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When I read the original article, my first thought was: wow, someone could or should really build an interface on top of this that let's you cast all things. L

When I read the original article, my first thought was: wow, someone could or should really build an interface on top of this that let's you cast all things. Looking at this GitHub project, looks like it lets you do exactly that.

opencl 9y ago
VLC also has similar functionality as of version 3.0.
- riku_iki 9y ago
  There is also nice app: http://getvideostream.com/ http://getvideostream.com/
- sohkamyung 9y ago
  VLC also does transcoding of video formats that Chromecast does not support. For the python script, you have to ensure the video format is supported by Chromecast [1]. [1] https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media
sombremesa 9y ago
You can just cast anything using Chrome anyway...if you expand the dropdown in the top right there is a "Cast..." menu item right there.
- marcoperaza 9y ago
  That's not the same. If websites don't implement a cast app themselves, then Chrome will just mirror the tab to the TV. Whereas catt and similar tools will actually direct the chromecast to download the video file directly and play it. This makes a big difference to quality and performance.
  - sombremesa 9y ago
    So what you're saying is that it's probably better to use a browser, because your bandwidth between your PC and your TV is likely to be much better, as well as having the capability to cast not only web content but also anything on your desktop. Plus a mirror is much easier to control, and some cast capable devices may not have the memory to "download" video files. What am I missing here? You seem to think it's a bad thing.
    - jjaredsimpson 9y ago
      Why would the bandwidth be better? I don't see a difference between a Chromecast making network requests or my PC doing it. Also casting your desktop is encoding the desktop. The quality is worse. The only advantage is for casting content with no native support.
    - snowwindwaves 9y ago
      sending a video stream from a file on your disk on a computer results in higher quality video on the television than playing a video in your browser and encoding a stream of your browser window and sending that to the chromecast to display on the TV.
    - TylerE 9y ago
      You're double encoding, and you're not saving bandwidth because you still have to download from the remote source. It's like one of those old FM adaptors for cars, or more pertinently - making a JPG of a GIF - everything gets worse.
  - Spoom 9y ago
    While this is true, newer Chrome versions have a feature where if you fullscreen a video in a tab, it will (within a few seconds, if the video is in a directly supported format) attempt to send the video directly to the Chromecast instead of mirroring the tab. It doesn't always work, but it's much smoother when it does.
    - w0m 9y ago
- kingosticks 9y ago
  Unless of course I don't have chrome on my headless computer? Solutions like this are far better.
StavrosK 9y ago
Yep, I had the same thought a while ago, which is why I built catt! It's come along very nicely, it works well and it's especially suitable if you run it as part of some automation (for example, you can make an Alexa skill to cast videos to your TV from various sources).

opencl 9y ago

VLC also has similar functionality as of version 3.0.

riku_iki 9y ago
There is also nice app: http://getvideostream.com/ http://getvideostream.com/
sohkamyung 9y ago
VLC also does transcoding of video formats that Chromecast does not support. For the python script, you have to ensure the video format is supported by Chromecast [1]. [1] https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

sombremesa 9y ago

You can just cast anything using Chrome anyway...if you expand the dropdown in the top right there is a "Cast..." menu item right there.

marcoperaza 9y ago
That's not the same. If websites don't implement a cast app themselves, then Chrome will just mirror the tab to the TV. Whereas catt and similar tools will actually direct the chromecast to download the video file directly and play it. This makes a big difference to quality and performance.
- sombremesa 9y ago
  So what you're saying is that it's probably better to use a browser, because your bandwidth between your PC and your TV is likely to be much better, as well as having the capability to cast not only web content but also anything on your desktop. Plus a mirror is much easier to control, and some cast capable devices may not have the memory to "download" video files. What am I missing here? You seem to think it's a bad thing.
  - jjaredsimpson 9y ago
    Why would the bandwidth be better? I don't see a difference between a Chromecast making network requests or my PC doing it. Also casting your desktop is encoding the desktop. The quality is worse. The only advantage is for casting content with no native support.
  - snowwindwaves 9y ago
    sending a video stream from a file on your disk on a computer results in higher quality video on the television than playing a video in your browser and encoding a stream of your browser window and sending that to the chromecast to display on the TV.
  - TylerE 9y ago
    You're double encoding, and you're not saving bandwidth because you still have to download from the remote source. It's like one of those old FM adaptors for cars, or more pertinently - making a JPG of a GIF - everything gets worse.
- Spoom 9y ago
  While this is true, newer Chrome versions have a feature where if you fullscreen a video in a tab, it will (within a few seconds, if the video is in a directly supported format) attempt to send the video directly to the Chromecast instead of mirroring the tab. It doesn't always work, but it's much smoother when it does.
  - w0m 9y ago
kingosticks 9y ago
Unless of course I don't have chrome on my headless computer? Solutions like this are far better.

StavrosK 9y ago

Yep, I had the same thought a while ago, which is why I built catt! It's come along very nicely, it works well and it's especially suitable if you run it as part of some automation (for example, you can make an Alexa skill to cast videos to your TV from various sources).