chromecast renderer not working?

[dhdurgee]

After arguing for some sort of remote control feature for vlc for android similar to what is available on Linux to allow me to operate it from my Linux laptop without success, I decided today to try using the renderer support for chromecast as others had suggested. It was not a success.

I am running vlc 3.0.9.2 from my distro repositories on linux mint 20.3 x64 here. I started playing an internet radio stream and the went to the Playback->Renderer menu entry and selected one of my chromecast devices. The local audio stopped and the timer continued to count indicating the stream was still being played, but there was no audio from the chromecast.

As I have the stream2chromecast scripts installed, I used them to query what was going on and got:

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dhdurgee@z560:~/Downloads$ stream2chromecast.py -status searching the network for a cast receiving device Sending mDNS query device found: 172.16.80.227 enough devices found device name: TVision HUB v2 {'applications': [{'statusText': u'Default Media Receiver', 'displayName': u'Default Media Receiver', 'appId': u'CC1AD845'}], 'host': '172.16.80.227', 'client': ('172.16.80.233', 41994), 'media_status': None, 'receiver_status': {u'displayName': u'Default Media Receiver', u'appType': u'WEB', u'statusText': u'Default Media Receiver', u'transportId': u'4683ca64-effb-495d-80f8-5bfe9eec38e5', u'isIdleScreen': False, u'launchedFromCloud': False, u'iconUrl': u'', u'sessionId': u'4683ca64-effb-495d-80f8-5bfe9eec38e5', u'namespaces': [{u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.cac'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.debugoverlay'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.broadcast'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.media'}], u'appId': u'CC1AD845', u'universalAppId': u'CC1AD845'}} dhdurgee@z560:~/Downloads$

So it appears that the Default Media Receiver was started by the change of renderer, but I still hear nothing. I am not totally familiar with the chromecast status display, but a quick look at the stream2chromecast code indicates that media_status ought to be "PLAYING" if it were doing so.

Any suggestions to get this working?

Dave

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC 3.0.9 is out of date, and indeed, there were Chromecast fixes released since (that does not necessarily mean that they fix your problem).

[dhdurgee]

As I also have vlc installed on my android phone I decided to try it as well. I was able one time to get this working as expected when I hit the cast button. Status confirmed both by ear and stream2chromecast:

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dhdurgee@z560:~/Downloads$ stream2chromecast.py -status searching the network for a cast receiving device Sending mDNS query device found: 172.16.80.227 enough devices found device name: TVision HUB v2 {'applications': [{'statusText': u'Default Media Receiver', 'displayName': u'Default Media Receiver', 'appId': u'CC1AD845'}], 'host': '172.16.80.227', 'client': ('172.16.80.233', 47180), 'media_status': {u'mediaSessionId': 1, u'supportedMediaCommands': 12303, u'currentTime': 0, u'media': {u'breakClips': [], u'contentType': u'audio/x-matroska', u'contentId': u'http://172.16.1.212:8010/chromecast/1867807342975/18446744073697205784/stream', u'breaks': [], u'tracks': [], u'streamType': u'LIVE', u'duration': None, u'mediaCategory': u'AUDIO'}, u'playbackRate': 1, u'volume': {u'muted': False, u'level': 1}, u'activeTrackIds': [], u'repeatMode': u'REPEAT_OFF', u'currentItemId': 1, u'items': [{u'itemId': 1, u'media': {u'duration': None, u'contentId': u'http://172.16.1.212:8010/chromecast/1867807342975/18446744073697205784/stream', u'streamType': u'LIVE', u'contentType': u'audio/x-matroska', u'mediaCategory': u'AUDIO'}, u'orderId': 0, u'autoplay': u'false'}], u'playerState': u'PLAYING'}, 'receiver_status': {u'displayName': u'Default Media Receiver', u'appType': u'WEB', u'statusText': u'Default Media Receiver', u'transportId': u'c69aa0aa-cf93-42db-945e-4a71e6b6b15e', u'isIdleScreen': False, u'launchedFromCloud': False, u'iconUrl': u'', u'sessionId': u'c69aa0aa-cf93-42db-945e-4a71e6b6b15e', u'namespaces': [{u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.cac'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.debugoverlay'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.broadcast'}, {u'name': u'urn:x-cast:com.google.cast.media'}], u'appId': u'CC1AD845', u'universalAppId': u'CC1AD845'}} dhdurgee@z560:~/Downloads$

So a playerState of PLAYING is shown in the returned status information from the chromecast.

I had a bit of difficulty duplicating this, but it appears that the chromecast must be in idle state for this to work. If the default media receiver is running, even if it is not playing, I was not able to initiate playback from vlc on android.

Android release is 3.4.4 here.

I hope this provides useful information for getting it working on Linux.

Dave

[dhdurgee]

VLC 3.0.9 is out of date, and indeed, there were Chromecast fixes released since (that does not necessarily mean that they fix your problem).

Very well, where is a repository I can add to my list to update vlc for linux mint 20.3, which uses Ubuntu focal for its basis?

Dave

[dhdurgee]

I have located two possible PPAs to obtain a later release of vlc from. The first offers 3.0.17.3-1 built on 17 March and the second 3.0.17.4-2 built on 24 May. Are there any significant differences between these builds for Linux? I ask because the builds take different approaches and the first would be simpler to apply to my system without side effects.

Dave

[jill_vlabs]

they're minor releases it shouldn't make any difference for you

if you want the latest version an alternative to ppas is to use the snap version: https://snapcraft.io/vlc

to get the 3.0.17.3 : `sudo snap install vlc --beta`

[dhdurgee]

I now have 3/0.17.3-1 installed here. When I initially tested this version I was encountering the same problem as with the earlier version, but then I took a close look at the status reports I was getting from the chromecast unit.

I had not realized until a closer inspection that you were asking the chromecast to request a connection to a port on my laptop. This of course was failing as my firewall was blocking all inbound connections. Once I disabled the firewall the connection was made and playback began.

Of course I enabled my firewall after the test. Is the port you are opening fixed? If not, can I set a fixed value for it? As far as I know I need a fixed port to enter in a firewall rule to permit this to operate with the firewall blocking all other inbound requests.

Dave

[dhdurgee]

I did some internet searching this morning and found the firewall settings. I needed to allow inbound to the port listed in my preferences for:

Stream output->Sout stream->Chromecast->HTTP port

In my case this was 8010, which I assume is the default value.

So my problem appears to be solved at this point.

Dave