
Introducing Google Cast for audio - Navarr
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/01/introducing-google-cast-for-audio.html
======
mankyd
> Google Cast Ready speakers come with Cast technology built-in, so you don’t
> have to buy any additional equipment.

Except for, you know, the entirely new speaker(s).

I love this idea, but I want a simple, small dongle, like the chromecast, that
outputs audio only rather than HDMI. I already have a speaker/amp in my living
room that has a mini-stereo in. I simply want a way to connect a chromecast to
it.

~~~
jluxenberg
I use this HDMI audio extractor to turn a Chromecast into what you describe:
[http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-Premium-Extractor-
Conve...](http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-Premium-Extractor-
Converter/dp/B00BIQER0E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420478005&sr=8-1&keywords=hdmi+audio+extractor)

~~~
andybak
Here's a slightly cheaper way to do the same thing:
[http://liliputing.com/2014/02/10-adapter-turns-chromecast-
in...](http://liliputing.com/2014/02/10-adapter-turns-chromecast-into-cheap-
sonos-competitor.html)

~~~
rcraft
I can confirm that that little device no longer works. The old models worked
without the VGA portion needing to be plugged in, however the new models
shipping from China don't work unless the VGA unit is plugged into something,
which basically defeats the purpose.

I am now using this:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMZOUVK/ref=oh_aui_detai...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMZOUVK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
which is working great.

~~~
bsimpson
When I first got my Chromecast, I was beyond frustrated that the music always
cut out (even though watching videos was fine). One day, I was determined to
get to the bottom of it, and realized that my roommate's Yamaha RX-V571 will
reset the HDMI connection every two seconds if it can't handshake the video.
He has an HDMI->VGA adaptor and a VGA projector plugged into the same
receiver. So, whenever I want to listen to music in our living room, I have to
turn his projector on for two seconds. It's beyond stupid, but at least it
works.

~~~
glward
That's odd, my slightly older Yamaha (RX-V367) works fine with the chromecast
as an HDMI device with no tv hooked up. Wonder why the newer model doesn't
like it.

------
eridal
I don't want to cast from the _cloud_. Just make the device able to receive
any media from my LAN!!

it's nice that the dongle can stream from the web, but it's way more useful to
make the device aware of upnp/dlna devices over my local network.

Because of this I've moved to raspberry which

    
    
      - exposes itself over the network as a upnp device
      - plays remote media in the main TV
      - acts as a nas, it can stream to kids' room
      - downloads media via torrents (that I can remotely control)
    

Plus it's a fully Linux environment that I can fine tune as desired

~~~
andybak
> I don't want to cast from the cloud.

It certainly helps battery life for your mobile device to step aside as soon
as playback has started. When casting video it doesn't matter even if I turn
the device off.

~~~
drdaeman
You know, UPnP has media renderers, servers and control software as three
separate matters. This is already a solved problem.

And, well, I had controlled mpd running on my desktop machine (that has the
speakers connected) and streaming from my NAS from my N900, like, 5 years ago.
Replace desktop with something like rPI and the tech is here.

~~~
tdicola
UPnP and DLNA are a disaster of incompatibility and terrible usability. I've
tried to use various UPnP/DLNA audio streaming hardware for almost 10 years
and they have all had terrible issues. Most required the device controlling
streaming to always be on, which is terrible for battery life and plain broken
on tablets, etc. that go to sleep. Some only worked with Windows 7 media
player's 'play to' command. I had to go through crazy setups like running
multiple different UPnP services (bubble UPnP) just to make virtual UPnP
devices that fixed bugs in my real UPnP devices, and even then things would
mysteriously stop working.

Stay very, very far away from UPnP/DLNA. It's borderline false advertising
IMHO to claim it streams music.

~~~
bgruber
if you're using android, i suggest you try bubbleupnp
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp).
It doesn't seem to have the problems you describe, and it's also very happy to
send stuff to a chromecast instead of a DLNA renderer. I could see how it's
possible that your renderer is the cause of the problems, and that can be
harder to replace since it's probably embedded in your TV (I've only used
chromecast and samsung TVs).

I've actually had little to no trouble with DLNA overall, using among other
things the ReadyDLNA server for a sparc readynas and rygel on ubuntu. i
suppose it only takes one bad implementation among the components in your
setup to ruin the whole experience, but i've been pleasantly surprised over
the years how well it seems to work.

bubble doesn't have the best UI, but it's not bad, and there are other apps
that are prettier (allcast comes to mind). in the past i would have totally
agreed that most upnp controllers i had used had TERRIBLE usability, but most
of those were embedded in A/V equipment (TVs, receivers), and what A/V
equipment have you ever used with a good UI?

------
acgourley
Note the lack of spotify support. It's turning into a bit of a showdown
between players like google cast and spotify connect.

There will definitely be a small market in building devices which can serve as
bridges between the standards.

