# google chromecast? anyone?



## Susanita001 (May 28, 2012)

Hi,
A while ago I posted about getting a smart tv and received some very helpful answers 
the tv we have is a Samsung which only comes up in the settings as being in Italy. I can't seem to change this which means I can't get access to the UK apps with my VPN. 
The question I have is if a google chromecast bought in the UK would do the trick? I am not a techie but does anyone have any experience of these
thanks!


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

I think chromecasts are quite difficult to set up for VPNs (and Smart DNS) because they aren't very configurable. You'd probably need to configure your router to access the VPN instead, which requires quite advanced knowledge (and maybe quite an advanced router as well).

You might want to consider an android box instead, which are only slightly more expensive, but they should let you connect to a VPN.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

I have a chromecast but I don't really understand your question. Or maybe you don't really understand what a chromecast does. All it does is cast (ie send) what you're seeing on your tablet/phone/computer to your TV so you can watch it on a bigger screen. Where you buy your chromecast wouldn't change what you can cast. You can only cast what your tablet/phone/computer is capable of producing. And even this is limited, because not all apps are chromecast supported - not by a long shot.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

kalohi said:


> I have a chromecast but I don't really understand your question. Or maybe you don't really understand what a chromecast does. All it does is cast (ie send) what you're seeing on your tablet/phone/computer to your TV so you can watch it on a bigger screen. Where you buy your chromecast wouldn't change what you can cast. You can only cast what your tablet/phone/computer is capable of producing. And even this is limited, because not all apps are chromecast supported - not by a long shot.


So it's no different to connecting the tablet to the TV with an HDMI cable - except there's no cable?


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Alcalaina said:


> So it's no different to connecting the tablet to the TV with an HDMI cable - except there's no cable?


Yes and no...

You can set up a chromecast to mirror what you are viewing on a chrome browser or android device, and this is equivalent to using an HDMI cable. Except it uses your wifi instead. This will get round the VPN issues I mentioned above, assuming your device is connected to a VPN, but in my experience it is painfully slow (I guess it depends on the device to an extent)

However, rather than telling the chromecast to mirror what you are viewing, you can instead tell it to go and contact that website itself and stream the content directly and independently, without it going via your device. Once it starts streaming the content you can switch off your device or browse some other website and the chromecast will keep streaming independently until the cast is over. This is much faster, however it's also where you run into vpn problems because the chromecast is contacting the website directly.


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