VLC may not support Chromecast for a long time. - Google Chromecast

There was only one post at VLC forums that indicated it may be supported.
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=119120&p=403349#p404380
Post that resulted in a hype that it will happen very soon on all major platforms.
And it was just a hype.
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/11196

Fortunately there are some good alternatives to VLC that do already support Chromecast.

gustavomondron said:
Fortunately there are some good alternatives to VLC that do already support Chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ones please ? Iam interested
D5503 UB jfxperias' KitSlim_AMG

Related

The definitive AVI thread (with sample file)

There seems to be a lot of confusion about this and I realize this is really a Chrome issue but perhaps we can work it out. No one I know in person can get an AVI file to play in chrome and hence cast to Chromecast.
Here is a 20mb sample file.
Can you download it or stream it in Chrome ? If you can tell us your setup.
Personally I have DIVX and VLC installed and it won't play. It just downloads.
Try it and let us know
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1330792/Sample Video.avi
It just dls from dropbox, haven't tried messing with it locally because dropbox is really slow right now lol.
What happens if you rename it to .mp4 or open it in chrome with ctrl+o?
Whatever you do it just downloads.
you can always use plex
I don't really know what that means but I've read performance is not good.
OK so i just uploaded an avi file to my google drive and played it in google viewer, casted in with the chrome extension and it streams flawlessly to my chromecast!
Well that's interesting. Worked for me also but not a very practical solution but it probably tells us something important.
homemadehitshow said:
I don't really know what that means but I've read performance is not good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.plexapp.com/
first google result of the word "plex"
i don't know where you see performance is not good... plex is fine for me but YMMV
(i don't actually know that it works with avis because i only use x264 mp4s or mkvs but it should work)
Well thanks so much, given that I already said I heard performance was bad I guess I already knew that much. Anything else to contribute ?
homemadehitshow said:
Well thanks so much, given that I already said I heard performance was bad I guess I already knew that much. Anything else to contribute ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try not contradicting yourself in your post... just because you heard performance was bad doesn't mean it will perform bad for you.
What do you lose by trying?
Why do you feel it necessary to pick at a post rather than contribute?
For the comprehension challenged, I know what Plex is, I just don't know how to set it up our if it's worth it.
homemadehitshow said:
Why do you feel it necessary to pick at a post rather than contribute?
For the comprehension challenged, I know what Plex is, I just don't know how to set it up our if it's worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am contributing, I'm using plex and it's working swimmingly, that's my contribution.
It seems like you're the one picking at MY post.
If you wish to wait for another solution be my guest but the only other solution will be waiting for some media player (like VLC) to integrate a casting option...
So you know about Plex, you've been given it's website, so how about reading the how-to?! (Or are you going to have a snotty answer about that, too?)
As to slow, that depends entirely on what you're running it on. As it can run fine on a Raspberry PI it obviously doesn't require huge resources. It's run very well in the background of my five year old Mac without issue.
But I'm sure this answer won't be to your satisfaction either. Or maybe you'll learn please & thank you, never too late...
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Man such a friendly and welcoming place.
I will check out Plex, I promise. But my actual question is how to play AVI files directly in Chrome directly since I can't have Plex in every scenario. I'm confused why some people say it works and many others don't.
homemadehitshow said:
Man such a friendly and welcoming place.
I will check out Plex, I promise. But my actual question is how to play AVI files directly in Chrome directly since I can't have Plex in every scenario. I'm confused why some people say it works and many others don't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
plex is very versatile, i can't imagine a scenario where it wouldn't be viable.
i only push this because as far as i can tell it's impossible to just add support for **** inside of chrome without patching in support in the chromium source...
id love it if someone can correct me and tell us how to play avis and ac3 audio in chrome natively though!
PhantomGamers said:
plex is very versatile, i can't imagine a scenario where it wouldn't be viable.
i only push this because as far as i can tell it's impossible to just add support for **** inside of chrome without patching in support in the chromium source...
id love it if someone can correct me and tell us how to play avis and ac3 audio in chrome natively though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's really odd that it will play from Drive and some people claim it works.
As for Plex. 3 main problem cases come to mind
1} I cannot install it on my work computer that I travel with
2} Someone wants to show a video from their laptop. I can't tell them to install Plex
3} I tried to install on my laptop at home and it's not working. It will not play videos
There's a lot of reasons Native chrome would be better.
I should also note WMV doesn't work either. Plays in the browser but black on the Chromecast.
homemadehitshow said:
It's really odd that it will play from Drive and some people claim it works.
As for Plex. 3 main problem cases come to mind
1} I cannot install it on my work computer that I travel with
2} Someone wants to show a video from their laptop. I can't tell them to install Plex
3} I tried to install on my laptop at home and it's not working. It will not play videos
There's a lot of reasons Native chrome would be better.
I should also note WMV doesn't work either. Plays in the browser but black on the Chromecast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't actually tried but it seems like Drive has its own media player, that would explain why it works with drive...
As for your first two problems you have completely valid points but I'm sure your third issue is resolvable with more information.
I don't suggest plex as a permanent solution but as a temporary workaround.
I expect the issue is that AVI is a *container*: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave
Content inside can be encoded using numerous formats, some of which are likely supported directly by the Chromecast device (if it has the proper codecs), in other cases there may be external transcoding for the Chromecast happening (possibly GDrive is doing some behind-the-scenes optimization like it does for PDFs uploaded as books.)
In any case we're in early days yet, doubtless there are dedicated Chromecast streamers & optimizers in progress on many a dev's plate.
I agree on the container but I am using very common one's DIVX for example and testing with various one's. It's possible some obscure one's will work but that seems counter intuitive.
I do agree that this will be made to work at some point soon but this actually appears to be a Chrome problem not a Chromecast problem.
Possibly, or a Chrome + specific DIVX implementation issue.
The truth is DIVX is a commercial, patent-encumbered, codec. There are several slightly different implementations of varying legitimacy. It is entirely possible that some variants, or even specific implementations (this DLL vs. that DLL) are more & less Chrome compatible.
Also, for those that might be unaware, I'll note that both AVI & DIVX have been widely superseded by other, more efficient & versatile encodings. There is a great deal of legacy material out there, but more modern files are typically MP4 or Matroska using H.264 compression.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Is it possible to make Sopcast (android app) work with Chromecast?

