Hassle-free casting of Online Videos to Chromecast using "PlayTo" Chrome Browser Extension

After I returned to India from UK one thing which bothered me most was some documentaries which I would regularly watch on UK television. Chromecast along with the FilmOn.tv Android app bridged this gap since I could easily watch many International channels sitting in India. I would first launch the channel on my Phone and then cast it on my TV using the Casting icon. Unfortunately the developers of this App don't seem to properly test this App before its release. So frequently I would find issues with casting. The Channels would play on the Phone but fail to play on my TV with Chromecast, it just keeps showing "Buffering........".

After some research on the Net I finally have a solution - a useful Chrome Browser Extension called PlayTo for Chromecast.

Once this extension is installed it has a toggle option to turn it On and Off. When turned on it automatically pops-up a dialog to cast the video to Chromecast when you view most of the online video streaming sites.
While you have the cast option built onto Chrome Browser to cast the tab on Chromecast, there is a small issue when you cast tabs with streaming videos. What happens with the Google Cast extension on the Chrome Browser is that it mirrors the display so the bandwidth utilization is large which causes lag while you watch video. With PlayTo extension this issue is resolved. While it still uses the Chrome Browsers Cast extension, what it basically does is a casting similar to what you do from your Android Phone - it send s a link to Chromecast rather than mirroring the display. What this essentially means is once the video is played on your TV through Chromecast, you have an option to close the Browser or shutdown your PC as the video continues to play on the TV.


Why not explore this extension right away.........happy Casting!

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