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Chromecast and Google Music All Access

For those that have it, what do you think about it? Is it a nice way to stream music?

It's great since my 'good' speakers are attached to my TV. Works fast and easily.

It's OK. The on screen display is lacking and even though I've synced all my music to Google, some of my albums are side loaded and will not play through chromecast. I love all access for streaming on my phone, but I don't think it's there quite yet for chromecast.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

its fantastic. I keep no music on my phone and rely on streaming it. This is great for chromecast and I even talked my girlfriends parents into doing some upgrades to their sound system in their house since it goes through the whole house and outside which makes chromecast great for no longer having to go inside to change the music.

NyPlaya513 said:
its fantastic. I keep no music on my phone and rely on streaming it. This is great for chromecast and I even talked my girlfriends parents into doing some upgrades to their sound system in their house since it goes through the whole house and outside which makes chromecast great for no longer having to go inside to change the music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having problems streaming to it with my Nexus 4.
I can connect and stream the first song with no problems, but when the screen sleeps it doesn't always stream to the next song.
50% of the time it'll automatically stream to the next song in the playlist if I manually turn the Nexus 4 screen back on.
30% of the time after I turn the screen back on, I'll get an error message that says "this track could not be played, and I'll have to manually select the next song"
20% of the time chromecast will be disconnected and I'll have to manually play the next song, and reconnect to chromecast.
Being a native Google App I had hoped that Google Music would work flawlessly, but it's been poor thus far. Hopefully an update will fix the issue.

I'm having issues too. I'm not sure why, but I keep getting "Playback error, Unable to play the song. Can't play a sideloaded song remotely."
So any music that is in the Google Music cloud AND on my device are not playable? I am not sure. I haven't been able to get Google Music to play from my phone - and if you use a PC, then the only way it seems is using the tab casting, which needs some polish.

arrrghhh said:
I'm having issues too. I'm not sure why, but I keep getting "Playback error, Unable to play the song. Can't play a sideloaded song remotely."
So any music that is in the Google Music cloud AND on my device are not playable? I am not sure. I haven't been able to get Google Music to play from my phone - and if you use a PC, then the only way it seems is using the tab casting, which needs some polish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The case of having the same song locally and on the music cloud not playing through ChromeCast seems to be a universal problem right now.
When I cast a tab and a video is being played inside the tab, I can't seem to get any sound to output through ChromeCast.
Another thing I tried was to drag and drop a local video file into Chrome and cast that tab. I just played a movie file that was .mp4 (.avi's don't won't), the video played (although a little slow on the framerate) but there was no sound at all.

arrrghhh said:
I'm having issues too. I'm not sure why, but I keep getting "Playback error, Unable to play the song. Can't play a sideloaded song remotely."
So any music that is in the Google Music cloud AND on my device are not playable? I am not sure. I haven't been able to get Google Music to play from my phone - and if you use a PC, then the only way it seems is using the tab casting, which needs some polish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here. This is a design flaw that I'm hoping Google will rectify with either a Google Music update or a Chromecast update.

EvoXOhio said:
Same issue here. This is a design flaw that I'm hoping Google will rectify with either a Google Music update or a Chromecast update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that playing music from the Google Music "cloud", as in NOT my music - works great. If it's in my library, does not play. I just signed up for the 30 day trial of Google Music All Access or whatever it is called, and I can now stream music to the ChromeCast.
Strange behavior for sure.

arrrghhh said:
I found that playing music from the Google Music "cloud", as in NOT my music - works great. If it's in my library, does not play. I just signed up for the 30 day trial of Google Music All Access or whatever it is called, and I can now stream music to the ChromeCast.
Strange behavior for sure.
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Click to collapse
It will stream anything as long as there isn't a copy of it on your phone.

EvoXOhio said:
It will stream anything as long as there isn't a copy of it on your phone.
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Click to collapse
I have a few thousand songs pinned to my phone and they all cast fine.

Echodawg/arrghh,
I have had this issue. It depends on how you have it setup.
If you have everything uploaded to Google Music cloud and then if you copy the files over to your phone as well and try to play those songs, it will not play and give you a 'Cannot play sideloaded songs' message.
For this to work, you should NOT copy any songs from your computer to the phone directly, you can and should ONLY 'pin' it....