Hi,
I guess many of you know Sopcast. The official app has never been published on Google play. But it's available for download on their website and it works like a charm:
http://forum.easetuner.com/download/
Would be possible to modify the apk in order to add Chromecast support? If someone is able to do it, then I won't hesitate to get my Chromecast
Thanks in advance
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
I just downloaded Sopcast but I can't find anything in English. Any recommendations?
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2
I guess that you mean that you can't find channels in English. The channels loaded by default might not be in English.
The nice thing of Sopcast is that every time there is an important sport event it's streamed via Sopcast, but the links to those events don't appear in the channel list but in some websites.
I will send you a link via PM because I guess I'm not allowed to post it here.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Is there an update on this? It would be great to have casting for sopcast, and I assume now that the SDK is out not too hard to implement.
However, right now Chromecast is mostly US and UK, so not sure if the developer is interested in going that route.
Let's submit a request to their website. The forum is down, but this might work http://sopcast.com/info/contact.html
I might be wrong but I think Sopcast is very unknown in US and not so popular in UK like in other European and Asian countries. So I wouldn't expect to have sopcast support for Chromecast anytime soon...
I tried to contact sopcast developers several times in regards to other issues related to their Android app and I never got a reply. I just know that sopcast developers are from China and it's not open source software.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk
I think Acestream is very similar to Sopcast and you can use the Chromecast with Bubbleupnp transcoding with Acestream. I have a video showing how to do it.
http://youtu.be/8W02V0Y_Bq0
Sorry for the offtopic, but what do you use this app for? I downloaded it and I could barely get any of the stations. Just curious what you're using it for.
floepie said:
Sorry for the offtopic, but what do you use this app for? I downloaded it and I could barely get any of the stations. Just curious what you're using it for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most are using it to watch Sports that aren't broadcast locally.
The channels you find in the app itself are very limited, Most of the content available for this app is not listed there and found on the web which then launches the sopcast player to stream it.
chromecast doesn't support live streams format it need to be transcoded
even if you manage to cast chrome cast isn't able to play
the best way i found is this for acestrem which is something similar to sop cast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W02V0Y_Bq0
Has anyone else tried this method. I can play on the computer but no luck getting it to the chromecast like it claims can be done.
http://chromecastfreefootball.blogspot.com/2014/04/watch-free-football-chromecast-to-your.html
Yup, no luck here too.
Torrent Stream Controller is the best solution so far.
bennybaz said:
Yup, no luck here too.
Torrent Stream Controller is the best solution so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I was able to get Sopcast to play on the Chromecast using VLC Transcoding but after transcoding, unfortunately the picture goes from crystal clear on the computer to low quality on the Television. I'm not sure if there is a better Stream Output String than the one I'm using that would transcode a clearer picture. Bubbleupnp transcoding seems a bit better but it always gives me a cannot find Mime-Type error. This is the VLC Stream Output String I am using.
:sout=#transcode{vcodec=VP80,vb=4000,scale=0,width=640,acodec=vorb,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:duplicate{dst=http{mux=webm,dst=:8080/stream},dst=display} :sout-all :sout-keep
VLC to Chromecast
Hi,
Can you explain how you cast from vlc to Chromecast?
Did you use the vidCast?
When I'm running your command line:
:sout=#transcode{vcodec=VP80,vb=4000,scale=0,width =640,acodec=vorb,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=4410 0}:duplicate{dst=http{mux=webm,dst=:8080/stream},dst=display} :sout-all :sout-keep
I get an error saying:
Streaming / Transcoding failed:
It seems your Libav/FFmpeg (libavcodec) installation lacks the following encoder:
Vorbis Audio.
Can you help me with this?
Thanks.
Hi, I made a video showing how I do it. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=7tJU-4SourU
vursv said:
Hi,
Can you explain how you cast from vlc to Chromecast?
Did you use the vidCast?
When I'm running your command line:
:sout=#transcode{vcodec=VP80,vb=4000,scale=0,width =640,acodec=vorb,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=4410 0}:duplicate{dst=http{mux=webm,dst=:8080/stream},dst=display} :sout-all :sout-keep
I get an error saying:
Streaming / Transcoding failed:
It seems your Libav/FFmpeg (libavcodec) installation lacks the following encoder:
Vorbis Audio.
Can you help me with this?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Broken link???
vincent1964 said:
Hi, I made a video showing how I do it. youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=7tJU-4SourU[/url]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, can you check the link?
It's link me to my youtube uploads page...
Thank you.
http://youtu.be/7tJU-4SourU
Sorry
vursv said:
Hi, can you check the link?
It's link me to my youtube uploads page...
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vincent1964 said:
http://youtu.be/7tJU-4SourU
Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the video.
I'm having trouble after entering the premade sout, the stream won't start on AceStream. What can I do now?
Chromecast supports live streaming now... Anything we can do with sopcast now ...currently using mirroring but it's a little unstable
italia0101 said:
Chromecast supports live streaming now... Anything we can do with sopcast now ...currently using mirroring but it's a little unstable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, could you describe the steps to stream from sopcast to chromecast? Thanks!
gertan said:
Hi, could you describe the steps to stream from sopcast to chromecast? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I wasn't clear, I was asking the same as you.. trying to get sopcast on the chromecast, still haven't found a way

