Chromecast Guides

What is Chromecast Audio multi-room group playback?

If you have two or more Chromecast Audio devices, you can let them play exactly the same music simultaneously.

This Chromecast Audio feature is named as multi-room group playback (multi-room support).

Chromecast Audio multi-room group playback was announced when Chromecast Audio was announced. About two months later, in December 2015,  this feature was released through a firmware update (and Chromecast app update).

Essentially, Chromecast Audio multi-room group playback allows you to play music on all of your Chromecast Audio devices in the same WiFi network.

Currently, Chromecast Audio multi-room group playback feature is available for Chromecast Audio only. You cannot add a Chromecast device to the group.  You may read this page on differences between Chromecast and Chromecast Audio.

Update: Group playback is available for all Chromecast (Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, and Chromecast Ultra) and all Google Home speakers (Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Home Max, Google Nest Mini aka Home Mini 2nd Gen).

Also, you should not confuse the group playback with the Google Home speaker group. The differences between the group playback and speaker group are explained here.

The requirements of Chromecast Audio

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Many Chromecast owners wasted free Chromecast offers for them, are you one of them?

For most companies, you can only get some special offers or gifts when buying their product.  After paying them, you seldom get free offers from them unless you upgrade or buy a new one again.

Google is really different.

Google gives  owners offers after offers, including existing owners. All these Chromecast offers are offered free from Google. Some of them are just like cash rebate e.g.,  Google Play Store credit,  which you can use for apps, music, TV or movies. Some are free movies.  Of course, some are free trials.

But many Chromecast owners are not aware of such Chromecast offers, and therefore let the offers expired.

This guide is to show you how to check the Chromecast offers available for you, and how to claim (redeem) them from your PC or Android (or iOS) devices.

Step-by-step guide on how to check and claim Chromecast offers from your PC

Please note, you can check and claim the Chromecast offers either from your PC or from a mobile device.  If you want to do this on a mobile device, you may skip this section … Continue to read the post....

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You can setup Chromecast Audio from any one of the following devices:

• Android phones or devices with Android Jelly Bean 4.1 or later;
• iPhone or iPad with iOS 7 or higher;
• PC with Windows 7 or later;
• Chromebook with Chrome OS 28 or later;
• Mac computers with Mac OS 10.7 and later.

In this guide, Android device is used to show you how to setup Chromecast Audio.

To setup Chromecast Audio, please follow these steps.

Step 1:  Connect your Chromecast to the speaker or AV receiver

Before you try to setup Chromecast Audio, you need connect Chromecast Audio to the speaker or AV receiver

You can use one of the following 3 audio/optical cables to connect Chromecast Audio to the speaker or AV receiver:

• 3.5mm stereo cable (which is included in your Chromecast Audio box) for analog output.
• 3.5mm to RCA cable for analog output.
• Mini TOSLINK to TOSLINK optical cable for digital output.

If your speaker does not support any of them, you cannot use it for Chromecast Audio and therefore you cannot proceed to setup Chromecast Audio.

Anyway, almost all speakers and AV receivers support at least one of the three input options.

If you speaker or AV … Continue to read the post....

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Update: a mini user guide is available on how to use Ethernet adapter for Chromecast.

Google quietly released a $15 Ethernet adapter for Chromecast in July 8.

The adapter will not only improve the network performance of Chromecast especially if your WiFi  network signal (strength and quality) is not so good, but also may introduce new usages for Chromecast.

I will share with you why this $15 Ethernet adapter for Chromecast actually is a big thing for the e  .

Will $15 Ethernet adapter for Chromecast drag you back to wired era?

The  is supposed to be very simple to setup and simple to use.

Most of the time, it is.  But not always.

Some Chromecast owners have faced such problems:

• weak WiFi signal or poor WiFi signal quality near TV.
• no idea how to connect the Chromecast to the wireless network.
• very old wireless router only supporting 802.11b.
• no WiFi in office.
• poor network performance of Chromecast.

Ethernet adapter for Chromecast will surely solve these problems.

Why?

1. Ethernet connection is far more stable than WiFi. Even the  10M/100M Ethernet ports  in some aged routers usually can offer better and smoother streaming than 5G Hz wireless AC  connection

… Continue to read the post....

