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Chromecast support
#1
- first post in this forum, hi everyone :-) -

I have not found any post on this forum asking about Chromecast compatibility? Adding chromecast support on those speakers would be pretty awesome - by that, I mean make them behave like Chromecast devices in the same way you have Airplay enabled devices. Has anyone asked Devialet about this?

Being an IT security guy, I could not avoid checking how 'chatty' the Phantom is once connected to a network. It does send UDP packets every few seconds to tell any listening Spark app it's there, and I have not seen it yet 'call home' like other devices do, I didn't check for very long though.

On the other hand, I noticed that when you start playing a song, the Phantom exchanges a couple of messages with the spark app, then downloads the entire song to its memory though a simple HTTP GET operation (the Phantom initiates the download). I have seen it download Flacs, mp3's, etc... Pretty funny, actually, the packets shows that the Phantom is running on Linux, and is using standard Linux software like gstreamer. Then, when you press play/pause/etc, the spark app just sends control messages to the Phantom, the music itself is already in the Phantom's memory. In a way, this is very similar to how the Chromecast works.

All that to say that really, it shouldn't be that difficult for Devialet to open things up a bit more and become more compatible with existing systems, they have all the building blocks already there. I suppose it is mostly a licensing issue, there are significant fees and royalties involved with making an "airplay/chromecast compatible" device...

I understand the sound synchronization protocol between Dialog and multiple phantoms is probably super complex, but the basic "send music to Phantom/Dialog" and control playback looks a lot more simple, and should really be more compatible with existing protocols...

Thoughts ?
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#2
Thanks for this valuable input !
Very helpfull to understand better what's going on.
Totally agree on the fact that Devialet should support more existing standards. That was exactly the point of the article I published in February http://www.gregorypouy.com/2015/03/if-th...alet-case/
Regarding Airplay you have to know that you need to include an Apple authentification chip in your hardware design. I wonder if this chip is inside Phantom...


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#3
(23-Sep-2015, 08:24)karebe Wrote: Probably the HDMI connection between Chromecast device and TV is the key. If this HDMI connection is always active than an HDMI audio "extractor/converter/splitter" could be a solution. It splits the audio signal into an optical one and in an HDMI signal (leaves it unchanged). The optical output could be connected to your Phantom or Dialog.

    Yes: just to be clear, I'm talking about the Phantom being a Chromecast-enabled speaker like (all things being equal) those: http://www.google.com/cast/audio/ . So no HDMI problems, fortunately!

    I'll continue with the network protocol when I find a bit of time - it looks pretty complex compared to simple stuff like the venerable Squeezebox protocol (for pretty much the same result), but unless Devialet chose to sign their packets or do public key encryption, no reason why it shouldn't be possible to emulate it. Then I'll be able to use my Phantoms as a squeezebox or subsonic-enabled speaker, since all my music at hope goes through those...
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#4
Has google licensed chromecast compatibility in this way? I have never seen it adopted in an an endpoint other than the chromecast hardware itself.

I suppose we will learn more on the 29th about what their intention is with audio support.
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#5
(23-Sep-2015, 23:49)Les Anderson Wrote: Has google licensed chromecast compatibility in this way? I have never seen it adopted in an an endpoint other than the chromecast hardware itself.

I suppose we will learn more on the 29th about what their intention is with audio support.

  Yes, there are a couple of speakers on the market with Chromecast compatibility: http://www.google.com/cast/audio/  . I wasn't able to find any information about the licensing program, though...

(that said, looking deeper, it's not clear whether Cast for speakers lets you do anything else than stream cloud music, no word on sending your own musing to the speaker...)
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