The new Videostream app for Android gives you a remote control to stream movies on your PC, monitor downloads, and control playback without installing a special media server.

"You can stream seemingly anything to your TV using a Chromecast, but tracking down the software you need can be time-consuming -- and it frequently won't pull media from other devices on your network. It's a good thing that Videostream has released its namesake Chrome add-on, then. The extension lets you stream almost any locally stored video through Google's media stick, regardless of type. It'll also play videos from networked PCs and drives."

"When we say VideoStream supports just about any file format, we mean it—we threw AVIs, MKVs, and more in addition to standard MP4s and MPGs at it, and it worked like a charm every time. Even audio files play back (although obviously there's no video.) The app even supports subtitles, which is an amazing bonus."