Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

[Puk1337]

Hello everyone, thanks author for the work you've put in this plugin.
I am currently having the same issue that @eriqjaffe and some other are having. On the TV only text is displayed for a bit and then it shows the same as in @eriqjaffe screenshot.

Can't access the webserver index from my phone or any wireless device really, but i can do it on the local PC where MusicBee is running.

I followed all the instructions from GitHub and had no errors pop-up so far other than moving one of the dll to the MusicBee folder.

File sharing is on on my PC and also got the ACL configured properly.

I really have no clue how to fix this, any ideas guys?

[Puk1337]

Hello again, i have found the issue and it did had to do with the Firewall ACL. The issue arrives from how Windows 10 defines network types, public and private (which is defined as a work or home LAN networks). Windows 10 places higher security in the public profile as to protect the machine from unsecure networks such as a wifi spot in a restaurant for example.

When i checked my network type in control panel > network & sharing center, i've seen that my network profile is set to public, while the ACL was configured on private, this lead to the ACL to not function as intended. It also seems to explain why people have intermittent functionality, as each could have their network defined either of the two ways.

It seems that the MBCCRules creates the ACL as private only.

I suggest to either accommodate the MBCCRules executable to create the ACL as both private and public to apply for either network (if possible, i am not entirely sure how the libraries you've imported work):
                    Reference: firewallRule.Profiles = (int)NET_FW_PROFILE_TYPE2_.NET_FW_PROFILE2_PRIVATE;



And / Or include this as troubleshooting point on your github page for people facing this issue and looking for answers and solutions.

Also it seems that if the image art of the song, is not in a standard square format it fills too much of the space reserved for the image in the UI on the chromecast device and overlaps with the text. I suggest to set fixed boundaries for the image art to display and resize the image accordingly if it's over the set boundary. Much like how MusicBee already does it.

Edit #1: Wanted to post some more thoughts / suggestions:

- currently controls work in the MusicBee app while casting with the exception of seeking through a song. It can currently be controlled via the shared controls on a mobile device (Google Home > Media), but not from the app.

- The UI is really slick right now and i like it a lot, i would want it to also display the genre tag and fit more text (for longer titles, which are currently getting truncated). A progress bar would also be nice, and possibly display next and previous song information.

Thanks a lot for all the work

[chadjans]

Sharing in case it might help others.

I was getting intermittent issues connecting every once and a while. Which would resolve after running the "MBCCrules" executable.

So I wrote a macro to start the MBCCrules before opening musicbee and then created a Windows shortcut to open musicbee with the MCCrules.

Looks like this:

Code

@echo off
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee"
start MusicBee.exe
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins"
start MBCCRules.exe 8080
exit

Change the port number to your favorite, and the location of your copy of MBCCRules. I put it in the musicbee plugins folder.

Chad

[bmoon608]

Firstly, 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.
 

[bmoon608]

Firstly, 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.
 

Update: resolved by rebooting the PC again...

[scatterkeir]

Loving this plugin, two little things that would make it better for me, both relating to artwork:

1. if an album has no artwork it's like eriqjaffe's screenshot, if it the layout could be fixed so that if there's no artwork the track title, artist and album title are still shown that would be great

2. if an album has massive artwork it struggles, it shows it at first then loses connection completely, there's various ways this could be dealt with but even just checking the image out first and refusing to attempt to show it if it doesn't like the look of it would be an improvement.

[richard127gm]

Just can't get this to work. I've opened the necessary port, done everything suggested in the  forum, but nothing works. Just says it can't connect to server. It really would be good to have an official, built-in Chromecast option.

[richard127gm]

BTW. The error I get is: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

[scatterkeir]

I've noticed recently that it doesn't handle cue sheets correctly - if for instance, I have an hour long audio file split into ten tracks, and an auto-playlist contains track 5, which is 4:10 long, vanilla musicbee will play it correctly, but the chromecast plugin does not - I think what it's doing is, it plays the first 4:10 of the audio file, so it's getting the length correct but ignoring the start time/offset/whatever it's called.

[dontfollowme]

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.

[phred]

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.
Additionally, MB does show any videos. You need to link it to your video player application. Preferences > Player > video player. Once set up, any video files you click on in MB will open up the application you designated as the video player. It is -that- application that needs to be able to cast.

[dontfollowme]

Thanks Phred. I have no wish to cast video just the now playing screen. I shall do some more digging.

[KisnardOnline]

Plugin is great - thank you.  It would be great for this to be included right within the application.

[phred]

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.

[Lhark]

I keep running into a deadend with this plugin, it used to work before my laptop randomly crapped out on me. Now I just getting 'exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation'. It'll cast the musicbee screen but wont play any music and it'll given me that error message. Same thing happens when I connect it to my google mini, I get the casting connection sound but I get the exception error directly after.