The app doesn't give you access to the cast button, so there's no way to cast, on the chrome web based version you're missing the option to play local media, which is normally available in the app. I believe there's some differences with bitrates supported, but for most people it's probably not an issue.

But it is awesome, just make sure all your MP3s are properly tagged, if you don't want to end up with random folders appearing in the Plex system.

mike

If you want to use Plex, you will need Plex server either installing locally or on another machine on your network, when run from within Chrome (www.plex.tv) you get the option to cast but not play local content, when in the Plex App, you have the servers and local content, but no ability to cast. This isn't an issue for me as I have a server in my network.

I think it would be fine to have a plex server running on a standalone PC, it doesn't seem to be particular CPU intensive and audio shouldn't be too difficult for it to handle without impacting whatever you're doing on the machine at the time, but worth bearing in mind.

mike

Exactly my issue with the device. If you find out I'd love to know. There is a audio hiijack tool but I cant get it working properly at the moment.

I've gone through the same route and apps, not finding a good solution, videostream looked promising but the paid option that provides playlist functionality is $49. Perhaps a new raspberry pi with musicbox installed is a better option :smiley:

Personally ALL sound is definitely not what I want, fine if you have a dedicated PC but rubbish if you're doing anything with all the other sounds you get from windows. If you do have a dedicated PC then there's no limitations with Chromecast audio, you simply accept what you have to do and do it. But in my house bluetooth is not an option, in my lounge, it's too far from my stereo to my typical laptop location (the downside to open plan), to keep a reliable signal, I've found Chromecast to be exceptional at working in areas other devices struggle with even wifi. Granted I've not tried many, but bluetooth doesn't come close to the audio quality of streaming, let alone CD or LP, the latter two I've rediscovered after years with a philips streamium.

mike

I think we all have to face facts, Google isn't going to make anything easy for windows, they've got too much going on with Android and ChromeOS to make anything easy, plus of course where's the margin on Windows except via Google Play which works well, if a little expensive, the moment you make it too easy to avoid Google's services, it has no value to them.

At the moment, the best option is to run Plex Server to serve the audio and Plex in Chrome to receive it, works well as far as I'm concerned, to be honest Plex is a whole lot better for organising than a raw UPNP server. What I've done is run Twonky and Plex on the same box, to cover all bases, but it's looking like this will potentially replace all other forms of receiving. I was lucky when picking up my reserved player in Argos, I found they had one more left in stock, so snapped that up, I will be interested to see how multi-room works.

It could be a whole lot better in terms of usage, but for £15 what do you expect, at £30 it's closer to competing products, but even then is vastly cheaper. I don't know what stats Google are collecting from it, but I am tempted to leave them playing Renée and Renato or something equally dire, to totally screw up the info :laughing:

mike

Try turning Smart Setup off - http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/51728/~/problems-using-chromecast-with-the-bt-home-hub-4-or-hub-5

Yes - that's right. You need an amp.
Some people are using powered speaker (like the kind you plug into laptops) but a proper amp will sound much better.

Mine arrived yesterday, set it up, through my amp sounds perfect via RCA connection, I'll have to try and find my old 3.5mm TOS cable from a portable minidisc player which was put away many years ago to try digital audio, but generally speaking pretty pleased with the result, certainly no noise.

As for setup, what a pain in the butt, I tried the Chromecast installer on several windows machines, including sitting in my hallway next to the main wifi router, with the Chromecast audio next to my laptop, laptop running the installer, couldn't see the unit at all. Repeated with another laptop and windows tablet, no joy.

In the end I dug out an old HP Touchpad (remember those in the fire sale, one of my first HUKD deal purchases), I'd already hacked it to Android, installed the app, bingo, it saw the Chromecast and installed straight away. All the windows machines can now see it fine, so that's great. I guess if I'd not had the old tablet, I could have used an Android emulator under windows, certainly that technique works for my Xiaomi camera. Incidentally it performed an update immediately it connected, so maybe Android is the way to go for installation, I don't know if the windows version is capable of performing an update.

