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On a related note, there is also PipeCast, an attempt for a general library to cast to devices such as the Chromecast (but afaik not limited to it), from the pe

• alias_neo 8y ago
  It doesn't seem very active sadly, their dev branch is even older than master, and master hasn't been updated in almost a year. According to the documentation it only supports discovery anyway so, is it abandon-ware?
• zozbot123 8y ago
  There is an open standard alternative to Chromecast, known as Miracast. I wonder if this supports it.
  • DCKing 8y ago
    Miracast is not an alternative to Chromecast (officially called Google Cast nowadays). Miracast is a standard for wireless screen mirroring. If you play a Netflix show on your Miracast device, it plays on your phone, which then subsequently mirrors its own screen it to your Miracast display. This mirroring includes your entire phone UI and stuff like incoming notifications. At best, Miracast is an open standard alternative to Apple Airplay. Chromecast is a standard for remote controlling video and audio devices. When you play a Netflix stream on a Chromecast display, you send it a video URL that the Chromecast dongle/box/built-in device plays independently. You can then pause/stop/rewind/fast-forward it from multiple devices in your network, none of which are playing the video themselves. Chromecast is immensely more useful and practical as a result. As a small detail, Chromecast additionally supports display mirroring but that's not why so many people use it. There are no open alternatives for Chromecast. Some Kodi remote apps create a similar experience to stream video to Kodi. But the key of Chromecast's success is not its technical sophistication, but the fact that it has been adopted by a huge number of media services in their Android/iOS client apps. The reason for this is that it's (1) built using an easily available SDK from Google and (2) Chromecast devices enforce DRM, it's not possible (anymore) to cast to uncertified third party devices.
    • solarkraft 8y ago
      > it's not possible (anymore) to cast to uncertified third party devices That's my #1 gripe with it. The protocol is pretty freely available, but at the end there's a pretty strict authentication process requiring device keys stored in a secure enclave (is there a way of getting them out of there?). One way to go would be shipping a modified version of the library not enforcing authentication, paving the way for unapproved devices (implementing the protocol is seemingly easy) - but it will likely not be adopted very widely. Getting real Google Cast reception on your own device (I don't want to buy another hardware thing for something that is entirely software and that won't allow my custom software to run) will essentially involve breaking DRM.
      • bubblethink 8y ago
        I have a 1st gen chromecast which has root. It's been sitting in a wardrobe, but I suppose a clone could be made with some reverse engineering effort. I don't think the 1st gen ones had secure enclaves. They are pretty old at this point.
        • solarkraft 8y ago
          As far as I remember most apps (most prominent exception being YouTube) don't support that version of Chromecast anymore.
          • bubblethink 8y ago
            They should work, provided you let it update the software. However, the scene around rooting chromecasts died and I don't think you will retain root if you let it update. So you'll have to put it more effort to regain root, but in theory it should be possible.
            • solarkraft 8y ago
              Sounds like another cool project I wish I had time for.