Chromecast: App for Local Media Casting?

wxrusss8

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What apps are you guys using to cast local media (video in particular)? I'm using RealPlayer Cloud right now. Its free, and streams videos on my Nexus 7 right to the Chromecast flawlessly. No buffering, skipping, stopping. Video quality is great too. I hope MX Player or Dice Player add casting soon.

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jpr

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Plex is great (if you don't mind setting up the server). Right now you can only do it for free from a computer, casting the Plex Web app in a Chrome tab. But you can cast from your tablet, phone, or from the web player (without Chrome tab casting) if you subscribe to PlexPass (will be free after the bugs are worked out). I also tried Avia but found it mostly useless for casting my videos since it does not do transcoding, so I never even open it anymore.

If you want free casting from your tablet and real player cloud is working well for you, I would stick with that. If you don't mind paying (or waiting until it's free) Plex is a better overall solution and can do more. But you may not need those other features if real player does all you want.
 

wxrusss8

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Cool! I'll definitely check Plex out. I'd like to do all media streaming through one app/program.

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gidgiddonihah

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

As PLEX is supporting the Chromecast I'm digging my old Dell Intel Pentium D system out of my electronics graveyard to run a PLEX server. Just need to order a new SATA cable and a keyboard/mouse. For some reason I don't have spares.

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fuzzylumpkin

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Avia, I stream from my nas/file server not sure if real player cloud supports that. And besides, I'd rather pay a couple of quid than sign up for another account...

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lucky87ad

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I'm confused on trying to set up the Plex Media Server on my Chromebook (Acer C720). On the plex site theres no download for Chrome OS? Theres got to be a way to do it because everybody is praising Plex so much but I'm not going to pay the $4.99 until I can figure out how to set this up.
 

jpr

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I'm confused on trying to set up the Plex Media Server on my Chromebook (Acer C720). On the plex site theres no download for Chrome OS? Theres got to be a way to do it because everybody is praising Plex so much but I'm not going to pay the $4.99 until I can figure out how to set this up.

If you want to run the Server on a Chromebook, you can run a supported Linux operating system (you can have it set up as dual boot if you like to keep your ChromeOS). ChromeOS is not supported for the server. You can see the various system requirements here: https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/200055547-System-Requirements
 

gidgiddonihah

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

If you want to run the Server on a Chromebook, you can run a supported Linux operating system (you can have it set up as dual boot if you like to keep your ChromeOS). ChromeOS is not supported for the server. You can see the various system requirements here: https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/200055547-System-Requirements

Most Chromebooks use ARM don't they? Therefore PLEX wouldn't work until they get an ARM client which isn't likely as ARM is pretty weak for transcoding.

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jpr

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Most Chromebooks use ARM don't they? Therefore PLEX wouldn't work until they get an ARM client which isn't likely as ARM is pretty weak for transcoding.

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I don't have a chromebook and didn't look up the specs of the one mentioned here. That's why I linked to the system requirements so he could check for himself. I personally don't think a chromebook is an ideal server for anything and wouldn't want to do it myself, but people on the plex forums have it running on Linux chromebooks so it is possible on at least some of them.
 

tdizzel

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I'm using Real Cloud Player right now and its working flawlessly. For casting local files, it supports the file types I use 99% of the time and the rare ones that aren't supported I can upload to the cloud and can cast them from there. I can't really see a reason to use anything else right now.
 

gidgiddonihah

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Just tried PLEX on my aging AMD Athlon II x3 gaming system and it handled my high bitrate 720p files and lower bitrate 1080p ones great. The Chromecast just became even better. Stayed up until 2 in the morning playing around with it.

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mavrrick

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Plex has a chrome app for playback, but there is no native app to run PMS. As others have said you would have to run a good Linux distro, and probably would have to have a chrome book that is x86 (Intel) based.

The big requirement is for transcoding. There has to be enough processing power to handle it. No existing arm chip can do it.

Plex is amazingly powerful for media content to be shared. I am watching a movie I own from my server 100 miles away on my girlfriends chromecast. That is just awesome.

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gonzo0203

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I've been using Avia for streaming local content with 85% success rate. It has to be a .mp4 format for it to stream though, The 15% failure could be less, but I am not sure if its the app, phone, or Chromecast that has the issue. I blame CC since it loses it broadcast, no app can find the CC to stream to. So I power cycle the Chromecast and it works fine again. But I would say the $3 for Avia has been awesome.. Wife has gotten so spoiled with it, she wants to buy another for the other TV in the house.
 

mavrrick

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I think there may be something that needs to be clarified. When we are saying local content do we mean local to us and our house and network, or local as in local to the device I am on.

I am not sure how Realplayer or Avia work, but Plex requires your content be on a Plex Media Server. So you can't just play a video from your Nexus 10 straight to the CC. I am thinking that the Realplayer or Avia do that, but don't use a external server to stream content.

This could be were the compatiablity comes in. Since Plex is a robust media server it can convert and transcode the video's on the fly. That should prevent compatiablity issues for the most part. If the others just enable DLNA streaming then the media has to be compatiable on both ends. That adds to the complexity, and honestly is the biggest reason why I kind of walked away from DLNA years ago. Hopefully it has gotten better as devices have better codec support.

Can someone clarify if i am right on what Realplayer and Avia do?
 

mavrrick

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Just tried PLEX on my aging AMD Athlon II x3 gaming system and it handled my high bitrate 720p files and lower bitrate 1080p ones great. The Chromecast just became even better. Stayed up until 2 in the morning playing around with it.

Don't forget to play with the Channels. you can add a few of those and get TV to the CC. It will be a few days late but it does work. Great if you have kids and want to use Nick JR.

Plex Media Server does require a fairly robust Processor. If the system is lacking i think you can tweak it from the server to either run at a default of 6mbps or direct stream. Direct playback would be prefered if you are on the same network and the content doesn't need to be transcoded to be played on CC.

Also keep in mind that PMS does allot of background tasks so you may find that you can do more later after PMS has finished all of it's background work it needs to do.
 

gidgiddonihah

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I am not sure how Realplayer or Avia work, but Plex requires your content be on a Plex Media Server. So you can't just play a video from your Nexus 10 straight to the CC.

Actually with PLEX Pass you can.

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mavrrick

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

Actually with PLEX Pass you can.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I guess I will test this later.

I know you can tell a movie to play from device. I have done that over and over, but I was under the impression it always went back to the PMS to retrieve the content.
 

tdizzel

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I use RealPlayer on my G Pad to cast and i can cast content from my phone, my tablet or my pc.

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gidgiddonihah

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Re: Local Media Casting: What App Do You Use?

I guess I will test this later.

I know you can tell a movie to play from device. I have done that over and over, but I was under the impression it always went back to the PMS to retrieve the content.

It basically creates a PLEX server from your device, allowing you to play whatever is there locally.

Edit - At least that is how the iPad app works.

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