Networks and Remotes > Remotes
NEW: ChromeCast on JRemote2 for Android
Hendrik:
In JRemote2 2.0.8 we introduced ChromeCast (Google Cast) support.
You can use ChromeCast to cast your media (audio and video) to ChromeCast devices. Many TVs and some audio devices have built-in ChromeCast support, or you can get a ChromeCast dongle from Google to augment any HDMI device with that functionality.
To use ChromeCast in JRemote2, start from an idle state in JRemote2 (nothing playing), and click the cast button in the top menu (a screen icon with three waves in the bottom corner). It'll bring up a dialog to select the device to cast to, and on selection it'll establish a cast session with that device. If your device has a display (ie. a TV), it should automatically swap to a JRemote2 cast scene.
Now simply pick the media you want to play in JRemote2, and it should cast to ChromeCast automatically.
Limitations:
- ChromeCast needs direct access to the Media Center server you are connected to
- ChromeCast does not work if you use a secure connection in JRemote2, but do not have a fully trusted certificate. The easiest work-around is to use an insecure connection on your local WiFi, and only use a secure connection for connection through mobile data from the outside of your network.
RoderickGI:
I retested this today after rebooting the TV and phone. I got better results, but the user experience is still a bit variable.
The "JRemote2 cast scene" seems to just be a black screen with the words "JRiver JRemote" in the centre. That's fine. I know casting is on from that.
Yesterday the movie I was playing didn't appear in Playing Now, but today it did. So that was probably as a result of rebooting the TV. Or because I had played something locally on the phone prior to testing.
Tapping vs pressing and holding on a movie gives different results. Tapping was a bit inconsistent, but when it worked all movies in the View were added to Playing Now (well, a lot, I didn't check exactly which, just that the one I tapped was next to play). This behaviour is more suited to audio than video, but that is fine. Pressing and holding, then selecting "Play Now" added only the one movie to Playing Now, which is much preferred for movies.
The screens shown on the phone while a movie was playing seemed to vary depending on the format of the file being played. MP4 and AVI files were different to TS files. I was using the Low Quality video setting initially, and the High Quality setting later. Same results.
The movies still paused after a minute or so, with the spinning icon, and didn't recover.
I guess Chromecast will become more reliable when you change the streaming method.
Hendrik:
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on May 13, 2020, 09:17:34 pm ---Tapping vs pressing and holding on a movie gives different results. Tapping was a bit inconsistent, but when it worked all movies in the View were added to Playing Now (well, a lot, I didn't check exactly which, just that the one I tapped was next to play). This behaviour is more suited to audio than video, but that is fine. Pressing and holding, then selecting "Play Now" added only the one movie to Playing Now, which is much preferred for movies.
--- End quote ---
The behavior on single press depends on the mode you have currently enabled. Either press the icon in the top bar to change it to single play, or find the setting in the three-dots menu in the top right (it might hide itself when the cast icon is present due to lack of space).
RoderickGI:
I don't think I've ever seen the PlayMode icon in the top bar. But maybe that is because the Cast icon has always been present.
I guess my issue was that when in Audio, a PlayMode of "Play All Now" was most appropriate for me, but in Video a PlayMode of "Play Now" would work best. I don't suppose we could have different PlayMode settings for different media types?
Or maybe I just need to remember I have to change the PlayMode as required, or use the long press to show the options. :-\
DJLegba:
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on May 14, 2020, 07:58:27 pm ---I don't think I've ever seen the PlayMode icon in the top bar. But maybe that is because the Cast icon has always been present.
I guess my issue was that when in Audio, a PlayMode of "Play All Now" was most appropriate for me, but in Video a PlayMode of "Play Now" would work best. I don't suppose we could have different PlayMode settings for different media types?
Or maybe I just need to remember I have to change the PlayMode as required, or use the long press to show the options. :-\
--- End quote ---
Playmode doesn't show up in the top bar anywhere in JRemote2. When you've selected an album, you can touch the kebab control to find Playmode. And long press is only relevant when you touch an album. If you've touched the album and you get to the list of tracks, with the Play control at the top of the list, the Play control doesn't differentiate between a long press and a short press. It's a bit awkward if you're old enough to suffer from zombie finger and your storage device has gone to sleep and needs to spin up. Pressing play at that point only does what you've set as Playmode, and you may have to wait a few seconds for something to happen, but at that point you don't know if the app has registered your touch or not. So you touch and watch and wait, or you touch a couple of times and more often than not something happens that you didn't really want or expect.
EDIT: I never see a Playmode control on my Pixel 3 phone running Android 10. I do see it on my Samsung tablet running Android 9. On the tablet, when viewing the currently playing tracking with the album cover, tapping the <- control on the top left sends me to a screen listing all the album tracks, with the Cast, Search, Playmode, and hamburger menu controls at the top. On the phone, tapping <- at that point takes me back to the Audio screen where I can select groups like Artist or Genre.
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