Native Chromecast built into Kodi
#1
Hi guys,

Is there any plans to ever implement native chromecast into Kodi?
Been using Boxi (the last windows version before they shut down) for years, going straight from media computer into TVs HDMI.
Have now moved and can no longer do this, As Boxi stopped development prob around 10 years ago it obviously does not support Chromecast.
Ive basically been using Chromecast via Youtube, Netflix & Animelab to watch TV but have now got just got my computer back and have been looking for the most similar platform to Boxi to view all my local media from and Kodi ticks all the boxes, just that it doesn't have Chromecast built in.
I know Plex has Chromecast but i much prefer Kodi over Plex. I have been using Videostream currently, which works fine but lacks the menu interface ETC, if you just just implement Videostream into Kodi that would be amazing.

Basically is there any plan for Kodi to implement Chromecast or is there a simple way to add this function, and no i don't mean screen sharing i mean actually casting.

Thanks
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#2
as soon as an open source library for chromecast exists, kodi can implement it.
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#3
If you mean receiver capabilities, for YouTube you can use this addon since yesterday, but keep in mind it will only work with youtube:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=329153

The addon is still pending review in the Repo queue so at the moment you need to install it manually from source.

If you mean sender capabilities within Kodi, VLC has an opensource implementation in the last version but i guess Kodi has to support transcoding for this to be implemented reliably someday.
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#4
While it would be great to have Kodi as a Chromecast receiver (essentialy turning Kodi into a free chromecast dongle).  In the meantime its probably easier to buy a real Chromecast which will work perfectly.

I'm not sure the value of having Kodi as a sender considering how easy it is to run Kodi on a RPi or Android TV, Xbox etc.
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#5
@enen92 
Thanks heaps for your reply, Yes i want sender capabilities, So i want to be able to send my local files from my computer to my ChromeCast using Kodi.
at the moment im just using Video Stream - https://getvideostream.com/ - if this functionality was just built into Kodi it would be amazing Smile

@jools5000 
I do have a Chromecast, that's what I'm using to watch everything on, the only thing thats dificult to stream to the chromecast is local media files as the best option ive found is Video stream (linked above) as you manually have to brows to each file every time you want to watch something. Kodi has the interface and all the features, it just lacks the functionality to connect to and stream to chromecast.

@wsnipex 
Kodi already reads your media files as does the video stream software, https://getvideostream.com/ im sure its not as simple as just taking what video stream does and implementing it into Kodi but it does sound simple Smile

Thanks for the response all, hope you guys can get Chromecast integration soon Smile
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#6
Interesting. I wonder what trick getvideostream is using...
I bet they ripped some code from chrome, that allows to stream to a Chromecast, iirc

EDIT: It actually runs *inside* chrome Wink
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#7
(2018-03-04, 10:45)wsnipex Wrote: as soon as an open source library for chromecast exists, kodi can implement it.

https://github.com/balloob/pychromecast
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#8
Quote:Library for Python 3.6+ to communicate with the Google Chromecast.

I'm not a Kodi developer, but at this moment Kodi is still not fully Python 3.x ready for all supported OS'es.
Whether pyChromecast can be implemented at all into Kodi, is a question for one of the devs to reply.
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#9
Any dev willing to take a look if this is possible?

The added value for me/my setup would be less wires and more flexibility.

Consider a setup with a TV, external speakers (no receiver!) and a projector that is across the room from all of the other equipment.

Adding "cast to" capabilities to Kodi allows me to:
- cast Kodi to TV only for reduced noise
- cast Kodi to TV + speakers (chromecast group)
- cast Kodi to Projector + speakers (chromecast group)

All this while leaving my setup easy to use if i just want to cast a youtube video from my phone.

Basically completely wireless solution without a need for switching equipment.
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#10
(2019-09-21, 12:11)furhat Wrote:
(2018-03-04, 10:45)wsnipex Wrote: as soon as an open source library for chromecast exists, kodi can implement it.

https://github.com/balloob/pychromecast  
You may want to use something (e.g., ffmpeg or VLC library) that can double as a transcoder & chromecast sender.

Some other projects with code that may be worth looking at.
https://github.com/muammar/mkchromecast
https://github.com/vishen/go-chromecast
https://github.com/skorokithakis/catt/ (older version has python 2 compatibility; current version is python 3)
https://github.com/hensm/fx_cast
https://github.com/thibauts/node-castv2

For Android/iOS:
https://github.com/react-native-google-c...st/tree/v4

Supported media for Google Cast.
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#11
Bumping an old thread...

From pure a technical point of view, is it possible to establish a ffmpeg stream to a Chromecast device with for example pychromecast or similar?
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#12
Have there been any news regarding implementing Chromecast sender in Kodi?
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#13
No.

It's acknowledged as being something that would be nice, but no-one is working on it to my knowledge.
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#14
This has been a bugaboo of mine as well. It seems to me that support for Chromecast is eventually built into EVERY SINGLE VIDEO PLAYER in the world. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit but it is true that nobody wants a video player that doesn't support it.

Regarding VideoStream, I too use it. It was my first go to tool. And it is not doing anything special that is not readily available to any and all users of the Chromecast APIs.

When I first researched Kodi as a tool, I found a little GitHub project called castnow. It is a javascript command line interface that can chromecast files. As a proof of concept, I modified the Kodi playercorefactory.xml file to execute a command line and run castnow in order to cast from within Kodi. It was wonky, but it worked, and from that I put a future project on my massive todo list to develop an addon that would link from Kodi.

This pychromecast library is something I just heard of, so I will be digging into that hole a bit to see what's what.

Incidentally, the playercorefactory is documented in their Wiki. The little test I ran looked like this:

<playercorefactory>
 <players>
   <player name="Castnow" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
     <filename>c:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe</filename>
     <args>/k castnow "{1}" -address 192.168.0.10</args>
     <hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
     <hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
     <warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
   </player>
   <player name="Castnow2" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
     <filename>c:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe</filename>
     <args>/k castnow "{1}" -address 192.168.0.10</args>
     <hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
     <hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
     <warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
   </player>
 </players>
 <rules action="prepend">
 </rules>
</playercorefactory>
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#15
(2021-11-13, 04:27)Kensit Wrote: Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit but it is true that nobody wants a video player that doesn't support it.
That's not true.  I don't need it in Kodi as most of the streams I watch are PVR and not Chromecast friendly.

Martin
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