~~~
ultrafez
It's disappointing that we are in the situation where we have several
competing protocols for streaming audio - Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify
Connect, UPnP/DLNA.

As a society we are capable of making software and hardware that interoperate
among manufacturers - email and HTTP are good examples. We could be a far more
technologically advanced world if capitalism didn't encourage companies to
create competing closed-source protocols that only benefit the companies
themselves, to the detriment of everyone else.

~~~
nightski
Yes but if everyone agreed on a standard I could see us all complaining that
"we could be far more technologically advanced world if we didn't force
everyone to use the same standard and there was more room for innovation and
competition".

------
hengheng
Very nice. I'm right now sitting in front of a schematics of a nice modern
modular stereo hi-fi amplifier that I'm building. I made sure to leave plenty
of internal interconnects for BTO radio modules, so that I could accomodate
for Bluetooth, DAB, UPnP rendering, TI CC8520 or whatever wireless standard
would be coming my way later down the line.

Seems that I can now plan to add a Google Cast radio module that can be
_integrated_ into the device. I don't even have to change my design it seems,
I don't even have to put all my money on this horse, and I can still do
without this gadget at first and get the basic device to market as quickly as
possible.

Neat.

~~~
matthewmcg
This sounds really neat--any information on your product you can share?

~~~
hengheng
Will do! I'm finishing up the design right now, and I plan to go DIY first
anyways in order to get some quick feedback, circumvent expensive EMI
certification, and to sell some units before having to go into case
manufacturing. As soon as the prototype shows it's working at the quality
level I hope it will, we'll start marketing it, and I'll make sure to drop you
a note right then!

~~~
Roritharr
This is really cool! I've looked far and wide for got a good stereo amplifier
that is customizable, but such things don't seem to exist! Please let us know
more!

------
drdaeman
"Google Cast is designed to give you more freedom while listening to music."

I sense some irony in this statement.

~~~
makomk
It almost makes AirPlay open by comparison. At least that lets you stream your
local music collection rather than restricting you to approved cloud music
services.

~~~
danellis
> At least that lets you stream your local music collection

What makes you assume that Google Cast wouldn't? You can stream your local
video collection to a Chromecast.

In fact, how is it restricted at all? If it works like a Chromecast does, the
SDK is open and anyone can write receiver apps to run on it. How much more
open do you need it to be?

~~~
pinot
Not natively though, you have to use Plex or play the video in Chrome.

------
vpontis
Wow, it seems like this will take a while to come out and I didn't see any
word on pricing.

A good alternative to this is a Beep. Beep sells devices that plug into any
speakers audio jack to let you stream music from your phone. What's better is
that it also syncs up multiple units so you can have your music in sync across
your house.

We've used them in our office a few times and love them.
[https://www.thisisbeep.com](https://www.thisisbeep.com)

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I don't think it's been officially announced yet, but at least one of the
reports on the new Google Cast stuff, and a dev who claims to work on one of
the partner apps commenting on reddit, suggest that the audio cast stuff will
synced audio across multiple devices.

This would be a killer feature if true.

------
dchuk
I love my Chromecasts. I have two of them in our house, and we don't have a
television subscription, we just use a mixture of Plex, Netflix, and streams
for sports. We're saving a bunch of money every year now, and it works great.

But damn, the lack of a desktop sdk/api for chromecast is just infuriating. I
get it, Google believes in Mobile and Web only, but you'd think if they're
shooting for market domination, they wouldn't ignore an entire market segment
in terms of developer options.

~~~
sanderjd
Pretty off-topic, but what sports streams do you use? I'd love to ditch cable,
but can't seem to find good replacements for sports.

~~~
dchuk
Been using the links posted here for NFL:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/nflstreams](http://www.reddit.com/r/nflstreams)

There are sidebar links for other sports too.

------
Reebles
Will we finally get gapless playback in the Chromecast's native music player?
I've tried to use my Chromecast for music, but the gaps between tracks are
just complete deal breakers for many albums. I had just assumed audio was not
a priority for google.

~~~
Navarr
Chromecast is just a web browser - so I imagine that's due to the client
(which each service has their own, I think). Not sure what exactly they're
doing for audio casting, but I imagine it's dependent on the service to
implement properly

------
ludite313
I created an iOS App that allows you to stream audio directly from one device
to another. It works great if you have an old iPod touch available.
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/music-stream-
free/id91402690...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/music-stream-
free/id914026908?ls=1&mt=8)

------
shoggs
I don't like the way Google Cast always needs to connect to a service before
playing any media. This could be a little bit annoying with audio. Its okay
for me to wait a couple seconds to connect for watching a movie. But let's say
you wanna switch from Google Music to Spotify, it's always gonna take some
time.

~~~
eridal
And have you tried to use it without internet access? It completely refuse to
work.

My ISP had some problem that let 200 families without service for a week.
Although I have my local network fully working, the dongle refused to boot

~~~
dotunderscore
You are aware that the chromecast is really nothing more then a web browser in
a stick? It has no storage for any thing other then the firmware to run the
device.

~~~
ajanuary
A local network is more than capable of serving up the chromecast app. It's a
restriction they've added to the device that it won't load it from a local
network.

