Media Center Cast - Chromecast inside MediaCenter

Chromecast in MediaCenter
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STC

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Media Center Cast - Chromecast inside MediaCenter

#1

Post by STC » Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:04 pm

This is really worth checking out.-
The functionality of Chromecast, inside of MC. http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =88&t=5796

We'd like to welcome the author of Media Center Cast, fredx21 to the forums who amongst other things, is the creator of GuideTool.

This should be good ;)

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#2

Post by mcewinter » Fri Aug 23, 2013 1:09 pm

Should be good, indeed! :thumbup:

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#3

Post by reggie14 » Sat Aug 24, 2013 2:50 am

While fairly impressive, I'm not sure I see the relevance to the Ceton Echo, given that it doesn't work with extenders. Am I missing something?

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#4

Post by STC » Sat Aug 24, 2013 3:09 am

It may be that you are reading this announcement from a Ceton Forum without realizing this post lists in all forum sections whilst having global attributes.
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#5

Post by woodchuck » Sun Aug 25, 2013 1:29 pm

Oh wow! This has to be one of the best new addins in a long time!

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#6

Post by adam1991 » Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:49 pm

Agreed. I didn't hesitate to pay for it right up front. Five bucks? If that's all it takes to support the community now and again, I'm all in (despite being ragged on elsewhere for "paying for beta", this from a guy who's probably never bought anyone a beer ever in his life).

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#7

Post by apbms1 » Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:29 pm

I know the official chromecast device has stopped you casting local media from your device. Is there a possibility that this fantastic new add in could do this? Or is it down to the casting app rather than the plugin ??

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#8

Post by Gregg » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:33 pm

adam1991 wrote:Agreed. I didn't hesitate to pay for it right up front. Five bucks? If that's all it takes to support the community now and again, I'm all in (despite being ragged on elsewhere for "paying for beta", this from a guy who's probably never bought anyone a beer ever in his life).
I completely agree. how can you go wrong supporting a cool add-in like this for $5!

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#9

Post by foxwood » Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:10 pm

apbms1 wrote:I know the official chromecast device has stopped you casting local media from your device. Is there a possibility that this fantastic new add in could do this? Or is it down to the casting app rather than the plugin ??
Chromecast hasn't stopped you from casting local media from your device. It's a relatively new paradigm, and people haven't written the necessary apps/servers to do that yet.

A "casting app" doesn't actually stream anything to the "chromecast device" (and I'm including MC Cast as a "chromecast device" for the purpose of this discussion). The "casting app" just tells the "chromecast device" the address of the stream it should play. To cast local media, you're going to need a "chromecast server" that can accept requests from the "chromecast device". But the "chromecast server" also has to present a list of resources to the "casting app" that it can select to add to the queue on the "chromecast device". And that means that you need "casting apps" that need to know how to find that particular "chromecast server".

So for YouTube, all that Google had to do was add a "chromecast server" and then update the YouTube Client, and everyone can immediately take advantage of it - zero configuration on your phone/tablet. But if Plex, say, or TVersity put out a Chromecast server module, then users have to download and install software on their media server first, and then find a client on their tablet and configure it to point at this new media server. If the authors of MC Cast wanted to add this sort of functionality, they would need to provide some sort of preview mode for the phone/tablet client to pick media from, and we'd also need some sort of generic "chromecast queuer" app that we could point at our Chromecast server to pick the media we want to 'cast.

Given that the whole "Chromecast paradigm" is pretty new and seemed to come out of no where, it's hardly surprising that we haven't seen 3rd party "Chromecast servers" for local media turning up just yet, never mind the new "casting apps" on the phones/tablet to to take advantage of this new way of doing things.

As a matter of interest, does anyone know what happens with a real Chrimecast device if you queue up some YouTube Clips and content from NetFlix and Google Music at the same time? Does it all go in the same Queue, or does YouTube get to hog the device until you finish your YouTube queue?

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#10

Post by foxwood » Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:00 pm

foxwood wrote:
apbms1 wrote:I know the official chromecast device has stopped you casting local media from your device. Is there a possibility that this fantastic new add in could do this? Or is it down to the casting app rather than the plugin ??
Chromecast hasn't stopped you from casting local media from your device. It's a relatively new paradigm, and people haven't written the necessary apps/servers to do that yet
Just after I posted this, I read that a software update to the Chromecast device disabled some undocumented APIs that 3rd party apps like Allcast and Fling were using to send local content to the ChromeCast device.

As things stand, I wouldn't read that as a statement of intent by Google to prevent the sending of local content to a Chromecast dongle. The Chromecast SDK isn't available yet, so I think it's reasonable to wait and see what methods are actually supported once it's released.

