[Ned Scott]

They've already found ways to install UPnP video players on the ChromeCast, so this is actually already possible. I guess no one else is following ChromeCast hacking.

[awp0]

Wow all of the people that are arguing about not attempting to share Xbmc with chromecast are ridiculous. Let's see xbmc grow even more not just stay were it is. What if every piece of technology was treated that way? Ok guys no more new phones or computers..we are all good here...why are you guys even on this forum. I for one would love to see xbmc pushed to chromecast in some form or fashion. At least then the dongle would be worth a crap. As for getting Netflix running on the pi you can do so by means of a plex server. You will need the plex server installed on a windows or mac machine though (if they make it for osx I'm not sure). You could install Netflix to the plex server and the plex app to xbmc...but almost anything on netflix you can already find on xbmc anyway.

I don't think there are many (if any?) people who are arguing that this shouldn't be attempted.

---

They've already found ways to install UPnP video players on the ChromeCast, so this is actually already possible. I guess no one else is following ChromeCast hacking.

Is that one of the hacks that requires an early non-updated Chromecast?

[nokian]

Hack Chromecast and make boot straight to XBMC. Then we'll call it the XBMC Dongle

[natethomas]

Interesting how many first and second time commenters are being drawn to this particular flame.

[freezy]

Just noticed that my TV supports it out of the box. Guess I have 2 chromecasts now to play around with

[nokian]

BTW, isn't it about time that XBMC offers its own set-top box or dongle instead of relying on 3rd party hardware. We live in a post-PC world. You need a dedicated box. This way you guys can concentrate your energy on one project.

[Ned Scott]

BTW, isn't it about time that XBMC offers its own set-top box or dongle instead of relying on 3rd party hardware. We live in a post-PC world. You need a dedicated box. This way you guys can concentrate your energy on one project.

We're not a company, and we support multiple platforms because we have developers who want to work on those platforms. Having an "official" box would not change the focus at all.

[Asphyx]

Actually it is accomplishing exactly what you want. Straight from the official wiki page that you did not read:

If you have more than one XBMC device on your local network then you might want to synchronize them using a MySQL library. Using a MySQL library allows you to store information about your whole video library in a central database, so that multiple XBMC devices can access the same information at the same time.
This gives you the ability to do things like:
*Share watched and unwatched status for your media on all devices
*Stop watching a movie or TV show in one room then finish watching it in another room automatically
*Only one library to maintain for all devices

It's obvious you have no idea what I'm asking for!
Your talking about syncronizing Libraries and I'm talking about SIMULTANEOUS MONITOR DISPLAY!
If Chromecast support was implemented I could watch ONE HTPC on every monitor in my house!
No need to sync libraries or have an HTPC in every room!


Here is the scenario...
I'm in the Family room watching a Movie on XBMC....
My Kids come home with friends and want to play in the Family Room

I want to hit a button, send the stream to the Bedroom (NO HTPC OTHER REQUIRED) and see what I was seeing without having to FIND TE MOVIE in the Library and start it!

Scenario #2

I am watching a movie in the Family room. Someone in the Bedroom wants to watch it with me. I hit a button and they can see it WITH ME!

This is a feature of MULTI MONITOR USE
Not accessing Media!
Your telling me this is EASY just put an HTPC in every room of the house!

Well thats a pretty poor way of showing the same content on two different monitors now isn't it?

[Asphyx]

Ah. Made it down to the bottom of your book-length entry where you essentially admit my point. So I'm guessing you get it now?

And did you get my point that this already exists via TWO chrome apps?
You may not think them useful but they work on a lot more sites than YouTube and Hulu. Actually it works on most sites that have Video on them.

All I pointed out was that you can send streams to XBMC now!
What you want doesn't require a chromecast at all.
Point is it's far less work to do what you want than it is to do what I want.
Capability is pretty much in existence all that needs to be done is add some code to make XBMC identify itself as a chromecast.

What you want has nothing to do with Chromecast other than tricking apps that support it into using XBMC as a target.
I would be glad to see it but I really have little need to play internet content on my XBMC and I can already send it to TV through the Chromecast if I wanted via the CAST TAB feature of chrome.

The whole reason for wanting the stream to CCast option is so that I don't have to take up too many LIMITED HDMI ports on my TVs.
Cable Box eats up one, Chromecast will take the second on most TVs and in most of those cases no more HDMI available.

I already have a switchbox in the Family room to handle Cable, XBMC, Playstation and yes another Chromecast.
Being able to send the output of XBMC to any TV saves me having to go buy more HDMI switchboxes.

[awp0]

It's obvious you have no idea what I'm asking for!
Your talking about syncronizing Libraries and I'm talking about SIMULTANEOUS MONITOR DISPLAY!
If Chromecast support was implemented I could watch ONE HTPC on every monitor in my house!
No need to sync libraries or have an HTPC in every room!


