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Chromecast |OT|

suikodan

suikodan

Member
What are you guys' solution for casting your videos stored on your PC?

I tried Plex with the ChromeCast yesterday. For a small video (500Mb), the video would skip a lot to stay in synch with the audio. I wanted to identify the source and it seems that it comes from Plex itself as another video would stutter as much.

I see that there is that Avia app but I don't want to spend money if the quality isn't going to be there.

I knew what to expect when I got this (versus AppleTV) but even if I have low expectations, I'm still disappointed by the results.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
I've used plex. It mostly works for as advertised. I say mostly because my wifi is such that I need to limit streams to 720p. I really want a googlecast device with ethernet (and 24p support preferably).

I havent had other issues with plex. At least once I updated my plex server to a newer version.
 
F

FinKL

Member
suikodan said:
What are you guys' solution for casting your videos stored on your PC?

I tried Plex with the ChromeCast yesterday. For a small video (500Mb), the video would skip a lot to stay in synch with the audio. I wanted to identify the source and it seems that it comes from Plex itself as another video would stutter as much.

I see that there is that Avia app but I don't want to spend money if the quality isn't going to be there.

I knew what to expect when I got this (versus AppleTV) but even if I have low expectations, I'm still disappointed by the results.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I thought something was up since the latest Chromecast version (like I had a choice to update or not). I'm not sure if something changed, but I could of swore it used to be pretty smooth before this patch. If that's the case, I'll have to come up with another solution as well, I just wish Chrome opened up everything, then we'd be set.

EDIT: Looks like the latest version broke something? Because I think these are the same audio sync issues I think I'm having
phaonaut said:
Is anyone having audio sync issues when casting a tab post update?
Click to expand...
 
D

Dizzan

MINI Member
Is anyone else having issues with avia? It just shows the logo on my TV, and doesn't allow me to stream any of my media. I am trying to stream my photos. Very frustrating!
 
M

MutantCyborg

Member
Did Netflix stop working for everyone else? I can play Youtube and Pandora through the Chromecast but as soon as I try playing any netflix content I get a timeout error or it will just load forever.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
Quasar said:
It works in a browser too. But really the who idea behind it using apps on devices you own to control the chromecast.
Click to expand...

Says it doesn't support streaming Silverlight content from the site.

I have those apps on devices I own, Netflix on Windows and Windows Phone and Hulu Plus and Windows and Windows Phone for example, but Google doesn't offer casting from those platforms.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
Lorien said:
Is Plex worth it? I'm thinking about trying it out.
Click to expand...

Plex as a free thing certainly is. Its a client-server based XBMC fork with a fair amount of support on various devices from nas boxes to phones and tablets.

The sub version though...even being a paying subscriber I probably wouldnt recommend it. It basically gets you early access to features/the betas as well as one or two sub only features like syncing to devices. That latter thing I found worth it for me. Of course I could have done it all (transcoding and then adding to my device) manually.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
Steelyuhas said:
Says it doesn't support streaming Silverlight content from the site.

I have those apps on devices I own, Netflix on Windows and Windows Phone and Hulu Plus and Windows and Windows Phone, but Google doesn't offer casting from those platforms.
Click to expand...

Well with casting a browser tab it works. Video quality is slightly down though as your pc creates a new stream.

But yeah. If you are a windows phone/tablet person ChromeCast isn't for you. Its clear Google has no interest in supporting that.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
Quasar said:
Well with casting a browser tab it works. Video quality is slightly down though as your pc creates a new stream.

But yeah. If you are a windows phone/tablet person ChromeCast isn't for you. Its clear Google has no interest in supporting that.
Click to expand...

It does not, as Netflix in Chrome runs on Silverlight, which Chromecast does not support.

Hitting the Cast button from an HBO GO tab loads the Chromecast HBO GO GUI, so that works though which is nice.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
Steelyuhas said:
It does not, as Netflix in Chrome runs on Silverlight, which Chromecast does not support.

Hitting the Cast button from an HBO GO tab loads the Chromecast HBO GO GUI, so that works though which is nice.
Click to expand...

You're right. It was only Hulu I tested. But Netflix does have a chromecast button within the webplayer so I assume that works (I can't really test that because of living outside the US and the Chromecast having hardcoded DNS settings).
 
