Meta has quietly taken away a well-liked characteristic of its Quest headsets, and whereas there’s a strategy to replicate it, it isn’t as simple.
Since its inception, the Quest headset has included a “Stream to Chromecast” possibility that lets customers forged what was proven on the VR display to a bigger tv through a related dongle. It was an effective way to indicate off the headset to household and pals, and particularly enjoyable for individuals who had been new to the expertise.
Additionally: ZDNET’s product of the year: Meta Quest 3 is the quiet shocker of 2023
However an replace eliminated that possibility for a lot of customers.
Whereas Meta hasn’t introduced something formally, customers are reporting that the one choices they’ve now are to forged to a cellphone or a pc display. And for anybody questioning if that is only a technical glitch, directions on the “Solid to a display” web page embody a observe that “Chromecast shouldn’t be absolutely supported with Meta Quest.”
Additional proof that this was intentional is that, lower than every week in the past, the official Meta Quest YouTube account posted a video entitled “Cast to a Screen.” It has detailed directions for utilizing a cellphone and for a browser, however makes no point out of a tv or Chromecast.
There are some things value noting although. For one, the stream to Chromecast possibility was notoriously unreliable, which could possibly be the principle purpose Meta pulled it. And two, it is nonetheless doable to forged to a tv by first sending the feed to your cellphone after which mirroring that to a tv or by casting to a pc and connecting that through HDMI to a TV. However the former possibility introduces a bit extra of a delay, and the second is fairly cumbersome for most individuals.
Additionally: I replaced my boring workouts with Meta Quest’s Supernatural app, and can’t imagine going back
It is doable that Meta is transferring away from this “most important” technique of casting to open it to a wider viewers. It is uncommon to even see a dumb TV on the market nowadays, so external devices just like the Chromecast and Fire Stick aren’t as fashionable as they was once. However, even on TVs with out a Chromecast, the workaround was nonetheless an possibility.
It is doable too that Meta merely prefers folks to stream utilizing its personal app as a substitute of counting on one other piece of expertise to complicate issues.