Chromecast, CheapCast and TV

Chromecast, Cheapcast and TV Sebastian Mauer GDG Aachen DevFest Brussels
November 16th, 2013

This Presentation contains QR-Codes

Who am I? Sebastian Mauer GDG Aachen Co-Lead CS Student
Software Engineer I don’t work for Google…yet

Part I: Google TV

GoogleTV • Google’s first attempt to „own“ the TV •
Introduced at Google I/O 2010 • First Device, x86-based  Logitech Revue • US only at launch

By the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions
you see in stores will have Google TV embedded. - Eric Schmidt at LeWeb 2011

GoogleTV http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/16/report-at-56-apple-tv-takes-majority-of-streaming-device-marketshare-in-2012/

Three Generations 1. Generation, late 2010  based on Android 3.2
2. Generation, Summer 2012 based on Android 3.2 3. Generation, 2013  probably on Android 4.2.2

GoogleTV: Pros • Part of the Android-family. • Deploying apps
is easy™ (via Play Store) • Re-use most of your existing Android code

GoogleTV: Cons • Does not evolve as fast as mainline
Android • Not many devices sold (500,000 - 1,000,000) • Late start in the European Union (2012)

Help me Android. You're my only hope

Part II: ChromeCast aka Google Cast Devices

ChromeCast: Hardware • Model Number: H2G2-42 • It’s not based
on ChromeOS • It’s based on Android  and Chromium • It’s not going to kill GoogleTV http://www.iﬁxit.com/Teardown/Chromecast+Teardown/16069

ChromeCast: Pros • Very cheap hardware (35$) • Very easy
to use (My Grandma can do it™) • Web Developers can easily write „Receiver“-Apps • Simple Protocol Stack

ChromeCast: Cons • Google Cast SDK is still a Developer
Preview  (read: things will break, things will change) • You have to manually whitelist  all your apps with Google • It’s not officially released outside the U.S.

WebTech UDP ChromeCast: Protocol Stack • SSDP (Simple Service Discovery
Protocol) • DIAL (DIscovery And Launch) • RAMP (Remote Application Media Protocol) • HTML5 & JS (You know that this is) • WebSockets (Bi-directional communication Browser<>WebApp) • WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication)

ChromeCast: How does it work?

ChromeCast: How it works! 1. Advertises ChromeCast  using SSDP (UDP
Broadcast) ! 2. Discovers Endpoints using DIAL ! ! 3. Requests App and opens  WebSocket connection ! ! ! 4. CC fetches HTML5 based 1st Screen App (opens WebSocket)

ChromeCast: How it works! II ! ! ! ! 5.
Sends request to play media ! ! ! ! ! 6. HTML5 app receives  media request (WebSocket)  starts fetching content. ! ! ! ! ! ! 7. Media is downloaded/streamed  by ChromeCast device

ChromeCast: DIAL • Protocol published by Netflix • Uses SSDP
for Service Announcement • DIAL REST WebService for exchanging  Device capabilities and controlling

ChromeCast: DIAL Search SSDP Discovery SSDP Capabilities HTTP Start HTTP

ChromeCast: Sender App • Cast SDK available for     
  • Needs Whitelisting with Google

<html> <script src="https://www.gstatic.com/cast/js/receiver/1.0/cast_receiver.js"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ! var receiver =
new cast.receiver.Receiver( 'App ID', [cast.receiver.RemoteMedia.NAMESPACE], "", 5); var remoteMedia = new cast.receiver.RemoteMedia(); remoteMedia.addChannelFactory( receiver.createChannelFactory(cast.receiver.RemoteMedia.NAMESPACE)); ! receiver.start(); ! window.addEventListener('load', function() { var elem = document.getElementById('vid'); remoteMedia.setMediaElement(elem); }); ! </script> <body> <video id="vid" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;height:100%;width:100%" /> </body> </html> ChromeCast: Receiver App

ChromeCast is not just for „streaming“ content.

It’s a remote controllable Chrome Browser running on your TV.

Part III: CheapCast* * includes shameless plug

CheapCast all the Droids • Is an app that emulates
a ChromeCast (or Google Cast) device on almost any Android Device • Implements DIAL, RAMP/WS Proxy-ing • Does not care if your id is whitelisted or not. • Written by me

CheapCast: Components WebView SSDP Service DIAL REST WS ChromeCast API
Ext 1st Screen Output Receiver App Sender App

CheapCast: Use Cases • Start developing ChromeCast apps without owning 
an actual ChromeCast Device • Turn one of your old Android-devices into a  ChromeCast Dongle (connect via MHL<->HDMI) • Cast content from your Android Smartphone  to your Android Tablet just for the hell of it.

CheapCast: Use Cases Google Music YouTube

CheapCast

CheapCast: OpenSource https://github.com/mauimauer/cheapcast Licensed under the Apache 2.0 License Upcoming
Feature: Tab Casting! Made possible by Chromium

CheapCast: Get it now

Chromecast, CheapCast and TV

Chromecast, CheapCast and TV

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