finally a competitor for Sonos??????
Discussion
I suppose the benefit of the CC over Bluetooth for you is that at least it's possible to solve that issue with the CC, you'll never get that with bluetooth. Incidentally I had a Logitech bluetooth box originally and binned it off because it would cut out if I was too far away from it and the range wasn't very good. With the CC I can be at the bottom of the garden and still not have any problems and obviously WiFi can ultimately be extended as far as you want.
For me the multicast feature is far more important than the shared playlist thing, but you're right it is annoying that if I cast from Plex to my TV from my tablet I don't get the controls on my phone. That annoys me because my phone is connected to my watch, so I can pause the TV or change volume without picking anything up. That's a limitation with Android Wear though.
Actually the problem is a limitation with Android; there's no interaction between devices on the same account. So when I get home tonight, all the notifications that I dismissed on my watch, that then haven't popped up on the connected phone, will be cluttering my tablet up. Google knows I've read and dealt with them.
Syncronising the notifications system across devices would be fairly simple I'd have thought, it would give you access to anything that is in the notification system, so any player that drops remote control buttons in there would propagate across all devices. But full app access wouldn't be there, so it wouldn't give you playlist access as you want.
Have you tried modifying a Plex playlist on the fly from multiple devices? I think it should work, but it's much more focused towards local music sources.
For me the multicast feature is far more important than the shared playlist thing, but you're right it is annoying that if I cast from Plex to my TV from my tablet I don't get the controls on my phone. That annoys me because my phone is connected to my watch, so I can pause the TV or change volume without picking anything up. That's a limitation with Android Wear though.
Actually the problem is a limitation with Android; there's no interaction between devices on the same account. So when I get home tonight, all the notifications that I dismissed on my watch, that then haven't popped up on the connected phone, will be cluttering my tablet up. Google knows I've read and dealt with them.
Syncronising the notifications system across devices would be fairly simple I'd have thought, it would give you access to anything that is in the notification system, so any player that drops remote control buttons in there would propagate across all devices. But full app access wouldn't be there, so it wouldn't give you playlist access as you want.
Have you tried modifying a Plex playlist on the fly from multiple devices? I think it should work, but it's much more focused towards local music sources.
threadlock said:
OK, I bought a Chromecast Audio on my way home last night and spent some time trying to get to grips with it. In the past I've been using a Bluetooth audio adapter plugged in to my active speakers.
I'm a bit disappointed. A playlist accessible with multiple devices (not even multiple accounts) would be killer but without that feature it's not really massively different to the Bluetooth streaming I've been using. I can start casting from my phone and everything is fine. It streams smoothly from Play Music and my phone can control playback reliably and intuitively. But if I put my phone down and pick up my tablet (same Google account) my tablet can only see that the CCA is streaming, but without any controls except volume. I'm still forced to use the original device to control the playlist. No different to the Bluetooth option.
The Qcast app that I linked above would seem to be the solution, and in theory it provides this missing feature. But it doesn't yet work. The developers have been aware of a problem for a few weeks and are working to fix it, apparently. Once it's working they need to provide access to Google Play's radio stations and full music library just like the Play Music app does, and at the moment I'm not convinced that it'll do this. If only Google would add the shared playlist function to their app we'd be sorted.
Multi-room music would be a nice addition but it's not a killer feature for me. I've got three free months of the Google Play Music subscription and we'll see whether Qcast or Google get their act together first.
It would be great if they improved that.I'm a bit disappointed. A playlist accessible with multiple devices (not even multiple accounts) would be killer but without that feature it's not really massively different to the Bluetooth streaming I've been using. I can start casting from my phone and everything is fine. It streams smoothly from Play Music and my phone can control playback reliably and intuitively. But if I put my phone down and pick up my tablet (same Google account) my tablet can only see that the CCA is streaming, but without any controls except volume. I'm still forced to use the original device to control the playlist. No different to the Bluetooth option.
The Qcast app that I linked above would seem to be the solution, and in theory it provides this missing feature. But it doesn't yet work. The developers have been aware of a problem for a few weeks and are working to fix it, apparently. Once it's working they need to provide access to Google Play's radio stations and full music library just like the Play Music app does, and at the moment I'm not convinced that it'll do this. If only Google would add the shared playlist function to their app we'd be sorted.
