Thanks for this. I am actually 3/4 the way through doing a chromecast plugin as well but will have a look at what you have done
I posted a question on the his youtube video for the plugin. Don't know his alias here.Look at the first post in this thread.
Finally I managed it to work by creating a rule for it in the firewall. With some help from the builder. Thanks.
The only strange thing was also that the sound didn't start in tv (and external receiver speakers) until I played next song. And also that after a few songs the sound disappears from the TV. But checking status, the chromecast is still connected.
How is your plug in coming along, Steven?
Now I feel like an idiot. Of course, he started the thread. Thanks 😊
I was able to install the addon and add the button to my toolbar with the help of a friend, but when we click the button it says "No Devices" and we aren't entirely sure why. Github is a touch above our understanding in general, we just followed the instructions as written. The status says "Chromecast Not Connected, Service Status: Not Running"
based on the settings the server should be running on 8080. When we run netstat there's no port 8080 waiting and listening. We don't find any button to turn on the server. We've tried disabling, enabling the extension, re-starting the software. We do see the rule in our firewall for allowing the chromecast communications.
I was able to install the addon and add the button to my toolbar with the help of a friend, but when we click the button it says "No Devices" and we aren't entirely sure why. Github is a touch above our understanding in general, we just followed the instructions as written. The status says "Chromecast Not Connected, Service Status: Not Running"
based on the settings the server should be running on 8080. When we run netstat there's no port 8080 waiting and listening. We don't find any button to turn on the server. We've tried disabling, enabling the extension, re-starting the software. We do see the rule in our firewall for allowing the chromecast communications.
The webserver doesn't need to be started manually. It will only start up once its connected to a Chromecast successfully.
Have you tried looking at the Troubleshooting (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#troubleshooting) part of the readme? Some google cast devices such as the home/mini/cc audio make a blip noise when something has connected to it.
Also this is how its supposed to work after connecting. Example (https://streamable.com/i7d27h)
Most of the time it's usually a firewall/network setting thats stopping musicbee from communicating with the chromecast. It's a bit hard for me to troubleshoot things like that since peoples network setup will be different between person to person.
I was able to install the addon and add the button to my toolbar with the help of a friend, but when we click the button it says "No Devices" and we aren't entirely sure why. Github is a touch above our understanding in general, we just followed the instructions as written. The status says "Chromecast Not Connected, Service Status: Not Running"
based on the settings the server should be running on 8080. When we run netstat there's no port 8080 waiting and listening. We don't find any button to turn on the server. We've tried disabling, enabling the extension, re-starting the software. We do see the rule in our firewall for allowing the chromecast communications.
The webserver doesn't need to be started manually. It will only start up once its connected to a Chromecast successfully.
Have you tried looking at the Troubleshooting (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#troubleshooting) part of the readme? Some google cast devices such as the home/mini/cc audio make a blip noise when something has connected to it.
Also this is how its supposed to work after connecting. Example (https://streamable.com/i7d27h)
Most of the time it's usually a firewall/network setting thats stopping musicbee from communicating with the chromecast. It's a bit hard for me to troubleshoot things like that since peoples network setup will be different between person to person.
Thank you for the quick response! We took a look at the troubleshooting for sure, but from what we could tell it didn't seem to apply. Since the devices list says 'no devices' we can't even connect anything, so there's no way we'd hear a connection noise. Looking at the video you kindly provided, we think we have everything set up right so we'll try checking our firewall and networking settings. My friend says your reply was very helpful!
I created a quick and dirty executable to add the necessary rules for the firewall and netsh command. The code is on github in the MBCCRules folder. Look at the readme for instructions on how to use it.This sounds promising. I can not find any setup instructions, nor the readme in the ZIP of the latest version I just downloaded.
I created a quick and dirty executable to add the necessary rules for the firewall and netsh command. The code is on github in the MBCCRules folder. Look at the readme for instructions on how to use it.This sounds promising. I can not find any setup instructions, nor the readme in the ZIP of the latest version I just downloaded.
