Chromecast with Google TV: A 20% off deal and the Promise of Comfort

GOOGLE’S Chromecast with Google TV is currently selling at $10 less than its original price. But for a device with so many features, that its name is almost a sentence, it could be difficult to understand what you are really getting from that deal.

Lend Me Your Shoes

You arrive home after a long workday. Tired, you slump on your couch waiting diligently for your noodles to be delivered. While waiting you decide to watch something interesting and you begin switching your Tv channels one by one but nothing catches your eye.  You grab your phone, it took you a while to decide which of your subscriptions to watch but you finally decide on Prime video, a minute later you’re on Netflix but no luck, you can’t quite nail something down, you switch to YouTube to see what’s there. Eventually, these searching and scrolling bore you and you begin to think of your day, your WORK, and your villain of a BOSS.

Okay! That’s enough, have your shoes back.

If this is you then you are about to have a very dear friend in the Chromecast.

The Chromecast shows your recommendations from all your subscriptions all in one place

Nice to meet you

The Chromecast with Google TV is a streaming stick that is a culmination of over 10years of work by Google. It is majorly a combination of the following devices:

• GoogleTv:  Launched in 2010, it’s poor market performance ensured that in just 3 years it was discontinued. However it served as a building block for google and was replaced by the android tv in 2014.
• Android tv: A sleek operating system that gives your TV the capabilities of a smartphone or tablet.
• Google Chromecast: The original which was launched in 2013 had only one function: display whatever was on your phone or tablet on your Tv.

Although there are other iterations these are the major ones

With all the above elements merged into the new Chromecast, you can stream movies, stream games locally or from the cloud, read external storage, use Ethernet and even make video calls with your TV. All with a device that now costs just $40(down from $50).

What’s In the box: A USB-C cable, an adaptor, a pair of batteries. the dongle, a remote and a user’s manual

Whats Cool

Being one of the most affordable streaming dongles on the market already makes the Google Chromecast a brilliant bargain, it however also comes with the following major features:

• Universal watchlist: Something Google has over most of its competitors is that; with the chromecast you not only get recommendations from all your subscriptions all in one screen but you also get the capability to create a watchlist that is filled with movies from all the different streaming services you have. E.g Netflix, prime, hulu, disney plus, etc. 
• Personalization: Overtime the recommendations you get will be based on what you watch but you can sharpen it further, by clicking on the Rate This or Watched It button. The ability to view movies across multiple streaming service also ensures that you are paying the right price for your subscriptions.
• Cast from phone and tablet: This feature unique to the chromecast, it lets you share whatever is on your phone or tablet to your tv screen. You can share most apps, your pictures or videos or even webpages.
• Google assistant: Unlike earlier versions, this version of chromecast also comes with a remote that has just one-colour all over, except for the assitant button. Holding down this button gives you the possibility of searching for a movie, tv show, with your voice. You can also leverage on the fact that it’s a google assitant and use it to make searches with google’s search engine e.g weather, news, places near you e.t.c. Heads up though, some of the results may have to be sent to your phone before you can proceed further.
• Stream games locally or online: It’s does exactly that, although this comes with it’s own buts. More on that below.

The Chromecast comes in different colour variants

What could be improved

The Apple TV costs $199 while the Nvidia shield TV costs $256 and these two are major competitors with the Chromecast. If however, you can get the Chromecast at just $40, then you’re probably already getting the feeling that something must be sacrificed.

• Storage: the Chromecast comes with a measly 4GB storage space and for a device that has so many powerful capabilities this is quite embarrassing. To solve this little storage problem you would need to purchase a USB C Hub that allows pass-through charging and is capable of charging both the Chromecast and the USB C Hub simultaneously. You can find one here.
• Consistency issues: the Chromecast supports 4k, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos for streaming movies. However, this does not work consistently across all apps. For instance, if you want to watch a Disney plus movie you either settle for HD or go through Disney’s original app. Similarly, while Chromecast prides itself on showing movie recommendations of all your subscriptions in one place, Netflix originals like Queen’s gambit or The Witcher do not feature in these recommendations, you have to go in-app to find them.
• Video game streaming: Finally if you want to use the Chromecast for streaming video games it’s important that you have a very fast internet else you will have to be content with lags that occasionally disturb your experience along the way. Nvidia’s gaming experience is unsurprisingly way better.

Setting up Your Chromecast

All your Tv needs to have is an HDMI port for it to work with the Chromecast (see video on how to set up below), you don’t necessarily need to buy a smart tv, the chrome cast comes with its own smarts. It checks the right box when you are spending on a budget.

You can get this limited time offer on:

Best Buy
Walmart

How To Set up your Chromecast

Links
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How The OLED Display Compares To Other Display Types

Displays are used to present visual information; they are created to ensure that visual information sharing process is simplified. Displays can affect resolution, power consumption, battery life, size, and even durability of your devices and with the release of  Nintendo switch OLED imminent (October 8 2021) boasting a titular new OLED display, a departure from the LCD screens of previous versions . It wouldn’t hurt to know how these displays compare with one another.

• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
• Light Emitting Diode (LED)
• Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)
• Plasma
• Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)
• Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diode (QLED)

1. LCD

LCD is known as ‘Liquid Crystal Display’ as stated in the name it is made of liquid crystals. It is the most used monitor worldwide, as it requires less space, consumes less power, and produces relatively less heat than an old CRT screens.

LCD screens are thinner and much lighter in size and weight than CRT monitors. Due to this, it competes with LED and OLED in the market.

This display was first used in laptops, and then later introduced for Desktop Computers ranging from 17 inches to 60 inches. Being that these monitors need less space and are light in weight, they do not create any trouble in transporting and moving them from one place to another.

By consuming less energy it not only provides better graphics quality but also a fine brighter screen display. In this way, LCDs are very economical in the terms of costs, energy, image quality, and features with integration devices like speakers via ports.

2. LED

LED’s full form is ‘Light Emitting Diode’ it’s major competition is with LCDs and Plasma Monitors. LED monitors are slightly curved or flat panel displays that use light-emitting diodes for backlighting on the screen instead of cold cathode fluorescent (CCFL) for back-lighting.

LED display with its 4k resolution is brighter than other displays. LED monitors use less power than LCDs and are widely used by gamers for playing high graphics and HD games.

The advantage of LEDs is that they produce images with higher contrast and vivid colors. LEDs are more durable as compared to LCD and CRT Monitors.

LEDs screen delivers flicker-free image which lessens the eye strain and fatigue, and headaches.

Also LEDs do not contain hazardous chemicals and some of it’s part are recyclable, therefore they are considered to have a less environmental impact than LCDs.

The price rate of LED monitors can be a little expensive though and so not considered affordable.

Photo by Junior Teixeira on Pexels.com

3. OLED

OLED stands for “Organic Light Emitting Diode“. As the name suggests, it is made of organic material (such as carbon, plastic, wood, and polymers), that is used to convert electric current into light.

OLEDs are used in displays of television, computer screen, game consoles, PDAs, or even in the latest smartphones. It can be thinner or lighter with a higher contrast ratio than LCDs. Since these LEDs are capable enough to produce a lot of different colored light, they can be used directly to produce the correct color and there is no need for any backlight, which saves power and also requires less space. The OLED display is considered great for watching movies.

OLED Monitors are considered the best display technology ever because of their characteristics like wide viewing angles, picture quality, outstanding contrast levels, No ghosting, fast response, and perfect contrast and brightness.

Although OLEDs allow for higher contrast its not as bright as LCD displays because it doesn’t have a backlight. Also, you should protect the monitor from water as it can damage the OLED screen. The other disadvantages of the OLED monitor right now are its short life expectancy than LCDs and LEDs and the high price rate in the market currently.

4. Plasma

The Plasma monitor panel (PDP) is made of Plasma technology is another latest type of computer monitor technology. Display of plasma made with cells. These cells are filled with ‘electrically charged Ionized Gas‘. Such cells are called Plasma.

The basic idea behind its invention is that it illuminates tiny colored fluorescent lights that create image pixels. It has the advantage of slimness, a plasma display is flat rather than slightly curved as an LCDs has. It cuts down image distortion and glare through its perfect flat screens.

A plasma display offers a good response, superior performance, time, and a much wide viewing angle as compared to LCDs. Plasma displays come in sizes up to 60 inches that can be considered the best home theater and HD television.

The major disadvantages of plasma monitors are their limited production and screen sizes. Plasma monitors are heavier in size and consume more electricity, on average than LCD monitors.

5. CRT

CRT means “Cathode Ray Tube”. Its main part is the Cathode Ray tube which is called the “Generally Picture tube”. CRT monitors are much heavier in size as compared to LCD and LED monitors. Due to being heavy, moving and transporting them from one place to another is a lot of trouble. Also, they need more space for installation.

Over the last few decades CRTs have disappeared from the market, because display manufacturers switched their production lines from CRT 4:3 displays to LCD 16:9 widescreen displays in order to survive the transition to the digital world widescreen television of LEDs or LCDs.
CRT monitors are not only bulky but also consume a lot of electricity. 

6. QLED

QLED, or quantum dot light-emitting diode displays.

These quantum dots can essentially produce a brighter image and deeper colors. And because of how efficient they are, very little light is lost. Usually, because the backlight is a bright blue, the quantum dots are green and red. The QLED is a Samsung development and although other companies are free to use the quantum dot technology, they have to refrain from referring to it as QLED display.

Final Notes

The QLED and the OLEDs are considered to have an edge over the other screens displays, but the overall it still depends on the users preference, depending on which screen you go for you would be making some kind of trade off, whether it’s brightness, contrast or electricity consumption. For instance OLEDs produce true blacks, and as a result, higher contrast, and they have better off-angle viewing But QLED displays are brighter and cheaper than OLED panels.