When Google launched the Chromecast back in 2013 there were more than a few itchy heads throughout the media. Of course, once more and more services came to the Chromecast and the little HDMI dongle that could became a feature in many a living room across the country, people slowly got the idea. Essentially turning any TV into a Smart TV as well as a window into a whole world of different content from all over the place. Google expects any sort of TV no matter where it is or how big it is to get online with the Chromecast and they often expect people to purchase more than just the one of them. Google probably didn’t expect the Chromecast to end up something like the above TV, although that’s just what one enterprising YouTuber has gone and done.
YouTuber Dr. Moddnnstine put a Chromecast into the back of a Red TV from the late 1970s and while this isn’t the first project of its kind, this particular YouTuber has even given a rough guide on how others can bring the magic of the modern world to a TV from yesteryear. As expect, this involves all sorts of adapters, as HDMI was developed long, long after the CRT TV’s prime. Adapters include taking HDMI to Red, White and Yellow composite and if your TV doesn’t have composite input, you’ll need to convert this to RF as well. This YouTuber has put together a pretty nice use for his particular piece of nostalgia, and uses it to display streaming music, which outputs to a HiFi system thanks to an added 3.5mm output.
The below video is just a quick look at the TV in action, but there’s another video on his channel going through the overall process on how this all came together. Thanks to the dangers of CRT tubes this is not the sort of thing that’s recommended to those that don’t know what they’re doing, and there’s a lot of care that needs to be taken when dealing with old electronics like these. As pure nostalgia goes though, this is full of all the right feels.