I can't shed much light, only make a couple guesses, but it supposedly will not play MPEG2. Roku players cannot play MPEG2 either, but you can purchase a licens

I can't shed much light, only make a couple guesses, but it supposedly will not play MPEG2. Roku players cannot play MPEG2 either, but you can purchase a license to decode MPEG2 on a Raspberry Pi. MPEG2 decoding would let people play a locally broadcast streams from something like the Silicon Dust HDHomerun Prime which would let them get rid of up to three cable boxes in addition to watching video on the internet. Currently, people get HTPCs to play these live streams (and act as DVRs). Instead you would still have to have something transcode the video for the Chromecast, and perhaps act as a centralized content server either relaying live TV or recorded TV. However, it also is not clear if there will be private channels which would be required to view this content from a local source. Roku players will let you watch stuff served from Plex for example. Interestingly, though according to this[1], the Marvel chip does have the capability to process MPEG2, perhaps if it is unlocked. (It only costs about $2 to get a license to legally unlock MPEG2 decoding on the Raspberry Pi) However, supporting hobbyists playing back conventional cable wouldn't fit into Google's strategy if it is to slowly supersede regular cable television. [1] http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=169737&page=9 http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=169737&page=9