Chromecast 101: Play Video Files From Laptop

Using LocalCast Android App


If you have a lot of films and TV shows saved on your media server, be it a normal laptop, a NAS or a media center, then you will more than likely want to know how you can watch these on your Chromecast.

The simplest way to do is to open the files in your Chrome browser on your laptop— ‘Ctrl+ O + click on the video file (Chrome must be open)’ to run the video in your browser. With the Chromecast extension installed on the Chrome browser you can simply click on that extension to launch the video on your Chromecast. However, the downside to this is that you then can only control the playback of the video on your laptop. If you want to stop or pause, or start a new video file then you will need to go back onto your laptop.

LocalCast

Thankfully with the LocalCast android app we can set up a connection to our laptop where we can play and control video playback directly from our Android Device to our Chromecast.

  1. Install LocalCast Android app on your phone/tablet
  2. Allow Shared access to your video files folder:

If on Win 8 you will need to right click on the folder you want access to on Chromecast, click ‘properties’-> ‘sharing’ tab-> ‘share…’ and add a new entry: “Everyone” with the permission to read — Choose ‘Private Network’ if prompted. If on another OS try these instructions (XBMC uses a similar process)

3. Take note of the Network path while still in your Sharing Tab.

4. Open LocalCast on your Android device.

5. Open up the menu and scroll down and pick ‘NAS / Links’ and open that up. Pick smb:// and Click the + symbol in the top right

6. Give it a title — whatever you want — and click on smb:// and fill in your Network path that you saw in your sharing tab on your laptop

7. Leave username and password blank unless you entered one and click OK.

If all goes well you should see a full list of all your videos within that folder listed on your phone. To play on your TV through Chromecast simply choose the file on your phone. You can control playback from your phone also.