Stream2Chromecast

A Chromecast media streamer for Linux.

Stream2Chromecast casts audio and video files to a Chromecast device from Linux.

It can also transcode any unsupported files in real time and play them on the Chromecast.

It is written in Python 2.7 and uses either ffmpeg or avconv for transcoding.

Installation

To play media file types that are unsupported by Chromecast, we need either ffmpeg or avconv installed to do the transcoding.

On Ubuntu we can either install avconv:-

sudo apt-get install libav-tools

...or install ffmpeg

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/trusty-media
apt-get install ffmpeg

Functionality

To stream supported media files to a Chromecast.

    stream2chromecast.py my_media.mp4

To transcode and stream unsupported media files to a Chromecast. (This requires either ffmpeg or avconv to be installed. See Installation.)

    stream2chromecast.py -transcode my_mpeg_file.mpg

To play a supported file from a URL. This plays the file directly from the remote address, so the file must be streamable and cannot be transcoded.

    stream2chromecast.py -playurl http://www.example.com/my_media.mp4

###Control playback

pause playback (currently only works when not transcoding)
```
 stream2chromecast.py -pause
```
continue (unpause) playback (currently only works when not transcoding)
```
 stream2chromecast.py -continue
```
stop playback
```
 stream2chromecast.py -stop  
```

###Volume control

set volume (takes a value between 0.0 and 1.0)
```
 stream2chromecast.py -setvol <volume>
```

increase or decrease volume by 0.1

 stream2chromecast.py -volup
 stream2chromecast.py -voldown

mute volume
```
 stream2chromecast.py -mute
```

###Status

get Chromecast status
```
 stream2chromecast.py -status
```

###Specifying a device when there are multiple Chromecasts on the network To specify a device by name or IP address, use the -devicename parameter. e.g.

To play a file on a device named "my_chromecast"

 stream2chromecast.py -devicename my_chromecast my_media.mp4

To play a file on a device at IP address 192.168.1.10

 stream2chromecast.py -devicename 192.168.1.10 my_media.mp4

To search the network and list the available devices
```
 stream2chromecast.py -devicelist
```

###Specify which transcoder to use If both ffmpeg and avconv are installed, ffmpeg will be used by default.

To specify avconv to be used and transcode a playback, use the -transcoder option
```
 stream2chromecast.py -transcoder avconv -transcode <file>
```

###Supply custom transcoder parameters It is possible pass in specific parameters to ffmpeg or avconv using the -transcodeopts parameter with the options surrounded by quotes

To specify an output video bitrate of 1000k and an audio bitrate of 128k

 stream2chromecast.py -transcodeopts '-b:v 1000k -b:a 128k' -transcode <file>

###Specify a port to use for streaming media. By default, a random unused port will be selected to serve the media from. In a firewalled environment, it can be useful to be able to specify the port to open

To specify port 8765 to serve media from

 stream2chromecast.py -port 8765 <file>

Notes

avconv is a fork of ffmpeg. It is included in the Ubuntu in the repositories rather than ffmpeg. However there is a PPA repository available which contains the latest builds of ffmpeg. See the installation notes.

To Do

Automatic identification of media types that need transcoding.
Add an option to pass raw ffmpeg / avconv options to the transcoder.
Python 3 compatibility...?

License

stream2chromecast.py is GPLv3 licensed.

Thanks

The excellent PyChromecast library by Paulus Schoutsen has been a great help for information on building the interface.

https://github.com/balloob/pychromecast

Thanks to TheCrazyT for this gist:-

https://gist.github.com/TheCrazyT/11263599

Thanks to dohliam for bug fixes and additional functionality.

Thanks to interlocuteur for bug fixes, error reports & advice.