Any Hope of more (Official) Content?

I'd like to start a thread for news/rumors of more officially supported services.
Not casting web-pages, or demo Apps/Hacks, but Official Apps from other services that support Chromecast.
Any hope?
well hulu and pandora is confirmed, but the main problem right now is the SDK isn't complete (they have a preview one out though).
Once the SDK is done we will start seeing a lot of content I bet.
I am looking forward to bitcasa support. That will be awesome.
Linuxslate said:
I'd like to start a thread for news/rumors of more officially supported services.
Not casting web-pages, or demo Apps/Hacks, but Official Apps from other services that support Chromecast.
Any hope?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope so - I think this is the first step of moving away from Broadcast TV for TV entertainment. This is the revolution that Apple had planned to do but didn't. When people do reviews of the Cast I think they miss the largest point. Controlling the content using an interface we all love (phone or tablet) is a giant step forward. Using the built in smart features of a TV or DVD to search for a YouTube video is a terrible experience. You need a link to find most things and those are shared in communication links in your phone.
firesoul453 said:
well hulu and pandora is confirmed, but the main problem right now is the SDK isn't complete (they have a preview one out though).
Once the SDK is done we will start seeing a lot of content I bet.
I am looking forward to bitcasa support. That will be awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is still no "cast" button on Pandora. Did you mean it is confirmed that they are working on it?
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hmose said:
There is still no "cast" button on Pandora. Did you mean it is confirmed that they are working on it?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya i thought that is what you were talking about, what else the chromecast will be able to do. Its confirmed it will be able to use hulu and pandora should be comming kinda soon. And HBO, Vimeo, Redbox Instant, Vevo (?), Devour (?), Blip (?) (maybe these are britsh or something, i've never heard of them), have all mentioned they are planning on it.
(where I got the information)
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/01/blip-hulu-vevo-and-devour-are-coming-to-chromecast/
http://www.mediapost.com/publicatio...ndora-coming-to-chromecast.html#axzz2bxRDgXfS
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/30/redbox-instant-and-vimeo-coming-to-chromecast
So ya in total we have
right now
youtube
netflix
google play music
google play video
soon
hulu
pandora
HBO go
announced support
Vimeo
Redbox Instant
Vevo
Devour
Blip
plus soon we get the official sdk and we will get 100s of apps I bet
Hulu said they were interested in adding it some day. I wouldn't be expecting it anytime soon. The only real partner besides Netflix announced at launch was Pandora. My guess is Pandora will release an update about the same time the final SDK is released. Google is probably working with Pandora as sort of a beta test of the SDK.
PLEX has announced support. :good:
wavrunrx said:
PLEX has announced support. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source? I just quickly looked over their website but couldn't find an official announcement.
troycarpenter said:
Source? I just quickly looked over their website but couldn't find an official announcement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no "official" announcement....
look for the posts by "elan" on this page: (hes the lead dev of PLEX)
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/75359-chromecast/page-8
You won't need much more once new version of BubbleUPNP is released
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLkKbfl42E
Can't wait.

