give this a try too.
i love the idea of chromecast but will wait to actually buy it or try something like this. i have a samsung smart tv, galaxy s4, and tab 2 and when connected on the same wi-fi connection you can stream music and video. i didn’t notice it until one day i was watching a video on my tablet and just had the tv on in the background (you know… wasting energy :-() and saw this tv button in the top of the screen and when i pushed it my tv went black and the video i was watching on my tablet was now on my tv. like MOTHERFUCKING MAGIC. i don’t know if other electronic companies of several products do this also like LG or Sony but i like that google has made a way to be able to if they do not.
Heh, yeah, it’s great, but you’ll have to thank Samsung for that MOTHERFUCKING MAGIC, not Google.
yeah but i like that google is expanding on that and letting different devices from different companies do it too. yea but the first time i did it my mind was blown and bricks were shat. it takes a lot for technology to impress me but that did it for some reason. i was like a 9 year old unwrapping his nintendo 64 lol.
9 years old opening nintendo 64, I was opening my Atari 2600.
once a gamer always a gamer. I’ll be 26 unboxing my playstation 4 with a smile on my face like a boy who just found his dad’s porn stash. my brother owned an Atari 2600 but only had like 2 games. he traded them all. my first game console was the sega genesis. i got it for making the honor roll in kindergarten. i ate my graham crackers, took my naps, and sang alphabet songs like a BAWS.
Megatron_Don, you have a gift. You are quite the wordsmith…and for that, we thank you!
To quote south park’s parody of Kanye West. ” I’m a mother fucking wordsmith lyrical genius!” Lol
Every now and then I like to read Kanye’s tweets. He’s so deep. “Why Halloween bring out girls inner hoe…I was sposed to type freak but I just typed what I really meant instead. LOL” Also, I just realized someone has turned them into handstitched embroidery items on Etsy. Supervelma is a marketing genius!
Seriously though thanks. Reading that made my day and I hope my comments makes yours. :-)
I have a Note 2, and a 2012 Samsung smart TV and this doesn’t pop up for me.
Haha, absolutely fantastic!
I know… I’m pretty awesome. I kid I kid
To bad none of my extra android devices have a hdmi port so that I can hook it to the big screen for this.
any of them support mhl?
Gnex mhl adapter was $12 on ebay. works perfectly & great quality for running an emulator with six-axis support for ps3 controller
Nope as they are both android 2.3 devices. The Samsung Galaxy Prevail and the Samsung Galaxy Proclaim.
I can actually beam movies and Youtube to my TV already via WiFi. I haven’t tried Googly Play but is this normal? I have a Vizio m551d-a2 and my phone is a GNex. Any thoughts or answers?
does it beam the chrome web browser tab also ? another thing I like about chromecast is that multiple people with different cellphones or tablets can all load up youtube on different devices, and they can all add youtube clips to the TV Queue. the TV uses 1 single chromecast, but multiple people can add youtube clips to the queue. that’s pretty neat.
Worked first time with my Nexus 4 to iMito MX1.. Just a shame the iMito is crap playing video.
Installs on my GTV (visio co-star) but doesn’t work. Doesn’t show as a device to cast too, while my phone does (w/ cheapcast).
Not quite…….still android 2.3 or above….I’m still on 2.2.
You have our sympathy.
Thanks
My iphone is out of date too…..luckily I still have chrome on win7. At least I’m finally off xp.
I had more success with my galaxy s4 with the galaxy s3 as the portal
[sarcasm] Wait! You mean with “Cheapcast” I can send content (YouTube, Netflix) from my Android device to another Android device, such as a tablet, which already has the capability via (YouTube, Netflix) apps, to display the same content? Sign me up! [/sarcasm]
You can use ouya to get it on your TV or if you can make an android device usb.
The only issue I have is that it’s called CheapCast…as if $35 is really breaking the bank on a regular ChromeCast. I would think NotBackorderedCast is a more appropriate name.