TV screens finally get smart with budget dongle

Arrival of Chromecast, other video-streaming devices offers cheap alternative to smart TVs

Mobile phones got smart a long time ago, their prices dropping to affordable, mass market levels. The idiot box, too, got smart eventually, but you had to shell out a fortune to watch YouTube videos on those Net-savvy smart TVs.

 But the recent arrival in Bengaluru of the Google Chromecast, a dongle that you just insert into your conventional TV’s HDMI port, dramatically altered the equation.

Suddenly, you could throw those sharp, hi-definition YouTube videos from your smartphone, tablet or PC onto the TV screen. The Chromecast app lets you cast those videos, pictures, songs and a lot more onto the biggest screen in the house.

All that you did was to connect the dongle, plug in the power source and let Chromecast do the rest. Your phone was your remote, and the TV had turned interactive, overnight!
Launched in the US in July 2013, the dongle took a long time to land in India, and even longer in Bengaluru.

It eventually arrived from Delhi by IndiaPost, booked online for Rs 2,999 through Snapdeal.com with an Airtel broadband offer of 20GB data free for three months.

Data usage
The device does use up data, since it directly streams HD videos and other content onto the TV screen via Wi-Fi from the Internet. An hour of streaming YouTube music videos onto a Sony Bravia TV consumed about 1 GB. Casting photographs from both the phone and the cloud used much less.

Being the exclusive ISP provider for Chromecast in India, Airtel is betting big on this device to drive Internet data consumption both in Karnataka and across the country.

This is one reason why Chromecast, described by Rohit Malhotra, CEO, Airtel, Karnataka Circle, as “one of the most promising innovations” has been made available in 186 outlets across the State.

‘TeeWe’ competition
But Chromecast has indigenous competition in video streaming from the likes of ‘TeeWe.’
This device is cheaper by a thousand rupees. However, Chromecast still holds the edge since it is Google’s own official dongle and the Android apps linked to it are growing fast.

Here’s a glimpse of the Android apps customised
for Chromecast: Besides YouTube, Hulu, HBO, Google Play Music and Movies, you have AllCast, which allows you to stream photos, videos and music stored in a phone or tablet onto the television screen;

Eros Now that offers Bollywood and regional movies and television shows on-demand; Photowall, which lets you fire photos from a smart device onto the screen; or CastPad, an app with which your drawings on the phone
or tablet shows up live on the television.
DH News Service