When the heck is plex opening up casting

That is for non plex pass members?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk
why dont you email them and ask, then come and post it here so everyone knows.
I wouldn't expect them to make it public until they have all the bugs worked out.
Most notably the issues with the transcoder.
And even then they might wait until Music and Picture support is implemented.
BurnOmatic said:
why dont you email them and ask, then come and post it here so everyone knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes folks here have information others are not privvy to. But thanks for that helpful reply.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
The Plex employees in their forums won't speculate, but they definitely aren't implying that it's soon. The more experienced long-term Plex users seem to be suggesting to expect around 6 months based on past experience. But for all we know it could be tomorrow, and they're just doing a really good job of keeping it quiet.
DJames1 said:
The Plex employees in their forums won't speculate, but they definitely aren't implying that it's soon. The more experienced long-term Plex users seem to be suggesting to expect around 6 months based on past experience. But for all we know it could be tomorrow, and they're just doing a really good job of keeping it quiet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies.... I haven't kept current with the forums and was a bit curious....
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
You could always become a monthly member for 3.99 until it's opened to everyone.
Sent from my SM-N900P using xda app-developers app
VanillaG0rilla said:
You could always become a monthly member for 3.99 until it's opened to everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truth is the Plex Pass fee is really only required for the Plex Player apps...
The Server is free! And truth is the Server is the most important part of that system because it works with any DLNA/UPnP player.
Right now aVia is the only player other than Plex that can play to CCast.
But it won't be the only one for long....
So it makes a ton of sense to be running a Plex Server (or any transcoding DLNA server for that matter) despite the fact you won't get all the features of it until a better player app that supports DLNA and CCast fully (With transcoding) comes along.
I'm using the Plex for android and stream media to my CC without any problem for about a week or so. It worked after they made an update recently. you just need to buy the app which is about 5 bucks.
betizad said:
I'm using the Plex for android and stream media to my CC without any problem for about a week or so. It worked after they made an update recently. you just need to buy the app which is about 5 bucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No just buying the app isn't enough...
CCast support requires PlexPass account. You can run the app and stream to your device but the CCast streaming shouldn't not work unless you have a PlexPass subscription.
I will note someone had a link to a developer version of the Plex App that bypassed this requirement but I wouldn't trust it...
I have had Plex for some time now and they are right, it is a anyone's guess when the support opens for casting. The developer version works just fine in my opinion as well. Avia does most of what I want anyway so if you want to put your money in the right place now, get the avia app honestly.
Isn't a month membership only like $3.99? I imagine that would be worth it for the time being. Just pay the few dollars dude. Not a big deal.
Galaxy SIII
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Srambo217 said:
Isn't a month membership only like $3.99? I imagine that would be worth it for the time being. Just pay the few dollars dude. Not a big deal.
Galaxy SIII
My Podcast*-*http://bit.ly/WWSXbz
Twitter - http://bit.ly/VVAdb8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what I did. It's only 3.99 people !
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VanillaG0rilla said:
Exactly what I did. It's only 3.99 people !
Sent from my SM-N900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the cost... I purchased the plex app. That is what is needed for my use. I have also purchased the a avia app as well. I don't want to pay four bucks a month for a service that I rarely use. Four kids in college and all that.
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third son said:
