Does this still require a usb cable for power? That was a big disappointment in the first iteration.
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Yes, because power over HDMI is rare.
My concern is - can it still work with power provided by a regular USB socket on the TV? The specs claim it needs a 1 amp power supply, and most sockets can't do that much.
Maybe the specs overstate it.
> My concern is - can it still work with power provided by a regular USB socket on the TV? The specs claim it needs a 1 amp power supply, and most sockets can't do that much.
I've used the old chromecast successfully like this. The manual also suggested to do it. One downside was that this means the chromecast can no longer turn your TV on due to lack of power. When casting to it, it will turn on my TV and switch it to the chromecast input which is quite nice.
> When casting to it, it will turn on my TV and switch it to the chromecast input which is quite nice.
Wait, it can do this? I had no idea. Freaking awesome.
Your TV has to support AND have the right HDMI CEC options. I had dig through the menus on my TV to turn the options on.
Yes, my Samsung Smart TV supported this, and while it'd be great to do that, but I just disliked the idea of taking another long cable and make it reach my wall socket. :(
I believe it will still work fine via the USB socket on the TV, but my qualm with that is that many TVs don't send power to the USB unless the TV is on -- Which means you can't turn on a TV using the Chromecast app and that the Chromecast needs to boot-up every single time.
On the last iteration, my Chromecast would only connect to my WiFi about 2/3 times after reboot which hopefully is better with the new WiFi since the hassle was enough that I gave it up for an AppleTV. I bought 2 Chromecasts the first day they were announced and evangelized a fair bit to my friends and family but they ended up not being as useful as I had hoped.
IIRC, my Chromecast came with a 5VDC power supply and a USB->Micro USB cable for plugging the PSU into the Chromecast. The documentation for the CC warned against plugging the CC into USB ports on a TV because of exactly what you're complaining about. :)
The marketing copy for the new Chromecast mentions that it, too ships with a 5V power supply (1A this time around) for powering the Chromecast.
Yeah, in my eventual problem-solving steps, I strung up another cord to the back of my TV to plug the CC into a power-strip but the reliability wasn't any better -- not sure if I broke something on the CC by using the TV's built-in USB previously, but it was allegedly rated for 1.8amps according to its documentation.
Odd. It sounds like you either had a defective power supply, or a defective CC. Mine is rock-solid.
Why is it so rare? Surely it is an in-demand feature?
I'd be shocked to see a TV or >~£120 monitor without MHL nowadays, but perhaps it really is the case...
I bought a 2013 TV early this year that only has two HDMI ports, neither of which has MHL.
Plugging into the TV's USB port worked for me here.
Given the microUSB ports in the third and fourth images, I'd say it's likely.
Where else would it get power?
MHL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_High-Definition_Link
Not widely supported, but it's basically power-over-HDMI among other things.
Wasn't there a spec for power over HDMI?
Most TVs don't implement it.