Multi-room music would be a nice addition but it's not a killer feature for me. I've got three free months of the Google Play Music subscription and we'll see whether Qcast or Google get their act together first.
Multi-room was one of my main requirements when looking for a Sonos replacement, and I also like the fact that CCA gives better quality than Bluetooth, but this is only really necessary in the zones where I have it connected to decent systems. If those features aren't as important, then I'd agree CCA would have much benefit over standard Bluetooth streaming.
dmsims said:
It won't kill you phone's battery while playing
You have to watch this, if you play music stored on your phone it will, more than if you just plugged speakers in. Sounds obvious, but it's caught me out a couple of times because the buttons you press to play stuff are the same, it's easy not to think about it.Also while most services, such as Youtube or Plex, will send a link to the source to the CC, then the CC goes to get it and tells your phone what it's doing. This doesn't hammer the battery at all obviously, but not all apps work that way. I discovered that using Web Video Caster had spunked 150gb of WiFi data one month; I assumed it worked the same way, but it was using the phone to create the stream source and obviously spanked the battery too. Chances are most apps will be fine, Web Video Caster is really a catch-all app for getting streams out of websites where there's no other CC support.
paulrockliffe - I've also got a Wear watch (Huawei). I hadn't thought about controlling the Chromecast with my watch, but it also works for Play Music when I've cast the music from my phone. But again, only if the phone remains connected to the watch. I hoped that the watch might still work over wifi when the watch was in airplane mode, but no. :-/
I've also got Plex at home, but hadn't considered it for streaming radio stations. I'm quite impressed with Google Play's radio stations at work today.
I've also got Plex at home, but hadn't considered it for streaming radio stations. I'm quite impressed with Google Play's radio stations at work today.
What I like is that you don't think about controlling it from your watch, the remote control just appears and you think, 'cool!'
Making the streams accessible to other devices should be simple, but the complication is that as soon as you have more than one stream going on the network, you need a way to choose what interacts with what that doesn't impinge on the user experience.
I suspect the solution is to have the phones, tablets etc talk to each other, rather than doing anything with the CCs. I'm sure it'll come eventually.
Making the streams accessible to other devices should be simple, but the complication is that as soon as you have more than one stream going on the network, you need a way to choose what interacts with what that doesn't impinge on the user experience.
I suspect the solution is to have the phones, tablets etc talk to each other, rather than doing anything with the CCs. I'm sure it'll come eventually.
Chromcast Audio reduced to £15, with free delivery, this weekend from Currys
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertain...
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertain...
Some people were asking earlier in the thread about having multiple devices hooked up to the same playlist.
Seems like you can actually do this when streaming Spotify Premium through CCA.
I picked a playlist from my iPhone yesterday but wanted to take the handset out with me when I went to the shops.
So I just fired up Spotify on my Galaxy and took control of the same playlist from there seamlessly.
So it seems like you can have multiple devices hooked up and you can swap between them on the same playlist.
Caveat; I don't know how many devices at any given time and to make it seamless they'd have to be logged into the same Spotify account.
Seems like you can actually do this when streaming Spotify Premium through CCA.
I picked a playlist from my iPhone yesterday but wanted to take the handset out with me when I went to the shops.
So I just fired up Spotify on my Galaxy and took control of the same playlist from there seamlessly.
So it seems like you can have multiple devices hooked up and you can swap between them on the same playlist.
Caveat; I don't know how many devices at any given time and to make it seamless they'd have to be logged into the same Spotify account.
threadlock said:
Silver Smudger said:
Chromcast Audio reduced to £15, with free delivery, this weekend from Currys
You beauty. Thank you - just picked up another two.page3 said:
Bought a CC audio on the £15 offer, but to be honest it's so primitive compared to Sonos that it's already gathering dust.
