I recently decided that I wanted a streaming device for my projector and television.  My first task though was picking the right one.  I like watching movies, shows, and clips on a wide variety of streaming services so I had to pick one that had the right options.

I used to have an Amazon Fire TV Stick and didn’t like it, so I wasn’t about to get one of those.  My last one was slow, would not display quality content, and the remote randomly wouldn’t work.  I then looked at the Roku but the standard model didn’t seem right to me.  I wanted at least the $89 model.  But then I took a look at Chromecast and liked the fact that I could stream almost anything to it from all of my devices.

As soon as I made my decision I drove down to my local WalMart, the only store open at the hour, and picked up the Chromecast (2016 model).  While I was there my decision to pick up the Chromecast was confirmed to be right by the sales woman.  She said that they had been selling out of the Chromecast regularly and was surprised they had any there, the day before they had been out.w

When I got home the first thing I did was set up my projector in the kitchen so I could watch TV while I cooked.

Unboxing

The Chromecast comes in a relatively simple box, you slide the inside out and there is a nest, designed perfectly for the device.  Right next to it was a charging cable and wall charger.  I took it out of the box and plugged it into the projector.  As simple as that. There wasn’t any need to dig around the box.

Previous models of the Chromecast came with an HDMI dongle that could be plugged into the device to give you the ability to hang the device down in case there wasn’t enough room to have it sticking out of the back of the television.  The 2016 version instead is a circular device with the HDMI cable coming out of it.  The new design for the Chromecast actually makes it look nicer and it feels more durable. Not that most users will need something that is durable, as they will leave it plugged into the back of their television.  I, however, do plan to move it, along with the projector and am happy to find that it feels durable.

Setup

Setting up the new Chromecast was fairly easy.  You plug the HDMI cable in and then plug the power cable in. The device boots up in seconds and a welcome screen is shown on your television.  It provides you a URL to setup your new Chromecast but you can also use Google Home from an Apple or Android device.

I already had Google Home on my device because a few weeks before I had tried to get my ages old Chromecast to start working but it wouldn’t.  I used the Google Home app and it immediately detected a new Chromecast in the area.  Within a minute the two had connected and the device was setup.

The only part of the process that I wasn’t too happy with was the fact that before using the device it required an update. You could not postpone the update.  The update took a few minutes, even with a 130 Mbps connection.

Use

After a few seconds of buffering, the Chromecast displayed an exceptionally high quality image with the projector.  I watched two or three episodes of Longmire and each one was able to be displayed at full HD.  This was played through Netflix.  Hulu also worked well with it.  That is all I have tried so far but I get the streaming option in YouTube too and also in Chrome.

Unlike the previous model that I had, the phone I had connected almost instantly when I clicked to stream a show.  It took only a couple of more seconds for the video to start.  My past Chromecast felt like it took at least 30 seconds to start.

The only issue with use that I noticed was that my phone became a little slow to respond when I wanted to use other apps. I kind of expected this to happen because the phone is using a lot of its power to communicate.

Over all I have found that I really like the 2016 Chromecast.  I would recommend it highly. It is a lot faster than the original model and streaming is incredibly easy.  A wide variety of stores sell the Chromecast and it is easy to pick one up in person.  You can also order one from the internet even easier.