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Comment by ftoma | Hacker News Reader

Sorry for being stupid but what effect does this have on a regular chromecast?

The main benefit appears to be the ability to load your own ROM onto it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2578653

And the main benefit of that ROM seems to be that you can set an alternate DNS server to get around (some) forms of region controlling, as well as set your own application whitelist - not sure whats missing from the existing whitelist or what killer app you would root this for, but if I own the device, I should have total control over the device.

> if I own the device, I should have total control over the device.

I agree (mostly) with you, but I still want to prod at this because I think it's interesting.

I'm guessing you probably own a (recent) car, a microwave, etc. Do you have total control over these devices? If not, does it bother you as much as not having total control over the Chromecast? How are they different (or not) from a Chromecast? A phone? A computer?

I've completely disassembled and re-assembled my (not recent) winnebago diesel, including rebuilding the engine. Almost every part on that RV has been redone by me, because I wanted to, and I didn't have to resort to any sort of safecracking tactics to be able to do that. If microwaves were built on top of a general purpose computing platform, then yes, I would want root access to them.

The only reason that total control is not granted by default is that companies fear that they will no longer control their customer. I can understand in instances where safety or device damage may be an issue (like, no, I dont want root access to a tesla for example), but for consumer devices, I should not be forced to use apples store to add software to my phone. I should not be forced to use googles software to use their hardware either.

It's only a part answer, but people who are into cars certainly do screw around in a similar way, whether just to read diagnostics codes out or going full out and remapping the ECU for extra performance/efficiency/whatever they want. There are even hacks to change throttle response now.

My microwave, on the other hand, I'm not sure there's much else I want it to do that I'd consider reprogramming it for ;-)

Microwave... Just a wild idea off the top of my head: coupled with hardware hacks, like, some sort of IR pyrometer it could actually adapt output to maintain the food heated at specified level or just turn off when a certain temperature is reached.

A computer is a general purpose device. Your Chromecast is a computer that would be capable of much more than just streaming videos if it wasn't for the artificial limitation in its software.

Your car on the other hand has a pretty narrow application field. Your microwave too. Those are tools that perform their intended task as good as they can.

Now if there was a firmware switch limiting your microwave from performing its intended task to its fullest capabilities you probably would want to 'root' it too.

My microwave is not a general purpose computing device. Unless you work on a microwave research institute, probably.

Not stupid at all; that should be the first question anyone asks. As far as I know, the Chromecast doesn't allow for discovering & streaming files via DLNA/UPnP. That feature alone is worth the rooting even if I "lost"[1] Netflix & Youtube support.

1. "Lost" is relative for a device that cost $35. I could just... buy another one.

It doesn't directly, but for example I run plex on my network and I can stream all of my local files to the chromecast with the plex iOS app.

Which is still absurd. There is absolutely no reason this function shouldn't be built into the Chromecast.

Root SSH/Telnet/ADB, Access/Modify DNS Servers, Google OTA's Disabled, Custom Boot Image, Custom OTA Update Engine (Read more Here:http://ota.team-eureka.com/), FlashCast Recovery Image

Google charges money (to verify your identity I assume, it's quite cheap) if you wanted to make actual apps for chromecast, I assume you can sidestep that with this.

I made a transcoding proxy for Chromecast, for it to work, I'd have to piggyback the url-player (without selling my identity). I don't like stuff like that.

> Google charges money (to verify your identity I assume, it's quite cheap) if you wanted to make actual apps for chromecast

It's $5, but just FYI, you don't have to pay or register your app if you make a Default Media Receiver. You don't get on-TV UI, but that's probably fine if you're just transcoding and displaying video.

For the hacks of course. Chromecast is a nice device but it is just a Chrome browser. One istance is you can build a lightweight version of popcorn time and stream torrents to tv.

I believe the Android Popcorn Time app already has Chromecast support.

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