Hello everyone, I'm using Jaws. 11 on a Vista laptop. I went to Chrome, and installed the browser. I then added on the Google cast extension. My question is, how do I find it? Any assistance is greatly appreciate.

Shane,

          If the install went correctly you should now have a button on the main Chrome control bar between the address bar and the menu button at the far right.  I don't know how JAWS will present what happens after you activate that button, but it presents what looks like your standard drop-down menu, the top part of which will give you your "Cast to" device list (I only have one) then there is a separator followed by the following choices, in order:  Options, Send Feedback, and Help.  I discussed the other day that F6 or SHIFT+F6 eventually lands you on the main Chrome control bar, and if memory serves, in the address bar by default.

          Any random computer screen can be cast to the TV with Chromecast but, of course, its main intention is streaming TV shows, movies, and the like to your TV that you're accessing via Chrome.  I can tell you that CBS has by far and away the best casting quality among the major networks because it stops showing the content on your computer screen when you're casting - all the processing power goes to streaming that tab to the device rather than running the video simultaneously on the computer and TV.  All the other networks, including PBS, still show the content being streamed on the computer at the same time it's being streamed to the TV for rendering there.

Brian

Hi Brian,
So I checked out what you told me, and found the address bar, and the extension button. After entering in it and tabbing, Jaws said something about Google sign in, but didn't see a Chromecast list to connect. On your end, what does your computer say? Maybe I'm just missing something, as I'm not sure how compatible Jaws 11 and Vista is with Chrome. It seems a little cumbersome.
Thanks bud, Shane.

Shane,

         When you click the Google Cast button what is the first option in the dropdown menu?  It should be "Cast tab to {insert name you gave your Chromecast dongle at install}" and if it isn't it means that your Chromecast is not connected to your wireless network.  This should have been done when you did your install of Chromecast itself, but I can't know whether that worked or not.  If that's not the first thing in the menu, then arrow down until you reach the "Options" option and select it.  This should open a new tab in Chrome and throw focus to that tab.  It is for "Google Cast Extension Options" and contains a link to "Set up a new cast device" (as well as another to "Manage cast devices").

          You must have a Chromecast device already connected to your wireless network and recognized by the Google Cast extension before you can cast a tab to it.

         This is the best stab I can take with the information available.

Brian

Hi,
Will check it out in the morning and let you know.
Shane.

Hi Brian,
So I got together with my niece, and we tried casting my computer too there TV, and this is what we came up with so far. First, Jaws 11, did not announce the area where it says the name of your chromecast and  do you want to cast to this device or not. So I had no way of knowing when I was even there. Secondly, once we got the computer to cast to the TV, & I went to a program called Kodi, just to see if this will work, - informing me that so we were casting, all she could see on the TV was the Google Chrome window, so apparently nothing from Cody was being casted. So I'm not sure what was going on there, I do know however, that the video was playing, but just on my computer itself. So that's as far as we've gotten with this. So not sure what exactly is going on. Shane.

Shane,

           The Chromecast extension will only cast what appears in a tab in Chrome (or full screen if enlarged from Chrome) to your TV set.  JAWS 11 is, at this point, in "the wayback machine" as far as web browser features go and I'm not surprised that it is not announcing the pop-up/drop-down menu for Chromecast.  I just now tested with NVDA and it is announcing "Google Cast Extension" when it lands on the button in Chrome's main control bar and is announcing all the items, the first of which is "cast to {the name I gave my Chromecast dongle}, followed by "separator," menu items options, send feedback, and help.

           I just looked at the Kodi.tv website and Kodi appears to be a stand-alone media player program.  I see no browser-related extensions/add-ins on their site and searches on cast, casting, and Chromecast turn up nothing that indicates Kodi and Chromecast can be used together in any way.

Brian

brian, thanks for this info.
Here's my next question, do you think its possible for me to be able to connect this laptop to my TV via a wire of some sort? Maybe something like a VGA to HDMI, or USB to HDMI? Those are about the only ports that I have on this machine, as this computer is from 2009 or 2010, can't remember which right off hand. Shane.

Shane,

           It's definitely possible to connect PC output to TV input if you have a TV that supports it.  As you've already identified, it's a matter of knowing what you have as output on your PC and input on your TV.  One issue you'll probably hit if you don't have HDMI out on the PC and in on the TV is that you'll be able to get picture, but not sound, at least not without a bunch of gyrations.  HDMI is the first easy PC to TV audio-video combo connection.

Brian