• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

to stream this content you must unpin from device

Status
Not open for further replies.
nickdalzell

nickdalzell

Extreme Android User
Google Play Movies. i have been beaming them to my 32 inch Samsung TV no problem, having them pinned means no need for an internet connection (and no rebuffering when it acts up). i would download (pin) movies i bought at a public wifi then use screen mirroring to display the playback on the TV.

but now, for reasons unknown, doing that now produces

'to stream this content to the selected screen, you must first unpin it from your device'

i dont get it. wasnt a problem before, the app isnt updated, this is a movie i bought and not a rental, and doesnt this defeat the whole point of pinning it in the first place?

 
I've never pinned any movies, so I don't have any experience there. I just want to say that this is an odd thing of Google to do. It's the exact opposite with Google Play Music. You can't cast music unless it IS pinned to your device.
 
It is odd since this popped up a week after I successfully casted a pinned movie Airport 75 fine. I thought it had something to do with an update to Play Movies so I uninstalled the updates but the same error comes up. For those with capped data as their only source for internet this makes it very difficult to use the feature seeing as we have to stream everything.

My only theory is that Google is so dead set against local storage they do this to force us into the cloud even more.
 
I doubt it was done through an update to Play Movies. It was almost certainly an update to Google Play Services or to the Chromecast firmware.

I think somebody in a decision making capacity simply assumed(in this case incorrectly) that if you were at home and in a position to cast, that you likely had a normal high speed internet connection.

I don't think it was the right assumption to make, but it happened. The Chromecast has been an online streaming device since its inception. That's just the nature of it.

I do hope you find a way to watch your movie though, Air Force One is one of my favorites.
 
The error comes up when using Samsung Screen Mirroring as well so it really has nothing to do with Chromecast exclusively. In the end I had to sacrifice the data to watch that movie. I just allocate some gigabytes for a movie each weekend.

I suppose I could work around the issue by using a HDMI cable to my Nexus 10 to my TV, but that seems a bit old school and retro for me. Wireless was much more convenient seeing as I didn't have to get up and walk over to the TV to pause.
 
Would a miracast dongle be more suited to your situation? IIRC that doesn't require an internet connection.
 
Depends on whether or not this issue persists with one, not keen on wasting money. Sad part is that Play Movies doesn't store offline video in any format such as mp4 so if the issue is due to the Play Movies app I have no alternative. I know of no other movie service that even allows offline downloads.

Right now if I kill my internet and use Samsung screen mirroring to my smart TV the error comes up. Its not the dongle to blame here.

I really like to have digital movies offline, and keep the convenience of wireless remote mirroring. If this issue is per a new policy of Google's I may have to live with it. Not a fan of running wires.
 
I'm thinking you're right that it has to be an issue with the play store app detecting and blocking screen casting of any type. I would recommend using another source to buy movies
 
As I said I know of no other such service with the ability to download them and play them offline. Amazon Instant is stream only, Samsung is stream only, etc. I could buy another iPad and buy them via iTunes and airplay them but wow that's not a really cheap solution.
 
I had a trial of Vudu not long ago that I let expire. Their selection was horribly limited, and it was stream only. I might try a false internet connection (device thinks it is online, has IP address) and try Samsung mirror and see if I can fool it.
 
e6amupa8.jpg


Don't be too sure.
 
Two people reporting the same thing. Perhaps something changed in the usage rights. Hollywood, the MPAA, and the distributors can do that with their protected DRM'd content, any time they like.

"Air Force One"...I've got that here somewhere.
 
but this is not a rental. i bought the movie and i can pin the movie on my tablet, and it's tied to my personal Google account. so pardon me if i cannot see how i'm violating any ToS by beaming a movie i bought, on a device tied to my Google account, to my Smart TV? does any of that make sense?

As i said Vudu, even if they made it capable of downloading them, there might still be a limit in place in regards to mirroring, so you can watch it on a teeny 10" screen buy not be able to beam it to a big screen TV, (does anyone know of any limits?) and worse yet, they have about half of what Netflix has. a lot of my favorite movies are not listed at all, such as Mel Gibson's Forever Young, the entire Airport movie saga, and Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, etc. a lot of the 1980s cult movies are nowhere.

