Topic: Chromecast with Google TV [Working with JRiver for Android] (Read 4036 times)

JimH · « **on:** September 30, 2020, 05:12:58 pm »

Google formally announced the next version of Chromecast today. It's $49.95 and includes a remote.

https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_google_tv

The Verge liked it:

https://www.theverge.com/21495609/google-chromecast-2020-review-streaming-remote-control

I ordered two, one from Google and the other from Best Buy. Best Buy offered pickup in the store on October 9th. Google is shipping it for arrival on October 15th.

[Edit: They both came in and after scratching our heads for a week or so, they're now working. Settings need to be changed: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,127059.msg883812.html#msg883812 ]

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** September 30, 2020, 05:25:19 pm »

The Verge review says that you can sideload apps to it.

jmone · « **Reply #2 on:** September 30, 2020, 06:01:36 pm »

I was hoping to get my hands on one to test, but looks like it may be awhile till it is released in Oz. It will be interesting to see how it goes running MC (sideload) on it.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2020, 06:42:30 pm »

It's AU$99 in Australia. When did our dollar drop to US$0.50?

Jmone, if you are talking about JRiver for Android, it wouldn't need to be sideloaded, would it? The device runs Android TV, so it should use the Play Store, although the page doesn't seem to explicitly say that. Certainly, there are a lot of other Play Store Apps shown in the images.

JimH · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2020, 09:59:35 pm »

Quote from: RoderickGI on September 30, 2020, 06:42:30 pm

It's AU$99 in Australia. When did our dollar drop to US$0.50?

Jmone, if you are talking about JRiver for Android, it wouldn't need to be sideloaded, would it? The device runs Android TV, so it should use the Play Store, although the page doesn't seem to explicitly say that. Certainly, there are a lot of other Play Store Apps shown in the images.

We don't know yet if it has the Play Store on it. If so, JRiver for Android might show up in it.

DeaneG · « **Reply #5 on:** October 01, 2020, 01:43:31 pm »

That would be an interesting and inexpensive way to run a TV/DVR client! Could it work?

jmone · « **Reply #6 on:** October 01, 2020, 04:26:39 pm »

All good Qs, all we need is for someone to get a unit!

EnglishTiger · « **Reply #7 on:** October 01, 2020, 05:57:46 pm »

Quote from: RoderickGI on September 30, 2020, 06:42:30 pm

It's AU$99 in Australia. When did our dollar drop to US$0.50?

Jmone, if you are talking about JRiver for Android, it wouldn't need to be sideloaded, would it? The device runs Android TV, so it should use the Play Store, although the page doesn't seem to explicitly say that. Certainly, there are a lot of other Play Store Apps shown in the images.

Rod - The price in the UK and Germany are also way above the Standard Conversion Rate + Tax amount. Maybe it costs more to have the power bricks for use outside the US made in those "pretty colours". Plus don't forget somebody has to pay for the things to be shipped from China to the US and then to Australia, the UK, the EU or anywhere else outside the US

RoderickGI · « **Reply #8 on:** October 01, 2020, 06:12:05 pm »

The power bricks would be the same cost. Products are shipped directly from China to Australia, not via the US.

Australia has always paid a premium for imported products, and none of the arguments for it hold a lot of water on examination, except perhaps the volume shipped/sold. Australia is seen as early an adopter's market willing to pay a higher price, and so we do.

JimH · « **Reply #9 on:** October 08, 2020, 03:51:36 pm »

One of them arrived today. JRiver for Android works! I'm playing from Cloudplay now. There's no way to load a library from another device yet.

It was there as soon as I got the device working under Apps > Your Apps. Probably because I had installed it on the Nvidia Shield.

The Chromecast came up in Catalan so installing it was a little tedious. Once it updated and I could start it, I was able to switch to English.

Something about the sound isn't right. Checking.

JimH · « **Reply #10 on:** October 08, 2020, 04:52:46 pm »

I've tried a few things and the sound still has some crackling.

I plugged the Chromecast into my receiver instead of the TV. It works, but there is still the sound problem.

I was able to load a library from my Windows machine and that seems to work OK.

Giving it a rest for now. More later. We have another one coming soon that Brad can use to see what he can find.

jmone · « **Reply #11 on:** October 08, 2020, 04:55:15 pm »

Nice! It is still not released for us in Oz till next week.

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** October 10, 2020, 05:41:12 pm »

I just tried Gizmo, playing to the Chromecast by using the Chromecast button. Works. Sounds good. No audio crackling or distortion.

JimH · « **Reply #13 on:** October 10, 2020, 05:48:47 pm »

The device looks like it has 4GB of internal storage, of which about 1.8 is available. How to get to it I haven't figured out yet.

And, to my surprise, Panel connects to JRiver for Android that is running on the Chromecast. It looks just like any other computer and Panel can play to it. The sound problem is still the same.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #14 on:** October 10, 2020, 09:34:41 pm »

A very good review of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-IwfwfD-I4

He says 8GB Internal storage, but the video later shows 4.4Gb of Internal Space. ? Maybe what was shown on the video was free space. Or space available after the OS was installed.
He shows how to access external storage, which should be visible to JRiver for Android.

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** October 11, 2020, 08:21:28 am »

Thanks for the link, Rod. I learned some things.