I should maybe change the wording. The setup in this instance is part of the plugin setup as a whole. The instructions are where the Installation (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#installation) part of the readme is.Thanks. I guess I should've scrolled all the down after I downloaded the ZIP. Might I suggest putting the instructions in the ZIP so if others do the same as me, they'll have them?
Anyways tho, usage for it is simple to run the .exe in a terminal window passing in the port # you wish to use. e.g "MBCCRules.exe 8080"
I should maybe change the wording. The setup in this instance is part of the plugin setup as a whole. The instructions are where the Installation (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#installation) part of the readme is.Thanks. I guess I should've scrolled all the down after I downloaded the ZIP. Might I suggest putting the instructions in the ZIP so if others do the same as me, they'll have them?
Anyways tho, usage for it is simple to run the .exe in a terminal window passing in the port # you wish to use. e.g "MBCCRules.exe 8080"
I was able to install the addon and add the button to my toolbar with the help of a friend, but when we click the button it says "No Devices" and we aren't entirely sure why. Github is a touch above our understanding in general, we just followed the instructions as written. The status says "Chromecast Not Connected, Service Status: Not Running"
based on the settings the server should be running on 8080. When we run netstat there's no port 8080 waiting and listening. We don't find any button to turn on the server. We've tried disabling, enabling the extension, re-starting the software. We do see the rule in our firewall for allowing the chromecast communications.
The webserver doesn't need to be started manually. It will only start up once its connected to a Chromecast successfully.
Have you tried looking at the Troubleshooting (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#troubleshooting) part of the readme? Some google cast devices such as the home/mini/cc audio make a blip noise when something has connected to it.
Also this is how its supposed to work after connecting. Example (https://streamable.com/i7d27h)
Most of the time it's usually a firewall/network setting thats stopping musicbee from communicating with the chromecast. It's a bit hard for me to troubleshoot things like that since peoples network setup will be different between person to person.
Thank you for the quick response! We took a look at the troubleshooting for sure, but from what we could tell it didn't seem to apply. Since the devices list says 'no devices' we can't even connect anything, so there's no way we'd hear a connection noise. Looking at the video you kindly provided, we think we have everything set up right so we'll try checking our firewall and networking settings. My friend says your reply was very helpful!
Maybe this might help but on my end this is how my inbound firewall rule is setup (I only included the relevant info):
Protocols and Ports:
Protocol Type: TCP
Local Port: Specific ports -> 8080
Scope:
Local IP Address -> Any IP Address
Advanced:
Profiles: Private
And when I do "netsh http show urlacl" I can see the required rule:
Reserved URL : http://*:8080/
User: \Everyone
Listen: Yes
Delegate: No
SDDL: D:(A;;GX;;;WD)
I was able to install the addon and add the button to my toolbar with the help of a friend, but when we click the button it says "No Devices" and we aren't entirely sure why. Github is a touch above our understanding in general, we just followed the instructions as written. The status says "Chromecast Not Connected, Service Status: Not Running"
based on the settings the server should be running on 8080. When we run netstat there's no port 8080 waiting and listening. We don't find any button to turn on the server. We've tried disabling, enabling the extension, re-starting the software. We do see the rule in our firewall for allowing the chromecast communications.
The webserver doesn't need to be started manually. It will only start up once its connected to a Chromecast successfully.
Have you tried looking at the Troubleshooting (https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast#troubleshooting) part of the readme? Some google cast devices such as the home/mini/cc audio make a blip noise when something has connected to it.
Also this is how its supposed to work after connecting. Example (https://streamable.com/i7d27h)
Most of the time it's usually a firewall/network setting thats stopping musicbee from communicating with the chromecast. It's a bit hard for me to troubleshoot things like that since peoples network setup will be different between person to person.
Thank you for the quick response! We took a look at the troubleshooting for sure, but from what we could tell it didn't seem to apply. Since the devices list says 'no devices' we can't even connect anything, so there's no way we'd hear a connection noise. Looking at the video you kindly provided, we think we have everything set up right so we'll try checking our firewall and networking settings. My friend says your reply was very helpful!
