How To Cast To Chromecast From VLC Android
VLC is the go-to app for anyone looking for a powerful, feature rich, free media player. It’s available on all major desktop and mobile platforms and it supports almost ever single media file format there is. You’d be hard put to find an app that stacks up against it in terms of features, paid or otherwise. That said, VLC has been slow to add support for the Chromecast. At present, if you want to stream media from VLC to Chromecast from your Windows desktop, you have to run a beta version of the app. It doesn’t work that well. VLC Android fares much better. You can now cast to Chromecast from VLC Android if you’re running the beta version of the app.
The VLC Android Beta app has just added support for the Chromecast. If you own an Android phone that has native support for Chromecast, this isn’t going to be a big deal. Unfortunately, Android updates are slow to roll out and there are still devices out there that are stuck with Android 6 at present. That’s why it matters when an app like VLC adds support for the Chromcast. Of course, this is the beta version of the app so before you can download it, you need to become a beta tester for VLC. It’s as simple as joining a group on Google+. Join with the same Google account you will use to download the beta version of the app.
VLC Android Beta Chromecast Support
Make sure your Chromecast has been set up, and is On. Download VLC beta or if you already have it, make sure you’re running version 2.9.0 or later. The cast button will not show up unless you have a Chromecast already set up.
Open VLC and you will see a cast button on the navigation bar. Tap it and it will automatically connect to your Chromecast. It doesn’t ask for any additional confirmation. If you have more than two Chromecasts available, it will ask which one you want to connect to but if you only have one device, it will connect to it automatically.
To disconnect, i.e. stop casting to Chromecast, tap the cast button again. It will confirm if you want to stop casting to the device before disconnecting from it.
Compared to its desktop counterpart, VLC beta for Android works much better. It connects more reliably and during tests, it didn’t fail once. It can playback media without any lag and the video quality is fine.