Here is the scenario...
I'm in the Family room watching a Movie on XBMC....
My Kids come home with friends and want to play in the Family Room

I want to hit a button, send the stream to the Bedroom (NO HTPC OTHER REQUIRED) and see what I was seeing without having to FIND TE MOVIE in the Library and start it!

Scenario #2

I am watching a movie in the Family room. Someone in the Bedroom wants to watch it with me. I hit a button and they can see it WITH ME!

This is a feature of MULTI MONITOR USE
Not accessing Media!
Your telling me this is EASY just put an HTPC in every room of the house!

Well thats a pretty poor way of showing the same content on two different monitors now isn't it?

You know what an Android stick is, right? When "HTPC" means "Android stick no bigger than a Chromecast" and "library sharing" is as simple as dropping a single file onto each stick, then yes I'm saying it's pretty darn easy. With a smartphone remote like Yatze, finding and playing media on multiple XBMC instances is incredibly simple (and fun). And, of course, you'd also have the benefit of a full-featured Android device with the Play Store for anything else that your friends and family might want to do on each of those TV's (i.e. Evernote Food for the kitchen, Plants versus Zombies in the playroom).

I'm not sure this would accomplish your second scenario (which you had never mentioned before), but I'm not sure that scenario is very popular or common anyway. Frankly, I'm not even sure this would be possible with Chromecast support. I suppose it depends on how it's implemented.

And I'm not arguing that Chromecast wouldn't be great to have. Just pointing out that many of these use cases that people claim to want so badly are accomplishable right now.

[nivekc87]

Is the OP still working on this? I'd be interested in helping out. it is my understanding that traditionally the chromecast does not directly stream media from your device, rather the device tells the chromecast to go to the internet and play this or that video, song, etc. so I think it would be awesome for online content (fusion) to be able to be slected in the xbmc interface on my phone only the links playback on the chromecast attatched to the tv.

[natethomas]

And did you get my point that this already exists via TWO chrome apps?
You may not think them useful but they work on a lot more sites than YouTube and Hulu. Actually it works on most sites that have Video on them.

You and I have already established that your point was moot because the two sites it doesn't work with (Netflix and Amazon Prime), are 100% the most important. Nobody cares if XBMC can have Youtube or Vimeo or any of those other sites streamed to it, as long as it can't play Netflix and Amazon.

Capability is pretty much in existence all that needs to be done is add some code to make XBMC identify itself as a chromecast.

If that were true and it happened, that would make my day. It certainly hasn't happened yet though and to my knowledge not a single developer inside or outside of XBMC has even begun to submit code that would make it a possibility, making me question your casual offhand remark. For one thing, it's very possible that to make XBMC truly work like a Chromecast, we'd need webkit built in, which we obviously don't have. I'd be interested to know your coding background to see exactly how much of the code subject you are actually aware of. And further, if you have the necessary background, I'm curious why you are arguing about this instead of submitting code for the feature you so clearly want.

I would be glad to see it but I really have little need to play internet content on my XBMC and I can already send it to TV through the Chromecast if I wanted via the CAST TAB feature of chrome.

Then you obviously aren't one of the thousands of people who regularly asks us when we're going to get Netflix support.

The whole reason for wanting the stream to CCast option is so that I don't have to take up too many LIMITED HDMI ports on my TVs.
Cable Box eats up one, Chromecast will take the second on most TVs and in most of those cases no more HDMI available.

I already have a switchbox in the Family room to handle Cable, XBMC, Playstation and yes another Chromecast.
Being able to send the output of XBMC to any TV saves me having to go buy more HDMI switchboxes.

The irony here is that if XBMC could act like a Chromecast, you wouldn't need "yes another Chromecast." Frankly, I'm honestly not sure why we're having this argument. I'm not arguing against XBMC being able to send to Chromecast. That'd just be an extension of the already existing Play To function that XBMC already has built in. It'd be a lot of work that I'm not sure any dev would want to do for free, but that being said, I'm always a fan of new features. The only thing I'm ultimately arguing for is eliminating the need to buy yet more hardware, if you've already got XBMC installed all around the house.

[nokian]

We're not a company, and we support multiple platforms because we have developers who want to work on those platforms. Having an "official" box would not change the focus at all.

OK, forget an Official Box. What about making it to an Official Box. Plex, for instance, Officially made it to Chromecast. Why Not XBMC?

[nickr]

We're not a company, and we support multiple platforms because we have developers who want to work on those platforms. Having an "official" box would not change the focus at all.

OK, forget an Official Box. What about making it to an Official Box. Plex, for instance, Officially made it to Chromecast. Why Not XBMC?

Because nobody has written it, or had the urge to write it.

[Ned Scott]

We're not a company, and we support multiple platforms because we have developers who want to work on those platforms. Having an "official" box would not change the focus at all.

OK, forget an Official Box. What about making it to an Official Box. Plex, for instance, Officially made it to Chromecast. Why Not XBMC?

That's were UPnP/DLNA comes in.