Amazon Fire TV 4k - Cast from android google browser??

Google and Amazon are commercial rivals who go out of their way not to support each other.

Google Cast started out as a standard open protocol called DIAL, and a number of 3rd-party apps emulated it. But when the Chromecast became a success, Google quickly customized the protocol and made it proprietary, and then they aggressively went after every 3rd-party emulator that tried to reverse-engineer the changes and shut them down. Now Google Cast receiver capability is only available on Google devices and a few TV brands that they license. Google especially don't want any Amazon device to have Google Cast receiver capabilities.

Scote64 wrote: ↑ Google and Amazon are commercial rivals who go out of their way not to support each other.

Google Cast started out as a standard open protocol called DIAL, and a number of 3rd-party apps emulated it. But when the Chromecast became a success, Google quickly customized the protocol and made it proprietary, and then they aggressively went after every 3rd-party emulator that tried to reverse-engineer the changes and shut them down. Now Google Cast receiver capability is only available on Google devices and a few TV brands that they license. Google especially don't want any Amazon device to have Google Cast receiver capabilities.

But

If I go to YOU-TUBE, the cast option is there... for directly both my TV, and my FIRETV?

trembler wrote: ↑ But

If I go to YOU-TUBE, the cast option is there... for directly both my TV, and my FIRETV?

Casting a "YouTube video" and "Chromecasting" are not the same thing.

YouTube app is built into FireTV and your TV and what you see as a cast option on your YouTube app, sends the YouTube URL to the YouTube app on the TV and FireTV, so it will stream. You are not "chromecasting" a Youtube video.

You can't "cast" any other video stream URL to a Firestick because there is no app that I know of presently that will support receiving a "cast" since the FireStick does not come with any Google Services.

If you are looking to watch a particular video stream online: use the Silk browser on the Firestick rather than try to "cast" it.

The main reason lots of people are buying a Firestick is the ability to install all the various apps that allow you to watch video streams directly on the TV rather than "casting": CBC, CTV, Global, NetFlix, Tubi, are all available on the AppStore to install. Others in the grey area of movie and TV streaming like Kodi you will have to search for and install yourself. Lots of discussion of this on RFD, so do a little searching.

Google and Amazon declared a truce recently. Chromecast is now supposed to work on Amazon devices. However if it doesn't, search for an app to sideload on the Fire TV called "Cast Receiver". That worked even when they were at war.

Phils wrote: ↑ Google and Amazon declared a truce recently. Chromecast is now supposed to work on Amazon devices. However if it doesn't, search for an app to sideload on the Fire TV called "Cast Receiver". That worked even when they were at war.

Amazon refused to add chromecast support for Prime Video and refused to release an app on Android TV or similar. Prime Video now has chromecast support that's primarily what war was about and youtube is now back on the fire tv.

Fire TV never had and never will get chromecast support officially. Just like you'll never see official Airplay on Android.

What OP is talking about is the DIAL protocol built into youtube that let's you "cast" not chromecast. The youtube app on your non-android smart tv would also have this option.

Yes and OP asked what app to use.

Cast receiver is one app that works for me. I cast my desktop to my Firestick 4K with it.

Phils wrote: ↑Google and Amazon declared a truce recently. Chromecast is now supposed to work on Amazon devices. However if it doesn't, search for an app to sideload on the Fire TV called "Cast Receiver". That worked even when they were at war.

Phils wrote: ↑ Yes and OP asked what app to use.

Cast receiver is one app that works for me. I cast my desktop to my Firestick 4K with it.

Just to clarify, does "Cast Receiver" let me browse a website on my phone, that has a video, load the video on my phone, and then "cast" that on my tv?

I am NOT looking to "cast my desktop" as you said (i.e. screen mirroring), my TV already natively supports that.

WetCoastGuy wrote: ↑
If you are looking to watch a particular video stream online: use the Silk browser on the Firestick rather than try to "cast" it.

That's a complete other tedious workaround, navigating on the fireTV is far, far more cumbersome than navigating on the phone.

That's why I would rather navigate on the phone, find my video, maximisze it, click the "cast" button, and toss it on TV!

An even more interesting piece to casting puzzles. Google Netflix drops support for airplay.

As online streaming becomes more and more competitive. I would not put too much dependency on casting anymore. As the pool of content to do it will probably shrink further.

trembler wrote: ↑ Just to clarify, does "Cast Receiver" let me browse a website on my phone, that has a video, load the video on my phone, and then "cast" that on my tv?

I am NOT looking to "cast my desktop" as you said (i.e. screen mirroring), my TV already natively supports that.

Yes, it does. That's its purpose. The only complication is that cast receiver has to be running on the Fire TV first for it to work. It doesn't run continuously in the background.

Phils wrote: ↑ Yes, it does. That's its purpose. The only complication is that cast receiver has to be running on the Fire TV first for it to work. It doesn't run continuously in the background.

Link to app please?

Cant find it....

I didn't get it this way. Frankly, I can't find what I used.

However, there's this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... tapp&hl=en

This isn't the exact link but this is the guy from the video that recommended it to me originally. He points to an app store in his videos and that's where it can be found.

After spending a couple of month in searching of how to cast from web browser to the Fire stick i decided to build my own browser plugin that can do something similar. Unfortunately the Chrome does not support plugins on Android, therefore had to do build it for Firefox. As result i ended up with two components, plugin itself, that detects HTML 5 video and grabs the url, and Android View part that knows to connect to Fire TV using the Fling SDK and send that url to the device.
Right now both parts are already approved by Firefox and Play Store and available for downloads, but they are in "Experimental" mode, so will not appear in search result.
If you guys are interesting in testing it I can provide a link to Firefox plugins and Google play stores and would appreciate any feedback for that prototype project.

wolandca wrote: ↑ If you guys are interesting in testing it I can provide a link to Firefox plugins and Google play stores and would appreciate any feedback for that prototype project.

I've been looking for something like this. Would definitely like to give it a try. Thanks.

OK, here they are:
Firefox plugin for Android (open that link in firefox browser): https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/flingcast/
Android backend: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .flingcast
Please go easy on me. This is just a prototype that needs to be improved in many ways.

How it works: Open web page that has embedded video on it (some protected players like YouTube will not work unfortunately). The page should finish its loading process. Start the video playing. The extension should detect that, and if video source could be extracted it will show the page-action cast icon ( see the attachment). Press on it, and it should redirect you to the backend app that show the list of available fire-tv devices on your network. Press on one, and it should connect and cast.
Sometimes it may not show any device. in that case try to toggle off/on the wifi connection and if it still doesnt work then try to reboot your fire stick.


--- EDIT ---
Seems like i am getting some crash reports from Android 9 devices... going to analyze that today evening

I tried on a samsung a8 and the fling cast app force closes after I click on the browser add-on. I think it is running Android 9 like you stated. Thanks for looking into it.

Szulgai wrote: ↑ I tried on a samsung a8 and the fling cast app force closes after I click on the browser add-on. I think it is running Android 9 like you stated. Thanks for looking into it.

The fixed version has been uploaded to Google Store and will be available for downloads in 2-3 hours (google takes some time to validate it). I am working blindly as i do not have Android 9 device to test the fix. But this issue is well know in amazon dev forums, so i hope i nailed it down.
Thanks for testing it for me

Guys, has anyone tried what I do per post #7 and #13?

Phils wrote: ↑ Guys, has anyone tried what I do per post #7 and #13?

I tried, it doesn't appear as chromecast device in my network.
I personally do not need full chromecast functionality on the fire stick. I just want to be able to cast a web movie / show that i am usually watching, and thats it. All apps that i have tried or very greedy (like AirScreen) or bloated with ads. I am not against ads, but they are definitely crossed the line. And this is why i decided to try to build my own plugin that utilizes the DIAL protocol. No needs to install any receiver on the Fire stick, everything is already there, just need to grab the link and send it to device.