Echodawg said:
I have a few thousand songs pinned to my phone and they all cast fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm talking about songs that you've manually loaded onto your phone. Not cached/pinned copies of googles music.

EvoXOhio said:
I'm talking about songs that you've manually loaded onto your phone. Not cached/pinned copies of googles music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah. I see.
Why not just upload and pin?
I have mine pinned to my SD card, 40 gigs or so.
Works great!

Echodawg said:
Ah. I see.
Why not just upload and pin?
I have mine pinned to my SD card, 40 gigs or so.
Works great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless something has changed recently, pinned songs get deleted from the phone every time you flash a new ROM. I go back and forth between cm and pa and stock. I don't want to have to download 5gb of music every time.

EvoXOhio said:
Unless something has changed recently, pinned songs get deleted from the phone every time you flash a new ROM. I go back and forth between cm and pa and stock. I don't want to have to download 5gb of music every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pin to extSD + Titanium Backup.
And upload once and done, you can side load your music on the phone, but you could then access it in Gmusic too.

Echodawg said:
I pin to extSD + Titanium Backup.
And upload once and done, you can side load your music on the phone, but you could then access it in Gmusic too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried that. The issue I have is that when I load a new ROM, the first time it boots up and Google music runs in the background it wipes the pinned songs. Titanium backup doesn't actually backup the pinned songs so not sure what you mean there.

zilla. said:
The case of having the same song locally and on the music cloud not playing through ChromeCast seems to be a universal problem right now.
When I cast a tab and a video is being played inside the tab, I can't seem to get any sound to output through ChromeCast.
Another thing I tried was to drag and drop a local video file into Chrome and cast that tab. I just played a movie file that was .mp4 (.avi's don't won't), the video played (although a little slow on the framerate) but there was no sound at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I can vouch for this issue too. I sync a list of podcasts to my phone through iSyncr, and the same podcasts also get synced to the cloud via iTunes/Google Play. On my phone, any synced podcast won't cast because it's sideloaded, even though the same podcast is already in the cloud. On my tablet, which I don't store local music on, I can launch the same podcast and it does cast to Chromecast.
As for All Access - there was an overlap of a few days between my free trial and getting Chromecast, and it did work nicely. However I was under the mistaken impression that signing up for the free trial of All Access before June 30 would give me a lifetime discount. I did not realize I'd have to maintain a continuous subscription. So I cancelled at the end of the free trial and no more discount for me. I will probably not sign up again as I anticipate other music apps becoming Chromecast-compatible soon.

I see an update to Google Play Music available.
v.5.1.1107k
*Chromecast improvements
Hopefully it fixed the problems we've been having

I see the update in Play Store but no update button. Tried uninstalling updates and then updating, but I still have the previous build. Guess it hasn't "rolled out" to my accounts yet.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Chromecast feature suggestions (For the device, app, extension, and/or dev apps)

I created this thread for people to suggest features they like to see the chromecast do. Whether it be the chromecast device itself, the chrome browser extension, chromecast app on the phone, or even just to give ideas to developers to create an app for or integrate into apps they already have.
Suggestions:
1) Cast embeded videos like youtube videos in google+ straight to chromecast? I'm currently watching a video on google+ and went to cast it but there is no button in the video. I'd have to start playing it first, click to watch it in youtube, then cast it from there.
2) Be able to use chromecast with Picture-In-Picture. I haven't tried thus yet so it might already work.
3) An app that integrates chromecasting into the android share menu so you can cast any app straight to your T.V. I know Koush is working on sharing the gallery but being able to cast almost any app would be huge! Cast pdfs, facebook pictures, instagram, etc.