Maybe this might help but on my end this is how my inbound firewall rule is setup (I only included the relevant info):
Protocols and Ports:
Protocol Type: TCP
Local Port: Specific ports -> 8080
Scope:
Local IP Address -> Any IP Address
Advanced:
Profiles: Private
And when I do "netsh http show urlacl" I can see the required rule:
Reserved URL : http://*:8080/
User: \Everyone
Listen: Yes
Delegate: No
SDDL: D:(A;;GX;;;WD)
First off, Thanks again for the help. We adjusted some network settings and we've got connectivity to the chromcasts now. When we click the button on musicbee it pulls up all the options. Now the issue is that it doesn't start up the webserver. We get 2 errors the first says "The server factory could not be located for the given input: Microsoft.Owin.Host.HttpListener." The second error is "Error starting the Webserver. Webserver Exception".
Based on the errors we thought maybe we missed the microsoft.owin.host.httplistener.dll when copying things across to the musicbee folder, but it's there.
It seems to us that it's not a networking issue any more, but an issue with me missing something or something else happening on the machine side. Network seems fine now since when we go to status it says
"Chromcast: Connected.
Server Status: Not Running"
Any other helpful tidbits that might explain what's going? :)
First off, Thanks again for the help. We adjusted some network settings and we've got connectivity to the chromcasts now. When we click the button on musicbee it pulls up all the options. Now the issue is that it doesn't start up the webserver. We get 2 errors the first says "The server factory could not be located for the given input: Microsoft.Owin.Host.HttpListener." The second error is "Error starting the Webserver. Webserver Exception".
Based on the errors we thought maybe we missed the microsoft.owin.host.httplistener.dll when copying things across to the musicbee folder, but it's there.
It seems to us that it's not a networking issue any more, but an issue with me missing something or something else happening on the machine side. Network seems fine now since when we go to status it says
"Chromcast: Connected.
Server Status: Not Running"
Any other helpful tidbits that might explain what's going? :)
Woot! We got it working and here are some lessons learned.
Lesson one this extension has issues with the windows store music be app due to not the location of extension files not being were they should be :) (This may be why I've had issues with other Music bee extensions :) Thanks for helping me out with that as I didn't know it would matter until now.)
Due to lesson one, i installed the standard x86 installer and decided to try following the normal setup to see if it was ONLY because my other music bee was the windows store app, but I had the same issues as before.
Finally I tested the provided fix and it's working. :) I moved the listener dll to the same folder as musicbee.exe and it is now running as expected. (I think, I'm not actually sure what "expected" is, but it mutes my computer's music bee and just plays through the chromecast. Takes a hot second to spin up, but it works and that is more than I had before.)
Thanks so much for your help. Hopefully my experience will help others too. :)
That seems like a lot of work when you could just switch to the portable version, but cool to know if can be done. Would this work for any plug-in?
One tip I will share is that I had to turn on file/printer sharing (which I had turned off a long time ago):
Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings
One tip I will share is that I had to turn on file/printer sharing (which I had turned off a long time ago):
Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings
I have the same issue. Everything connected and MB, the artist name and song name shows up on my tv screen, but no sound. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem by activating the file/printer sharing.
Any more tips?
I noticed that the rule that is now automatically created is for incoming traffic. Is that correct? I thought the rule would be for outgoing trafic. I created a similar rule for outgoing, but no results.
I had everything working before, but had to do a reinstallation of the OS on my laptop.
If anyone is trying to get this to work with the store app, it can be done! It's a little complicated though.
Since Windows essentially bars you from modifying anything in the WindowsApps folder (where Windows Store apps are installed), you're going to have to do your work outside of Windows. I used Ubuntu Live on a flash drive, but there are numerous other ways you can do it.If your drive is encrypted with Bitlocker (like mine), you'll need to follow a few more steps.
- Rather than copying the plugin's files into MusicBee's folder (which Windows won't let you do), save them elsewhere and then add them in MusicBee under Edit Preferences > Plugins > Add Plugin.
