Enable Chromecast on the Sender on Web

This article explains how to enable the Chromecast Sender capabilities. This article also documents how you can connect with a custom Chromecast Receiver application.

Prerequisites

1. The Chromecast feature needs to be enabled for your THEOplayer SDK. (THEOplayer is built in a modular fashion, and this feature might be disabled for your SDK.)
2. You need to import the Chromecast Sender SDK.
3. Your Sender device needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your Chromecast Receiver device.

Import Chromecast Sender SDK

To allow Chromecast playback you need to include Google's Chromecast Sender SDK, which is a JavaScript file. The JavaScript snippet below illustrates how you include this Sender SDK. You can read more about it at https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/web_sender.

<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.gstatic.com/cv/js/sender/v1/cast_sender.js?loadCastFramework=1"></script>

Once this SDK is imported, OptiView Player will automatically add the Chromecast casting capability to your player (if you've enabled the Chromecast feature for your OptiView Player SDK). OptiView Player will use its default Chromecast receiver application if you do not specify an appID value on the configuration.

Connect with custom Chromecast Receiver application

The THEOplayer SDK on your Sender application connects with THEO Chromecast Receiver application by default, but you can connect it to a custom Chromecast Receiver application instead. The default Dolby OptiView Chromecast Receiver application has OptiView Player functionality, but uses Shaka for media playback. If you want to use Google's legacy Media Player Library (MPL) for playback, you will need to use either a custom application or connect to Dolby OptiView's MPL Receiver application, using the appID value of 44BAE7D1. Note that the MPL receiver does not support HLS-CMAF streams.

If you have your own Receiver app, then you adjust the PlayerConfiguration to connect with a specific appID as demonstrated below.

let customChromecastReceiverAppID = '8E80B9CE';
let player = new THEOplayer.Player(element, {
  libraryLocation: '...',
  license: '...',
  cast: {
    chromecast: {
      appID: customChromecastReceiverAppID,
    },
  },
});

If you do not specify an appID value, the player will cast to the default OptiView Player Chromecast application. This is a Receiver application that has OptiView Player functionality integrated into it, but uses the Shaka player for media playback. If you require a Receiver application that uses Google's legacy Media Player Library (MPL), there is a Receiver application with OptiView Player functionality that uses MPL. Its appID is 44BAE7D1. Note that the MPL receiver does not support HLS-CMAF streams.