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Chromecast Audio + Mac with local music files - Setup Help?

R

rtrt

pfm Member
Anyone point me to to a simple setup guide that results in reliable performance please?

I have a bit of work to do over the next week or 2, where I want to have background music on - with no hassle.

I've tried Soundcast v1.7 + Soundflower + Vox and also VLC.

Connectivity results seem to be variable in that the CCA doesn't always show up in the Soundcast menu. When it does and I cast to it, music doesn't always play.

Not WiFI issues (I don't think), as my router always sees the CCA and my Mac, Router and CCA are very close together for now to remove any signal based issues.

Happy to use a different casting setup, and music app to get it working with minimum fuss - whatever you recommend...

Ideally a step by step that would make my life easier - too many distractions right now!
 
rtrt said:
Anyone point me to to a simple setup guide that results in reliable performance please?

I have a bit of work to do over the next week or 2, where I want to have background music on - with no hassle.

I've tried Soundest v1.7 + Soundflower + Vox and also VLC.

Connectivity results seem to be variable in that the CCA doesn't always show up in the Soundest menu. When it does and I cast to it, music doesn't always play.

Not WiFI issues, as my router always sees the CCA and my Mac, Router and CCA are very close together for now to remove any signal based issues.

Happy to use a different casting setup, and music app to get it working with minimum fuss - whatever you recommend...

Ideally a step by step that would make my life easier - too many distractions right now!
Click to expand...

I use Plex to play local files to the CCA, works very well.
 
Bourneendboy said:
I use Plex to play local files to the CCA, works very well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replay BEB.

Iirc Plex is the one that needs a separate server app to build a database of your files first and XBMC can work as a standalone media player.

Will download and take quick look now.
 
Whilst its downloading I ha d a quick look here;

https://plex.tv/music

Chromecast gets a mention;

Remote Control
Fling a song or playlist to your big screen with streaming clients like Chromecast and Roku.

But that reads like it might be the original chromecast and not the new audio version. If that makes a difference I don't know...
 
Thanks Matthew - no time this evening, so will take a look at that later this week.

Re Plex - I did remember correctly, it does build a library/database of your music before you can play anything.

Interestingly I couldn't see a way to later delete a file from the library apart from moving the original file…seems a little odd. Means you have to sort out your music folders(s) - ok for a long term user, but for a quick and dirty play some music to a Chromecast I'm not sure its the easiest.

Anyway I didn't see any way to explicitly 'cast' music in Plex, though since I had the original setup above working at this point, I substituted Plex for Vox, selecting soundflower as the output in Plex, which worked fine.

I wonder if the issues I see are in the soundflower or soundcast app area, rather than the music player app itself.

I guess it might be that some music players incorporate chrome cast directly - that'd be simpler than 3 separate apps

edit 2
——————
I might've been confused re having to select soundflower on Plex. I was just now listening some more, having a look around a bit more at Plex and I can't see any setting to select an output - so it might just use the Audio MIDI setting - which is Soundflower.
 
serendipitydawg said:
You could try this.

https://github.com/acidhax/chromecast-audio-stream

Please note: I don't have an Apple PC. This works perfectly for me with Windows, however.

There's an Apple version at the address in the link above. Must be worth trying, surely??

Cheers
Matthew
Click to expand...

Ah unfortunately the page above has this for Macs
--------------
OSX Users!

Use this for OSX support: https://github.com/andresgottlieb/soundcast
——————

which is the app that I'm already having issues with :(
 
Np at all Matthew - I appreciated the suggestion.

I was just closing the loop for any others who might experience similar Mac 'casting' problems to me.

Think I'll give up on the CCA for now and use my iPad doc + radioparadise. Will save me the trouble of selecting music as a playlist.
 
I set up a Chromecast Audio for the first time today and had similar issues. This is what worked for me:

- Open Google Chrome and load the Chromecast browser extension.
- Choose the browser extension to cast to your Chromecast.
- Now go to Soundcast > Cast to > Refresh Chromecasts
- Your CCA should show up now.
- In System Preferences, change output to SoundFlower (2ch)
- In Vox preferences, change output to Soundflower (2ch)
- Play your music.

Using this method, I've managed to get both Apple Music and Audirvana streaming through the Chromecast. Hope it works for you.
 
Orko said:
I set up a Chromecast Audio for the first time today and had similar issues. This is what worked for me:

- Open Google Chrome and load the Chromecast browser extension.
- Choose the browser extension to cast to your Chromecast.
- Now go to Soundcast > Cast to > Refresh Chromecasts
- Your CCA should show up now.
- In System Preferences, change output to SoundFlower (2ch)
- In Vox preferences, change output to Soundflower (2ch)
- Play your music.

Using this method, I've managed to get both Apple Music and Audirvana streaming through the Chromecast. Hope it works for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks Orko. I'll take a look -tomorrow possibly or later in week.
 
Orko said:
- Open Google Chrome and load the Chromecast browser extension.
- Choose the browser extension to cast to your Chromecast.
- Now go to Soundcast > Cast to > Refresh Chromecasts
- Your CCA should show up now.
- In System Preferences, change output to SoundFlower (2ch)
- In Vox preferences, change output to Soundflower (2ch)
- Play your music.
Click to expand...

I forgot to add that you should listen for the startup sound on the CCA, once after choosing it through the Chrome browser extension, and then once again after choosing Soundcast > Cast to >
If it plays both times, you're golden. If it doesn't, you may have to restart the Mac and go through the steps again. It's a very fiddly process, I know, but it's the only way I can get them to work at the moment. Good luck.
 
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