- Per some other users, you may also need to install the MusicBee UPnP/DLNA server plugin. I didn't try this without it.
- Follow the instructions here (https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview) to create install Ubuntu Live on a flash drive.
- Make note of (1) where you have Microsoft.Owin.Host.HttpListener.dll saved and (2) the parent directory of musicbee.exe. You can find musicbee.exe's parent folder by right-clicking on it in Task Manager and selecting "Open file location".
- Shut down your computer and boot Ubuntu Live from the flash drive. You may need to modify your UEFI/BIOS settings to get it to boot from the flash drive instead of booting your Windows installation.
- Select Ubuntu in the first menu AFTER you've booted from the flash drive.
- On the next menu, choose to boot from the drive rather than installing Ubuntu.
- Now you should finally be into the Ubuntu desktop. Open the file manager and copy the .dll from wherever you saved it to both the same directory as musicbee.exe AND the plugins directory. I'm not sure if you need both, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
- Shut down Ubuntu and reboot into Windows.
BEFORE booting into Ubuntu.AFTER booting into Ubuntu.
- Save your recovery key by right-clicking on the encrypted drive (in Windows) and selecting "Manage Bitlocker", then "Backup your recover key".
- You can either save it to a text file or to your Microsoft account. In either case, it's a long set of numbers (8 sets of 6, with dashes in between).
- Open software center, click on edit, and the software sources. Then check the box that says "Community-maintained free and open-source software (universe)".
- Follow the instructions here (https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/04/how-to-mount-bitlocker-encrypted.html) to unlock and mount your drive. Where it says to type in your password as "-u<password>", use "-p<recovery key>" instead, where you replace "<recovery key>" with the long number you saved before, INCLUDING the dashes, and making sure there is NOT a space between "-p" and the beginning of your recovery key.
- Copy the .dll as described above.
While modifying files in the Ubuntu environment, you should be careful to not modify anything else, because you could corrupt your MusicBee or worse, Windows installation.
I got it working on the first go, thanks to all you creators and pioneers and a well written README. :DGeez - that's pretty. I might have to give it a go. Good work, dev.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GSnkAG1zWvhbBxnNX5TvPqDN3WeO8jel-XD9aFbYQu-PKwOHFezZhwOZoB7bIdY9MaZeblpxsjz6N2uIROfTWRkBxOvqf23AGqWjL6n_qzkQGWJl51cb-yZArLV0q_tTxK3yKJmTovQ=w1920-h1080)
I'm having trouble getting this running - the Chromecast is connected and the server is started but I don't get the track information:
<image snipped>
...and no audio, of course. I could ultimately live without the display.
When the track changes everything shows up for about a quarter of a second before it bounces back to this. If I go to the URL in a web browser I get a 503 "Service Unavailable" error. I'm guessing it might be a firewall issue but I'm not quite sure where to start looking. Any help would be appreciated.
@echo off
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee"
start MusicBee.exe
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins"
start MBCCRules.exe 8080
exitFirstly, big thanks to the aurhor and contributors of this plugin. I am a programmer myself and I do appreciate how much effort is needed to develop and maintain this program.
I've been looking for a good player that can cast local music to my chromecast, and I am so glad I found music bee and this plug in. Everything worked like a charm on my first try, thanks to the instructions. BUT, only a day later after a reboot, the plugin stopped working. When I try to cast it always says "No Devices". Other programs such chrome can connect to the chromecast and play youtube etc. But in MB I just get "No Devices".
These are what I've tried:
- Checked the chromecast and the PC are on the same wifi network. Both are connected to the main router (we have an wifi extender).
- Restarted the chromecast
- Checked wifi connection is private and the firewall rule applies to private network setting
- Tried a different port
- Removed and reinstalled the plugin
- Switched off firewall completely
- Tried the script chadjans posted earlier.
None of this made any difference.
Anything else I can try to diagnose this and get the conenction back? Thanks so much.