Control Control Control
1) When controlling the chromecast from my phone, if a call comes in, it would be great if the Chromecast would record the time the call started and when I hang up, ask me if I want to rewind to that point or optionally pause what's playing when I pickup the phone.
2) I would like a generic app in the notification bar to control ffw/rwd/pause of any media playing on the Chromecast. The idea being it would be a standardized interface for all media apps (instead of the per app notifications like netflix uses) and any device on the wifi network could control any chromecast (rather than having to start up netflix or whatever app the chromecast is servicing on another device.
3) Queuing/queue control either in apps or in the generic app in #2. Watching Mad Men on netflix is a PITA because as a episode ends, I have to open up the phone and then open the series, then scroll to the next episode and hit play. Would be nice if it was easier to just skip to the next episode, song, whatever.
4) Android Netflix App - it's obvious that Netflix app on android is not (yet) optimized to be a remote control. As mentioned in #3 managing the queue is a PITA. Also the lack of FFWD/RWD buttons and the accuracy of the slider in portrait mode only leaves something to be desired. Landscape orientation when controlling chromecast, FFWD/RWD/NEXT/BACK, a better timeline (maybe a gesture to scrub fwd/back?) and most importantly a queue/automatic play of the next episode (like the browser app, PS3, most TVs already do) would all go to making the user experience greater. (While the lock screen overlay controls were a pleasant surprise, why it doesn't have more control buttons is beyond me).

kernelhappy said:
2) I would like a generic app in the notification bar to control ffw/rwd/pause of any media playing on the Chromecast. The idea being it would be a standardized interface for all media apps (instead of the per app notifications like netflix uses) and any device on the wifi network could control any chromecast (rather than having to start up netflix or whatever app the chromecast is servicing on another device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe RemoteCast does this already. I know it does within the app but I can't remember if it adds any controls to the notification bar.
Two more suggestions:
1) Add an option for auto power off of the device after a specified amount of inactivity. (saw this in another thread)
2) Add caller ID so we can see who is calling when casting from the phone. Pause the cast when the call is answered.

supernova_00 said:
I believe RemoteCast does this already. I know it does within the app but I can't remember if it adds any controls to the notification bar.
Two more suggestions:
1) Add an option for auto power off of the device after a specified amount of inactivity. (saw this in another thread)
2) Add caller ID so we can see who is calling when casting from the phone. Pause the cast when the call is answered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I learned about remotecast about 20 minutes after posting here, gonna check it out in a little bit.
I do like the Caller ID though.

kernelhappy said:
Yes, I learned about remotecast about 20 minutes after posting here, gonna check it out in a little bit.
I do like the Caller ID though.
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Click to collapse
This would be soooo easy to do with Google Voice since the Hangouts app already supports it on the chrome PC extension
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

Suggestions:
1) Cast the clock app to your TV to display the current time, alarm notification, and/or display the countdown timer.
2) Cast daydream to the TV (I'm not sure the usefulness of this as I have never used the feature on the phone)
3) Cast google earth to the TV. That would be beautiful to have that on a huge screen!
4) Cast specific google now cards to the TV

Soundcloud
Amazon Cloud Player

Tab casting from Android devices.

How about having it work with a wifi webcam or something for a video hangout (similar to kinect)? May not be feasible but I like the idea.

Native chrome tabs
I would like to be able to cast a tab, but instead of it mirroring my screen over the local network, run it locally on the Chromecast. A remote control interface would similate a trackpad and buttons, and only send the pointer coordinates (oh, and keyboard entries) and button clicks over the local network.
I would think that this would give us a higher quality experience, especially when viewing a streaming site that is not "Chromecast optimized".

Another suggestion:
Please for the love of god make chromecast switch the input back to what was on before I casted. This is by far my single biggest gripe.

1) Split audio and video into two separate synchronized casts. That would allow you to send the video only to your TV and then listen to the audio on your PC/phone/tablet using headphones (i.e. similar to the roku 3). Also, it would allow you to send video to your TV but cast to a second device connected to a receiver.
2) Add the option to restrict casting from certain devices. That way you could put the chromecast on a semi-public network (i.e. hotel) and others on the network would not be able to hijack your chromecast.
3) If a cast is in progress, display a warning if you attempt to start a new cast. This would prevent you from accidentally terminating someone elses cast. I could easily see people getting a chromecast for every TV, and without this, you could accidentally cast to the wrong TV which already has a cast in progress.
4) It has been mentioned before, but add a sleep mode option.
5) User defined URL for chromecast backgrounds. This would allow the chromecast to display a sideshow of your pictures when not casting.
6) Cast to remote device. This would allow you to cast if on a network with access point isolation enabled. It would also enable casting to a different subnet. Lastly it would also allow you to start a cast for someone else if you were not at home.

