> Google Cast Ready speakers come with Cast technology built-in, so you don’t have to buy any additional equipment.
Except for, you know, the entirely new speaker(s).
I love this idea, but I want a simple, small dongle, like the chromecast, that outputs audio only rather than HDMI. I already have a speaker/amp in my living room that has a mini-stereo in. I simply want a way to connect a chromecast to it.
I can confirm that that little device no longer works. The old models worked without the VGA portion needing to be plugged in, however the new models shipping from China don't work unless the VGA unit is plugged into something, which basically defeats the purpose.
When I first got my Chromecast, I was beyond frustrated that the music always cut out (even though watching videos was fine). One day, I was determined to get to the bottom of it, and realized that my roommate's Yamaha RX-V571 will reset the HDMI connection every two seconds if it can't handshake the video. He has an HDMI->VGA adaptor and a VGA projector plugged into the same receiver. So, whenever I want to listen to music in our living room, I have to turn his projector on for two seconds. It's beyond stupid, but at least it works.
That's odd, my slightly older Yamaha (RX-V367) works fine with the chromecast as an HDMI device with no tv hooked up. Wonder why the newer model doesn't like it.
I am doing the same thing without the HDMI audio extractor. The Chromecast is plugged directly into an HDMI port on the receiver. It works fine. Maybe whether the extractor is necessary depends on the receiver.
That is pretty slick. I've had a Squeezebox for years, but it's not too helpful for Youtube benders. For now, I've just got audio out from the TV to the stereo which works fine for casting. The audio's not hi-def but usually the quality of the source audio is the bottleneck in my experience, not the RCA audio connection.
this thing works great, I do the same thing. I wonder if these integrated speaker devices will support playing content that is not audo-only... like youtube videos. it's great to be able to get music from youtube videos. I hope they don't limit the stuff you can cast to audio-only with these new google-cast for audio devices.
I do this with a raspberry pi. I set up an AirPlay service on it, and added a tiny USB wifi dongle and put it in a nice white casing. Works great and cheaper than airport express that will do what you need also.
The problem is that the quality of the audio out of the raspberry pi is terrible. I wonder if these HDMI audio extractors I see in the comments are any better. I have a raspberry pi connected to a projector that doesn't have audio out and I can't decide between a sound card for the pi (think wolfson), or a HDMI audio extractor in order to improve the quality.
Last time I tried this, the sound output was awful from the Pi itself and glitchy when using a USB DAC. Any problems with the audio in your experience?
I'm no audiophile. I'm happy streaming 320kbs spotify with my premium account to a $50 pair of logitech computer speakers. No complaints of audio quality from me. Nobody has ever said anything either.
It looks like the problem that gave me crackles when using the audio output jack may have been fixed with a firmware update. Thanks, you gave me reason to check and I might be able to put my Pi back into service!
Maybe Chromecast v2 could have that, alongside HDMI 2.0? That, plus 802.11ac and 2x2 antennas would make it absolutely perfect. (And probably more expensive than $35, but possibly worth it)
Good point, although I'd prefer to pay less to not have Android TV (I don't think the TV platforms make any sense compared to "Casting" content from mobile devices).
Whether it will work seamlessly may depend on the receiver, but I have a Chromecast plugged into an HDMI port on my Yamaha unit. (Note, there is nothing plugged into the HDMI out port on the receiver.) This setup works flawlessly for streaming audio throughout my house.
Some people say they had to use an HDMI audio extractor to achieve this, but that was not necessary in my case.
Yeah, similar setup here - I've plugged mine into the first HDMI port on my Onkyo receiver (http://amzn.com/B0077V88V8), and everything works fine. Audio through the reciever, no TV on - plus I get the automatic input switching thing that Chromecast does (seems to just go to the first HDMI port on the receiver, not the actual one it was plugged into). Pretty nice.
Any Bluetooth audio adapter will do, and it will do for iOS devices, too. Unless you want a longer tether than Bluetooth allows there is no advantage to "casting."
Perhaps if one could cast to multiple Chomecasts...
I use a bluetooth adapter connected to my receiver's inputs. My use case is pretty simple though: send audio from my phone (Spotify or audio book) to the receiver.
Except for, you know, the entirely new speaker(s).
I love this idea, but I want a simple, small dongle, like the chromecast, that outputs audio only rather than HDMI. I already have a speaker/amp in my living room that has a mini-stereo in. I simply want a way to connect a chromecast to it.