In use, it's a bit of a revelation, works great with Plex (on windows only when running in Chrome), which gives me much better access to my music than relying on UPNP/DLNA. Plex UPNP support isn't that great. The only downside is needing Chrome, which I'm not happy with, but needs must, since it will be used with a separate tablet eventually, I can lock it down. Under Android the Plex app works without any need for Chrome (obviously), just got to decide is it worth £3.30, but at least it does give old tablets a new purpose and lease of life.

I've only tested for a day, and so far I'm very pleased it achieves what I wanted and allows me to sort my music collection using Plex, just as I've already got for video, so that's good. Sound quality is at least as good as my Streamium units, even the one that plays via TOS input on my amp, so the DAC in this thing must be reasonably good. I've had no Wifi drop outs or any issues, other than the initial installation.

I'll probably try and set it up to use a totally private wifi connection, I'm not too happy about a £15 device from Google knowing my main wifi password. I'll also try and find out what it's doing when it talks to the Google servers and see if it's possible to spoof that connection and avoid all outside communication.

Now the only decision is do I collect the second one from Argos, is it that good? My biggest concern is the fact it appears to need Google to be there, so if they drop it for any reason, that could be the end, but then £15 to make it easier to get at my music collection in the nearest to Sonos ease of use, it's probably a steal, even if it's only good for a couple of years.

mike

It's worth it for the 3 months free google Play music alone!

Google Play music works well, not tried anything else.

No. It needs to connect to the internet to stream the music - it doesn't stream from device like bluetooth.
(Or, rather, even if you do direct stream with bubbleupnp in theory it still needs the internet to open up the bubbleupnp app)

I haven't tried it yet, but it should be possible to use the Plex app to stream MP3s from a smartphone. Because you don't have a WiFi router in the car you'll also need to put the SmartPhone Wifi into 'HotSpot' mode so the Chromecast can connect to it.

great price - don't tell Deeky he'll be making 27 calls to complain


hi Deeky ^^

if you phone currys up they will refund your £1

Just get a Bluetooth aux adaptor much less hassle.

Sorry old bean, but you have missed the point of these amazing devices. Yes on a Windows PC they do only work in the Chrome browser (it is a Chromecast branded device).


They absolutely fly when on an Apple or Android device when you have the Chromecast App installed from the respective device App Stores. In terms of better off with Bluetooth, again you kind of miss the point on these devices. The Chromecast devices themselves connect to the internet directly (vs. using the phone to transmit) to stream music, whereas a mobile phone / tablet or PC if connecting to a Bluetooth speaker sends the sound from that specific device to the speaker (a) this drains the device battery if a phone, b) the sound quality is rubbish compared to a dedicated audio stream, and c) if say the phone rings the speaker is interupted with the ringing and conversation of the call (not good if having a party!).

You can also group multiple chromecast audio's together to create a multiroom system (like Sonos), you cannot do this with a standalone Bluetooth speaker). Add to all this that you can do all these things for £15, then this little bad boy is a real deal changer.

You also said that you in Apple / Android you "mirrored" the sound crippling other apps / and the device performance. Did you installl the Chromecast specifc App?
Sorry but, I have 5 of these connected to all shapes and sizes of speakers / AV amps and the like and they are awesome.

A small limitations. Apple and Amazon refuse to embrace anything Google so do not expect their apps to work with this (yet). Apple want you to but a bit of kit that is 4x the price and 8x less open / functional. Amazon refuse to accept that anything outside the "Amazon Fire" range exists, and even block the sale of these as an anti-competitive measure (shame on you Amazon).

There are still decent open audio streaming apps and providers that do work e.g. Spotify, Soundloud, BBC iPlayer Radio, TuneInRadio etc. etc. Also Google Play Music works a dream.


In my opinion this device is da bomb in streaming / multi room, and allowing easy connectivity for people with existing speakers / AV Amps and the like kicking about.

So you didn't read "Chromecast Audio is a small media streaming device that plugs into the AUX input of your speaker, making your speaker Wi-Fi enabled" and think "oh, my car doesn't have wifi?"

For what it's worth, you can put your phone into tethering mode if your mobile provider gives you that and have it use your phone as a WiFi access point.

Thought same using Amazon prime

If it has an AUX in socket, then yes, it should. Have one of my shiny new chromecast audios playing through a bose soundlink mini at the moment as part a multi room set up - it works beautifully!

