Entertainment system evolution

After long time I decided to do something to improve little bit my entertainment system.

In the past I played with some streamers and lately I ended up to use the glorious Wii to watch Netflix or Chromecast with the same purpose.
For a while I tried to use some Android sticks without much success.
They did work but all suffered by a bad video quality and connection problems.

In fact the connection to the network is the real problem.
The TV is located far away from the WiFi router and even using a repeater it didn't improve much the connection reliability.

So after a long time experimenting with cheap and wireless streamers, I decided to set up something better.
Here my basic requirements :

• Wired connection
• Faster streamer
• Decent user interface
• HD quality
• Possibility to be connected to the main network
• Possibility to stream from my server
• Possibility to stream from local memory (flash pen)
• Support for all video formats
• More streaming choices than Netflix
• Possibility to receive local HD program via antenna

Looking for something capable to cover these requirements, I ended up with two choices :

• Wetek Play 2
• Amazon Fire TV

Wetek Play 2 is a nice and faster streamer with also the possibility to install a digital HDTV receiver (ATSC).
It is Android based and uses Kodi as main streaming management.

Amazon Fire TV is an Android based streamer with Alexa (the Amazon voice interface) integrated in it and very nice intuitive way, plus it supports Plex for streaming.

I tried to install Kodi on the server but I had some problems, then it was not clear when the Wetek Play 2 would be available.
I then installed as media server Plex on the server, after reading some interesting reports, and it went perfectly, plus Amazon Fire TV was readily available.

Because of that I decided to go with Amazon also if is missing the possibility to connect an ATSC receiver in order to see local HDTV channels.

As bonus it has Amazon Alexa that helps to integrate vocal commands to search for programs or activate applications. 

So after a while, here some pros and cons of using Fire TV.

Pro

• Easy to configure and handle
• Fast streamer. No I mean ... FAST.
• Nice to search/select some programs using Alexa
• Fast streaming from my server using Plex
• Quite reliable
• Very small, very easy to hide

Cons

• Vudu is blocked because competitor of Amazon
• No possibility to connect an ATSC receiver
• Not integrated with Amazon Echo even if both are using Alexa
• Too many apps require subscription (I guess is the same for all streamer though)
• Quite close system. Is Android but is not open to install whatever you want

Chromecast - quick review

I recently bought a Chromecast device to test.

I already have an Android based "pen-USB" streamer connected to my TV and I was curious to see how a different system was working.

Here some impressions.

Opening

The package itself is quite fascinating.

The device is quite small, actually little bit smaller than the USB Android pen device I'm currently use.

In the box, well packed, there is the device, a power supply, a micro USB cable and an HDMI extension cord, just in case is not possible to connect the device directly to the TV.

Installing

Installing the Chromecast device is quite straightforward.
Just plug it in into a HDMI port on the TV and connect the power.
Some TV have an USB hub integrated, so in this case will there no need for the external power supply.

After a few seconds a screen will appear on the TV.

At this point the best way is to use an Android system (or iOS) and follow the instructions.
A Chromecast application is installed on the smartphone/tablet and from there is enough to follow the directions.

The required time to install Chromecast is around 5-10 minutes top.

Use

One thing must be understood immediately.
Chromecast is working with specific stream services !

In other words Chromecast can stream ONLY services that have an "app" for Chromecast.

Chromecast is NOT :

• a generic Android system connected to the TV
• a relay of the screen of your phone or tablet
• a stand alone computer

Currently is possible to stream from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and few other services but a lot of people is working to bring more apps to Chromecast, to allow more streaming.

The quality of the streaming  is very very good actually, much more better than my USB pen-based Android streamer and also the WiFi management seems better and more reliable than the USB Android pen-based streamer.

The connection to the streaming servers is totally transparent, i.e. no need to set up accounts or passwords. So if somebody with a smartphone has a subscription to some service (like Netflix)  the Chromecast will use that to be connected.

Problems

Well, actually there are few problems, but I'm quite sure they  are depending about my particular configuration of the network.

On my network I have almost everything  with a fixed IP. I do have a DHCP server but the majority of the appliances have a fixed IP (for many reasons).

Chromecast currently is NOT supporting the fixed IP configuration.
So sometimes my DHCP server assigns an address that for some reasons is not working well, leaving the  Chromecast not working. 

On "standard" domestic/consumer oriented networks, where everything is under DHCP, there are actually no problems that I'm aware off.

Another issue is the impossibility to easily stream from a local server.
It is possible to have some streaming done from the phone but there is not an easy way to do so yet.
I'm sure it will be fixed for the future.

Conclusion

Well, for the price I would say that is a "must to have" little device.

Is NOT meant to substitute a self-contained Android terminal connected to the TV, but is incredibly useful to see on TV the most popular streaming using a smartphone or tablet as "intelligent remote".
While watching a streaming the smartphone or tablet remains free to do other things or look for other programs.

And is fun too. Friends with a smartphone/tablet (Android or iOS) can connect to the Chromecast ( after installing the application on the smartphone/tablet) and show their stream selection to everybody.

Update

Just a quick note.
Chromecast can be used also with Apple products.
i.e. is not necessary to have Android smartphone or tablet in order to use Chromecast.
It is also possible to stream from any PC/Mac running Chrome (via  a plug-in for Chromecast) but honestly if you are already in front a computer, is not really important to stream on a TV (my opinion of course).