Casting content from SMB shares
I'd like the Chromecast to be able to pull directly from an SMB share, rather than just HTTP.
I'd then also like a companion app on my phone that can browse SMB shares and allows me to select a file to be casted so that the Chromecast fetches and streams the file directly from the SMB share. An existing app that already supports browsing of SMB shares (such as ES File Explorer or XBMC) with the added casting ability would do the trick.

netflix should go to the next tv episode automatically. this is my number one request

UPNP and DLNA
The UPNP and DLNA support would simply be a killer feature for the chromecast. The bigest problem wold be the codec support

uncola said:
netflix should go to the next tv episode automatically. this is my number one request
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Click to collapse
I thought I wanted it too but I'm not sure if I trust that to work properly. What if it skips an episode by mistake?

Chromecast Playlist Bridge
I mentioned this in my review at ChromeCastCentral.Com, but one of the big drawbacks for the Chromecast is that while it is cross-platform, it still has a single-user mindset. All my friends can send stuff to it, but only if THEY take control over it. There is no good way to have multiple people/apps add things to a playlist. So what we need is an app (on the PC preferably) that is both a RECEIVER and a TRANSMITTER. It could be called something like Chromecast Playlist. Multiple people/apps could cast to IT and it could build up a playlist queue that it casts to the actual Chromecast on the TV.

Casting content from SMB shares
boffo123 said:
I'd like the Chromecast to be able to pull directly from an SMB share, rather than just HTTP.
I'd then also like a companion app on my phone that can browse SMB shares and allows me to select a file to be casted so that the Chromecast fetches and streams the file directly from the SMB share. An existing app that already supports browsing of SMB shares (such as ES File Explorer or XBMC) with the added casting ability would do the trick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It occurs to me that perhaps the Chromecast is already able to pull directly from an SMB share. Apparently Chrome browser itself (in Win7) can play mkv files directly from a share using URL formatted as file://host/share/file.mkv, so perhaps the Chromecast can too? If so, then I'd just need a companion app to support casting a file from an SMB share.
Btw, I don't actually have a Chromecast yet

Turn off TV/AMP after idle, or device disconnect.
Mine turns on and switches inputs automatically using HDMI-CEC, which is fantastic for putting music on in the house, but it would be nice if it would all turn off again when I'm done.

Ensure all app 'home screens' use burn in prevention techniques. The YouTube one is a ***** on our plasma.
Netflix app improvements as mentioned.
Google music on CC to store a playlist so source can disconnect from WiFi without stopping the music.
Various Options for visual stimulation whilst playing music, yet still indicate what's playing. Or even show screenshare /web stuff whilst playing music. Hogging a large screen just for music isn't super efficient, may as well use the Bluetooth method we have used till now and free up the tv.. here using the TVs optical out, can't change input or turn screen off.. Must be quite common.
Google photos /g plus incorporation. photos as screensaver etc..
Uh..
Sent from my Nexus 7

How to add youtube videos to TV queue from multiple iOS devices

Hi I had a group of friends with iPhones trying to add Youtube videos to the TV queue with no luck. Once they connected to the chromecast, their video selected started playing automatically on the TV thus overtaking the current video that was already playing. Is there any step-by-step instructions on how to add videos to a TV queue for multiple iPhones? The process seems to work well with Android devices but not for iOS devices.
Thanks in advanced!

Was that an option?
Sent from my XT897 using xda premium

When playing with my Chromecast with some family, we found that only the person currently controlling the ChromeCast can add things to the playlist. The new YouTube version though has a "+ queue" option that I see on my phone, but haven't been able to test it with another device yet though.

Not sure if its the same but on my android phone and tablet I launch the YouTube app hit the chrome cast button to connect to the chrome cast not while playing a video. I connect both devices first. Once both devices are connected I can add videos to the queue. This was before the app update. And it works pretty much the same way now. There is a glitch where sometimes only one device gets the play controls so the other device can only advance along the playlist by clicking on an individual video in the queue playlist

[Q] Is there a way to control music player from the watch ?

Hi all,
I have not been able to find any way to control the Google Music or any other application from the watch. I was expecting not being able only to launch the music application from it, but also to control the volume or to switch the song.
I have found in Google Play Store applications like this (trial and then allow you to purchase the license):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.barkside.music
If there is no native way to do this, i really cannot understand as i see this one of the most logical applications to use from the watch.
Cheers.