Just watched a John Darko video and wondering if there is a way to send the now playing screen to my TV via Chromecast? Want to keep the audio away from the TV has I have no home cinema setup linked to my TV.If I'm not mistaken, this plugin is for casting MUSIC, not video.
Plugin is great - thank you. It would be great for this to be included right within the application.The reason it's a plugin is because Steven (MB's developer) doesn't want to have to maintain it.
Curious to know the status of native MusicBee support for Chromecast?I don't speak for Steven, but typically the reason a plugin gets created by a third-party developer is that Steven doesn't have the time or desire to develop and support the feature. Therefore, I would say it's unlikely that native Chromecast support would become part of MB.
Curious to know the status of native MusicBee support for Chromecast?I started something that made quite a bit of progress but have no plans to continue. Happy to send the code if you want to look at it for ideas
Curious to know the status of native MusicBee support for Chromecast?I started something that made quite a bit of progress but have no plans to continue. Happy to send the code if you want to look at it for ideas
I initially had an issue where I could see Chromecast devices and select them but couldn't stream to them. It turns out Windows defender wasn't properly configured. I needed to go to "Windows Defender Firewall" -> "Allowed Apps" and enable both Public and Private access to "MusicBee Chromecast"
I initially had an issue where I could see Chromecast devices and select them but couldn't stream to them. It turns out Windows defender wasn't properly configured. I needed to go to "Windows Defender Firewall" -> "Allowed Apps" and enable both Public and Private access to "MusicBee Chromecast"Ok this still didn't work for me, now I wish I never reset my laptop because this is unbelievable. I've set every possible setting to public and private on both portable and web app and I keep getting exception has been thrown error no matter what I do and it's driving me crazy. I give up.
UPDATE: Semi solved my problem now I get no audio and no album art.I initially had an issue where I could see Chromecast devices and select them but couldn't stream to them. It turns out Windows defender wasn't properly configured. I needed to go to "Windows Defender Firewall" -> "Allowed Apps" and enable both Public and Private access to "MusicBee Chromecast"Ok this still didn't work for me, now I wish I never reset my laptop because this is unbelievable. I've set every possible setting to public and private on both portable and web app and I keep getting exception has been thrown error no matter what I do and it's driving me crazy. I give up.
Hi,Thanks for your answer. For me it's the same as you, when I click on "Shield" , I get MusicBee message on my TV. But no sound from my Shield/TV when I play a song from Musicbee. And I still have "Error starting the webserver. Webserver exception". So I will try to change the output selection, thanks again !
Can you connect musicbee to the shield via chromecast?
My musicbee has a 'Chromecast Button' in the top toolbar. When I click on that it shows 'Shield' as a device. When I click on 'Shield' I get 'Musicbee' displayed on my TV. When I start playing music in Musicbee all plays fine. My Musicbee output is set to Speakers (Realtek(R) Audio)
Also. if it is working, as well as hearing the playing track, the album art should show on your TV screen.Hi,Thanks for your answer. For me it's the same as you, when I click on "Shield" , I get MusicBee message on my TV. But no sound from my Shield/TV when I play a song from Musicbee. And I still have "Error starting the webserver. Webserver exception". So I will try to change the output selection, thanks again !
Can you connect musicbee to the shield via chromecast?
My musicbee has a 'Chromecast Button' in the top toolbar. When I click on that it shows 'Shield' as a device. When I click on 'Shield' I get 'Musicbee' displayed on my TV. When I start playing music in Musicbee all plays fine. My Musicbee output is set to Speakers (Realtek(R) Audio)
Are we just going to ignore that it requires a docterate in data technology to install this?
Can someone please make a friendly indian how-to youtube video.
okeyyy! after 3hours i finally solved the problem. i was getting error like most of you guys.
error starting the web server
web server exception
tools (ALT +T )-> checkstatus (i was checking on settings > tools like an idiot for 3 hours)
chromecast : connected
server status : not running
But when i run musicbee, as administrator. (just right click > run as admin )
i can connect without problems.
Thanks for the plugin!