Google's new Chromecast spills its simplistic guts Google's li'l Chromecast media-streaming HDMI dongle is certainly getting a lot of attention for a 35-buck, one-trick pony. Announced on Wednesday and given its Reg review on Thursday, Chromecast has left one admirer "pretty blown away," was praised for its "pure simplicity" by another, called a "cord cutter's dream" by a …
But is the bootloader locked on this thing? Could make a nice little XBMC stick.
The DE3005 is, as best I can determine, from the Armada 1000 series which is based on the Sheva PJ1 ARMv5/ARM9 core, which is the architecture that pre-dates the ARMv6/ARM11 SoC used by the Raspberry Pi.
There's very little info available about the DE3005, suggesting it might be a custom SoC. The DE3010 is a dual-core 1GHz+ SoC, so my guess is that the DE3005 could even be a single core design. According to Anandtech the 1GHz+ Sheva PJ1 is comparable with the later ARM11 design in terms of power characteristics.
Since XBMC runs on the ARM11 based Raspberry Pi, I guess it might be possible to get it running on the Chromecast, particularly if is a dual-core device, and it's running standard Android as the OS.
But it's probably easier and cheaper to just buy a Raspberry Pi...
> But it's probably easier and cheaper to just buy a Raspberry Pi
...and that's exactly what I'm doing (well, I already have my Rpi). It's amazing that they both share the $35 price point. Yes, you need to buy a few more items to get the Raspberry Pi running (HDMI cable, SD card, USB wifi stick) but it's much more flexible.
Can't be arsed to checkeither, but I agree would make a lovely XBMC stick. 16GB seems like enough to do something useful. I'd certainly buy one if there was something like FireCore to flash it, (I have a flashed AppleTV2 and it's unbeatable for streaming vids off the NAS) but I haven't seen enough yet to know if that would be feasible. I'll be
watching closely.
Sorry, but the point of this is a cheap way to replicate whats on a device to a TV screen. Comparing it to your own purchase which does more for a different price is irrelevant just as much as telling us that you modified your own purchase to do X Y Z. Basically your not the target market of this product, For a product to be successful it does not require the tech industries writers or lovers to appreciate it.
It HAS TO DO ONE THING WELL.
Thats the fact, if it does everything OK then its missed every market, better to stake your claim in any market well than them all in mediocrity!
>Can't, in fact. It streams Google and Netflix content to your TV via the Internet. Period.
.....it can sling absolutely any content or service you want which is viewable in a web browser - including local video etc.
....even if Googlecast uptake is poor (which it won't be of course) this is a very useful little device..
It's pointless. It's a Google controlled Wireless HDMI spyware cable as it ENTIRELY relies on Google SW running on a gadget which can often use an HDMI cable.
Pluses:
No cable
No Content only on screen
Cheaper than Wireless HDMI.
Allows Gadgets with no HDMI to feed TV
Minus:
Google might be "spying" on what you access.
Needs a Gadget (Phone, Tablet, Laptop) etc able to view the content.
More limited than an HDMI cable to Laptop.
What is maximum reliable data rate of video streamed?
No; that's not the point of the device; it's actually more useful (once there are more apps.) The primary purpose is not to put your Chrome content on the screen; the main use is for your web browser (or phone) to send a signal to the dongle instructing it to retrieve the requested content directly. This requires a lot less stress on your home bandwidth, as it doesn't have to be streamed to your laptop/tablet, then re-streamed to this box.
Can't be arsed to check either, but I agree would make a lovely XBMC stick. 16GB seems like enough to do something useful. I'd certainly buy one if there was something like FireCore to flash it, (I have a flashed AppleTV2 and it's unbeatable for streaming vids off the NAS) but I haven't seen enough yet to know if that would be feasible. I'll be watching closely.
rasp pi are certainly not useless as an XBMC! I use one on my "other" TV. It is perfect for internet radio, sportsdevil, iplayer, youtube and 720 streaming (wont do 1080 well enough). I use an old gw620 as the remote control. for my main TV I use a more dedicated xbmc box
It would be useless as an XBMC device... much like Raspberry Pi's and Apple TV's
Try pushing a decent HD film with a decent HD soundtrack and welcome to buffer city... (and castrated audio....) - and yes I have tried on both platforms! - all my blu-rays are backed up full size - just wished XBMC handled proper 3D iso's
As to the Chromecast... my opinion... cool & I want one, but on reading on its capabilities... not too sure... a cheap android stick looks more flexible for a similar price
the childishness in Apple's feeble attempts to frustrate people in opening their property.
