Reddit users thevincentasteroid and MMD3_ posted about an auto-playing video ad (with sound) on the home screen. The ad is for Chicken Tender Wraps from Carl’s Jr. When it begins auto-playing, it pushes all the other UI elements out of focus and goes almost full-screen, returning to the home screen after it has played through once.
NUC for 100$ https://www.amazon.com/Bmax-B1-Pro-Fanless-Computer/dp/B0CJBST7XQ), if you wait for a sale you can often get an even better one. Kodi does basically everything you were asking for with a couple of plugins for free. Your phone works as a remote with a free app (kodi remote). You can “program it” by taking any keyboard in the house and setting it up, shouldn’t need it after.
If you somehow don’t have a keyboard or mouse and/or don’t have the tech literacy skills to install a program and a couple plugins and have no desire to learn then I can understand why you feel like Chrome cast is your only option, because it probably is. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, but stop acting like it’s the best option for the average person, let alone the average person on Lemmy.