Adding support for Chromecast

[rvm]

From version svn r8311 (linux version only) it might be possible to play local files on chromecast.

This is how it works:

First you need to install webfsd, which is a tiny web server (it's necessary to run a web server so that chromecast can access the files in your computer).

Play a video in smplayer, and select the option Play -> Play on Chromecast.

This will start a web server in the background, and open a website (http://chromecast.smplayer.info) in the web browser (it must be chrome or chromium). This website can connect to your chromecast device and start playback of the video URL on chromecast.

You can stop the video in smplayer (since playback on the chromecast device is done independently) but you shouldn't close smplayer, as that would close the web server as well.

You can also play remote streams (, copy the link and open it with smplayer: Open -> URL, then Play -> Play on Chromecast). In this case you can close smplayer, since the web server isn't necessary for remote streams.

[scootergrisen]

Would it not be better to call the menu item "Play on device" or something like that instead of having to add a new menu item each time you want to add support for a new device?

Also to keep like brandname/trademark away from the menus.

[dhdurgee]

I have been searching for a way to play streams and local videos from my linux mint 18.2 x64 cinnamon laptop. Your player came up as an option, so I installed the latest version from the PPA. I am still getting familiar with it and have encountered at least one problem than needs a work-around.

When I attempted to access my chromecast from your player it opens firefox, which does not have chromecast support at present on linux. I do have chrome on the system, but it is NOT my default browser. In fact the browser I use most is SeaMonkey.

Would it make sense to add a preference for the path to the browser to use for chromecast support? Would it make sense to call google-chrome specifically?

Is there a plan to go beyond the need for google-chrome in the future? II had originally attempted to install mkchromecast, but found that it was impossible to do so on my system which is based on ubuntu xenial. It appears that ubuntu zesty is the first to include support for mkchromecast. I had earlier used stream2chromecast, but that stopped working with this release for me.

Perhaps if the licensing permits you can crib from either of the other packages to improve your chromecast support to avoid the need for a google-chrome call.

Dave

[rvm]

It's necessary a web browser which provides support for the chromecast API, I don't know if there's another browser other than chrome which supports it.

If you have a smartphone (with chrome as browser), you can scan the QR code at the bottom of the page, to control playback from your smartphone, this way you don't need to change the default browser in your PC.

If there's another external application which provides support for chromecast, and which works well under linux and windows, then I'll be happy to use it in smplayer in the future.

[dhdurgee]