Casting to Google Cast Receivers from Android with VLC chromecast sout module

[gu6526]

The topic "Chromecast Support on Android" is not really new and I am following the VideoLan Forums and the VLC 3.0-git sources quite closely. There is not much progress on this topic and I ask myself: Is it a principal problem, that cannot be solved or is it just lack of development power.

Decoding a live stream and simultaneously transcoding into a format that is compatible with Google cast receiver and streaming out would cause a significant load. Is this possible with current devices like the Nexus 5. Did anyone make measurements? Should I give up on this?

VLC can handle many formats, which sets it apart from other players and also the player built into the current ChromeCast Receivers. So casting by posting URLs isn't an option (screen mirroring isn't either). Also the new Google ExoPlayer, which certainly will become the default player on Android, can handle more than the current cast receivers can handle. So it may be a common problem which can only be handled by putting the same decoding intelligence into the cast receiver. But that means you end up using intelligent Android Boxes with HDMI output and give up the idea of casting.

Any opinions on this?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Implementing the proof-of-concept was (comparatively) easy, because it just proved that VLC and Google Cast can communicate. Making things work in a stable, mostly automated and user-friendly manner is a tall order though.

And it is clear that it will not always work. If transcoding is required and the sending device is not powerful enough, then obviously it cannot work. In may cases, hardware-accelerated encoding may be possible, depending on OS and hardware support, but VLC is not supporting this much yet.

Also if remuxing is required due to incompatible formats, then energy consumption will be high. It will work, but it will drain the battery fast.