It depends what software you are using. Spotify and Plex are actually pretty good, but nothing I have found can beat the integration of the Sonos app.Edited by page3 on Tuesday 3rd May 09:40
It is a bit of a different market as well. The Sonos Connect is the closest Sonos product to the CCA and it is 17 times it's current price! If you can afford the difference, and Sonos is stable on your network, I still think it is the best choice.
page3 said:
Bought a CC audio on the £15 offer, but to be honest it's so primitive compared to Sonos that it's already gathering dust.
Well there's not much logic in the CC itself - it's just a connector, really, although a neat one. The value sits in the plethora of apps that then become cast-able.
For me that happens to be Spotify for music, Tune In and BBC iPlayer for radio, iPlayer for TV and Google photos for pics. The kids have a TV for their own use and 90% of they watch is via apps that they cast. For me its 90% audio and mostly music.
It's just easy. And as close to being free as makes no difference. And it drives all the kit I've being gathering over the years.
Easy, cheap, open.
Edited by AC43 on Tuesday 3rd May 20:34
Quick update, I've finished getting all my CCs setup today.
I got bored of needing 6 plugs for my CCs, so I picked up one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S0TSLFE/ref...
Great product and can easily be extracted when I travel rather than taking a plethora of chargers with me.
Anyone else got a background ticking going on when there's nothing playing? It's not loud, but it's a bit annoying!
I had quite a complicated setup of switches and wires linking speakers to different inputs, because the install pre-dates CC. I've had crap performance in one room and while sorting out which CC to plug in where discovered that another room is shorting that room out somewhere. Rather than trying to sort it out, I unplugged the existing wires and took the CCs straight to the amps, which should have sorted everything. But has introduced this intermittent tick!
An ideal solution would be a method of having the CC triggering a switch for the amp when it's playing, but I don't have a clue how to do that!
I got bored of needing 6 plugs for my CCs, so I picked up one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S0TSLFE/ref...
Great product and can easily be extracted when I travel rather than taking a plethora of chargers with me.
Anyone else got a background ticking going on when there's nothing playing? It's not loud, but it's a bit annoying!
I had quite a complicated setup of switches and wires linking speakers to different inputs, because the install pre-dates CC. I've had crap performance in one room and while sorting out which CC to plug in where discovered that another room is shorting that room out somewhere. Rather than trying to sort it out, I unplugged the existing wires and took the CCs straight to the amps, which should have sorted everything. But has introduced this intermittent tick!
An ideal solution would be a method of having the CC triggering a switch for the amp when it's playing, but I don't have a clue how to do that!
AC43 said:
Well there's not much logic in the CC itself - it's just a connector, really, although a neat one.
The value sits in the plethora of apps that then become cast-able.
For me that happens to be Spotify for music, Tune In and BBC iPlayer for radio, iPlayer for TV and Google photos for pics. The kids have a TV for their own use and 90% of they watch is via apps that they cast. For me its 90% audio and mostly music.
It's just easy. And as close to being free as makes no difference. And it drives all the kit I've being gathering over the years.
Easy, cheap, open.
It would be great if I didn't already have sonos. Obviously it's far far cheaper, but sonos is just so much better integrated and pulls all the music services together nicely. Not saying CC isn't a great product, just that it doesn't offer anything special for an existing sonos owner. Still, interesting to see what others are doing within the market.The value sits in the plethora of apps that then become cast-able.
For me that happens to be Spotify for music, Tune In and BBC iPlayer for radio, iPlayer for TV and Google photos for pics. The kids have a TV for their own use and 90% of they watch is via apps that they cast. For me its 90% audio and mostly music.
It's just easy. And as close to being free as makes no difference. And it drives all the kit I've being gathering over the years.
Easy, cheap, open.
paulrockliffe said:
Anyone else got a background ticking going on when there's nothing playing? It's not loud, but it's a bit annoying!
You've reminded me: yes, I had a ticking when I set up my first ChromeCast, but I think it went away as I repositioned everything once it was working. Certainly I haven't noticed it since. Might be cross-talk on the speaker wires, or poor shielding in the computer speaker amp I've plugged the CC into - not sure.Driller said:
paulrockliffe said:
An ideal solution would be a method of having the CC triggering a switch for the amp when it's playing, but I don't have a clue how to do that!
Look for a "signal sensing amp" on Google 
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