L

Lorien

Banned
Quasar said:
Plex as a free thing certainly is. Its a client-server based XBMC fork with a fair amount of support on various devices from nas boxes to phones and tablets.

The sub version though...even being a paying subscriber I probably wouldnt recommend it. It basically gets you early access to features/the betas as well as one or two sub only features like syncing to devices. That latter thing I found worth it for me. Of course I could have done it all (transcoding and then adding to my device) manually.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a month test drive.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
Quasar said:
You're right. It was only Hulu I tested. But Netflix does have a chromecast button within the webplayer so I assume that works (I can't really test that because of living outside the US and the Chromecast having hardcoded DNS settings).
Click to expand...

kIdMuScLe said:
Netflix on the pc has a cast button...
Click to expand...

Ahh, I didn't notice that. I'd been pressing the cast button on the Chrome toolbar and it said it doesn't support Chromecast etc etc.

There is a cast button that shows up on the media controls for the site. That's good news.
 
N

NH Apache

Banned
I'm a little disappointed in the range. Compared to my Nexus 7 and Note 2, I'm seeing about 75% of the range.

Just ordered a powerline system and I'll hook up an old router as an ap.

Plex still the best dlna option?
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I'm actually really impressed by the quality I get via the Google Play Movies app streaming through Chromecast. I know a lot of it has to do with your signal strength and such, but I was really surprised.

Rented Elysium last night and my buddy and I both thought the image quality was really good for streaming. Looks better than Xfinity that I have, and IMO I think it looked better than Netflix in Super HD mode.
 
H

Husker86

Member
Vanillalite said:
I'm actually really impressed by the quality I get via the Google Play Movies app streaming through Chromecast. I know a lot of it has to do with your signal strength and such, but I was really surprised.

Rented Elysium last night and my buddy and I both thought the image quality was really good for streaming. Looks better than Xfinity that I have, and IMO I think it looked better than Netflix in Super HD mode.
Click to expand...

I've rented a couple movies recently and just did the SD option for $1 cheaper and the quality was still very good. I'd almost wonder if they are doing HD no matter what you buy?
 
E

eznark

Banned
Chromecast no longer works. It's showing up as connected in the other devices section on my Network and when I launch the Chromecast App it connects, however when I try to stream to it from Chrome, the browser plug in says device missing.

Fucking christ.
 
jobber

jobber

Would let Tony Parker sleep with his wife
eznark said:
Chromecast no longer works. It's showing up as connected in the other devices section on my Network and when I launch the Chromecast App it connects, however when I try to stream to it from Chrome, the browser plug in says device missing.

Fucking christ.
Click to expand...

mine started flipping out this morning. Had to unplug and plug
 
N

NH Apache

Banned
Thanks be to the Google overlords. Now for a dlna app that doesn't cost me anything pls.

Side note: anyone else have issues with Netflix audio desync after like 40 minutes playing?
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
LtNDbKz.png
 
H

hodayathink

Member
SimleuqiR said:
Wonder if they are still going to white-list apps?
Click to expand...

Looks like white-listing is done for, but you have to pay $5 to be able to self-deploy your own Chromecast apps (using the Cast SDK developer console), and you may have to deploy using HTTPS instead of HTTP (if you're doing anything besides the most basic play audio/play video/view images functionality).
 
S

satam55

Banned
rejoice.png
Roku & AppleTV are finished. Now Google needs to update it to be a native DLNA media player, so folks can take advantage of DLNA CVP-2 with Chromecast.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
satam55 said:
rejoice.png
Roku & AppleTV are finished. Now Google needs to update it to be a native DLNA media player, so folks can take advantage of DLNA CVP-2 with Chromecast.
Click to expand...

I dunno All Apple really needs to do is open up the appstore for AppleTV. Just that, if apps flowed, would get me to use my AppleTV instead (for two reasons - My ATV has ethernet, and its not locked to specific DNS servers).
 
H

hodayathink

Member
Quasar said:
I dunno All Apple really needs to do is open up the appstore for AppleTV. Just that, if apps flowed, would get me to use my AppleTV instead (for two reasons - My ATV has ethernet, and its not locked to specific DNS servers).
Click to expand...

Apple TV would be fine (if they opened up to app support), but I don't know if Roku would survive this.

