Help casting films from laptop to chromecast

[(RIP) spike418]

It's been a sense of frustration for sometime now that while I can cast stuff from my phone and tablet to the chromecast the same facility hasn't been available for the laptop.

This morning I accidentally stumbled across a cast button in the chrome browser and whilst that works with websites it doesn't with other stuff or maybe it should.

So I've spent a fruitless couple of hours googling, downloading googlecast to no avail, the browser doesn't appear to like the film format mkv. Also downloaded the VLC beta v3 and followed all the steps which again failed. Obviously windows media player is a complete non starter for talking to a chromecast.

There are storage/size issues relating to the phone and tablet otherwise I would just copy over and cast that way.

So does anyone have any cheap and easy solutions?

Cheers in advance.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

The whole cast system is based on mobile devices and as you just found out chrome browser. The chrome browser will play mkv just fine (I do it all the time) but that is just a container. Maybe the audio or video codec withing is the problem like the audio is dts or something like that. As a workaround maybe setup your laptop as a network file share then play/cast the video. Simple to do, right click folder and share. If it is something you might want to do a lot then maybe install Plex media server on your laptop. It's free and if you have a smart TV it will pick it up and play whatever is on it. No smart TV then you can get the Plex phone app and cast from there. Plex just gives you a really nice interface and makes it very easy but a network share will work just as well if a bit more fiddly.

 

[UturnTony]

AFAIK it's a compatibility issue with Microsoft Silverlight which is required to run the Chromecast on a windows system. Chromecast and i think now firefox ceased to support it.

Google "Silverlight and Chromecast" and you will get the info.

 

[Popell]

Use Plex media server.
Plays movies from my win10 pc to any of the chromecasts in the house, controls it via ipad of iphone, works great

 

[Myke Rocks]

I just tried it again

With chrome running, (On Windoze XP - not supported) I clicked on the cast button,
& found myself with my computer screen on the TV.
So:
Click on the cast button on the top right hand corner.
Option come up in blue: "Back to device list." Click on this.
To the right of the first line comes up a tiny box with an arrow on it.
Click on this.
Now a choice comes up:
"Cast Screen/Window (Experimental)" Click on this.
You will have to mess from here, but it should work in a manner whereby the TV is now a replica of your computer screen.
Myke

 

[(RIP) spike418]

Thanks for all your replies guys

Comments below

Marki_GSA
The whole cast system is based on mobile devices and as you just found out chrome browser. The chrome browser will play mkv just fine (I do it all the time) but that is just a container. Maybe the audio or video codec withing is the problem like the audio is dts or something like that. As a workaround maybe setup your laptop as a network file share then play/cast the video. Simple to do, right click folder and share. If it is something you might want to do a lot then maybe install Plex media server on your laptop. It's free and if you have a smart TV it will pick it up and play whatever is on it. No smart TV then you can get the Plex phone app and cast from there. Plex just gives you a really nice interface and makes it very easy but a network share will work just as well if a bit more fiddly.

I am guessing it was a codec issue as the browser has failed to play a variety of films etc

Popell
Use Plex media server.
Plays movies from my win10 pc to any of the chromecasts in the house, controls it via ipad of iphone, works great

Have installed Plex and will give it a try, initially I've found some issues possibly related to the limited fibre bandwidth I can access

Myke Rocks
I just tried it again

With chrome running, (On Windoze XP - not supported) I clicked on the cast button,
& found myself with my computer screen on the TV.
So:
Click on the cast button on the top right hand corner.
Option come up in blue: "Back to device list." Click on this.
To the right of the first line comes up a tiny box with an arrow on it.
Click on this.
Now a choice comes up:
"Cast Screen/Window (Experimental)" Click on this.
You will have to mess from here, but it should work in a manner whereby the TV is now a replica of your computer screen.
Myke

I had already tried that but I'm on windows 10 and the "experimental" option has been superceded by a purely cast option, so only available as a browser app rather than full screen,

However, it's not a massive issue for me, probably affected less than once a month. After my post I accidentally stumbled over a 32gb sd card that will fit in my tablet. So if push comes to shove I will just copy paste films etc to the tablet.

But thanks anyway