Roommate got a smart TV with Cast support and it's messing EVERYTHING up.

by Kolbentine

Currently, I have a Mi Box connected to my TV that I cast YouTube videos to.

However, for Christmas my roommate brought home a Samsung Smart TV that has Google Cast support. Which is all fine and dandy, but the problem is it's conflicting with my Mi Box. You see, usually with my Mi Box I can go to my phone, tap the Cast icon, and it'll wake up my Mi Box and in turn wake up my TV over HDMI CEC.

The new smart TV throws a monkey wrench in all of that.

All of my devices now see this other TV that can be cast to, and more often than not I'll be sitting back in bed, everyone else asleep, wanting to cast a Twitch stream/YouTube video to my TV, and when I hit the cast button it'll default to the Samsung, thus waking up my roommate, and thus having her not be very happy with me.

I'd just go in there and kick her TV off the network, but she uses it with Netflix so I can't exactly deprive it of an internet connection. Is there any way to stop this from happening? To make it so my devices stop trying to connect to her TV whenever I want to cast?

Thanks.

arghness

Every app that I use that can cast lists the different cast targets each time I click the cast button, including YouTube. I even get that when I've only got 1 cast target available, I still have to select it each time.

I wonder what's causing your setup to default to a cast target without giving your the list of targets.

raptor75mlt

If it's your network, put that TV and her devices on a guest network if your router supports it.

Failing that just create a subnet for your roommate. Can be easily done with another router or travel router. Tell her it's for her privacy.

Another alternative is to disable the cast capabilities on the Samsung if she doesn't use them

sappypappy

If she never uses the cast feature, go into her settings, apps, system apps, then disable Chromecast built in.

jamescridland

My Philips TV is on wired rather than wireless internet - and for some reason, that means its crappy Chromecast app never appears to anything using wireless. This is good, because it's crappy.

I would set her up with her own isolated guest network. That means you won't ever wake her up with your, ahem, health videos. It's for your, and her, privacy - since the networks should be entirely isolated and you won't connect to her drive or vice-versa.

(Easiest way to do that - set up the guest network and password, then change your main network's SSID and password. That way you both go through the hassle of resetting everything up, but also means you won't have anything on the old settings).

I have a guest network for, um, guests here. It works exactly this way.

arrowrand

Your MiBox enters this state of suspended animation when it sleeps, and sometimes it is hard to wake up because of this.

In this deep sleep thing that it does, Google Cast isn’t available on the device so your phone is casting to the only device that it has available.

I have way too many Cast enabled devices in my house, but when I travel with a Chromecast I still get a pop up list with the one device to select. Also, I use a Chromecast Audio in my car, and I also have to select it when I go to use it.

You have an app issue IMO.

jordanclock

What kind of phone do you have? If it's a Samsung, I wonder if it's one of Samsung's "features" to prefer casting to their devices.

npaladin2000

Sounds like you named them the same. This was not smart. You need to name the TV a TV and the MiBox a MiBox. Unfortunately, the way the apps work, it offers up nice easy names like "Living Room." So you're going to have to do custom names for both.

FezVrasta

Are you using an iPhone? I noticed that with iPhone sometimes you aren't prompt to choose which device cast to. With Android it works just fine.

bzz11g

Stop watchin TWITCH and play with your roommate)