Google Chromecast for language learners (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Google Chromecast for language learners
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

emk
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Message 1 of 5

01 August 2013 at 4:24pm | IP Logged

Google has recently released the Chromecast, a US$35 stick that allows you send content from your phone, tablet or web browser to your television. Mine arrived in the mail this morning, and I spent a few minutes playing with it. Here are a few of the things I tried:

- I watched Khan Academy YouTube videos in French on my television. Very slick.
- I played MC Solaar songs through my big speakers using Google Play Music on my telephone. This works amazingly well.
- I opened an MP4 video file in my web browser and streamed it to my television. This is still somewhat beta, and it works better for soundtracks than for the video.

It also works with Netflix, and should support many other video services soon. So if most of your language learning content is online, this is a terrific little doohickey, because it lets you use a real television and speakers as output devices for your phone and browser.

If you have an HDMI television, you can set everything up in your web browser in 3 minutes. It's really painless. But if you have an old television and stereo receiver (like me), you'll need an HDMI-to-RCA converter, appropriate cables for video and sound, and maybe a spare USB charger cable.

For the software developers in the audience, it should be possible to write terrific language-learning tools with the Chromecast. For example, based on my earlier wishlist, I think it would be possible to write an app which:

1) Reads MP4 files (and the associated SRT subtitles) from somewhere on your phone or the network.
2) Streams the video and sound to your television.
3) Allows you to pause and rewind the video from your phone.
4) Allows you to save interesting subtitles using your phone and look up interesting vocabulary.
5) Exports SRS cards containing the subtitles, sound and dictionary entries that interested you.
6) (Optional, for watching with family.) Saves the bits you mark without needing to stop playback, for later review.

In fact, it might be better to have a built-in SRS that encourages card deletion and doesn't panic if you let your reviews slide for a while. And of course you'd want support for combined L1/L2 subtitles.

I know from previous experience with subs2srs that Anki cards with sound and subtitles work great. But it would be nice to fully integrate this with ordinary TV watching. And as far as I can tell, the Google Chromecast is going open up some very cool possibilities.
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tommus
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Message 2 of 5

02 August 2013 at 2:06am | IP Logged

I'm usually very excited and positive about these kinds of new gadgets, but I read some reviews of Chromecast and I am sceptical. Your suggested uses would work better with a wired or wireless hardware connection from your computer to your laptop. Chromecast is heavily restricted to Google and Google-approved applications such as Chrome. It looks like you could not broadcast any other browser or most applications via Chromecast. Now if you just want to use it as a way to get Netflix from your tablet to your TV, then that may be useful. But if you want your whole computer to be able to display any application, then I suggest Chromecast may prove to be very frustrating.

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emk
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Message 3 of 5

02 August 2013 at 5:16am | IP Logged

tommus wrote:

Now if you just want to use it as a way to get Netflix from your tablet to your TV, then that may be useful. But if you want your whole computer to be able to display any application, then I suggest Chromecast may prove to be very frustrating.

I actually have a Chromecast, and I don't find it frustrating at all. It cost me $35, took me about 2 minutes to set up, and I can toss my French content up on the big screen with a single button on my phone or browser. Even if I never used it for anything other than YouTube, Netflix, music and web pages, it would easily justify the price. I also love the fact that my family mastered the entire system in about 10 seconds.

The geeky bit (feel free to skip this)

But the real fun is hidden in the developer documentation. Essentially, the Chromecast is a 5cm web browser with 1080 HDMI video playback. Other devices can pass it a URL and say, "Hey, load this web app for me." You can see the source code for an example video player app here; pretty much any web designer could put one of these together in a day or two. The sender code lives in your browser or on your phone, and it's equally simple:

Quote:

doLaunch = function(receiver) {
var request = new cast.LaunchRequest("YouTube", receiver);
request.parameters = "v=abcdefg";
...
request.description = new cast.LaunchDescription();
request.description.text = "My Cat Video";
request.description.url = "...";
cast_api.launch(request, onLaunch);
};

For extra fun, Google has published the source code for a Tic Tac Toe game that uses two Android phones to control the Chromecast.

In fact, if you dig down deep enough, the whole system is using the DIAL multiscreen protocol from Netflix with an custom communication channel for the remote control. Lots of people have been poking at how it works, and somebody's actually cloned it. There are developers working on handy new apps. And let's not even talk about the Gameboy emulator.

What this could mean for extensive TV watching

A developer could build a cute little web app, using HTML 5 <video> tags and an overlay <div> for subtitles, and run it under the remote control of an Android or OS app with buttons to do things "Jump back 10 seconds and turn on the subtitles" and "mark the current time for review later and possible export to Anki." In fact, you could even have 3 people all watching the same episode, all using their phones as remote controls, and all making their own private bookmarks. (It's the same idea as the Tic Tac Toe example, basically.)

Think of it as LingQ or LWT, except for TV and movies, running on your regular television. At least for me, this would be tremendously useful—I learn a lot from watching TV extensively, and I already know that subs2srs is great for intensive listening comprehension work.

Now, if only I had the time to build it…
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mahasiswa
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Message 4 of 5

02 August 2013 at 5:56am | IP Logged

Not to rain on your parade, but I made an investment about 5-7 years ago on a rather typical, modern TV
set which has HDMI ports on the back. Whether you're using a PC or Mac, you can purchase a DVI-to-HDMI
adapter for the same price of the Google stick or less, and it allows you to use your TV set as a (giant)
monitor. Along with the basic audio cables (that you can find for $5 or less), I'm also able to use my stereo
system with my desktop so that using Youtube and using the internet for language learning has always
been cheaply available for me!

And I've been using Viki.com for subtitled television in foreign languages since somebody referenced it on
these forums a month or two ago, so you don't have to learn another (programming) language just to
enjoy free subtitled streams at home!
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emk
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Message 5 of 5

02 August 2013 at 7:49am | IP Logged

I've never run an HDMI cable from my laptop to my TV because I don't want anybody tripping over it and destroying my laptop. :-) And besides, my goal here isn't getting subtitles on my TV.

What I really want to do is mix extensive and intensive TV watching. This would involve watching TV casually with my wife (no subs, very minimal rewinding), and marking certain sections for a more detailed review when I'm alone. For me, these are really effective techniques, and the existing tools are really clunky and cumbersome.

Let's imagine I'm watching Intouchables on my TV:

This scene has some pretty tricky dialog, so I have the app open on my phone (pardon the ugly mockup):

This app functions as a remote control for the TV. If I hit "back 10 seconds", it jumps back by 10 seconds. If I hit "mark", it flags the current time for review later. If I touch the word tenu, it pops up a definition at the bottom of the screen.

And when I'm reviewing scenes on my phone later, I can loop several seconds of the film repeatedly. Or I feed the audio, subtitles and definitions into an SRS system.

As far as I can tell, all this is technically possible using the current Chromecast APIs. If anybody goes ahead and builds one, I would certainly buy it. :-)

Edited by emk on 02 August 2013 at 7:50am

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