Castmate
Cast a web video to your TV without screen mirroring
Tab casting is laggy and blurry. Sending the video itself fixes that. How it works.
"Cast tab" in Chrome mirrors the whole tab: your computer encodes the screen into a live video and sends it over Wi-Fi. That costs quality (usually up to 720p), adds lag, and the laptop has to keep working.
Casting the video itself is different: the TV is given the stream's address and plays it on its own, in the original quality. Sites with a Cast button in their player (YouTube, Twitch, Netflix) already do this. For sites without one you need the stream's address.
Finding the stream
The player loads an HLS playlist (.m3u8), a DASH manifest (.mpd) or an MP4 file. You can find it in Chrome's DevTools (Network tab, filter by m3u8, mpd or mp4), or let an extension list it. Castmate lists the videos on a page with their title, length and quality and casts the one you pick.
When it can't work
- DRM-protected services: use their own app.
- Sites that only serve video to their own page: the TV is refused, see video doesn't play.
- When the stream goes through your computer (a relay), the computer has to stay on.