It's not the cost... I purchased the plex app. That is what is needed for my use. I have also purchased the a avia app as well. I don't want to pay four bucks a month for a service that I rarely use. Four kids in college and all that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quite Understandable....I'm not even sure you can buy just one month as I thought the Sub Options were a Year and Lifetime.
I understand why CCast support is PlexPass only at this point. If you're a regular visitor to the Plex Forums you would see a myriad of issues being reported regarding the transcoding and specifically surround Audio. This is on top of the usual problems we talk about here such as loss of control, Network, Router and Connection issues.
Right now the PlexPass users are sort of acting as the Beta Testers for this since they are the most familiar with Plex and it's workings.
To open it up to the Public right now would probably overwhelm the support forum rehashing the Bugs they already know about and add the reports of things that are not broken just because the user didn't know there is a setting in Plex set wrong they didn't know exists.
I would guess that when the Transcoder is running perfectly you might see CCast support go Public.
But they may also wait until they finish their Music and Picture support which at this point does not exist at all.
aVia does work provided your library doesn't need transcoding but if you do then it might be worth paying for the PlexPass at least until they release it publicly.
Plex right now is the only system that works exactly as Google intended it to when they developed the CCast.
Mobile App tells the CCast to load a player app and play a stream direct from a server without needing the device that launched it once it starts.
Plex is the only system that transcodes local files for playback as RealPlayer requires you to upload to their cloud to get a transcoded stream back.
Perhaps the announcement about the 10 Apps with CCast support being added was a bit of stretching the truth for Christmas Shopping Marketing Purposes...
Cause lets be honest none of the options for Local Content are perfected or issue free. aVia has had at least 10 Updates since the announcement maybe even more....
Most of the work on the Plex side has been done to the server side because I haven't seen any updates to the Android apps itself, certainly not as many as the aVia Player has....
All the Local playback App options do the job better than CCast did before they were released...
But thats about all you can really say about them. They are all still learning how to crawl at this point and none are what I would call a perfected and Mature option that does everything we expect they should yet.
It's going to take time...What CCast does it much more complicated than what Miracast, Roku and Airplay do.

News CCast support coming to VLC! YAY!

FINALLY the news I have been waiting for!
VLC has announced that Chromecast support will be coming to VLC!
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...is-coming-to-vlc-for-android-ios-and-desktop/
Unfortunately iOS is first on the list...PC and Linux to follow.
Also it appears that there are currently no plans for it on Android but then again VLC on Android is a mere shell of it's desktop brethren anyway!
Something I hope changes in the future!
Who really cares though, it still won't be able to cast most formats without losing tons of quality in the transcoding process, Correct?
Asphyx said:
FINALLY the news I have been waiting for!
VLC has announced that Chromecast support will be coming to VLC!
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...is-coming-to-vlc-for-android-ios-and-desktop/
Unfortunately iOS is first on the list...PC and Linux to follow.
Also it appears that there are currently no plans for it on Android but then again VLC on Android is a mere shell of it's desktop brethren anyway!
Something I hope changes in the future!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vincent1964 said:
Who really cares though, it still won't be able to cast most formats without losing tons of quality in the transcoding process, Correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VLC has much better transcoding capability than the Chrome browser....
VLC won't replace things like Bubble or Plex but for those who simply want to play a file on their PC and send it to the CCast this will be the best method available without having to have a mobile device.

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