The Google Chromecast made a splash this summer by being a simple and cheap accessory to play back content on your TV.

The Chromecast is priced right at $35, and availability outside of the Play store helps; in fact, the ease of adding it to an Amazon order was key in my buying decision. The packaging presentation is thoughtful, much like an old iPod or Airport Express. Inside the box you’ll find an astonishingly short HDMI extension cable and micro-USB power cable of average length. I used both in my installation, which allowed for a cleaner look that’s invisible from the front.

Set up and use is easy, though I’m surprised the requisite Chromecast extension for Chrome is not pre-installed or more obviously linked when it detects an available Chromecast. But this isn’t a review, so onward to the suggestions.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that casting any video stream other than YouTube is inelegant and frustrating. It seems like Chrome and/or Chromecast should be able to detect any video on a webpage and send the URL to Chromecast for playback. Instead, you can cast the entire webpage, using full screen (on your computer and the Chromecast) to enlarge the video. This may be a limitation of Chromecast being a new product, but it does seem obvious and limits the usability of the device. Playback even with this method was surprisingly smooth over 802.11G, if some what low-res.

The bigger problem is a philosophical one for Google. The idea of Chromecast – and Google TV before it – was to allow you to stream anything, bypassing barriers from cable companies and the like. And yet, ironically, one of the first YouTube videos I attempted to cast was blocked, with a message that read “This video is not available for remote playback.” Really Google, really?

Choose your own cliché (dogfooding, goose and gander…), but the bottom line is that Google is compromising the end-user experience. Video playback restrictions are not unique to Google; Apple also has to dance around the attempts of content providers and hardware manufacturers to punish customers prevent piracy. The irony here, though, is that Google is restricting itself despite the vertical integration of the hardware, service and content.

Chromecast achieved a popular launch (Netflix offer notwithstanding), and while limited, it is well executed. The challenge for Google now is to iterate, expanding the device’s capabilities while deciding if they are prioritizing the user or themselves first.