Chrome Cast Device Not Working

[Anonymous User]

Two issues here.

Have a Sony TV, no NOWTV app,  so set up NOWTV on my Sony Android tablet.

Attempted to Chromescast to the TV, which works fine normally with everything else and works here until you actually try to play something. Then I get the message that HDMI streaming to your device is not working. Well, I'm trying to Chromecast not HDMI stream! Secondly, my Chromecast Device (ie my TV) is now listed as one of my 6 devices, even though I can't watch on it!!

Strangely I discovered last night if I set up NOWTV on my laptop, rather than my Android tablet, and connect to the TV via HDMI I can watch just fine, so HDMI streaming is supported but Chromescast isn't (despite the message to the contrary)

What's going on and why is my Chromecast listed as a device if I can't watch via Chromecast??

[RoyB]

I guess you’ve followed all the advice here, except that Chromecast is built in to these Sony Android TVs, so you don’t need a dongle; but the ‘virtual dongle’ in the TV presents as if it was a physical one, so the casting device shouldn’t see any difference.

Indeed, the error you have been getting says ‘HDMI’ because it’s thinking its talking to a physical Chromecast dongle connected by HDMI, not a virtual one embedded in the TV set.

Since the dongle is what is showing NowTV, in the virtual Google browser on the virtual dongle, then that is the device that NowTV counts.

Iin the bad old days of the four device limit, I cast from an iPod Touch that wasn’t one of my four devices to my Sony Android TV, and it let me, as it only counted the Sony TV, whose virtual Chromecast was one of my devices.

Note that the error message you got didn’t say you couldn’t do it, it just said it wasn’t working. i.e. broken, but not forbidden. I know it works, or used to anyway, as I used to do it; and the current NowTV advice, above, implies it’s still working.

Worth having a read of the that advice I linked to, anyway, see if you’ve missed anything, and try again.

As regards NowTV working over HDMI from your laptop, I presume that was because your laptop has an HDMI output, and you used an HDMI cable to link it to the TV?

Thats not streaming, though, no more than it would be if you were using a Blu-ray player with the TV.

Good that you got something going, though, to tide you over until you can have another go at the casting.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks very much for the comprehensive answer, it explains a lot.

Having looked again, I worked out where I was going wrong. I was using the cast option from the Android tablet's own menu option as I would with Amazon etc, so I could see the screen on the TV but it fell over when I actually started to play something. What I needed to do was use the cast option from within the NOWTV app!

What the message actually said was "Sorry we don't support HDMI streaming to your TV from mobile devices...."  This message should perhaps make the distinction between streaming directly from the device or from within the app.

Anyway, all good, thanks again for your help and explanation.