~~~
sangnoir
I think "restriction" is a poor choice: it's more like an architectural
decision - that is exactly how they designed it.

I could equally say your computer is more than capable of running a self-
hosted version of GMail, but "it's a restriction [Google] added" for them to
run it on their servers.

~~~
ajanuary
I run a Plex media server on my laptop, which is already serving up content to
my local network over http. It would be very simple for them to host their
Chromecast app on the same local server and for the cast button to send that
URL.

The Chromecast checks the URLs against a whitelist. Presumably as a security
measure, which is a perfectly valid reason, but it's still a "restriction".

To allow people to run a self-hosted GMail, huge changes would need to be made
to the code. To allow me to serve my own Chromecast apps, it would need to
remove a whitelist check.

------
shekhar101
Totally unrelated but I have to know this! Somebody posted an article many
months back that talked about DIY audio system that gives run for money to
Bose, Beats and likes. It was open source design by an anon electrical
engineer. Anyone knows what was it?

------
spdustin
I use an Airport Express as an AirPlay receiver, which is connected to a line
input on my Sonos setup. Nice thing is that Sonos can switch to that input
automatically when it senses a signal.

I've also used Shairport[0] on a Raspberry Pi as an AirPlay receiver - it
worked great, I just wanted to keep tinkering with the Pi so I switched to the
Airport Express, which I already owned.

[0]:
[https://github.com/hendrikw82/shairport](https://github.com/hendrikw82/shairport)

Edit: I see someone else already said that, whoops. FWIW, I didn't have any
major audio quality issues in the brief time the Pi was used for AirPlay.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Thing is if you have a Sonos already, then you have had music casting from
Google for a while. It's not the same protocol, but the Google Play Music app
has been able to "cast" to Sonos for at least some months, maybe a year or
more.

------
andreyf
> Google Cast Ready speakers pull content directly from the cloud, so you'll
> get the best audio quality and can freely multi-task on your phone, tablet,
> or laptop, all without straining the battery

Is it that much of a battery strain to connect to a radio in the house, and
usually in the same room? The device that'll be doing it is designed to
connect to cell towers up dozens of miles away [1], after all...

1\. [http://smallbusiness.chron.com/far-can-cell-tower-
cellphone-...](http://smallbusiness.chron.com/far-can-cell-tower-cellphone-
pick-up-signal-32124.html)

~~~
andybak
It's about letting your mobile device sleep rather than to constantly be
(semi)-awake to push audio.

------
therealmarv
Bluetooth speakers: Unbelievable but they also stream sound which is only
locally on mobile phone. Why do all Googlers think that everybody in the whole
world has good wifi everywhere?

~~~
com2kid
BT Speakers typically use A2DP, which sounds horrid. Recompressing already
compressed audio is not a path towards goodness.

That said, reading up on A2DP, it seems that A2DP supports higher quality
audio streams, but I have yet to see anyone advertise such in their products.

------
dlevine
So Google has decided to compete with Airplay. Although I guess this is
better, because I'm assuming it will work with any router, and not just
special ones sold by Apple.

~~~
jamesbrownuhh
Is that what you meant to say? AirPlay isn't restricted to special Apple
routers either.

~~~
ubercore
That is true, but I also believe there are some lower level "nice to haves"
they enable on their routers to make sure Bonjour/mDNS works properly for
airplay. If not intentionally, I do know that some routers (Actiontec / FiOS
comes to mind) that have particular difficulty with providing reliable Airplay
connections.

~~~
ubercore
I'll bite, can someone help me understand the downvotes? Actiontec routers
(among others I'm sure) may not work well with Bonjour out of the box:
[https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&e...](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=actiontec%20bonjour)

Airports generally don't need attention for airplay, and that probably leads a
lot of people to the impression that you need an Apple router.

------
taternuts

      >"Google Cast streams your music directly from the cloud instead of from your phone, so you won’t lose any sound quality."  
    
    

Huh??? This is almost _never_ the case in my opinion, especially when using
popular cloud services for music playback. Pretty sure I just had to nerf a
high quality .WAV file to a .WMV 20 minutes ago before I could even upload it
to google music.

~~~
Sargos
.wav is not a music format. It's meant for pure sound clips and doesn't even
have the capability of adding metadata like artist and song name. If you care
about sound quality then just use FLAC.

The streaming quality from Google Music is top notch, it just seems that you
had a problem getting the music into the service due to an antiquated format.