You can play, pause, skip forward and back tracks with the Google Play Music app and Android Wear directly.
When playing music it should automatically display on the watch.
If not, check and make sure you haven't muted the app.

Music Boss works for most players.

nxt said:
You can play, pause, skip forward and back tracks with the Google Play Music app and Android Wear directly.
When playing music it should automatically display on the watch.
If not, check and make sure you haven't muted the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't muted the application. The strange thing is that just in the moment i hit the play button from the phone (Sony Xperia Z3 with Android KitKat 4.4.4) the notification for the music appears, but hides immediately. Maybe its an issue from my phone.
Thank you very much for the quick answer .

BM226 said:
Music Boss works for most players.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, i will try to continue searching the reason why the Google Music default notification disappears immediately, but if not, i may try Music Boss.

requiem2es said:
Thank you, i will try to continue searching the reason why the Google Music default notification disappears immediately, but if not, i may try Music Boss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to determine the benefit of Music Boss. I have used it with the 3 main audio apps I tend to use, all of which notify to my watch (TuneIn Pro, Sirius, and Google Play Music). They are set up in Music Boss as well. So when any of them are playing, I have two different cards - one for the app itself and one for Music Boss. I can't seem to see how Music Boss gives offers anything beyond the separate apps, other than a common interface. Can anyone with more experience using this app tell me what i'm missing? Thanks!

same here, I found that android wear supports quite a few music apps out-of-the-box.
like vanilla music - they havent released a wear-related update afaik, but when I play music with the app it shows up as a card on my phone with play-pause and I can swipe into a next-previous-vol up-vol down screen

Sony Walkman, Google Music and Spotify works on my watch. No need for Music Boss or anything. Phone is Z2.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app

I finally found the problem. Sony Xperia has a free application called SmartKey:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonymobile.extras.liveware.extension.smartkey
With this application it is possible to assign extra functions to the button to answer calls in the headphones.
Anyway, this application was interfering with the SmartWatch option to show the controls in the watch graphic interface. Removing it or disabling it solves the problem.
Thank you very much for the help .

An Android Auto music app that allows music library browsing thru touchscreen?

...does anyone know of a music app that will run in Android Auto, AND will allow full music library browsing (by artists, albums or genres) through the touchscreen interface? Voice alone is not cutting it due to a great many music artists use unique names that Google cannot recognise.
Google Play Music in AA will not let us browse artists, albums or genre through the touchscreen interface. We only get the "lucky" mix, recent activity or playlists. And playlists are really not useful for a couple reasons... Firstly, Google forces you to have 2 default playlists it thinks you will like, and then browsing playlists is limited to 11 (including the aforementioned 2, so really it's 9). Once you get to the 11th playlist you are blocked from scrolling further with a safety message. Super frustrating. So don't waste your time making more than 9 playlists!
I know doubleTwist says that you can browse by artists, but you get a similar safety message prohibiting you from scrolling further than 10 or so.
Any chance an awesome XDA dev has made of modified version of AA that will ignore these safety blocks? Or does anyone know of a music app that will give us full music library browsing through the touchscreen interface?

invertedskull said:
...does anyone know of a music app that will run in Android Auto, AND will allow full music library browsing (by artists, albums or genres) through the touchscreen interface? Voice alone is not cutting it due to a great many music artists use unique names that Google cannot recognise.
Google Play Music in AA will not let us browse artists, albums or genre through the touchscreen interface. We only get the "lucky" mix, recent activity or playlists. And playlists are really not useful for a couple reasons... Firstly, Google forces you to have 2 default playlists it thinks you will like, and then browsing playlists is limited to 11 (including the aforementioned 2, so really it's 9). Once you get to the 11th playlist you are blocked from scrolling further with a safety message. Super frustrating. So don't waste your time making more than 9 playlists!
I know doubleTwist says that you can browse by artists, but you get a similar safety message prohibiting you from scrolling further than 10 or so.
Any chance an awesome XDA dev has made of modified version of AA that will ignore these safety blocks? Or does anyone know of a music app that will give us full music library browsing through the touchscreen interface?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, this is a safety feature baked into android auto. App developers cannot bypass it, they can only make their apps better designed to work with it.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

*sad face*

invertedskull said:
*sad face*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can create "voice friendly" named playlists for those unique named artists and use voice to call up the playlists.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk