| 1) got my first android tv around 2012 and that was the second version of mk802, early models were available before. 2) grab a remote is better than grab a laptop and fire an application, plus you need to power it on, etc. but if you prefer that it's ok.
Netflix and pandora apps are available in Android, no need to use a web browser. 3) " but based on all the reviews, it's capable of playing 1080p video no sweat" well, is not what the review says: "If you’re using the Chromecast extension for Chrome on your laptop to project an otherwise incompatible video site (like Hulu or HBOGO), however, video quality can dump quite a bit depending on your setup. It’s using your laptop as a middle man to encode the video signal and broadcast it to the Chromecast, whereas the aforementioned compatible sites just send video straight to the dongle, mostly removing your laptop from the mix. When casting video tabs on a 2012 MacBook Air running on an 802.11n network, the framerate was noticeably lower and there were occasional audio syncing issues." You even need an additional transcoder! the mini pcs can decode MKVs by themselves (and lots of formats more) 4) network resources, yes they can: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ws.plattner.ci... Look, I got an apple TV and one of those "dongles" connected to my TV, and trust me, when I need to play an MKV is way more easier to use a remote to access the File NAS than firing up Beamer app (http://beamer-app.com/) from my mac to watch a movie. Chromecast requires extra hardware to complete almost anything, so yes, I think it's less capable than the mini pcs at 36 usd that ship free. |
2) Anything that reduces the amount of hardware I interact with is a net positive, IMO. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "in Android". Netflix and Pandora are on the web and iOS devices, there is no shortage of ways to find their content. In my experience, browsing YouTube has been a giant PITA on every single device I've tried. I'd much rather browse videos on my computer and send ones I find to my TV as desired.
3) Tab mirroring is in beta, as Google has said, which is not the same as an app streaming directly from the web. (No middleman device required.) It's already pretty good, but does need improvement. In the meantime, Netflix - which has "native" support - is great, with none of those issues. The rest are simply good, and will become great once Google improves their mirroring feature.
4) That's a feature that 95% of users won't ever need. If the other dongles you mention do that, fantastic. I'll concede that Chromecast isn't doing that now, but I think we can agree it's definitely not a major selling point. (Not to mention, there's no reason someone couldn't write a Chromecast app to do something exactly like that. Just because it doesn't exist yet doesn't mean it can't or won't.)
I play my MKVs from a local Plex server to my Roku ($80). Chromecast ($35) will likely replace that soon, either via the Plex Web Client (which organizes all my media in a nice, friendly format, no ugly directory tree browsing required) or a "native" app. Plus, a remote control is extra hardware. I'm never more than 5 feet from my phone, and I regularly lose my TV remotes.
Those dongles you linked to seem to be running Google TV. Chromecast runs a stripped down version of Chrome OS. Two sides of the same coin, but Chromecast is far more integrated and extensible. Seems worthy of some praise to me.