Koush - mirroring Android with Chromecast

[EarlyMon]

https://plus.google.com/110558071969009568835/posts/UrKThGd2iCo

Android to Chromecast mirroring being teased by Koush - Android Community said -

This obviously still needs a bit more clarification. For one, we have yet to see whether this would be added functionality to the existing AllCast app, or if Koush would roll this out as an entirely new app. Regardless, it seems to go without saying, Koush would likely have plenty of users waiting to part with a few dollars for the new functionality.

Personally, I expect this to be somewhat limited.

Miracast is explicitly designed for screen mirroring - Chromecast is not.

Miracast has been built in to various Androids since 2012, and is now part of the Android codebase. It's peer-to-peer.

Chromecast does everything through your router - an access point. It was designed to receive content from the internet, with control by any device on the same home network.

Bottom line in my opinion - it's going to be very interesting to see how Koush has solved the technical problems.

As mentioned at XDA, it's probable that this is not going to be a gaming display solution and it's going to be interesting to see how Koush is maintaining video/audio sync for things like movie playback.

But - we're about to see.

 

[EarlyMon]

Btw, as I said over there -

Technicalities aside, I am very curious to see what Koush has cooked up!! It could just be a question to gauge interest, but it's Koush...

^^ This.

I've seen a lot of folks say that they want MX Player, MoboPlayer, etc etc, supported.

Others still can't figure out how to get their phone videos visible elsewhere.

If he's solved the expected audio syncing issue then this is going to make those camps very happy. I doubt they'd care about an initial delay.

PS - lest we forget: https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

With Google Cast you have several options for supporting various media types, codecs, and facilities:

• Video codecs: H.264 High Profile Level 4.1, 4.2 and 5, VP8
• Audio decoding: HE-AAC, LC-AAC, CELT/Opus, MP3, Vorbis
• Image formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WEBP
• Containers: MP4, WebM

• Containers: MPEG-DASH, SmoothStreaming, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
• Level 1 DRM support: Widevine, PlayReady
• Subtitles:
  • TTML - Timed Text Markup Language
  • WebVTT - Web Video Text Tracks

The ASUS Miracast Dongle specs for that, for comparison -

• Video codec:
  • H.264, MP4V
• Audio codec:
  • AAC, LPCM, MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG Vorbis
• Containers:
  • MP4, AVI, MKV, 3GP, TS
• Image:
  • JPEG, BMP, PNG

For video to work, most cases are ultimately going to amount to transcoding.

I'd imagine that he's solving that by catching the streams at some common point, possibly in a framework, and encoding those.

And that makes sense if you're going to mirror homescreens and anything else.

If what I suspect is true, this is likely going to be a rooted-Android-device-only solution.

He's probably going to take what he already has in the Mirror.apk (which does screen recording and mirring to AirPlay and also to a "computer").

The computer streaming sets up a web server on the phone where the stream is played. He will likely take this and display it in the Chromecast web container. Hopefully it will also be more reliable.

 

[funkylogik]

By "initial delay" do you mean like a buffer at the start of a stream mate?

 

[EarlyMon]

By "initial delay" do you mean like a buffer at the start of a stream mate?

Exactly.

You may have noticed it when tab casting from a PC.

It's possible that may occur here, we'll have to see.

 

[funkylogik]

i really wouldnt mind that

 

[EarlyMon]

Just posted and I mean just posted.

 

[KOLIO]

Just posted and I mean just posted.

Looks pretty good to me.............

 

[funkylogik]

Wow!! Now were talking :beer:

 

[EarlyMon]

Ok, so that last one was evidently to a Mac, the OS X dock is obvious at the end of the video.

No matter, the latest today is to a Chromecast.

Progress seems very quick to me!

I think that we'll all be interested in seeing the requirements.

 

[EarlyMon]

This isn't from Koush but it's simple and very cool.

Cast any file/codecs that Chromecast supports natively. Works like a charm for my phone videos of the little ones.

Check out "LocalCast Videos 2 ChromeCast"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stefanpledl.localcast

If you have a typical mp4, you should be OK, but check the codecs, your mileage may vary.

Btw - it's free.

 

[EarlyMon]

While we're waiting for mirroring, we moved a step closer to tab casting today.

Check out "vGet (Stream, Download, DLNA)"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mb.videoget

Share page from your favorite browser to vGet.

Turn off desktop/Flash mode in vGet. If the page has an MP4 video, vGet will cast it.

Works great.

 

[Gmash]

This isn't from Koush but it's simple and very cool.

Cast any file/codecs that Chromecast supports natively. Works like a charm for my phone videos of the little ones.

Check out "LocalCast Videos 2 ChromeCast"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stefanpledl.localcast

If you have a typical mp4, you should be OK, but check the codecs, your mileage may vary.

Btw - it's free.

With the update, it's just as good as Avia now. Nice app for free.

 

[EarlyMon]

With the update, it's just as good as Avia now. Nice app for free.

I'm digging it.

And BubbleUPnP, free, supports a lot as well for media.

Add their server on your home network for a fee if you need transcoding.

I'm seeing lots of positive posts for that over Avia and Plex.

Vbukit is also rocking. More complicated to get started but platform independent.

 

[Gmash]

While we're waiting for mirroring, we moved a step closer to tab casting today.

Check out "vGet (Stream, Download, DLNA)"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mb.videoget

Share page from your favorite browser to vGet.

Turn off desktop/Flash mode in vGet. If the page has an MP4 video, vGet will cast it.

Works great.

Thanks for the tip on vGet. I've been using it, it's pretty cool. Unfortunately they forced everyone to update to a paid version with a 14 day trial. Then they left an insulting message to everyone who complained about it in the comments on Play. I understand if the dev wants to make more money from his app, but this was a poor way to handle things. Also $5 is a little expensive for an app that still has bugs.
I watched the video about Vbukit, seemed like one too many hoops to jump through with the whole "scan a bar code from your screen" thing every time.