Google has completely changed the game with the Chromecast. Gone are the days where you’d need to download a file on your computer, connect an HDMI cable from your TV to your computer, hit play, and hope everything works correctly. Now, we have the Chromecast which makes life infinitely easier, if you know how to leverage its power to your advantage. Today we’re going to give you a couple different methods for increasing Chromecast’s usefulness.

Kodi

If you don’t know what Kodi is, it’s defined as the following:

Kodi is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium.

-Wikipedia

Basically, Kodi is a front-end for all of your media. It takes all the media you own and presents it in an easy to find fashion. The customization and add-ons for Kodi are extremely powerful, and while we’re not going to get into those today, I highly suggest you check them out if you are interested in taking up this project.

Why Kodi? Kodi is going to allow us to stream our local media to our Chromecast while using the Kodi front-end. No digging through file folders and search bars, Kodi just works (when it works). It’s like a Netflix for your own local library.

There are a couple different ways to set up Kodi to interface with your Chromecast, but we’re going to follow the method that is easiest on your battery and offers the most flexibility.

  1. Download and install Solid Explorer File Manager, Kodi, and LocalCast
  2. Download and save PlayerFactoryCore.xml
  3. Open up the Kodi app and connect it with your existing Kodi network from your computer
  4. Open Solid Explorer, Navigate to Downloads, and COPY PlayerFactoryCore.xml
  5. In Solid Explorer, navigate to Storage > Emulated > 0 Android > obb> org.xbmc.kodi > userdata then paste PlayerFactoryCore.xml
  6. Open Kodi and select your media file
  7. LocalCast will launch, press play, then select your Chromecast
  8. Click play one more time

Allcast

This is a great solution for those of us who have a large media library on a home PC. If you’re more comfortable with downloading or storing media directly on your phone, we have Allcast to accomplish the same goals. Here are a few easy steps to streaming media directly from your phone.

  1. Download Allcast
  2. Save files onto your phone’s local storage or a microSD card
  3. Open Allcast with your WiFi on and select your Chromecast
  4. Click on the file you want to cast
  5. Enjoy

I use Allcast often but sometimes run into downloaded files playing without audio. I have no idea why or which codec it can’t handle, but that may be something to consider. The free version of Allcast (which I’ve linked above) has a five-minute viewing limit for pictures and videos, which is a perfect amount of time to find out if you like the app. If you want to proceed, you can grab the premium version here.

Just a note here, we’re not encouraging you to download movies or TV shows illegally. We consider ourselves content creators here at AndroidGuys and it sucks when our content is stolen and repackaged on other sites (not naming names). If you do decide to torrent a movie and enjoy it, please make the effort to purchase it to support something you’ve enjoyed.

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