Musicbee Chromecast Plugin

[MotleyG]

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.

See reply #102 from 2023-10-27.

The plug-in developer hasn't been around in almost 2 years.

[ThY]

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!

Thank you for this.
it solved it for me

[ricardo278]

Hello,
I would need a short help with the chromecast configuration.
I did all steps according to installing instructions above.
When I turn on chromecast button in Musicbee application, everything is working well except of the sound.
The status is OK. Firewall rule is OK as well.
I am connecting with SONY TA-AN1000 receiver and after connection on its display is shown MUSICBEE name app.
One additional info: When I select my SONY TV, this chromecast works and shows art info about the track.
The music file is:  DSD256 11289 kHz, 22579k, Stereo which is playing without this connection.
https://gofile.me/7rm72/YSuuZhpJQ
Or please release official chromecast plugin, 

[phred]

Or please release official chromecast plugin,  

The plug-in developer hasn't been around in almost 2 years.

[ricardo278]

I have replaced all patch files into my installation folder. No changes. It doesn't work. I have the installed version 3.5.8948. What version number is currently functional??? WHAT IS NEXT, GENTLEMEN???

[phred]

WHAT IS NEXT, GENTLEMEN???

Unless someone wants to take over development of this plugin, there is nothing next.

[womba]

I am relatively new to Musicbee but I can already see why so many users are enthusiastic about this app. I have managed to install the Chromecast plug-in which is working well but with some limitations for album art for which I am seeking help.

I have playlists with embedded album art which display perfectly on the computer and when cast to TV. They also work using the VLC player which seems to use embedded album art exclusively (the cast MB display is better and more informative though). The music files are  in separate folders outside my main music folder which has many sub-folders with hundreds of music files. They are outside the main folder because when they are within  the main music folder, they do not cast the album art correctly. They do still cast correctly with the VLC player however.

Looking at the MB Playlist screen there is a panel on the right showing the songs listed with thumbnails of the album art. There is also a display of the album art of the song playing in the bottom right corner along with the song details. What I have observed is that it is the right panel thumbnails which are cast to TV, not the art in the bottom right corner. Using songs outside the main music folder the right panel thumbnails display and cast correctly. The same songs within the main folder seem to show random art in the thumbnails, often with the same picture for multiple songs. Casting is mostly as a blank screen although sometimes the wrong thumbnail art is cast.

The obvious suspect is music art files withing the main music folder. I have decided to go all in on embedded art so I deleted all jpg and other graphic files in my whole music database. No change.

It is not really practical to always move songs outside the database to play them, making casting by VLC the better solution. But of course I would prefer to use Musicbee.

Any suggestions?

[womba]

I believe I have finally figured out the problem which I describe above. I know from the programming I have done myself, much of the work in optimising programs comes after the  program is first completed and it is exposed to users. They are bound to try things which have not been tested for. Bugs found are then corrected by the programmer, often in minutes. But since the developer of this plug-in has apparently disappeared a workaround has to be found instead.

The plug-in seems to keep a record of album art against file names, but the bug seems to be that once a song is recorded it cannot be edited. I realised this when I added album art to some songs which I had missed outside the music master folder. The new art showed up on the VLC player but  no matter what I did I couldn't get MB to show the added art. Then I changed one song name by one character. Problem solved.

Using the app 'Bulk Rename Utility' I added a ',' to each file name of the songs within the main music folder which I wished to play (so Song.mp3 became Song,.mp3)  and magically all the album art displayed perfectly in MB both on the computer and as cast to the TV.

[tjinc]

Hi womba,

I have read this post and your bug report post and I am not sure that this is the result of any bug (either with the plugin or MusicBee), but more needing information on how MusicBee works with album art.

Since renaming the songs solved your issue, it may be that all you needed to do was rescan the files:
   MusicBee menu > Tools > Advanced > Rescan All Files

But have a look at this wiki section.
This describes the settings in:
   Preferences > Tags (1)

The 'Artwork' section sets up how art is stored and displayed. To change display priorities press the 'Edit List' button and at the bottom of this edit list window there is a 'Rescan Artwork' button which should be run after you make any changes.

Also note that MusicBee will store a cache of album artwork (in order to improve speed when displaying views with a lot of artwork). This can be reset by using:
   MusicBee menu > Tools > Advanced > Reset Artwork Cache
This will essentially delete the existing cache, refetch the artwork from file and rebuild the cache.


In order not to clog up this plugin topic, if you have any other questions on this I would suggest you start a new post in Questions and include a screenshot of your MusicBee window so that we can see which images you are referring to.

[womba]

Hi tjinc
Thank you for your response. I have tried all the settings you sugggest but none seem to make any difference although I have restricted album art to embedded only. MB has a myriad of settings which would take ages to master. But surely it is the default settings which are the most important. What I struggle to do in MB I can do easily in VLC with their default settings.

If new music is introduced to MB with album art already embedded then everything works perfectly including the plugin. The problem only occurs when new music without album art is entered to MB first and then art is added later.

If noone else has the same problem then maybe it is me and not the program as you seem to believe. But I am happy with my workaround and it is in my previous post for others to refer to if you are  wrong.

There is no need to answer this post

[ricardo278]

Please help .....
I need functional chromecast, but I am still not successful in configuration.
Everything is running, server, however when I check the access via the browser on the phone I have still this message:

Service Unavailable
HTTP Error 503. The Service is unavailable.

No sound at the connection, only "musicbeee" is shown on my receiver display. I will pay for it who is willing to make it.

[DDidax]

for those who don't have musicbee in English, you can use this command:
netsh http add urlacl url=http://*:[PORT]/ sddl=D:(A;;GX;;;WD)

"Make sure to replace [PORT] with the port you chose"

As indicated by Hbeau in the github issue forum topic :
https://github.com/TroyFernandes/MusicBeeChromecast/issues/12

[BoringName]

I don't have a chromecast to test this theory out but a possible alternative to this plugin is to install BubbleUPnPServer on your PC. Then follow the instructions by pastmidnight14 in this reddit post.

The instructions are for foobar but if you have the UPnP plugin installed in Musicbee, it should list the renderer they mention as an output in Musicbee.

I've used BubbleUPnP on an android device as a renderer and Musicbee picked it up just fine and sent music to it.

You will need to make sure BubbleUPnP is allowed through your firewall.

[scatterkeir]

Mine has just started consistently timing out today. The plugin can see my Chromecast fine but it times out. I've tried restarting both MusicBee and the Chromecast.

[ThY]

Could it be because of bad wifi ?
My chromecast plugin also turns off constantly, but since i moved out i suspect bad wifi.
May it be because of the plugin itself ?