Maximize Your Chromecasts Full Capabilities

Adding a USB C Hub to the new Chromecast unlocks a ton of really neat features. This video is all about how to do it the right way.

00:00 Chromecast Hub Intro
00:39 Choosing a Power Brick
02:28 Choosing a USB C Hub
04:45 Ethernet Connection
06:29 Ethernet Adapter for Chromecast
07:18 Expandable Storage
09:14 Adoptable Storage
12:53 Testing SSD
13:29 Google Duo Camera Setup
17:09 Keyboard & Mouse

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[TechWithBrett]

Updates: HDMI port does nothing. Storage needs to have FAT32 format to work. What other questions do you have?

[Ben_osrs]

I wish this guy made videos about every single topic in the world. He is so thorough in testing and explaining everything easily. Props to you.

[JustA.Person]

2:18 - 5 volts at 1.5 amps, not the other way around :-)

[xPICESx]

Amazing how everything is covered so fluently without missing any detail. As if u r reading the receiver mind and anticipating any possible question or inquiry. Great work.

[apoorvswarup]

Important to note that even though the bandwidth wasn't particularly higher with ethernet the ping was significantly better with over 20% improvement. Would recommend using it in case you plan to stream games through a service like stadia (which can be sideloaded right now and should launch shortly)

[pieter-janverly]

@brett at 2:22 you say the brick is 5 amps and 1.5 volts. Its 5 volts and 1.5 amps. You can use any brick that outputs 5 Volts. So amperage will needs to be high enough to deliver enough power. Amperage will adjust it selfs to the needs of the device. If you were to connect a 10 Volts brick you would frie the chromecast. I think most usb power bricks have a 5 volt output but i would check it anyways before hooking it up. You dont want to burn down your house ;)

[nextdoorguy]

This is an extremely detailed and helpful video. My set up is a Tivo Stream 4K (very similar to CWGTV) with an extra USB-C port. It gets power from a micro USB port. My hub is an ESHOWEE with one ethernet, one HDMI, one SD card, one micro SD Card, one USB-C Power delivery and two USB 3 ports. I connected the hub to the USB-C port of the device. I tried a 32GB SD card a 16GB micro SD card and two USB flash drives, a 32GB Sandisk and an old 8GB Corsair. Like Tech with Brett, I can confirm that the TS4K recognized both flash drives and didn't recognize any of the SD and micro SD cards. I didn't try the ethernet port or any hard drives.
The most iteresting part of this video, besides what works and what doesn't, was the power supplies. I tried two power bricks the weakest one was an 18 watt, and everything worked fine. Maybe the TS4K requires less power from the hub because it uses its own power adapter, so a regular 10 watt power brick might work, but I can't confirm this because I didn't try it.
Thanks again for such a nice video.

[valentingheorghe]

Functionality can be further improved, by including audio Downmix to stereo and DRC (dynamic range compression) off options, when multichannel audio content is played and sent to other audio equipment via Bluetooth.

[edgeman]

Likely your external storage is formatted as NTFS but for Chromecast needs to be formatted as exfat. USB thumb drives are usually formatted in fat32 or exfat automatically for compatibility, but larger drives tend to get formatted as NTFS to better support the larger size. If you take those drives back into Windows and reformat them as exfat they should show up in your Chromecast and then be useable for media payback or internal device storage.

[oderomichael]

Very useful video. Was about to give up on my brand new ORICO typeC hub, until I got through your power supply explanation. Using a 45 watt charger from my Chromebook fixed everything. Ethernet + expanded storage is a basic requirement for me

Thanks

[kuchesezik]

the reason the card and drives aren’t showing is because of file system compatibility.
the sdxc card and t7 ssd are pre-formatted in exfat and the hard drive is probably ntfs.
most usb thumb drives are pre-formatted to fat32 which is limited in some ways but has the most compatibility.

android phones usually support exfat drives natively but it recently came to my attention that the google pixel phone has this capability intentionally disabled, probably because google wants to push its paid subscription cloud storage service which is noted with the closing of the free google photos storage, (the reason for me to test that).

this is most likely also the case with the chromecast and you might be able to get around it by re-formatting the drives to fat32, although you should first note its limitations and would need to temporarily offload any files on the drive that you don’t want to delete.

[ishelton]

I love my Anker stuff and I swear by it, I've had a battery and chargers from them since 2016 and they all work well, I can still charge my switch once and phone like 1 and a half times from the battery, and that charger cable never failed me and is one of the most durable cables I've used tho when I first got the other cable it was acting up but works so it may just have been my device

[ianandrushuk]

I was able to get a 1 TB Samsung T5 SSD drive to work. You need to delete the portion on the T5 in "disk management" (Windows 10). Plugging back into the hub will give you an option to format. Then it works!

[pdevonport]

At 2.4 A at 5 V the maximum output is 12 Watts, so it doesn't matter if it's USB C or not.The higher wattage and voltage is for a charging Protocol where faster charging times are achieved by putting higher voltage at lower Amps that's creates less heat and requiring the same wire gauge as used by most smart phones, some computers and some batteries.

[smimatt]

I was able to get a micro SD card to work on mine but you have to format the memory card on a computer or Chromebook to fat32 first and then the Chromecast will recognize it to where you can format it to the Chromecast

[alessandropesca]

6:29 That happened because the usb c dongle you used only supports 150 mbps ethernet. It can be seen that he used the maximum of his capacity because upload is symmetrical to the previous test.

[georgeabelev]

Thank you Brett!
Just finished all configurations using your guide and it is just wonderful! All works as desired. You are amazing!

[sakibuddin]

man this video answers all my questions...some of which were at a subconscious level only...this is awesome

[marcusgurley]

And now I know what to do with this Dell USB-C docking station I’ve had sitting around forever lol
Great video. Thanks!

[Wesmosis]

I brought this to devices Anker 60W. Anker 7-in-1 USB C Hub, and I managed to use the Internet with the chronic cast thank you so much for the help.