Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

[catfishbear]

This is doing my head in. I just can't figure it out.  

I've set it all up according to the instructions. Using port 8081, I configured port forwarding in the router, firewall rule on desktop, the correct acls, etc.  
The app shows:
Chromecast Connection: OK
Library Set: OK
Server Running: OK
I can connect to the web server on my phone and see the index of my library but no music! I have 5 different Chromecast devices including a NVidia Shield but none of them will give me music.
 

[catfishbear]

Restarting the track suddenly got it working. /shrug

Thank you!

[Smultie]

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?

Wanna share what you did to get it working?

[nefcairon]

Chromecasting only songs that are in the top-directory is a show-stopper for most of us, i guess :/

[renius28]

Steven - Any luck with a native 'official' plugin?
Thanks!

[Terry Walker]

Now I feel like an idiot. Of course, he started the thread. Thanks 😊

It's okay, at least you showed your thoughts & concern.

[TRoJAnV]

I've been working on this plugin a bit more recently, trying to make it more reliable and more tailored for musicbee specifically.

I was doing some research online and looking at the official casting API and made some changes to the original google cast API I was using. I finally published the changes and if you'd like to try it, I uploaded a new release.

Some major changes to note:

1. There's no need to set your library path anymore. Instead of the plugin hosting your whole music directory, instead I take the apporach a lot of the other casting apps do and host a temporary directory and make a copy of the current playing file. The plugin handles cleanup after everything's done.

2. There's finally something to look at when casting to a chromecast which has a display. (I haven't tested this on any of the smart displays i.e Nest Hub)

3. Theres now a custom receiver instead of the default media player. What this basically means is that if your device allows it, you can control the playback, either from the home app, or the device itself (i.e voice commands when casting to a smart speaker or when a smart speaker is present in a group)

4. 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.

Wishlist:

I REALLY want to eventually find out how to do gapless casting. It seems that natively you can only do gapless when using HLS or DASH protocols. I believe that apps which allow for streaming the full 24bit/96khz to capable devices are using wav containers and are constantly writing a buffer to the file. It's something I might try to do in the future but its quite a big time sink so we'll see.


There might be some bugs (mainly in the UI; not really my expertise) but if you do end up trying the new plugin, let me know how it goes and if its working for you!

Here's an image of how the UI looks:

[splatt]

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.

[TRoJAnV]

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 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

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.

[splatt]

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 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

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!

[TRoJAnV]

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 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

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)

[phred]

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.

[TRoJAnV]

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 part of the readme is.

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"

[phred]

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 part of the readme is.

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"

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?

[TRoJAnV]

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 part of the readme is.

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"

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?

Sure, Ill add them in later tonight