No 'unique' screws here!
Nice, clean, design with no compromises like piggy-backing components. Curious why the 'circular' edge is actually a series of flats rather than a continuously rounded profile.
What? This is equivalent in hardware (not capabilities) to Apple's Lightning to HDMI cable which also snaps apart and doesn't have proprietary screws. Of course, neither has anything you could replace or upgrade so who cares how take-apart-able it is?
As for flat edges, I would think someone so well versed in industrial design to be able to fault Apple's designs and who is familiar with Pentalobe vs Torx vs Phillips screw types would know that cutting a straight edge is much easier (i.e. cheaper) then cutting a rounded edge.
Paris, because she's just as confused as you.
Totally misses the point - yes you can stream from your Android device from a browser but it's not stand-alone so I can't get it to just play a film without leaving my phone / tablet in range. Apple TV is a much more polished and complete product and Android users will feel like poor cousins in comparison.
The way IT media is banging on about this device you'd think Google invented the bloody concept. They're WAY late to the party. These things have been around for ages.
See http://www.rikomagic.co.uk/ (I'm not affiliated to them in any way - just getting pissed off with all this Google worship).
Heat-sinks do function in enclosed boxes.
The role of a heat-sink is to (1) spread the heat from the small heat-generating devices over a larger area, in order that those devices and the things near them don't cook. And to (2) encourage that heat to go away somewhere and not build up to a damaging temperature.
It's nice if the heat all transfers straight into air that then flows out of the box through vents, not warming up the surface of the box itself, but that never happens. In many cases the surface of the plastic box gets pretty warm, very little air circulates through the vents and most of the heat generated is transferred out of the box due to conduction through the plastic skin of the box. In the case of e.g. a laptop PSU, all the heat goes through the plastic skin and none goes out through vents. But it still makes effective use of heat-sinking.
In the case of this google thing the metal can is there for two reasons: EM shielding, and also to spread the heat generated by the chips within the can over the entire area of the dongle. Chances are the SoC gets hotter than anything else in there, and without the can it would make a hot-spot on the plastic surface. In segregating the convection into an 'inside-the-can' loop and an 'outside the can' loop, the can might reduce the overall cooling effectiveness and probably result in slightly hotter chippery overall. But by spreading the heat over the dongle's entire area it will minimise the existence of hot-spots on the outer skin that seek to set fire to your curtains and of cold-spots on the outer skin that aren't pulling their weight in the tast of getting rid of all the waste heat.
But still: heat-sinks in closed boxes do work.
I have mk809 IIs and all sorts of other hpc goodies/ streaming solutions.
The problem with these streaming solutions is not the hardware. It is the streaming protocols.
Airplay has its good points... but it also is a massive bandwidth hog (like Bonjour it has massive overheads). It also is incapable of multiple stream audio. (for whole home audio/video solutions) and is really temperamental because it is supposed to "just work" so when it doesn't work there are no methods to configure settings. Also if you want to stream to multiple players you have to use a MAC PC or WIN/LINUX PC for broadcasting and it is not intelligent in how it broadcasts leading to variable latencies and also band width issues. Also it is a closed system so the only players that can broadcast airplay are apple softwares/ embedded solutions in apple products.
DLNA is pretty cool too. Much more open, and it uses less bandwidth but forget ever trying to multi-cast and it also tends to be less reliable. The most unforgivable thing it does though is broadcast in mp3 format audio.
Miracast is cool but requires specific hardware which is frustrating and never going to be ubiquitous.
The Problem?
(network) Wifi induced latency.
The solution?
Someone smarter than me working on it.
get to it.
At least this solution from google sort of fixes one thing. casting from a tablet. Problem is... it still kind of doesn't. I don't understand why they can't just set up a proper screen mirroring service... I guess it must be wifi... Wifi tends to be the issue.
;)
The heat sink will work because it increases the surface area of the hot chip. The plastic case is merely an inhibitor of heat flow, not an absolute heat shield. By spreading the heat out over a large area the plastic becomes a better conductor of heat. The plastics used in electronics is selected for it's heat conducting properties.
I don't get the point at tall, any gadget lover surely has a Smart TV already, thus rendering this device redundant.
((Score so far: Apple trolls 17; Rasberry trolls 13; Google trolls 16; anti-Google trolls 9; Smart TV trolls 1; common sense 0.88, Dick Pountain's being stupid : 1))
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