Web ratings compare Roku and Chromecast as if they can do the same thing and the choice is based on convenience.  I am under the impression Chromecast allows you to watch anything you can watch on your desktop computer.  I have used a Roku for years and as far as I know it can't do that.  Am I wrong?

Roku can do everything the Chromecast can do. Roku also has an OS with a UI. Chromecast does NOT. Chromecast requires a second screen device to cast to the Chromecast. The Roku does not. The Roku has screen mirroring which is identical to the Chromecast casting. There is nothing the Chromecast can do that the Roku cannot do better.

My biggest complaint about the ChromeCast is that it doesn't have a remote.

i_am_jim wrote:

 I am under the impression Chromecast allows you to watch anything you can watch on your desktop computer. 

That is really not the main purpose of a Chromecast. Most use a Chromecast to "cast" video from specific apps on a mobile device or computer to the Chromecast. But in this case, it isn't mirroring. It is actually remotely loading the video. What you are describing is basic screen mirroring. That is possible on a Chromecast but the quality is terrible as your PC has to do the encoding.

bozzy wrote:

[Casting] it isn't mirroring. It is actually remotely loading the video. What you are describing is basic screen mirroring. That is possible on a Chromecast but the quality is terrible as your PC has to do the encoding.

I'll take your word for it since I only heard of this phenomenon 4 days ago.  But, from my googling I've seen it stated several times that mirroring, casting and media streaming are basically different names for the same thing.

So, how does mirroring work on the ROKU?  I primarily want it to watch youtube videos.  I'm unwilling to pay for HBO because I'm only interested in 3 of their shows.  So, I watch slightly older episodes on youtube.  Using the mirroring feature how to you change videos and speed through the parts you aren't interested in?

i_am_jim wrote:

bozzy wrote:

[Casting] it isn't mirroring. It is actually remotely loading the video. What you are describing is basic screen mirroring. That is possible on a Chromecast but the quality is terrible as your PC has to do the encoding.

I'll take your word for it since I only heard of this phenomenon 4 days ago.  But, from my googling I've seen it stated several times that mirroring, casting and media streaming are basically different names for the same thing.

So, how does mirroring work on the ROKU?  I primarily want it to watch youtube videos.  I'm unwilling to pay for HBO because I'm only interested in 3 of their shows.  So, I watch slightly older episodes on youtube.  Using the mirroring feature how to you change videos and speed through the parts you aren't interested in?

They are not 3 names for the same thing.
Streaming is basically the act of playing something from a source usually outside your network such as Netflix, Hulu, Etc.  Streaming is a general purpose name for "playing something that isn't actually on the device that is playing the content".  So technically you could "stream" a video off of a server inside your house if you want to.

Casting: A device tells another device where to get the stream from and to play it.  On your phone you "cast" netflix to the Chromecast, the chromecast loads its own netflix interface and plays the video requested by the phone.  You could turn the phone off and the device will continue to play the stream because it is accessing the stream directly from Netflix in this case.

Mirroring: The receiving device is showing exactly what is on the sending device's screen.  So you can see whatever is on your phone screen.  Usually not great quality.  If you turn the phone off, the mirroring stops.
Mirroring works poorly on the Roku if at all.  Casting works if Roku has the app you are trying to cast to and the app developer has enabled the feature.  YouTube is available on Roku and casting to it works great.  It's actually the preferred way to watch YouTube on Roku.

i_am_jim wrote:

bozzy wrote:

[Casting] it isn't mirroring. It is actually remotely loading the video. What you are describing is basic screen mirroring. That is possible on a Chromecast but the quality is terrible as your PC has to do the encoding.

I'll take your word for it since I only heard of this phenomenon 4 days ago.  But, from my googling I've seen it stated several times that mirroring, casting and media streaming are basically different names for the same thing.

So, how does mirroring work on the ROKU?  I primarily want it to watch youtube videos.  I'm unwilling to pay for HBO because I'm only interested in 3 of their shows.  So, I watch slightly older episodes on youtube.  Using the mirroring feature how to you change videos and speed through the parts you aren't interested in?

Mirroring usually doesn't work well on a Roku. However, there is a YouTube channel for Roku that works quite well. I use it almost daily without issue. With a Roku you don't need to use anything else (computer, smartphone, tablet) to do anything with it. 
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And that's why mirroring, casting and streaming are three completely different things, although you end up with mostly the same end result. Mirroring requires the use of something else to do all the work, and you are basically just remoting the image onto a display via another device. Casting also requires the use of a different device to select what you want to view, but but the device that is receiving the cast (i.e. Chromecast) actually does the hard work of the streaming and displaying. Streaming is completely controlled via a stand-alone device, and requires no separate device in any way. All you need is a network connection, of course with Internet access if that's where you want to get your media from. My personal opinion is that a stand-alone streaming device (i.e. Roku) is vastly superior to casting or mirroring. 

I have several Roku's, a couple Fire TV's, and a Chromecast. All three have their advantages. My favorite is Roku as there are so many services. The Fire TV units have browsers, so if a channel app is not available you can view it from a browser. There are a lot of stuff that streams on the internet that there is no software written to view it on streaming devices. Then there is the Chromecast. Often I will find something on the Laptop that the just doesn't work all that well using a browser on the Fire TV, where casting it to the TV works better. I have both an old Chromebook that has the app built in and it is also on my Laptop.  So there are advantages to all  of them. At least in my case. You will find channel apps on the Roku you will not find on the Fire TV and vise versa.

MWDXER wrote:

I have several Roku's, a couple Fire TV's, and a Chromecast. All three have their advantages. My favorite is Roku as there are so many services. The Fire TV units have browsers, so if a channel app is not available you can view it from a browser. There are a lot of stuff that streams on the internet that there is no software written to view it on streaming devices. Then there is the Chromecast. Often I will find something on the Laptop that the just doesn't work all that well using a browser on the Fire TV, where casting it to the TV works better. I have both an old Chromebook that has the app built in and it is also on my Laptop.  So there are advantages to all  of them. At least in my case. You will find channel apps on the Roku you will not find on the Fire TV and vise versa.

I own a couple of Rokus and a Chromecast.  I wish I could add Fire Sticks to the line up for possible more choices that the other 2 don't offer, but my DSL connection is just too slow for it to either download & stream.  I had to take it back to the retailer.  
With the 2 streaming device types remaining, I mostly use the Roku.   It's agnostic approach to platform choices in it's channel apps selections make it the best choice for me.  No one app is favored over another.  No hissy fighting between 2 corporations to exclude some app or another and the consumer is left without the option.  Even if the app in question is restored, there is no guarantee that it will remain in the lineup tiles. 
If Roku does not have the app/channel/webpage available on it, I use the Chromecast to deliver the goods.  There are still many things available directly on websites that Roku does not offer now and perhaps in the future.  Casting it does not drain my phone or laptop and most other content I choose to watch is cast-able.  Rokus cast only in a limited way.  Mirroring is too hard on my device's battery life. 

I am fortunate to have cable internet here (100 down). No DSL here. Anyway way too slow and not that much less. I pay $65 a month for Spectrum, but DSL is about $45 for 20 down, if the person is lucky. in the areas where available some people complain about when there are too many using DSL getting only 4(!) down.
  But I do like casting as it is a wide world via the internet. The Roku only offers what they put on their unit. The options are a bit better on the Fire TV, but still the casting it still my favorite over the Fire Stick.

Hi there,

I have a Roku and a Chromecast as well and find the Roku to be superior in pretty much every way.

If you want to use your phone as a remote you can do that with either device. However if you want to just lay back and not deal with a phone and just have a little simple remote to browse channels and whatnot then you have to get the Roku for that since the Chromecast requires your phone.

