MM5 & Chromecast Audio

[yarguy]

I am revisiting this subject without attaching the previous discussion to avoid everyone having to read a long pointless discussion. I have both a Chromecast Audio and a Chromecast Ultra. As it happens they are both in the same room. MM5 finds the Ultra but does not find the Audio. Competitive products find both with no special steps necessary. I say "competitive" in the general sense of the products being music players; in the specific sense, MM5 is not competitive because it does not find the Audio and I would not purchase it for that reason. Since other apps do find and use the Audio, it seems to me something is missing in MM5. Is it fixable?

[Ludek]

Hi,
MM5 finds "Chromecast audio" just fine for me (and my colleagues).

Could you please download and install 2178 and generate debug log (item 4b here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 30&t=86643) ?
1) Start DbgView app
2) Start MM5 and wait several seconds load everything
3) Click Cast icon on the player to show list of available remote players and wait 30 seconds (should gradually load all the players including Chromecast Audio)
4) Save the output from the DbgView to a file, upload the file to a free file hosting service (DropBox, RapidShare, FileDropper, MediaFire, ...) and share the link to the file with us (e.g. send me private message with the link or share it here)

EDIT: Also, it seems that we have already solved your issue previously: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 45#p457661
when you wrote: "All it took was a simple re-boot to get MM5 to play to my Audio Chromecast. "

EDIT2: I also see that you have opened ticket TJS-719-73558 in the past, but haven't heard from you, do you see my replies?

[yarguy]

Here we go again. I downloaded and installed 2185 and no Chromecast Audio once again in MM5. I will repeat: roon finds the Chromecast Audio with no intervention by me; Audirvana finds the Chromecast Audio without any intervention by me. Why would I ever consider MM5 as my main music player when it can't/won't connect properly to my system? And there are features of both roon and Audirvana that make MM5 even less useful: they play true high-res files, MM5 does not; they organize and play classical music by composition, MM5 does not.

[Davo]

MM5 2185 finds Chromecast Audio ok for me

[dwkrzyz]

FWIW I also have problems with Chromecast Audio devices. I've tried MM5; but I'm currently using MMW ver 4 using the BubbleUp transcoder. I am also exploring alternatives to CCA namely DTS Play-Fi. In my experience the problem in this thread may have nothing to do with MM. Consider this, when I first deployed CCA's Google offered a full standalone Windows app for CCA. A month later they withdrew the app from their website. A month or so later they put a much reduced controller into their Chrome browser. Over the next couple months they further reduced the controls within the browser add-on. i.e. You could no longer install or create speaker groups. Next, in Jan 2019 they announced discontinuation of CCA's entirely. In the time since then every time a new (minor) update to either their CCA's or Chrome came in it was a 50/50 chance the CCA's would disappear from the browser. Note: the problem is theirs not mine; I have a CC enabled TV that always shows up in the browser. So, I come to question Google's support (or lack thereof) for CCA's; dead or not. Google, at best, wants the entire world to be tied to an Android phone. BTW, throughout the last 8-10 months the CCA's were ticking away quite nicely on the net; they just weren't visible to Windows. Also, their support people are very tired of fending me off and telling me to use my Android phone. So, take it for what it's worth, I question whether MM5 support of CC is worth the effort...

[yarguy]

I know this subject has been covered before, but I cannot find the posts. MM5 is touted as being able to play to Chromecasts. If all that is meant by that is the video Chromecasts, then all is well. But if it is to include audio Chromecasts, then things aren't working for me. I have two video and three audio Chromecasts on my home network. MM5 locates the two video units, but not the three audio units. Other programs do locate - and play to - the three audio units. So my question is: is MM5 intended to access audio Chromecasts? And if so, why doesn't it locate ones that other programs find with ease? Just to note: I am using 2218 on Windows 10

[Ludek]

Yes, it plays to Chromecast Audio just fine here, see this:
https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... io#p458758
where I asked you for debug log, but you have never sent me one, you also opened ticket TJS-719-73558 in the past, but I haven't heard from you, did you see my replies?

[yarguy]

Sent you a PM with the dropbox info

[Ludek]

I have analyzed your log and replied over the ticket TJS-719-73558 that you have opened in the past (to better track this issue).

Let me know whether you got my reply and please continue via the ticket TJS-719-73558.

Thanks!

[Ludek]

FYI: We have been solving this offline via private messages with yarguy.
After he checked whether the Audio devices are seen by his Chrome browser they showed up in MM5 too (and are still visible now).

[yarguy]

One of the points you make in what's better about MM5 is that it will play to Chromecast devices. But as a rather long list of messages here would indicate, this often isn't so. And it's not so in my case. A video chromecast does show up in the list of cast devices, not any of the three audio chromecasts that every other music player program on my desktop and on my android devices find easily. Either fix MM5 so it consistently plays to audio Chromecasts or change your what's new message to

"plays to video chromecasts, but forget about those audio chromecasts"

[Lowlander]

Which build are you on? Mine (the old Chromecast Audio dongle style) show up without problem as well as Chromecast Audio build into other devices.

Also try rebooting the Chromecasts, MMW PC and your Router.

[Ludek]

Mine Chromecast Audio works absolutely fine too (tested while ago against build 2310).

I see that you have already reported this issue in the past, see: viewtopic.php?p=463416#p463416
and we solved your issue offline via private messages, I remember that you indicated that after checkeing whether the Audio devices are seen by your Chrome browser they suddenly showed up in MM5 too (and were still visible from then). So it sounds like an issue with mDNS discovery specific to your network environment.

If it is an issue again (and the workaround does not work for you anymore?) then open eSupport ticket with debug log attached ( viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86643 )

[rusty]

I also have it working with 3 audio chromecasts. I _did_ have a problem at one time that one of the devices wasn't being recognized. The solution in my case was to upgrade the chromecast's firmware. Google says that this happens automatically, but in my case I had to do a factory reset on that device (see https://support.google.com/chromecast/a ... 9?hl=en-CA ).

-Rusty

[yarguy]

From the earliest alpha through all the betas and now into the first release, MM5 has inconsistently found my Chromecast devices (it's not finding them now). Only MM5 has this problem (though MM4 didn't even try, of course); all the other programs I have that cast have no difficulty finding these Chromecast devices. And, for what it is worth, one of those other programs is MM for Android. So I can't cast to Chromecast from MM5 on my desktop, but can from MMA on my Pixel phone. Not good work Ventis Media.