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Chromecast Audio was introduced on September 29, 2015, together with the new Chromecast (Chromecast 2015, 2nd generation of Chromecast).

Although Chromecast Audio shares almost identical hardware specs with the new Chromecast, the designed usage of Chromecast Audio is substantially different from Chromecast.

This may confuse many users.

Chromecast Audio guides will include a series of guides to help you better understand Chromecast Audio (e.g., differences between Chromecast Audio and Chromecast, Bluetooth vs Chromecast Audio…) and use Chromecast Audio.

For Chromecast, including 1st generation of Chromecast and new Chromecast (Chromecast 2015), please check this Chromecast how-to guide page.

This is a live page: more guides will be added regularly after we test them one by one.

If you have any questions on Chromecast Audio,  please feel free to leave them in the comment box below, we will try to find the solution for you.

Here are the Chromecast Audio guides.

1. What’s the difference between Chromecast and Chromecast Audio?

   Chromecast or Chromecast Audio? If you have any questions on the difference between these two Chromecast devices, you can find the answer in this guide. This Chromecast Audio guide explains to you the output format, targeted usages,  audio quality, under-hood differences

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On October 4, 2016, Google announced a new $69 (not $35) Chromecast device: Chromecast Ultra.

This actually is the 3rd generation of Chromecast. Chromecast (1st gen) was released in  2013. Chromecast 2nd gen and Chromecast Audio (which were discontinued in 2019) were announced in 2015.

This post will try to help you understand the differences between Chromecast 2nd Gen and Chromecast Ultra, and help you decide whether you need a Chromecast Ultra.

Chromecast 3rd gen (Chromecast 2018) and Chromecast 4th gen (Chromecast 2020; Chromecast with Google TV) are also available in the market now.

Is Chromecast Ultra for 4K TV only?

One of the most prominent features of Chromecast Ultra is supporting 4K video streaming.

But this does NOT mean Chromecast Ultra is only for 4K TV owners.

If you only have a Full HD (1080p) TV, compared to Chromecast 2nd gen,  Chromecast Ultra can still offer some nice new and improved features:

• High Dynamic Range (HDR) support. Of course, HDR contents are still very limited. YouTube and Google Play will gradually join Netflix and Amazon for streaming HDR contents. HDR-ready TV is also needed to enjoy the benefits. We will discuss this in detail in

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When do you need to reset Chromecast (factory data reset)?

Most of the time, it is not necessary to factory reset Chromecast  (factory data reset). The device update itself when connected to internet.  It seldom gives problem.

But in the following two scenarios, you probably have to reset  Chromecast:

• You change your wireless router. Chromecast can only remember one network. If you changed your router, you can either re-do the setup (you may follow this Chromecast setup guide) if the old network is not in range, or simply reset Chromecast.
• Chromecast hangs or freezes.  You can try to plug out the USB power cable, then check whether Chromecast works after plugging the cable back. But if this doe not work or Chromecast hangs frequently, it is good idea to reset Chromecast (factory data reset) before calling Google support or returning the unit.

How to reset Chromecast (factory data reset)?

It is quite simple to factory reset Chromecast. There are two ways to factory reset Chromecast.

Method 1: Use the button on Chromecast to reset Chromecast

Hold down the button (next to the micro USB port) on your Chromecast for at least 25 seconds or until the solid light begins … Continue to read the post....

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Chromecast support was finally introduced in VLC media player 3.0. So, you can now easily use VLC media player on PC to stream music and video to Chromecast and Chromecast Audio.

This adds one more method to stream local media files to Chromecast and Chromecast Audio.

Please note, Google Home, Google Hoem Mini, and Google Home Max also support Chromecast. This means you can also use VLC media player on PC to stream music to those Google Home devices. Therefore, this guide also applies to Google Home devices.

The advantages of using VLC media player on PC to stream music and video to Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, and Google Home

If you have an extensive collection of music and movies in the hard drive, you can stream them to TV with Chromecast or Chromecast Audio with various methods.

Chromecast is officially supported in VLC media player 3.0.  So, you have one more method to stream local media (music and video) to Chromecast and Chromecast Audio.

Compared to other six methods of streaming local music and video to Chromecast and Chromcast Audio, the VLC media player method has several advantages including:

• Free.
• Open source.  If the development

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