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[yoyoc]

Here's the link.

http://www.androidcentral.com/chromecast-audio-can-now-play-same-song-every-room

will we be able to use these new capabilities to play multi zone audio in sync?

 

[MusicHawk]

Very desirable! But note there are now two Chromecast devices, creating instant confusion about which does what. The original device, recently updated, is Chromecast video which sends video (with audio) to a TV's USB port.

The newer device Chromecast Audio is what just got new capabilities, providing a very simple, low-cost way to broadcast audio to multiple amplified speakers -- wireless whole house audio, so-to-speak. Each amp/speaker needs a Chromecast Audio device which connects via a short audio cable with 1/8" stereo plug.

Both Chromecast devices are now available in retail channels including Best Buy and Costco, so demand for compatibility is sure to increase. Chromecast Audio seems like a perfect accessory for MC.

BUT, Chromecast Audio only recognizes certain audio sources, and MC does not seem to be one of them. Lots of reviews bang on Google for this, because the obvious need is for Chromecast Audio to simply work with ANY/ALL audio generated on a PC (or other device). Why hard-code it just to certain devices? Google isn't saying.

But MC has often worked wonders with proprietary/locked-up devices (iPod !!) so maybe they can crack into Google Chromecast Audio too.

The need is for MC to be recognized as an audio source by Chromecast Audio, and/or Chromecast Audio to be an audio output recognized by MC.

[yoyoc]

Does it recognize Gizmo?

The original chormecast does work with Gizmo android App.

As one can play Flac on Gizmo it could work fine.

[connersw]

You cannot play FLAC on Gizmo.  All audio is converted to mp3.  In Gizmo options, you can choose audio quality (Low 64kbps, Medium 18 kbps, or High 320 kbps), but there is no lossless or Redbook quality option.  It has been requested many times, and it would be very nice, if there was an option to at least convert everything to 16/44.1 FLAC inside an OGG container. 

EOS has Chromecast support and a "No Conversion" audio quality option that will play 24/192 FLAC, but I believe Android is down-sampling it to something else (not positive on this and don't have a way to test).  Also, it chokes on SACDs.  Again, having a "lossless" or "Redbook" option available would solve this.

I'm not sure how jremote handles it.  I don't own it or intend to. 

[JimH]

I'm not sure you're correct on this.  Gizmo accepts whatever MC sends and then hands it off to the local audio player for playback.  If the audio player can play FLAC, then it should be possible for Gizmo to "play" it.

Hendrik will probably have more to say.

[connersw]

That is correct when Gizmo is acting as the DMC in a DLNA set-up.  If the audio player can handle FLAC, then you can configure DLNA server under Media Network to Audio -> Mode -> Original.  Or even convert to PCM 16 or 24 bit for lossless audio.  In this scenario Gizmo isn't "playing" anything though.  It is essentially just the remote. 

For actually playing files in Gizmo, and then casting those files to Chromecast, the highest audio resolution is MP3 320kbps. 

If you search, you'll find multiple threads with Hendrik involved asking for lossless/Redbook quality playback in Gizmo.  It does not exist.

[Hendrik]

We tried to do FLAC on-the-fly encoding and streaming a while back, but many devices had some problems with that and it never worked out really well.
Original Format streaming to Android is rather limited, as the native audio format support is just not that great. We try to do that in JRemote, and the only things we can realistically do is MP3, MP4/AAC and FLAC, and even then some people encountered some files that just didn't play properly.

[connersw]

Thanks Hendrik.  I didn't realize you had tried FLAC on the fly in the past.  Was it just a FLAC file or in an Ogg container?  https://xiph.org/flac/ogg_mapping.html  Android devices should play both file extensions, so maybe it was an issue with the transport layer?

Original Format streaming to Android is rather limited, as the native audio format support is just not that great.

Agreed.  Which is why I've always liked the idea of Gizmo having a "specified format only when necessary" conversion similar to how the DLNA server does it, except with some form of lossless compression instead of a large PCM file.  Would be awesome if you ever found a way to make it work.

[Hendrik]

Was it just a FLAC file or in an Ogg container?  https://xiph.org/flac/ogg_mapping.html  Android devices should play both file extensions, so maybe it was an issue with the transport layer?

It works fine with pre-encoded FLAC files. On-the-fly encoding with FLAC results in a file of undetermined size, since FLAC is variable bit-rate, which a bunch of devices didn't seem to like at all, nevermind ever thinking about seeking in them.
Trancoding to MP3 has the advantage of producing a fixed constant bitrate file, which avoids such problems. Not sure yet how to fix that. There is no special protocol there afterall, just reading the music files over HTTP.

WAV/PCM would of course work, since its fixed bitrate, but those files would of course be giant and defeat any use-case of "mobile" streaming.

[Hendrik]

A quick note, I've just pushed a new Gizmo version out which supports ChromeCast Audio. No changes for lossless as of yet, but it plays at least.

[InsaneRC]

Yeah 

Thanks Hendrik

[Okanochiwa]

You cannot play FLAC on Gizmo.  All audio is converted to mp3.  In Gizmo options, you can choose audio quality (Low 64kbps, Medium 18 kbps, or High 320 kbps), but there is no lossless or Redbook quality option.  It has been requested many times, and it would be very nice, if there was an option to at least convert everything to 16/44.1 FLAC inside an OGG container. 

EOS has Chromecast support and a "No Conversion" audio quality option that will play 24/192 FLAC, but I believe Android is down-sampling it to something else (not positive on this and don't have a way to test).  Also, it chokes on SACDs.  Again, having a "lossless" or "Redbook" option available would solve this.

I'm not sure how jremote handles it.  I don't own it or intend to. 

Not sure to understand, can JRiver play 24/192 FLAC with Chromecast Audio?

[AndrewFG]

We tried to do FLAC on-the-fly encoding and streaming a while back, but many devices had some problems with that and it never worked out really well.
Original Format streaming to Android is rather limited, as the native audio format support is just not that great. We try to do that in JRemote, and the only things we can realistically do is MP3, MP4/AAC and FLAC, and even then some people encountered some files that just didn't play properly.

I would think that the best solution would be on the fly transcoding to WAV, which everyone can play, and which MC can do easily...

[drmimosa]

Doesn't WAV sound better than FLAC anyway?


(That's a joke, please don't ban me...)