Cast picture slideshows to Chromecast

A Chromecast is a really funny little tool that will ease the connection of a basic TV set to a computer or your smartphone. But Google really limited the possibilities – explicitly because they wanted to keep users inside the Google biosphere.

So, I wanted to use my old Chromecast 2013 (but the issue and its solution are exactly the same on a more recent model) to cast a photo slideshow on a TV set which is sitting mostly unused in the kitchen of our flat. But, this did not appear easy to do from Chrome (at least not easy to me).

I finally ended up with this solution: Use IrfanView to bring a slideshow to the PC screen (a laptop of a desktop will both be easy enough, but a Mac would do). Then, I ask my Chrome browser to cast the desktop to the TV further on the network. Nothing fancy, nothing elegant, but I was looking for too complicated or Chrome-integrated…