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#11

Post by fredx21 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:42 am

By all means guys, who ever owns an Android phone/tablet should give a go to Koush's cast... (https://plus.google.com/110558071969009 ... eHgRXS6AZs). It works perfectly for me. Note: Video only. iOS users can only cast with apps like YouTube and cie.
Last edited by fredx21 on Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:32 am, edited 2 times in total.

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#12

Post by richard1980 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:09 am

I don't have one of those new-fangled smartphone contraptions, but if I did, I would likely buy this.

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#13

Post by STC » Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:31 am

You mean the thing you can make and receive calls on without a wire? ;)
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#14

Post by adam1991 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:33 am

Audio too... From Play Music. Works great.

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#15

Post by richard1980 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:25 pm

STC wrote:You mean the thing you can make and receive calls on without a wire? ;)
My phone makes and receives calls without a wire...but that's about all it can do. Oh, and it can text as well! I'd like to have a phone that does more, but Verizon insists that my current $25/month plan (which gives me unlimited talk and text) is not compatible with any smartphone. Additionally, I haven't found another carrier that offers the same plan features at a similar price, much less a carrier that has an unlimited voice and text only plan that is compatible with a smartphone. The only plans that seem to be compatible with smartphones cost much 3-4 times as much as I am currently paying and include some strange tax called "mandatory data plan"....because, you know, if you try to use a smartphone without a data plan, the phone will turn into a black hole and the entire universe will get sucked in.

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#16

Post by mcewinter » Tue Aug 27, 2013 3:36 pm

richard1980 wrote:
STC wrote:You mean the thing you can make and receive calls on without a wire? ;)
My phone makes and receives calls without a wire...but that's about all it can do. Oh, and it can text as well! I'd like to have a phone that does more, but Verizon insists that my current $25/month plan (which gives me unlimited talk and text) is not compatible with any smartphone. Additionally, I haven't found another carrier that offers the same plan features at a similar price, much less a carrier that has an unlimited voice and text only plan that is compatible with a smartphone. The only plans that seem to be compatible with smartphones cost much 3-4 times as much as I am currently paying and include some strange tax called "mandatory data plan"....because, you know, if you try to use a smartphone without a data plan, the phone will turn into a black hole and the entire universe will get sucked in.
You're cheap ;)

Pay as you go offers some great deals these days. Different carriers lean different ways regarding unlimited this or that.

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#17

Post by foxwood » Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:41 pm

Do I have to read posts to this "Global Announcement" once in each sub forum? Whether I use tapatalk on my tablet or my web browser on my desktop, posts in this thread keep showing up in the "Unread Posts" mode, even after I've read them.

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#18

Post by STC » Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:56 pm

^ Not sure. That behavior is not happening for my credentials, TT or laptop.

I shall soon turn off global.
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#19

Post by richard1980 » Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:00 pm

mcewinter wrote:You're cheap ;)
Yes, I am...but only when it comes to things that I don't value much. I don't value the ability to communicate via phone the way many people do, and I certainly don't value being required to pay for a data plan when I have no use for it in the first place. I'm surrounded by internet connections on various devices, so I don't really need one on my phone. But if I decided to connect my phone to the internet, I would do so over WiFi, not the carrier's network.
mcewinter wrote:Pay as you go offers some great deals these days. Different carriers lean different ways regarding unlimited this or that.
Yeah, I've looked into that as well...but so far I haven't found anything that I like.

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#20

Post by mcewinter » Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:29 pm

richard1980 wrote:
mcewinter wrote:You're cheap ;)
Yes, I am...but only when it comes to things that I don't value much. I don't value the ability to communicate via phone the way many people do, and I certainly don't value being required to pay for a data plan when I have no use for it in the first place. I'm surrounded by internet connections on various devices, so I don't really need one on my phone. But if I decided to connect my phone to the internet, I would do so over WiFi, not the carrier's network.
mcewinter wrote:Pay as you go offers some great deals these days. Different carriers lean different ways regarding unlimited this or that.
Yeah, I've looked into that as well...but so far I haven't found anything that I like.
I'm cheap too. I'm surrounded by phones very much like how you're surrounded by data connections.

With free VOIP and a cellular plan of 300 minutes with unlimited data and texting, I get great value out of my smartphone. And even though I don't need it, it is quite useful and very entertaining and worth way more than I was paying with a "dumb" phone. I currently pay $35/mo. and I can add a hotspot for an $15/mo. if I want to. A contract phone plan would cost somewhere around twice as much. The hotspot is optional per month, and so is the service for that matter.

And then you can take advantage of things like Chromecast (to stay on topic).

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