Chromecast is my new favourite thing!

A few years ago some friends have recently had a problem. SkyTV didn't broadcast professional golf anymore!

For non golfers this was be a blessing, but for some golfers it was akin to the END of the WORLD.

An international company called Colliseum Sports had bought the worldwide rights to PGA golf and they use the internet to deliver the coverage. It was the same company that owned the rights to the English Football.

So that meant you had to get a subsciption to their service to watch your sport. OK if you can afford it, but that's when the problems have begun for some.

Some people who signed up didn't realise that the service was delivered over the internet and exactly what that means. Essentially it wasn't broadcast over TV signals. So you could only view it on devices connected to the internet.

Viewing it on a computer is relatively easy but most of us don't want to view our sport on a wee computer screen in the back bedroom.

You can connect most computers to most TVs with a cable, but not many keep their computer close enough to their TV for the cable to reach.

After quite a bit of research I found a relatively cheap and simple solution - as long as you have an ADSL or UFB internet connection and a wireless network in your house.

It's called Chromecast, it's a wee box like a USB stick that plugs into the HDMI port on your TV (almost all flat screen TVs have at least one) and then plays the signal that is being received on your PC.

I've tested it with two different TVs and three laptops, the oldest about eight years old, and Chromecast worked brilliantly with all combinations. Not as good as Sky HDMI and sometimes a bit jittery but MUCH better than on a computer screen.

It displays on the TV whatever is showing in a tab in the Chrome browser (a free download) on your Computer screen. So if you can watch it using the Chrome browser on our computer you can watch it on  your TV.

Please bear in mind that It does not show everything that is on your computer screen. Eg. you can view your email if you can open it in the Chrome browser, but only if you can view it in the Chrome browser.

Setup is simple enough, you don't even need passwords (but you should know what they are just in case).

Chromecast devices are readily available from electronics stores for about $60.