I’m in the process of degoogling and I’m stuck trying to find a reasonable alternative to Chromecast. It would be great if I could stream music/video from my phone to my TV from apps like RiMusic, Tidal, and NewPipe. Are there any good solutions? Even better if friends and family can use it with minimal additional setup.

  • MattMckenzy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    If you’re up for using Jellyfin and have satellite devices, you can check out something I’m working on to achieve this: https://github.com/MattMckenzy/Homehook

    The main branch was compatible with chromecast devices, but I’ve stopped maintaining it in favor of the v2 branch, where HomeHook communicates directly with satellite devices through HomeCast.

    Let me know if you have any questions about it, always glad to help!

    • eodur@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Oh that isn’t quite what I was looking for but I’ve got Home Assistant and Jellyfin already. I’ll have to play with this! Thanks!

    • eco_game@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Yesss fcast looks incredibly promising. Sadly the only app implementing it seems to be GrayJay, I really hope it will catch on more.

    • azron@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      I’m also hopeful fcast gets some more love. The ability to mirror my whole android screen to an fcast server would be great they have servers for Mac, Linux, Windows, and Android but not a lot of clients.

      Grayjay integration works well I use it instead of casting.

  • Wojwo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    DLNA is going to be your best bet, but it’s such a deep and convoluted rabbit hole. There’s a lot of ways to configure a setup.

  • net00@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I think a few more details are needed to get you a clear alternative:

    • Which devices you want to cast from? what content you want to cast (DRM content like netflix, and/or your own media)? what kind of TV you have?

    In my case after degoogling, I use mainly apple devices besides my windows pc. 2 of my TVs have AirPlay built in, so there’s no issue casting anything. If your TV is rather recent it’s likely to have it too.

    The third TV is tricky, it’s an older 4k LG. I have a linux box connected to it and installed UxPlay in it. It only works with AirPlay “mirroring” so you kinda need an app that can treat the TV as a second monitor. Otherwise the mirroring won’t cover the entire TV screen. I’m still assuming apple devices here, but there’s OutPlayer and nPlayer in the appstore that can do this. It does support sound-only casting, so if it’s music you want it should be able to direct cast from your apps.

    The second caveat for UxPlay is that it only works with DRM-free content (youtube, self hosted media). For DRM content I haven’t found a nice alternative for the old TV , so I use its built in apps (netflix, amazon prime). Kodi exists, but the plug-ins support for streaming sites isn’t good, often getting stuck to low-res content.

    I’m guessing buying an apple tv/fire stick/roku is the only alternative for DRM content casting. I also explored the idea of “degoogling” my unused chromecast 3rd gen, but absolutely nothing exists for this and it just collects dust in a drawer.

    • eodur@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      I’ve got a handful of Android-based TVs that I’m becoming increasingly irritated with. Google regularly pushes updates that break stuff. I already have Jellyfin and Navidrome running on my network and can play them on the TV without issue. Netflix et al are also no issue, but being able to stream other sources such as YouTube/NewPipe.

      I am not a fan of Apple either, so adding to them to the mix is a nonstarter.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I have a Linux PC with Jellyfin hooked up to the TV but i find it awkward to use with a keyboard and trackpad while lying on the couch. It would be great to have a remote like the Chromecast one but I’m not sure if anything like that is available that would work with JF.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    There’s a litany of them, but the issue is more about what apps will connect to them reliably. The support on apps is really what you’re looking for, as a single app can support multiple streaming targets.

    Since you’re talking about some pretty widely adopted apps, maybe look at an Airplay alternative as well, since there’s also a ton of those, and a lot of them are actively developed.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        Well, I don’t understand your technical wants or needs, but you can Google or hit GitHub and find dozens pretty easily. Look into what Home Assistant is using these days as an easy starter list maybe. Also worth using Raspberry Pi as an included search term to find projects specifically geared for turning an RPi into a Chromecast or Airplay target.

  • thejevans@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Your best bet is to just avoid the need altogether. I use an nvidia shield with clipious, smarttube, and jellyfin. There is a qobuz app that is okay and a USB Media Player Pro that is pretty bad. I haven’t tried any apps for subsonic streaming.

    I’d bet there is a tidal app, but I think tidal also integrates with Plex?

    For when I want to “cast” a random video file, I use VLC on my PC and on my shield to stream to the TV, and it works well enough.

    I haven’t found a good solution to have similar functionality as Google cast for other people to use, but none of my guests have ever been upset that it wasn’t available.