Output is stereo, so one will output to a set of speakers. Either powered speakers or input to an amp/audio system

No in nearly 100% cases, Chromecast connects to your amplifier first (or your active speaker with amplifer in built). Then your amp will drive the speakers as before.

Just go to your phone's settings and select "Cast Screen". Select your CCA or CCA Group. Then play your YouTube video. :sunglasses:

I'm thinking this will sync with my playbar, as playbar can take an external feed (eg from chromecast) and distribute it to the rest of my sonos network

That's right, see above my comment, getting a generic Chinese brand device for similar money £15-£25, may be a better solution, as Google, Apple and Microsoft battles away to make their stuff as incompatitble as possible. If you don't want to install a Google/Apple/Microsoft app to set up and use any of their devices, the only way is to buy Chinese brand generic wifi media players and receivers.

not all hifis/amps/etc have bluetooth...and with it being wifi you dont have to stay within range, you can roam anywhere in the house and it wont lose its connection

Depends on your scenario and usage. For example for me my Pure DAB Radio in the kitchen does not have bluetooth built in for streaming music from my phone etc, but does have a 3.5mm aux socket.

Therefore normally that gives me two options....connecting my phone to it via a 3.5mm jack to jack and playing music that way, or for wire free convenience I thought about buying for about £6-7 a 3.5mm bluetooth receiver and sending music to it that way, either locally stored on devices or via apps streaming from my NAS.

Until I read about this, your not even tying up your device and putting any battery drain on it other than for control functioning.

Instead, with one of these I can stream music from my NAS drive, utilising my PC/tablet/Phone as effectively a screen remote control, the chromecast would do the rest. Considering currently this costs just over double the price of a rechargeable bluetooth 3.5mm dongle it is a bargain.

Even more of a bargain for anyone with a smart phone/tablet and an older AV Receiver that does not have network support for audio. Simply utilise the optical output and turn it into one...or for that matter even an old amplifier that has 2 RCA L/R inputs on a source, a stereo 3.5mm to L/R RCA cable and you are good to go.

if you're just going to buy a brand new stereo/speaker for the kitchen just buy one with bluetooth already built in

This is Chromecast Audio not Chromecast. You will get 3 months of Google music and there might be some other music related promotions but no credit so far I am afraid.

"Android box" ?

There is a small thin plastic strip that you need to peel off before you can open the card sleeve that surrounds the box. So while you can't damage anything when opening the box I don't think they'd accept a return because that seal has been removed.

Hi. Could you explain this further please? Why would you need a Chormecast if you already have Sonos?

Are you suggesting that sonos and chromecast can share multi room, thus avoiding buying a connect? I don't think it does, but would be exceedingly happy to be told otherwise.

Hi. Your Sonos info is out of date. You can definitely send music stored on the phone/tablet/laptop to play via the Sonos.

Yes. And bear in mind you can always "Cast Screen to Device" from your phone's setting, so you can send anything you like. If an app has built-in casting functionality then the CCA will stream directly from the source, e.g. Play Music and not via your phone.

lol

​too bad

No chance, Google have commanded retailers to sell no less than £15.

If it's anything like the HDMI chromecast then you can't, that damn thing requires internet connection so they can track everything you stream. For "improving service" reasons, of course.

So a waste of money by the sound of it

​http://allaboutchromecast.com/chromecast-audio-vs-bluetooth/

It depends though, if the music is actually stored on your phone or tablet, then it will stream from there if you use one of the many casting apps, so it will drain battery slightly more.
Obviously if you stream via Google play music or similar, the Chromecast will take the stream direct from the internet rather than via your phone.

Thanks OP. I had an Argos gift card gathering dust.


Just search for "Bluetooth audio receiver" on Amazon.

Hmmm, at my current pace I will reach 1000 deals in about the 70th century.

I need to pull my finger out :disappointed:

Indeed. I was just about to say that.

They both have their pros and cons. Main differences are that you can take bluetooth out and about and wifi is easier to use and set up between devices as well as having compatibility to a nice range of devices.

​It posts deals from time to time.

i'd love to know too