HOTDOGSEAGULL

This is a server built in node.js that lets you browse your media using a browser and push it up to a chromecast. Should be suitable for running on a home server.

This is intended as a starting point for UNIX inclined people to set up local media servers for the chromecast. The UI intentionally looks bad because I want to leave the UI to others while I focus on the technical aspects. If you make any improvements to this code, feel free to send a pull request. See below for more details on future development

Tested on OS X but should work on anything that can run node and ffmpeg.

Features

• Uses the default media player app on the Chromecast - no need to get a developer ID or publish an app.
• Detects which of your local files are fully compatible with the chromecast using ffmpeg
• Optional on-the-fly transcoding that only transcodes the streams that need it. (I.e. audio/video that is already compatible will not be transcoded.)
• Extremely basic UI. Uses templates so adding skins and customizing should be easier.
• API so you can use transcoding and compatibility checking in your own app! (See below)
• Lets you try files anyways just in case detection got it wrong. (Let me know when detection is wrong).
• Lots of debugging output
• Ridiculous name

Installation

Depends on ffprobe that's provided by ffmpeg. You can install this using Homebrew or whatever package manager you have on your system.

Depends on node packages: express, dot, node-ffprobe, fluent-ffmpeg

git clone https://github.com/craiig/HOTDOGSEAGULL
cd HOTDOGSEAGULL
brew install ffmpeg
npm install
edit 'media_folder' variable in server.js to point to your media directory
node server.js
Visit http://<local_ip>:3000 in a web browser.

NOTE: You need to use an ip that the chromecast can access. I.e. use 192.168.1.X and don't use localhost.

Known Issues

As of Feb 9 2014:

• The Chromecast default media player doesn't seem to update the sender on the progress through the video. Manual status changes, such as pausing, muting, etc will cause the progress to get updated. This is also an issue in Google's CastHelloVideo, so I'm not sure if it's just not currently possible or I'm not adding a listener in the right places.

Warranty & Support

This server might be very insecure and may leak all your files. Security audits/fixes are more than welcome. For the love of god put this behind a firewall.

Make posts in the github forum if you have problems.

Upcoming features & Contributing

To contribute, just send a pull request on github and I'll look at it. Bugs, new features, better UI, it's all welcome but I don't guarantee I'll accept everything.

Here are some features that would be good to add:

• Better UI layout
• Read thumbnail from the video using ffmpeg
• Skin & config system so you can switch between skins, etc.
• UI & support for mobile browsers
• Packaging this up for less technical users on other systems.

Here's what I'm working on:

• Improving the player interaction with the chromecast
• Play whole directory
• Subtitles
• DLNA support (if possible)
• Offline/batch transcoding support using ffmpeg (and then maybe online transcoding)

API

This module supports a basic API so that you can add compatibility checking and transcoding to your own node programs. Please feel free to give me some feedback on what you'd like to see from an API. Ideally many people can use this to get the server-side media features for the chromecast. I'm also looking into ways of supporting the javascript needed for the chromecast as well.

npm install https://github.com/craiig/HOTDOGSEAGULL/archive/master.tar.gz

chromecast = require('HOTDOGSEAGULL')
filename = ...

//retrieve chromecast compatibility information
chromecast.get_file_data(filename,
	function(compatible, compat_data){
		if(compatible){
			console.log("File is fully compatible");
		} else {
			console.log("File needs some transcoding");
		}
		console.log(compat_data);	
	});

//set up a route that transcodes the files
//note: make sure to set up a static route so you can serve files that are fully compatible
app.get('/transcode', function(req, res) {
	filename = ...
	options = {}; //list of options for transcoding, see the source for more details
	ffmpeg_flags = ""; //pass flags directly to ffmpeg
	chromecast.transcode_stream(filename, res, options, "", 
	  function(err, ffmpeg_error_code, ffmpeg_output){
		if(err){
			console.log("transcode error:");
			console.log(ffmpeg_output);
		} else {
			console.log("transcoding finished ffmpeg_output: ");
			console.log(ffmpeg_output);
		}
	});
 
});

License

I used some code from Google's CastHelloVideo-chrome which are under the Apache 2.0 License. https://github.com/googlecast/CastHelloVideo-chrome

You should consider my code to be under the Apache 2.0 license but with an ADDED REQUIREMENT THAT YOU MUST EXPLICITLY MENTION THIS RIDICULOUS PROJECT NAME (HOTDOGSEAGULL) IN YOUR ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION.