As someone has already said, a travel router is the ultimate answer.

Basically the first thing I do when I walk into a hotel is to connect my travel router, either via Ethernet if there is one (slightly more secure, and always faster) or via Wifi. Then from my computer I can login to the hotels internet/click Accept/whatever they want, and then immediately any other devices that I have with me (phone, tablet, etc) are all connected as they know my routers AP, and are set to connect to it automatically.

Configure the Chromecast to connect to that network automatically as well, and it just becomes another device that magically starts working the moment you login once.

Hmm. Chrome on my Mac seems to play MKVs fine.

Don't know about how they play on Chromecast, but you can play MKV or other local files in Chrome...a shortcut is to press Ctrl + O and navigate to the file on your local or network device.

No, that doesn't work.

Chrome spends a minute or so copying the file to the browser's temp directory. The file then shows as downloaded, and then opening it starts playback in Media Player/VLC player, etc.

On my win7 pc with latest chrome, mp4 plays, but not avi or mkv.

mp4 and mkv are container formats, so it might depend on the underlying codec.

Install DivX. It's free and works great. By the way that is also what is installed on many TV's. Samsung has had Divx installed for several years now.

I just tried the divx web player and it didn't work for me. http://www.divx.com/
It is what google recommends https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2445339?hl=en

The installation tries to add some crapware, so beware

I think this is due to the VLC plugin that I opted to install when I installed VLC. Works on both my Mac and PC. So Chromecast wouldn't work in this case, right? It has to be content that can be played natively by Chrome?

Okay drag and drop video file to chrome browser seems to work for mp4 files. I have not tried other format yet, but still it is very slow with lots of freezing and skipping on the video.

Also casting the desktop seems to work on just about anything on the screen. You have to click the little triangle on the right of the cast option and change from chrome tab to desktop. It is even slower than chrome tab though. Maybe I need a new router...

UPDATE:
I switched the OPTION from 720p to 480p and now everything is smooth. I think it is my 5 years old router causing the problem. Maybe it is time to update my wireless router.

My Experiences
 

I just unboxed and played with it for a few minutes. A few observations:

• When I played Netflix from my Anrdoid phone ane exited Netflix, I could not get the movie to stop playing - it continued to stream from the internet even after I killed Netflix. Yes, I know I could have stopped it from within Netflix before exiting, but the point was to experiment;
• It does not show up as an available renderer from my DLNA software on my phone
• I was able to stream Hulu from a Chrome window just fine (uh-oh, there goes the Hulu Plus revenue stream.). I did notice a delay from the Chrome browser to the TV, and perhaps some degradation in quality;

It is actually a feature. Once you started streaming, you could exit the program (or app) and it will continue streaming. The data comes directly from the internet to your chromecast. The smartphone or PC was used only as a remote control or UI. Once you started streaming, you could put your device to sleep or do something else. On the PC, you could always go back into Chrome and it will show you what chromecast is currently streaming. And you could stop it. On the smartphone, I think you will have to go back into the app (Netflix or Youtube) to stop it....

CNN just posted a mostly negative review at http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/31/tech...ast/index.html

I agree about the current limitations, but I think CNN is a bit short-sighted on the mass appeal and future potential.

Good comparison review from the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...p_EditorsPicks

Cheers

I like the Anandtech review since it gets deeper into the technology http://www.anandtech.com/show/7186/g...35-hdmi-dongle

Works With $199 Chromebook
 

If you read the specs, is only supposed to work with the high end Chromebook pixel, not the lesser Chromebooks.

Well, with my $199 Chromebook I can get the Chrome tab up on the screen. Was able to stream Hulu to the screen.

Better than advertised in this particular respect.