Google’s casting functionality works like a charm when you’re casting a webpage, video or even the entire screen to a TV but there has long been one glaring shortcoming. It didn’t allow users to cast local files from the PCs to the TV using the Chrome browser. Google is going to rectify this soon and Chrome will allow you to cast local files in the near future.
Now there’s no shortage of standalone apps or third-party extensions that allow you to cast a local audio or video file from your PC to the big screen. However, it would just be a lot easier if Chrome had the ability to do that.
Chrome users will be delighted to know that the development team is now testing the ability to cast local files directly from the browser. This has been confirmed by Google’s François Beaufort who often provides updates on the development of new features.
The ability to cast local files from PC is only available in Chrome’s beta channel right now. The option should be available when “Cast” is selected in the browser menu. The dropdown list is going to have a “Cast file” option which will let you do what the name suggests.
Those who are willing to try it out can manually enable this functionality with the –enable-features=EnableCastLocalMedia switch enabled. Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to do that, the official instructions are already available online.
Filed in . Read more about Chromecast and Google Chrome.