Amazon Fire Stick vs Google Chromecast

[The Stig]

For Chrome, the same questions apply.

I own an Amazon Fire phone (got it REALLLLL cheap, as a toy).
I also own a Nexus 2013 (that 7 inch tablet, got it for free)

I considered using Mayday to ask, but decided it'd be awkward. So as I cannot find a straight answer, I'll ask here.

If I buy the firestick/chromecast, my understanding is that I can:

1. Download videos onto my Fire phone/Nexus
2. After plugging the firestick/Chromecast into my TV, I can:
a) Mirror my screen onto the TV (?)
b) As result of A, use my TV as a screen for browsing/games/ANYTHING
b) Play ANY video of my choice on it via ANY app (Amazon store not withstanding)

At work some guys been telling me Chromecast only works with certain approved apps/Google stuff. And for Firestick I cannot find straight answers.

[Jamison]

Chromecast has official support for screen mirroring on a 2013 Nexus 7, there's a small lag but it's not bad. It'd be good for anything that isn't too action-oriented... that's sort of your catch-all. The slightly more ideal set-up is using an app with built-in Chromecast support. To be somewhat inaccurate about it, it's a protocol that will directly feed your media to the TV, while leaving the tablet as a basic controller for the media and available to do other things. There are a ton [LINK] of apps that can do this. In the case of streaming media like Netflix, the Chromecast makes a direct connection to the server and the video does not have to bounce through the tablet first.

[The Stig]

Hm I see, so some minor lag is involved. Is the lag audio or video? Though I presume it doesn't matter either way. Or is it another type of lag (display lag?)

I've no interest in using official apps to stream, just my own videos.

I guess the same lag theory can apply to Amazon Fire Stick.

Thanks for your input though! Looking forward to hear more.

[Buffy]

The lag is compared to your computer screen. For instance, if you stream a website (say Rainierland) in a chromecast tab from chrome, the display on the screen is about 1 second ahead of the TV. However the audio/video on the actual TV screen is properly sync'd. In your playing games scenario, there would be some lag as the controller (computer/tablet/phone) does take a tiny bit for the action to route to the TV. It isn't bad, but I wouldn't want to play any response-oriented game with the delay. A turn based game would be fine though.

[Jamison]

Yeah I've tested some games before and largely it was decent. If setting up a Plex server on a PC or Mac is an option, that would get you a direct stream with the tablet only needing to be a controller. That's what I do with my movie and tv show collection. But either way I think you'd be satisfied with the mirroring for that.

[The Stig]

Thanks for more inputs!

Games is a final resort/usage. I would never truely game on a tablet. But would be handy for guests maybe or other family.

So providing in the mirror scenario the sound/video is synced, I don't care what's going in the tablet. Either way this all sounds relatively pleasant. Plex server for now is out of the question. I was just thinking of utilising my toys for my own leisure (or lazyiness lol)

[orinthia]

I use my chromecast in conjunction with chrome browser on my laptop, my old galaxy s3 with screen mirroring and app-streaming, and an older iphone4 for app-streaming too (it's just an ipod now heh). App-streaming is just the phone-app telling the chromecast to do something, like stream youtube or go grab a video to try and play. With localcast, you can directly tell the chromecast to play local content on your phone or in conjunction with a file-browser (visit a network share and have the filebrowser open a video with localcast for example). With a tiny file edit for kodi/xbmc (installed on phone) while having localcast installed, you can make kodi play a file with localcast, which then makes the chromecast actually go out and stream a video (provided it's in a format it can actually play). Little clunky but it works some of the time.

Screen mirroring works sometimes for me, though that might be because of the distance the devices are from my router. Trying to mirror while playing a video is pretty much impossible without a lot of choppiness or tons of artifacts. Mirroring while browsing a website or doing a slideshow works well more often than not, but artifacts do like to crop up.

With a firestick, you can do most of these same things (mirroring and casting) while also taking advantage of your amazon account and using the thing standalone, like loading apps directly on the stick and using its remote control. It's more self-sufficient since a chromecast can do nothing without a smartphone or computer. If you have prime, a firestick might be more worth it.

[Ardrial]

Hm I see, so some minor lag is involved. Is the lag audio or video? Though I presume it doesn't matter either way. Or is it another type of lag (display lag?)

I've no interest in using official apps to stream, just my own videos.

I guess the same lag theory can apply to Amazon Fire Stick.

Thanks for your input though! Looking forward to hear more.

If the files are already stored on your tablet's internal storage, then you can download the app called "Localcast" (Android only. Sorry I don't know IOS alternatives. Someone online suggested "Goodplayer" but it costs money) and cast that to the chromecast. Then whatever media you click play on will play on the TV. I do that often and it works great.

I have no real lag issues when I use my chromecast. Although I generally only use it to play netflix/youtube/twitch/etc. and stored media files. I never really do the screen mirroring thing although it is an option.

[The Stig]

Localcast.... now that sounds good.

Also about screen mirroring, I realised a flaw in what I asked for.

I don't care about screen mirroring, I only care about displaying something on the TV, it doesn't need to mirror my screen (I guess my bad english here; I mean I only want to use my TV as a display yet retaining control using my tablet, screen mirroring or not)

Also an iOS version is available in the LOcalcast Google Play page. So ... sorted. Thanks for this! Will give it a shot, and thank you to the others for input.