Show HN: Control Chromecasts from Linux (opens in new tab)

Thank you for pychromecast, balloob.

I know there's no real requirement but I wish projects like this would give attribution where it's due. This project benefits hugely from pychromecast but there's nothing in the readme mentioning that. Just seems a bit off.

Isn't there a workaround to get Chromecast to accept user changes in DNS settings. Maybe use DHCP on the user's router to suggest user-chosen DNS servers. I have forgotten. The big show stopper with Chromecast is that Google makes it difficult for the user to set their own DNS servers. As I recall, with the early Chromecast models, users could replace the Google OS with a modified one that let users choose their own DNS servers. One technique used a Teensy. Subsequent Google updates I believe closed off that option.

And thank you for giving us not only pychromecast but home-assistant :)

Thanks for your work on pychromecast, I've looked and it's the best supported library for working with Chromecasts out there. It was also pleasant to integrate into this project.

Does the pychromecast project use semantic versioning? I've had to pin the library to a specific version after running into an API breaking change on what would be a minor or patch update to 7.X if the project used SemVer.

It would be incredible if there was a way to use mpsyt to watch Youtube videos with your library.

Thank you for the library, but I wish you paid more attention to the backwards compatibility and didn't break it that often. The unannounced changes recently broke mkchromecast twice in different ways.

It's always awesome to see early, potentially unfruitful decisions workout in a project.

If you haven't, you should check mpd (music player daemon). Lots of clients, works very well.

This is my preference as well! I even wrote an Android client app / Python server to control it from my phone.

https://github.com/mcastorina/mpv-remote-app

Maybe it's late and I am misunderstanding ... Why would one not want a Google device on their LAN?

Isn't a Chromecast very different than controlling locally stored media files, i.e. you can stream YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, mirror your devices (laptop), etc on Chromecast but not your solution?

I've thought about the same thing, but I don't think it's feasible because you essentially need to play the video in both places and ensure it stays in sync. The easy solution is to hook up a Bluetooth transmitted to your TV.

That would be cool. Roku boxes actually come with a headphone jack in the remote so you can do just that (but not through bluetooth).

While you have chromecast_mpris running, you can use an MPRIS client to issue the OpenUri method[1]. Here's an example:

    $ export URL="http://ccmixter.org/content/gmz/gmz_-_Parametaphoriquement.mp3"
    $ playerctl -p My_Chromecast open "$URL"

This will cast a song to the Chromecast named "My_Chromecast". I forgot that OpenUri was implemented in the project because I typically cast from other devices and programs, but I'll include it in the README.

> Thoughts on what this provides that's better?

People tend to use catt or castnow to cast from the command-line. I wrote about using VLC to cast to the Chromecast[2], but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're watching something that you need VLC for.

[1] https://specifications.freedesktop.org/mpris-spec/2.2/Player...

[2] https://alexdelorenzo.dev/linux/2020/03/14/pipes

If on Android, bubbleupnp. It is a solid and well maintained app.

VLC has a native client afaik.

Edit: included since v3.0

https://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc-branch/NEWS

https://rafostar.github.io/gnome-shell-extension-cast-to-tv/ has worked well for me so far

You can still control chromecasts from Chrome on linux.

I do something similar with chromecast_mpris. I have my media keys mapped to Plasma's Media Controller, which uses MPRIS in the background. Works well for me, and you don't have to wait for catt to launch and find your Chromecast each time.

Maybe scrcpy is enough for you.

https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy

If opening a browser tab is all you need any tab syncing app / service will do. I use kdeconnect / gsconnect so I don't have to rely on a 3rd party service, Google and Mozilla included.

Could add a Chromecast on one of the Hdmi ports of the monitor. That's what I do

Miraclecast

Jellyfin mpv shim does this

Discord screenshare :)

Open the website ?

I believe so, and it's less than useful on network with a captive portals like hotel rooms.

At least the upcoming Chromecast with Google TV comes with a remote, so you should be able to interact with the captive portal and use it that way.

It shouldn't. Obviously if you're casting from a WAN source (like YouTube or Netflix), it needs WAN access, but if you're casting from a source on your local network, it should work without the WAN.

I've been using catt (https://github.com/skorokithakis/catt) for years for that purpose. Basically:

    pip3 install catt

And then:

    catt cast <any image/song/video/URL supported by youtube-dl>

bubbleupnp is the most customizable and reliable app I have found for streaming/casting.

Plex does

You can cast your device's screen, but you'll still have to rely on the device's camera and mic.

You'll probably want to avoid outputting the sound on the TV or you'll get a feedback loop.

And there's going to be a slight delay, which might be annoying with a realtime conversation.

So it might not be a great idea from the start.

Well, with the google home app, you can send your whole screen to a chromecast, so whatever you are doing on your phone will be visible on your TV.

> How would this work on macOS?

Theoretically it should work if you're able to get D-Bus working on macOS. D-Bus is usually a Linux thing, but it's been ported to other platforms. macOS isn't included in the title because most macOS users don't have D-Bus installed.

I included instructions here[1] with URLs to the macOS versions of D-Bus and PyGObject. I'd be interested in whether you're able get it working.

[1] https://github.com/alexdelorenzo/chromecast_mpris#requiremen...

where it says that, follow the link