Google Play Movies at least has LEXX (a very odd sci fi series i can't stop watching), Home Improvement, and other series that even Netflix refuses to carry.
 
I know it's not as convenient, but it's not that big of a deal to use a cable. You can't just run an HDMI cable, though. You need an MHL cable. It has a split cable, one end goes to the HDMI on your tv, one goes to a powered USB (probably have one on your tv as well), and the other end plugs into your phone/tablet. Good thing is it charges your phone at the same time. Only costs like 7 bucks on Amazon. Make sure you get one that is Samsung compatible, for some reason Samsung has more pins or something and only certain cables work with them.
 
nickdalzell said:
but this is not a rental. i bought the movie and i can pin the movie on my tablet, and it's tied to my personal Google account. so pardon me if i cannot see how i'm violating any ToS by beaming a movie i bought, on a device tied to my Google account, to my Smart TV? does any of that make sense?

As i said Vudu, even if they made it capable of downloading them, there might still be a limit in place in regards to mirroring, so you can watch it on a teeny 10" screen buy not be able to beam it to a big screen TV, (does anyone know of any limits?) and worse yet, they have about half of what Netflix has. a lot of my favorite movies are not listed at all, such as Mel Gibson's Forever Young, the entire Airport movie saga, and Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, etc. a lot of the 1980s cult movies are nowhere.

Google Play Movies at least has LEXX (a very odd sci fi series i can't stop watching), Home Improvement, and other series that even Netflix refuses to carry.
Click to expand...

Thing is you bought a digital download, that is locked and encrypted with DRM. Which means it can have very much the same restrictions as a rental, including stopping you watching it completely, and restricting what devices you can watch it on. A good example being iTunes Store movie purchases, they can only be watched on Apple devices and software, and nothing else.

Having a DRM'd digital copy is not the same as owning something on a VHS or a DVD. In fact buying DRM'd digital content, is much more like you're leasing it subject to license conditions, and of course license conditions can always be changed and revoked at any time. IANAL but in the US it's a felony to attempt to break and circumvent DRM, and it's also unlawful to discuss cracking DRM on this forum as well, DMCA.
 
i got out of using cables the instant wireless mirroring became a standard. it would be very backwards and annoying to go back to the era when i was using a VGA cable to a converter to get a 'smart TV' by hooking up some old desktop motherboard to a TV input. in the end having an actual smart TV was far better and more reliable.

about the only solution i know of is being able to get movies in MP4 format, which seems immune to Play Movies' pinning glitch. i do know if i downloaded from YouTube into MP4 format, i can easily cast them to my ChromeCast or play them from a DLNA hard disk no problem. i have an entire season of Hogan's Heroes on my MyCloud that way. they play easily on my Samsung TV.

Does anyone know what Vudu uses for file types? does it follow the proprietary Play Movies format or does it offer downloads to MP4? if the latter, i'd be up to try the service again.
 
Looking into it I believe it is a proprietary DRM format. What I don't know is whether or not you can screen cast a movie that's downloaded on your phone. Maybe I'll download a movie overnight and see.
 
thanks, let me know if it works. Also, i am not sure if the whole policy is exclusive to Chromecast or if it applies to mirroring in general. i do know in re: Play Movies it doesn't matter if you're using native Samsung mirroring or if you're using a Chromecast--the error is the same.
 
My guess is that it's strictly a Google Play Movies policy and not a Chromecast policy.
That doesn't mean that Vudu doesn't have their own block on it, so we'll see.
 
i suppose it would depend on the app's own policy or if the format is playable on another app such as VLC player.
 
It works. My internet connection was even down, so I know it was screen casting locally.

There is one caveat. Their 'full screen' mode shows the nav bar to the right side of the screen, with the dots instead of icons. Kind of annoying.
 
MX player doesn't work with Google Play Movies. similar to VLC, it only works with MP4 or some other format that Play Movies does not use. and i am sure Vudu doesn't use either. i have used MX Player to cast videos to a chrome cast that i downloaded from Youtube, like the aforementioned Hogan's Heroes episodes. but the issue is Play Movies and Vudu, which use some proprietary format that no local streaming app supports.

Bjacks, what did you use to screen cast locally? Chrome cast only streams locally if you use a MP4 or other well-known video codec format. what does Vudu use for their offline content?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom