Rafostar Gnome Shell Extension Cast To Tv Versions Save

A quick bug fix release. In previous release function responsible for detecting external music cover when casting music was broken, resulting in 404 HTTP error on the receiver. It should work now.

This is the first release that works on GNOME 3.34-3.36.

Besides features described below it also includes all changes from v13 released earlier today.

• Changes:
  • Includes all live streaming code changes that allows desktop streaming
  • Support specifying preferred and fallback subtitle tracks lang for videos with multiple subtitles in video container

This version supports desktop streaming with sound that works on both Xorg and Wayland. Because desktop streaming requires some GStreamer plugins that extension normally does not use, it will be released separately in the form of an add-on for extension. Latest desktop stream addon code is available here.

Desktop streaming is in much better shape than it was few weeks ago BTW. It has an about 3 sec delay right now, but this is currently the only Linux app that allows streaming desktop to Chromecast on Wayland as far as I know.

Important: Opening extension preferences from extension menu ("Cast Settings") might not work on GNOME 3.36.1. This is not my bug. The fix is already on gnome gitlab, so it should start working again once 3.36.2 releases.

This is mainly a bug fix release for GNOME Shell 3.26-3.34. From this point forward support for older GNOME Shell versions goes into "maintance" only. That means no new features, eventual bug fixes only.

• Changes:

  • Dropped playing playlist item should now "fly" back to its original position
  • Cast to TV API changes:
    • API now allows casting/controlling playback from external devices using HTTP requests
    • Added API documentation with examples to git wiki (I will write more info/examples in my free time)
  • Notify on add-on cast error
  • Extension now shows TV icon on notifications

• Fixes:

  • Fix free port detection
  • Fix no subtitles when using transcode audio only and burn subs options
  • Fix no signal send to Chromecast when casting from add-ons
  • Fix playlist DND colliding with desktop icons extension (desktop icons extension that Ubuntu uses by default was trying to take dropped items from playlist)

IMPORTANT: Due to changed internal communication in extension please relogin/reboot after install/update.

• Changes:

  • Redo communication between GJS and node.js (now it uses http requests and websockets)
  • Added transcode audio only option
  • Added picture change on time interval (a.k.a Slideshow) #84
    • Slideshow can be toggled using camera button in the remote
    • Change picture time interval can be set in extension prefs
    • Time can be changed during cast too
    • Supports putting images on repeat (infinite loop)
  • Support cast from network GVFS file mounts (e.g. NAS server) #86
  • Added device selection to file chooser and nautilus extension #88
    • Device can be changed at the bottom of file chooser
    • Nautilus displays device selection only if there is more than one device scanned
  • Added support for HLS video streaming (used by WIP desktop streaming)
  • Includes vttextract command line tool for manual subtitles extraction:
    • Allows preparing subtitles before cast to speed up streaming later
    • Can be used to extract subtitles from single video or folder with videos
    • Extension will automatically find and pick extracted subtitles on cast
    • All tool code (except printing to command line) is shared with extension
    • Can be run on time interval using e.g. Cron job
  • Extension now reuses subtitles extracted on cast or with vttextract
    • Select folder to keep extracted subtitles for later reuse in prefs
    • Default save folder is /tmp which will not keep them across reboots (manual change recommended)
  • Transcode videos to mp4 instead of mkv container
  • Option to use native Chromecast subtitles while transcoding:
    • Burning subtitles during transcode is now optional
    • Not burning lowers CPU usage and allows customising subtitles
    • Burning subs is still available as it displays correctly unusual subtitles (e.g. karaoke)
  • File chooser will remember last used transcode option
  • Shorter GNOME top bar label (without "remote" part)
  • Added option to show selected receiver name as top bar label
  • Replaced module responsible for subtitles character encoding detection #104
  • Displays notifications about missing or not installed npm modules

• Fixes:

  • Fix non-working file chooser buttons translations
  • Fix ffmpeg memory leak on cast stop during encoding
  • Fix playlist jitters on drag when items include non-English alphabet letters
  • Fixed casting multiple pictures to web browser
  • Fix webplayer showing too many connections on track change

• New translations:

  • Spanish translation by @jsuarez314

• Changes:

  • Added playlist (file queue) in remote widget which allows:
    • Selecting current item to be played with single click
    • Adding more items to the queue (must be same media type) from file chooser dialog or Nautilus
    • Reordering list items via "Drag and Drop" (animated GIF on GitHub page shows this in action)
    • Removing items from the list by dropping them outside the widget
  • Added ability to change widget playback control buttons size
  • Allows changing remote related settings during playback
  • Added options to manually configure Chromecast IP from extension settings (this obsoletes node cast-to-tv-config which does not work anymore after latest changes)
  • Nautilus extension should now also work with Nemo file manager
  • Added NVENC (Nvidia) hardware acceleration (thanks to @deisi for testing)
  • Added option to transcode both video and audio (only audio option will be added later on)
  • Updated node modules to latest versions

• Improvements:

  • Replaced outdated Chromecast controlling node module with new custom chromecast-controller
  • Updated multicast-scanner which now can scan network and then find and connect to desired Chromecast much faster than before (within 150ms !!!)

• Fixes:

  • Now works on GNOME 3.34
  • Fixed Chromecast not returning to BackDrop after pressing stop button
  • Fixed issue where Chromecast subtitles were reset to defaults on extension update/reinstall
  • GNOME notifications should now be displayed always correctly

Other info The casting web links function in the form of cast-to-tv-links-addon is basically finished. This is a separate module, because I do not want to force installing additional dependencies to users that will not use them.

Once the v11 is accepted on GNOME Shell Extensions website I will try posting this add-on too, although this is basically an extension of an extension and I do not know if something like that will be accepted there (never seen anyone make something like this).

• Changes:

  • Added ability to turn on/off background service
  • Playercast app support (cast files to other Linux device with any desktop environment and control playback remotely from GNOME Shell)

• Improvements:

  • Extension settings will notify users when nodejs or npm is not installed

• Fixes:

  • Extension should now correctly detect and display music cover from external file named cover.jpg (or png) placed in the same folder as selected music tracks
  • Web browser image cache fixes
  • Changed "Color" into "Colour" in English UK

• New translations:

  • Dutch by @Vistaus
  • German by @1989gironimo

If you installed Playercast app during development, please update it to stable v1.0 release.

• Changes:

  • Nautilus Cast to TV integration (installation is described in readme)
  • Control media volume with volume slider
  • Control web browser playback from GNOME Shell
  • Sliders apply values after drop or scroll ends
  • Redesigned extension settings with new options:
    • Installation or updating of npm modules with a single click from modules tab
    • Chromecast subtitles styling (font family, font style, size, colors etc.)
    • Support for changing web player subtitles size
    • Ability to hide remote label
    • Unified sliders toggle (when unified, switch position slider into volume slider by clicking icon next to it, otherwise both sliders will be shown separately)

• Improvements:

  • Increased Chromecast remote responsiveness
  • Using current cast session when changing files (switching files by either remote skip buttons or loading new files while still casting will be much faster now)
  • Prevent opening file chooser or prefs twice

• Fixes:

  • Restore repeat button state after gnome-shell restart

Another huge release. This time a lot of code has been reworked in order to support Gnome 3.32 without dropping support for previous Gnome versions.

• Fixes:

  • Gnome 3.32 compatibility
  • File chooser will show icon and correct app name
  • App dialogs support custom icon themes (if you are using a fancy icon theme you may ask your icon theme devs if they are willing to add cast-to-tv icon in their theme)
    • Custom icon is already supported by @numixproject

• Changes:

  • Support for multiple Chromecasts (scan network and select desired Chromecast in extension prefs)
  • Chromecast remote will display currently playing filename
  • Automatic subtitles character encoding detection (option in settings is removed)
  • Initial add-ons support

• Improvements:

  • Improved remote behaviour when controlling playback using other device
  • Improved web player site theme, messages and loading times
  • Modern and higher res icon for web player

• Translations:

  • Translated Gnome notifications
  • Translated web browser app
  • Translated web player menu
  • All translations updated

This release includes all new features from v6 and fixes Gnome 3.30 problems from that version and adds shell notifications.

Additionally this version includes WebSockets. What that means? It means that this version allows you to turn ANY device with web browser into your own Chromecast!

Select first file and play it in web browser and leave it open. The next time you select new file browser will automatically refresh and start playing it. You can also select multiple music files and they will be played one after another.

Try connecting your smartphone to your amplifier or any other speakers and turn them wireless without installing any additional apps (and without lowering sound quality like Bluetooth does). It works even with screen turned off (tested on Android Chrome). Pure fun! :smile:

This version unfortunately has small bug that makes it unusable on Gnome 3.30+ and will be available for download only here (it should work on Gnome 3.26 and 3.28)

This is a HUGE update (npm modules reinstallation might be needed).

• Changes:

  • Chromecast subtitles support (without video transcoding)
  • Select subtitles character encoding in settings (supports various alphabets)
  • Both Chromecast and webplayer will show song cover when playing music (no more black screen)
  • Select and cast multiple files to Chromecast
  • Gnome remote now has position slider
  • Change tracks using skip buttons
  • Switchable repeat button (files will start playing from beginning after last one)
  • Webplayer Firefox and other web browsers support
  • Turkish translation by @TeknoMobil

• Improvements:

  • Reduce stuttering at video beginning by adding small delay (allows Chromecast to buffer a little before start)
  • File is send to Chromecast as soon as ffmpeg finishes processing metadata/subtitles
  • Fixed playback controls on mobile devices (plays perfectly with touch support on Android Chrome browser)
  • Change web browser content without closing tab (page refresh is enough after selecting new file)
  • Reworked a lot of code