Why is this being framed this way.
Rebranding the next gen of your product isn’t “killing” it, people are so fucking clickbaitable.
It’s the same product, just next gen with better specs abd they’re going with a new simpler brand name than “Chromecast with Google TV” (yes that’s the actual product name before) and instead the next gen is named “Google TV Streamer”
It’s the exact same thing, and all existing hardware will keep working.
Chromecasts are standalone and effectively just running a modified version of Android. They can’t really be “killed” as they work over local network. Theoretically any chromecast will last forever as it’s functionality is based off a specified open source protocol, so as long as you have a device that can output it (cast), you can cast to your chromecast.
So it’s impossible to “kill”. I have a gen 1 chromecast that still 100% works fine today.
Newer
Chromecastsahem Google TVs just have more features, like apps you can install and sideload.People are dumb for falling for this clickbait title.
Ok, but my gen 1 Chromecast stopped working years ago, and it was sluggish, unreliable to cast to and virtually unusable long before that. My Chromecast Ultra has steadily declined in usability too, the whole Chromecast UX has fallen off a cliff the past few years. It used to be fucking magic and just worked with everything. Now my Chromecast with Google TV only really works satisfactorily when I bother to update smarttube and pair it with the code.
The whole platform is trash these days compared to the original gen 1 experience. I went from living in the future, only using my phone to watch TV 10 years ago, to slowly migrating back to a fucking remote control like it’s 1980 again. Say what you want, but the promise that gen 1 Chromecast delivered on has been dead and buried for a while now.
I’ll just have to respectfully disagree in experience.
I have multiple gens of chromecasts and haven’t seen any degradation in performance. They work pretty much the same.
I have no idea wtf is going on with your units.
I hate the remote control. OG Chromecast you just used your phone or computer to control everything. You could turn volume up or down which doesn’t fucking work on the new gen w/o the remote bc it relies on actually changing the volume setting on the TV itself whereas the old one just lowered the volume being transmitted from the device to the TV. The whole platform has been enshitified. There was no way to cram ads into the old Chromecast so they decided to make it be a shitty smart TV type dongle that you need to log into every app on to make functionality even work where before the login was just on your phone. Now if a guest is over, they can’t even cast because they are signed in on a different account. Everything is worse on the new Chromecast, but hey, my boomer mom loves having a remote now.
I don’t think anyone is saying that chromecast as a “functionality” is being killed. It’s not the same product, the new one is a set top box compared to the current dongle, with better specs and 3 times the price. People would buy multiple chromecast dongles to have it all around their house or to carry it when traveling. Now, many will not do it with this set top box.
They kept the same name and functionality but definitely “killed” the old product - chromecast dongle which everyone knows as chromecast.
Thank you!! I read the first article about it and was worried Google killed support for the cast protocol. But it’s literally a rebrand for a new product. Yes, they are discontinuing the 4k basic Chromecast but I guess it didn’t sell enough? I don’t expect any company to indefinitely offer a product because I seem to like it personally.
Not that I want to particularly defend Google, they do have track record of killing useful products. But this is not that.
I think that upgrading it with just 22% faster processor is kind of killing it.
The current CCWGTV performance sucks.
If I wanted a streaming box I’d buy or build a streaming box. If I wanted anyone with my remote control to be able to access my YouTube viewing history and all my streaming accounts I’d make it happen. What I want is a cheap dongle that my family and guests can use to quickly share media to the big screen!
Isn’t that what a Chromecast is? The one I have, you just connect to the wifi and it shows up as a cast target. It doesn’t do anything else.
Yes but they discontinued them in favor of Google TV, and they also heavily nerfed the capabilities by putting Google TV apps on there. For instance I now often have to pull out the virtual remote in the YouTube app to make a pop-up go away so I can watch the YouTube video I cast.
Mine still worked fine, the last time I checked.
I have five from multiple generations, so I’m very aware. They changed this functionality on all of them. I never said they didn’t still work, and I gave a clear example of how the functionality is being nerfed.
They haven’t changed the functionality on mine as far as I’ve noticed. It’s still a cheap dongle that people can use to quickly share media to the screen. Is that not what you wanted?
When they released Android TV they implemented the full apps into Chromecast so it went from just a video playing client to an extremely underpowered streaming stick, without a Google TV remote a lot of the players were broken and because it’s an out of production out of support device you are stuck with whatever crippled functionality they leave us. I tried to set one up for my wife a couple of weeks ago and she couldn’t cast certain YouTube videos to it because it was prompting her to sign-in but the sign-in functionality has been broken for two years now. If your device has somehow avoided any updates you have a gem; that thing would fetch a handsome sum on eBay.
Is it still a cheap dongle that people can use to quickly share media to the screen? Yes, that’s why I have five. I’d like them to support and keep making them. I’d like them to work as seamlessly as they did 2012-2015ish.
I own multiple gens of Chromecasts from gen 1 to to CCwGTV
I have no idea wtf you are talking about.
I click cast, I click the device I’m casting to, it works, never had this issue on any of my devices abd all of them are set to auto update and afaik running latest versions.
That’s fantastic for you, but a quick Google search will bring up plenty of articles and reddit threads of people bitching about this and other ways the Chromecast has been broken over the years.
I have no idea what people are fucking up tbh.
It’s 2 button clicks to cast stuff, I just went and sanity checked.
The internet is full of disinformation and idiots though so I usually just assume people are the issue, when I have the same hardware and zero issues.
I don’t think chromecasts have even gotten any kind of major change updates in ages so it’s bizarre for it to change behavior.
I’m gonna just keep going with “people are dumb” until someone posts some concrete example (IE an actual video) of wtf their issue is.
The chromecast is designed so simply though that I can’t imagine wtf people are fucking up.
Is there any open source chrome cast? I know of one project but it required a special server as well. I just want to plug something into my HDMI port so I can cast dumb YouTube videos, why does it have to be this hard.
That’s literally what a chromecast is.
I have multiple generations of them, and casting a YouTube video is 2 clicks.
- Cast button
- Pick what device to cast to.
Done.
The new Chromecast TV bullshit makes it a bit more complicated, but the article also says that Google is making changes.
I agree with you though, I have used a Chromecast as my main way to get stuff on my TV for years and years. I don’t want them to complicate it or make me sign in to it, etc.
A cheap PC with a wireless keyboard and track pad.
Yeah that’s what I may have to do, but casting from my phone is so nice. And anyone on my wifi can do it
Oh well, off to the graveyard
Netflix cheapest plan won’t work over Chromecast. I’m apparently too poor to watch the service on a larger screen.
When did that happen? I’m just curious, cause I ditched Netflix but I know their cheapest plan used to work.
At least a year now. Very blunt message saying that casting wasn’t available with my plan. Such a needlessly dickish move on their part.
Damn. So they did it on the Netflix end of things? That is ridiculous.
The new device includes a processor that claims to be up to 22 percent faster than before, with twice as much RAM (4GB) and four times the storage (32GB). It supports 4K streaming at 60 fps with an HDMI 2.1a port. There’s HDR support (Dolby Vision) and spatial audio (Dolby Atmos).
That whole “22% faster” worries me. 4 years later and only 22% faster?
Yeah 22% is very poor in the computer world.
The CCWGTV performance is a shit at 4K. The UI is far from smooth, some UHD shows randomly drop frames and sometimes I have to restart the device because Netflix and prime stop working.
Eventually I’ll replace it, if the new device sucks I might try apple TV.
I mean it’s a tiny device after all.
I also now have an HDR 4K 144Hz VRR OLED TV so it would be nice to get a device that supports this max resolution (like the PS5).
the Chromecast ultra had an Ethernet port