JimH · « **Reply #16 on:** October 11, 2020, 12:36:45 pm »

Trying to add some external storage. Tried two unpowered hubs. Each time, the Chromecast complained about power. Here's an article I found about hubs.

https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/chromecast-usb-hub-ethernet-google/

I ordered a powered hub.

jmone · « **Reply #17 on:** October 11, 2020, 03:36:10 pm »

I'm keen to try to use one as a Library Server Client instead of a NUC for a low use "guest bedroom". I find the NUC in this room rather unreliable (or I am), as there is always 100 Windows Updates and MC Upgrades I need to remember to do. If I could run MC as a Library Server Client on this new Chromecast, then guest could have access to the MC Library + all the usual On-Line streamer stuff.

jmone · « **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2020, 03:58:54 am »

OK - I've now got one of these dongles. Shows lots of promise and did some first tests with JRiver for Android:
- Install of JRiver for Android: Straight forward and loaded a library from my Server
- Audio Files: Played fine no issue
- Video Files: Hit and Miss. Most single files will play (eg MP4), no BD/DVD rips will play, some files have glitchy audio but others are fine. It does not look like the new dongle has the power to play 4k/50p files (eg my camcorder footage), starts playing, stutters then playback stops.
- URL (eg Radio Streams): Played fine though there was an oddly long delay
- TV (from HD Home Run): Nothing is displayed, though the HD Home Run app works great
- Presentation / UI: Not great, the other apps have a more Icon based layout, with JRiver it is more a flat roller. Thumbnailing was also not great with lots of grey boxs but then some stuff will then fill in.
- Stability: Not great, at one point my JRiver Server Instance crashed and had to be restarted
- Other: There does not seem to be Frame Rate changing option for Video so plenty of Video miss frame rate jitter

Using "Casting" from JRemote (on a phone) to the dongle worked well (as usual).

It is amazing what such a cheap device can do. There is a bunch of stuff to make JRiver for Android work well with this dongle however but it certainly has plenty of promise.

JimH · « **Reply #19 on:** October 30, 2020, 08:59:10 am »

We had a little breakthrough yesterday. At this time, I believe it's a Chromecast bug that was causing audio problems.

Here's Brad's message to me:

"Are you able to test something with the Chromecast? If so, can you go into Settings -> Display & Sound -> Advanced sound settings -> Format Selection, then, set it to Manual and turn off all the format options. I have no idea what it uses in this case, but it must be using something. You'll need to force stop JRiver for Android and restart it, but then see if there is still a sound issue."

Then my reply:

"OK. It didn't work and then it did. What worked finally (after doing everything you said to do), was to set the receiver to 2 channel stereo. I'm guessing that something is screwy in how the Chromecast toggles surround sound. Once it's been set, it doesn't come unset. We might be able to force this the way we want it. Matt understands this better than I do."

JimH · « **Reply #20 on:** October 31, 2020, 07:06:19 pm »

Another good review:

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/chromecast-with-google-tv-is-the-best-streaming-device-ive-ever-owned

DeaneG · « **Reply #21 on:** November 22, 2020, 04:11:07 pm »

+1 for strongly wanting to be able to use a Chromecast (Google TV) adapter as a Theater View client instead of building and maintaining a NUC. My home's JR media center hardware infrastructure is aging, needs replacement, and I'd prefer to simplify it to a strong but quiet low-power server (big NUC with 2TB SSD) with very minimal clients (Google TV adapters). I just ordered a Google TV device and anticipate adding one to each of my TVs.

JimH · « **Reply #22 on:** November 22, 2020, 04:45:47 pm »

Quote from: DeaneG on November 22, 2020, 04:11:07 pm

+1 for strongly wanting to be able to use a Chromecast (Google TV) adapter as a Theater View client instead of building and maintaining a NUC. My home's JR media center hardware infrastructure is aging, needs replacement, and I'd prefer to simplify it to a strong but quiet server (big NUC with 2TB SSD) with very minimal clients (Google TV adapters).

Do you mean that you want the Chromecast to serve as a Renderer? Playing media from MC, running on a NUC?

DeaneG · « **Reply #23 on:** November 22, 2020, 05:00:50 pm »

I am hoping it could be possible to use the Google TV (Chromecast) as the sole endpoint hardware for a Theater View interface on a client TV, replacing a low-end NUC that I use now. I suppose this would be a Media Center client app running on the Google TV device. I'd have a possibly headless central MC server somewhere in the house (as now), with TV tuners, stored music and videos, URL-access to my security cams, etc. And use $50 Google TV devices at each client TV as the sole hardware device between the server and the TV's HDMI input, from which I could access Media Center as a client providing a theater view interface to everything on the server. The Google TV could also provide its normal interface to streaming content from other sources.

DeaneG · « **Reply #24 on:** November 22, 2020, 05:10:14 pm »

Not wanting to cast a Media Center-sourced video/recorded TV show from my phone to the Google TV device - instead want to run a Media Center Theater View client app directly on the Google TV device. No other client hardware involved except the Google TV adapters and their own remote.

jmone · « **Reply #25 on:** November 27, 2020, 12:07:56 am »

I too was looking for a simple end point renderer for MC to replace the hassle of NUCs on devices for "casual viewing". It's a good streaming device from commercial services, but from my testing of the Chromecast with Google TV it has a bandwidth issue with anything over 100mbps (either on wireless on using a wired hub). This is going to make it touch and go for streaming any UHD BD content (when MC for Android has the ability to do that) and it certianly can not do my 150mbps UHD/50p camcorder footage. The nVidia Shield on the other hand has no issue with these higher bitrate material.

Anyway, the next step to be sure is for when MC for Android can play these UHD rips natively to be sure.....

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Author Topic: Chromecast with Google TV [Working with JRiver for Android] (Read 4036 times)