The new Honda Odyssey isn’t exactly the best looking car on the market at the moment, but it is very comfortable and well-equipped. Much like a lounge on wheels, which is appropriate, because we recently found that you could do something in an Odyssey that you would normally do in your lounge – stream video wirelessly to it!
The new Odyssey features an HDMI input (a relatively rare thing in cars still) that allows you to play HD video from any device that has an HDMI output. This includes modern smartphones, via an MHL adaptor.
But here is something we discovered while we had the Odyssey – it will happily work with a Chromecast as well!
The Chromecast is Google’s brilliant little device that plugs into an HDMI input (usually on you TV) allowing you to stream content wirelessly to it from most mobile devices and computers. It costs around $60 and is currently OVERSTEER’s favourite non-car-related gadget. Or so we thought, as it seems to have a car-based application after all.
Popping the Chromecast into the Odyssey’s HDMI port and then powering it via a handy nearby USB port is simple enough, then just use your phone to create a wifi hotspot for the Chromecast to grab onto. Set up the Chromecast using the Chromecast app on the phone and you are away. Simple as that.
You can now stream any of the content on your phone or online (depending on what apps you have that are Chromecast compatible) to the dashboard of your Honda!
Okay, there are a few caveats – using your phone as a wifi hotspot as well as streaming video from it will eat through the battery fairly quickly (although teh Odyssey has a number of 12v plugs and USB ports available) and you will be using your mobile data to do it (although most contracts offer more than enough free data for that these days). But the biggest is probably the slightly disappointing fact that the Odyssey’s screen isn’t all that bigger than a high-end smartphone…
Still, it is nice to know that it is possible, even if Honda didn’t intend it! We will continue to do the “Chromecast test” on any cars we get with an HDMI input and let you know what happens!