Also, it'll be interesting to see what the hardware in a v2 Chromecast might look like. Chromecast right now is actually so weak that you can't rewind/fast forward videos because the device can't handle it for all videos it plays (developers can fake it by continuously telling it to go a set amount of time forwards or backwards). So there's clearly at least some need for additional power. But how much. Enough for 4K playback support? Enough to run HTML5 games?
 
Q

Quasar

Member
hodayathink said:
Apple TV would be fine (if they opened up to app support), but I don't know if Roku would survive this.

Also, it'll be interesting to see what the hardware in a v2 Chromecast might look like. Chromecast right now is actually so weak that you can rewind/fast forward videos because the device can't handle it for all videos it plays (developers can fake it by continuously telling it to go a set amount of time forwards or backwards). So there's clearly at least some need for addition power. But how much. Enough for 4K playback support? Enough to run HTML5 games?
Click to expand...

Yeah. When it fist got announced they talked about the open GoogleCast protocol and all so I expected a range of third party hardware all using it. sadly at least so far that hasn't happened, or even talked about aside from a GoogleTV upgrade to support it (I assume that has been shipped).

Which is a shame because I really want a beefier device that does what ChromeCast does. I want it to be snappier, I want hardware th has ethernet and is not locked to google DNS servers, and i want it to support lossless audio formats / h.265/vp9.
 
S

SimleuqiR

Member
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.cast&hl=en

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...day-after-the-release-of-the-google-cast-sdk/

AllCast pushes locally stored videos and photos to various AirPlay/DLNA connected devices such as Smart TVs, the Xbox 360 (and the Xbox One), Roku boxes, and, originally, the Chromecast. Ultimately, Google released an update that broke AllCast's Chromecast support. But the company finally released the Google Cast SDK yesterday, and then, after getting prodded by a member of the Google Chomecast team to re-add support for Chromecast, Koushik Dutta returned the functionality to his app in supposedly under 20 minutes of work.
Click to expand...
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
M

Marty Chinn

Member
SimleuqiR said:
I guess Chromecast support would have to be built into your NAS software. A company like Synology could add the support to their many android apps.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you would need it to be built into the NAS.

Couldn't you have an app that's just an interface to browse on your network, and then when you push it to the Chromecast, you just simply send it a SMB address of the file location and it streams from there? Once you made the connection and told it where to find the content on the NAS, you wouldn't need your device anymore.
 
N

NH Apache

Banned
Marty Chinn said:
I'm not sure why you would need it to be built into the NAS.

Couldn't you have an app that's just an interface to browse on your network, and then when you push it to the Chromecast, you just simply send it a SMB address of the file location and it streams from there? Once you made the connection and told it where to find the content on the NAS, you wouldn't need your device anymore.
Click to expand...

Yeah. MediaHouse has something like this...(Play from:____, Play to: ____). With the release today/yesterday, I don't expect we'll have to wait long.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
Marty Chinn said:
I'm not sure why you would need it to be built into the NAS.

Couldn't you have an app that's just an interface to browse on your network, and then when you push it to the Chromecast, you just simply send it a SMB address of the file location and it streams from there? Once you made the connection and told it where to find the content on the NAS, you wouldn't need your device anymore.
Click to expand...

Must admit I'm confused. GoogleCasts whole deal is that the phone/tablet is just a remote so once some media is told to start you can turn the phone off. That's the advantage over Apples airplay where your phone is playing the content and spitting it out to your appleTV.

So all you'd need is the right server software on your NAS (Plex Media Server being one example) and then remote control software with ChromeCast support on the phone end.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Quasar said:
Must admit I'm confused. GoogleCasts whole deal is that the phone/tablet is just a remote so once some media is told to start you can turn the phone off. That's the advantage over Apples airplay where your phone is playing the content and spitting it out to your appleTV.

So all you'd need is the right server software on your NAS (Plex Media Server being one example) and then remote control software with ChromeCast support on the phone end.
Click to expand...

I think you're looking at it in a less optimal way. You shouldn't need software on your server to make it work. As long as it's using standard protocols like Samba for network file sharing, then you use that instead adding in an additional piece of software to talk to. It's just like how XBMC doesn't need software at the other end for it to stream media. You just point it to the source and it can grab from there. In the case of an app on your phone or tablet, all you do is have it find the source through open standards like Samba, and then that gets pushed to the Chromecast as the source and it can read from there at that point.
 
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