Here is how it works if you want to use your phone as a remote with either device. Go into an app, for example YouTube and start playing a video. If the app supports casting it will show a cast button. Clicking this will pop up a window displaying a list of devices you can try to play the video on. You can choose Chromecast here or you can choose Roku here and any other devices and your video will start the app up on that device and start playing.

You can also cast to the Chromecast from a Chromium based browser like Chrome or Vivaldi if you want to cast your browser or even your entire desktop. For the Roku you can enable screen mirroring and you can cast your Windows screen to it that way. 

If you have your HDMI-CEC setup you might even be able to pause it and unpause and even stop it with your TV remote on the Chromecast. If you have a Roku you can do that with the Roku remote as well as fast-forward, rewind, sometimes do other things like get info or sometimes channels have additional functionality built into them. Some are actually even games like Angry Birds. Plus I believe the remote has a headphone jack and even a mic for voice searches. It's possible it might also be able to turn your TV on and off and adjust the volume with the Roku remote.

Also, managing settings on the Roku is much simpler than the Chromecast for me. For the Chromecast we have to use a Google Home app to manage it's settings and I always find it confusing where to find the settings I want for some reason. Recently they seem to have added a setting to change the slideshow speed which was defaulted to 1 second so the Chromecast was constantly using up all the bandwidth downloading new images every second. Took me awhile to figure out that was the issue and I don't think my roommate has even found his settings yet for his Chromecast to make sure it isn't using even more bandwidth.

There are also other ways to stream videos too. For example there are other types of streaming boxes out there as well and some may have similar features and many have their own remotes although some of the remotes aren't so simple and easy to use as the Roku remote. It's also possible to set a computer up to behave similarly since that's really what all of this is anyway is a bunch of computers playing videos. You could probably even set up your own with a Raspberry Pi or something if you were real ambitious and wanted to go the DIY route.

The only major issue I seem to be currently having with both devices is watching Twitch on them. If I want to watch it on the Chromecast I have to cast from my computer or use a 3rd party website to do it properly because the Android Twitch app is horrible and will use all my phone's resources for some reason and render it almost completely unusable until I close Twitch. As for the Roku, the official Twitch app seems to have been abandoned. The unofficial one was abandoned because the official one came along but now the official one is abandoned. So I found another one called Twitched but now it seems to have been shut down and isn't usable anymore which is pretty sad considering I paid for it. I'm not sure what's going on but it makes me wonder if Amazon are trying to force me to buy a Firestick which I won't do.

Anyway, I think that's about enough rambling for now. Best of luck!

It's Waffle Time!

Chromecast is essential if you are in the Google Home ecosystem, even better if Logitech Harmony is part of the chain. Everything can be voice-controlled in that instance.

Beyond functionality discussions, Chromecast does deliver noticeably better video and audio reproduction than Roku. I've found that true in my experience, and several lab tests have shown that.

scottypie1234 wrote:

Chromecast is essential if you are in the Google Home ecosystem, even better if Logitech Harmony is part of the chain. Everything can be voice-controlled in that instance.

Beyond functionality discussions, Chromecast does deliver noticeably better video and audio reproduction than Roku. I've found that true in my experience, and several lab tests have shown that.

I think video and audio are also better when using Amazon Fire, compared to streaming using my Roku TV
It's funny, the guts of the TV can display Amazon and Chromecast can display streaming at better quality than the Roku based streaming.. thinks look a little.crisper,.and blacks look a little blacker, when watching things like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO

Chicken wrote:

I was under the impression or I should say expectation, Roku stick could accomplish more than it's capable of, I've learned it's just an internet streaming device with an odd wireless remote, nothing appreciably more.

I would highly you purchase a shield tv. You'd be very happy with that. It does have offline capabilities. It's a great device. And to make this relevant to the OP. It does have Chromecast as well. I use it mostly when I need High quality 4k with lossless DTS and Dolby formats Roku doesn't support. I think it's the modern replacement for the WDTV Live. I also like being able to us it to Stream PC Games like I am on a console.

To, the OP, this user is wanting offline capabilities on Roku, which is not relevant to your question.