
Google blocks Chromecast app that let you stream your own videos - austengary
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/25/4657202/google-blocks-chromecast-app-that-let-you-stream-own-videos
======
ekidd
The Chromecast would be a pretty great device with a few hundred third-party
apps, including streaming radio, a photo viewer, and other stuff that could be
easily implemented on top of the existing SDK. And I was planning on writing a
specialty app at some point. I have a whitelisted device and I've been fooling
around with the SDK. It's a nice platform.

But there's several comments in the Koushik Dutta thread from people who
"spoke to Googlers" suggesting that Google intends to keep _very_ tight
control over the platform and only allow major media companies to ship apps.
If this is the case, the Chromecast is a pretty worthless competitor to the
average, proprietary smart TV, which already does Netflix, Hulu, etc., and
doesn't require the customer to use multiple devices to turn on the TV and
play content.

As somebody who once spent a couple months of evenings hacking on Google Wave
bots, I'm ready to drop my Chromecast plans like a hot potato. If there isn't
a robust market for third-party apps, this thing's going to be another
stinker.

~~~
Pxtl
Yup. Android/Google fanboys already have Android HDMI sticks to get their
Google + TV fix - little Chinese no-names like Smallart are actually making
some very nice devices. Chromecast is Google's answer to Apple TV, not iTV.
It's just the latest iteration of GoogleTV and will do just as well.

I'm happily waiting for my Android stick to come in the mail for my kids' TV.

~~~
superuser2
You can stream your Mac's screen with a VLC video playing full-screen and
effectively watch whatever you want on an Apple TV.

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ZoF
This is purely conjecture, they have no way of knowing if breaking changes
were intentional.

Also: Any media that can be played in your browser can be played with
Chromecast, Just start casting and go to "File:///C:/" and traverse your file
system/find your media. Obviously this applies to your desktop, not your
phone.

~~~
ibrahima
The point of the app that got broken was to play media directly from your
phone. The way Koush describes the breakage makes it sound pretty intentional
to me. It makes sense why they did it though, and even if it's limited to
Youtube and Netflix for the price that's still a great deal.

------
doctoboggan
What is the evidence for the claim that this was an intentional move by Google
rather than just them breaking an unpublished protocol?

~~~
kgarten
They reference Koushik Dutta in the sources. He believes it's intentional,
see:
[https://plus.google.com/110558071969009568835/posts/ZeHgRXS6...](https://plus.google.com/110558071969009568835/posts/ZeHgRXS6AZs)

~~~
doctoboggan
His only evidence seemed to be that this was the second time it happened.

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mikecane
Is this the future? You buy a device but the manufacturer actually owns it?

~~~
pcunite
A very alarming future when you consider the digitization and electrification
of _everything_. Imagine prescription eye glasses that turn off myopic
correction when you miss a payment, refrigerators that report their contents
to the local _health_ labs, automobiles that find it unusual for you to be
driving after 1am, cell phones that overheard you say, "the government is too
big".

Electric chains more binding than anything our forefathers sought to escape
from.

~~~
mikecane
>>>Imagine prescription eye glasses that turn off myopic correction when you
miss a payment

Philip K. Dick already did, from _Ubik_ \--

Back in the kitchen he fished in his various pockets for a dime, and, with it,
started up the coffeepot. Sniffing the -- to-him -- very unusual smell, he
again consulted his watch, saw that fifteen minutes had passed: he therefore
vigorously strode to the apt door, turned the knob and pulled on the release
bolt.

The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."

He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I’ll pay you tomorrow," he
told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What
I pay you,” he informed it. "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t _have_ to
pay you."

"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed
when you bought this conapt."

In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it
necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his
door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

"You discover I’m right," the door said. It sounded smug.

From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it
he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-
gulping door.

"I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.

------
jonbaer
Not sure I understand this, isn't the device just a low-cost implementation of
a DIAL device? [http://www.dial-multiscreen.org](http://www.dial-
multiscreen.org)

~~~
lcampbell
Yes, but DIAL requires a centralized registry of whitelisted apps (and they're
using their own registry for ChromeCast, not the dial-multiscreen.com one); my
reading is that Google is un-whitelisting any apps that allow streaming of
local media.

Honestly, it's really silly since the built-in Chrome casting webapp is
basically "throw arbitrary content at the screen via WebRTC" \-- so
hypothetically you could write a local WebRTC client that pushed your local
video content to the device (and sidestep any whitelist restrictions).
Unfortunately, WebRTC looks like a needlessly complicated protocol to
implement.

------
ewillbefull
> But he also voiced support for Chromecast's tab casting feature, which
> essentially gives users limitless viewing options so long as they're
> watching something in a Chrome browser.

I have not had a good experience with this. None of my personal media is in a
format that Chrome will play let alone stream to Chromecast.

~~~
jamesaguilar
FYI, Plex will transcode your personal content to something that an HTML5
player can view on the fly. I can't recommend it highly enough.

(Correction: Plex uses a Flash player . . . so Plex is still great, but it
doesn't help solve this issue.)

~~~
ihuman
If you are using iOS, it somehow detects it and uses quicktime player to load
the video instead. If you are somehow able to trick chrome into telling Plex
to show the iOS version, you may be able to stream it to the chromecast.

------
lvs
CheapCast[1] + a cheap Android 4.2 dongle[2] may make Chromecast platform
lockdown irrelevant[3].

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.maui.cheapc...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.maui.cheapcast&hl=en)

[2]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEN1X3BR910](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEN1X3BR910)

[3] ... for those willing and able to muck about.

~~~
foobarqux
That doesn't seem to let you stream local videos.

~~~
lvs
No, this will just implement the DIAL protocol, but the app will allow hooks
for other developers to build whatever they like. My point was that there are
open solutions to implement a DIAL compliant dongle, if indeed it turns out
that Google locks down Chromecast.

------
mig39
Don't be evil?

~~~
daave
How is making internal changes to an unpublished API evil?

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joeblau
Is there a way to put your own custom OS on a Chromecast? The hardware seems
great for allowing some third party (maybe via Kickstarter) to build a truly
open platform on top of it.

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kylemaxwell
So, you don't really own a Chromecast. Google lets you use it, as long as you
use it the way they approve. Sounds more like a lease than a purchase.

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cremnob
Open always wins, until it conflicts with your business interests.

~~~
anxiousest
Your comment reads like an entry in daring fireball, just trollish nonsense.
They pushed an update that broke some non official/supported functionality,
I'm not sure what "business interests" you're babbling about.

~~~
THE_PUN_STOPS
Simple. Google hopes to woo Hulu, HBO and others. They can't if they keep it
open.

------
engrenage
Like almost everything Google does, they never said this was open. It doesn't
seem like anything was 'blocked' \- it was just never supported in the first
place.