~~~
mattmcknight
The problem is with this part of the statement: "Google Cast Ready speakers
pull content directly from the cloud, so you’ll get the best audio quality"
Pulling content from the cloud doesn't not mean you'll get "the best" audio
quality.

~~~
Sargos
Streaming over the internet will yield better quality than a Bluetooth stream
which compresses the music. The bits that hit the speaker are as high quality
as the source material.

~~~
mattmcknight
Right, that would then be "better than bluetooth", not "the best technology".
In particular, the network induces latency and buffering problems.

------
dannyrosen
Surprised no one mentioned Mopidy[0] in the thread. From their github:

Mopidy is an extensible music server that plays music from local disk,
Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Play Music, and more. You edit the playlist from
any phone, tablet, or computer using a range of MPD and web clients.

[0]:[https://github.com/mopidy/mopidy](https://github.com/mopidy/mopidy)

------
tek-cyb-org
Ive been doing google cast audio. It's called, Chromecast+hdmi analog audio
extractor=free youtube music to home audio system. :)

------
Jack5500
I own a Chromecast and like all about it except it's ability to play oyur own
content. I understand why they forbid it, but for the same reasons I'm using
it much mroe rarely than I would otherwise. Additionally this could have
easily been an addition to the original Chromecast via a simple extractor.

~~~
Reebles
There are actually many apps that allow you to play local content now. It was
pretty bad for a while before they released the SDK though.

The two I use are Videostream for Google Chrome, and BubbleUPnP for Android.

~~~
eridal
Have you seen which permissions those kind of apps require?

I don't want to allow these apps to read my history, share my contacts, or
expose the current running apps just to cast some media ..

~~~
parfe
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp&hl=en)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.videostrea...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.videostream.Mobile&hl=en)

Which permissions do you take issue with? I don't see anything like what you
claim.

------
dtjones
Here is a list of all music apps supported:
[https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chrome/devices/chromecast/...](https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chrome/devices/chromecast/apps.html?utm_source=chromecast.com#?category=music)

I wish Spotify would integrate..

------
dtx
No Spotify? Wow. I don't even recognize half the music services it supports.
As someone else said on this thread, I am happy with 320kbps music streaming
on Spotify + it's remote control features + the recent hardware support for
Spotify Connect.

------
cheshire137
Might be nicer than wrestling with my Vizio soundbar to connect via Bluetooth.
Takes multiple attempts to make it connect to any of my devices (laptop,
phone, or tablet), then sound drops and gets flaky frequently when I stream
music.

------
Cub3
Is it just me or has anyone else been waiting for multi-room audio, I don't
understand why I can't 'cast' to two locations at once?

Seems like they'd take the Sonos market pretty easily if/when implemented

~~~
krrrh
As a recent Sonos convert, I really think that they are going to be hard to
catch in terms of nailing so many aspects of the user experience. Not least of
which is how good the hardware (esp the Play:1 speakers) sound and look. I
Have to admit how surprised I was to learn that the same company that made
those janky wall controller systems a decade ago is now the second largest
_speaker_ company in the world.

~~~
Cub3
My only issue is the price, the only thing it gives over any other
implementation is the multi room aspect, as soon as a company like Google
bakes it in to their already established platform I don't see them selling
many units

------
guiomie
I was going to by one out of excitement, but then I realised it is only
available this spring. I might not buy it anymore, since the hype I had at
this exact moment will be gone...

------
StringyBob
Any support for multi-room audio? (or multiple remote speakers?) Sonos seem to
be the only ones with a handle on this, and even then it's not particularly
low latency...

~~~
jonah
If you use SonosNet rather than your standard wifi network, it has much better
latency.

------
Navarr
And their minisite:
[http://www.google.com/castaudio/](http://www.google.com/castaudio/)

------
thechut
Why is there not a dongle for this. This should have been the first step and
part of the announcement.

------
mauricesvay
Is the protocol documented somewhere? Would be great to see a software
implementation of that.

------
quotemstr
It'd be nice if I could turn my old Squeezebox Boom into a client for this
thing.

------
mililani
So, when will Chrome Cast finally support Bluetooth audio? That's what I want.

------
bgruber
well, i guess that means miracast is done for.

~~~
com2kid
Miracast is such a POS, I am saddened by exactly how horrible it is.

I have a Miracast setup with over a second latency for video. When it works at
all.

------
jonah
Darn, I just bought a bunch of Sonos gear...

------
lowlevel
A full 10 years after AirTunes. Yay.

------
sv3nss0n
[http://www.google.com/castaudio/](http://www.google.com/castaudio/) gives a
404...

~~~
vpontis
I just checked and it's working fine for me.

~~~
sv3nss0n
yes, now it works for me too.

