Alpha users can cast the streaming content to their TVs

Jul 8, 2014 13:30 GMT  ·  By

A very big feature is heading towards Popcorn Time, the controversial service that has Hollywood studios looking to shut it down, and users should be excited about this, especially if they’d rather watch their favorite shows on the big screen.

More specifically, the news should make Chromecast owners that also use Popcorn Time happy, since the latest alpha version of the latter includes a feature that would make it possible for users to cast their shows via the Google-made dongle.

This feature is already being tested out by Alpha users in the Windows version of Popcorn Time, while the service is certainly working on making the same thing possible for Mac and Android users. In addition, the service is looking to greatly improve its security features to help users hide their tracks while using Popcorn Time, and therefore, stay under the radar of copyright holders.

Since Popcorn Time offers users access to pirated content, such as movies and TV shows, the developers seem adamant to make sure they can’t be tracked down and subpoenaed, no matter where they live in the world.

The service has become quite popular since its launch, especially because it offers a much more user-friendly interface, which actually resembles the Netflix one quite a bit. As opposed to downloading files from torrent sites, using Popcorn Time doesn’t require any special knowledge or additional clients, as everything works perfectly straight from the app.

This makes the entire service work completely differently from torrents, since it doesn’t technically imply the download of full copies of various movies and TV shows. This also means that using Popcorn Time can’t be punished in the same way, although content streaming isn’t viewed in a much better way either.

This new feature is only available in Alpha right now, and it might take a while before making it to the Beta version, which is the only one that’s currently available for download.

The player of the service also looks a bit different in this version, with a cleaner action bar and an easier-to-use subtitle panel. In the right corner of the frame, there’s a button to make it full screen and a second one to cast the content to the connected Chromecast device.

Once clicked, the service will look for the devices that are currently in range and will allow you to choose the correct one. The app then routes the streaming to the TV the Chromecast is plugged into.

[Update] Time4pocorn had to drop the site due to some legal issues and has moved to popcorn-time.se. You can read more about this here.