Homey Plex application - main discussion thread

John

hello Mike,

I am running a PMS on my synology. I installed your app and set it up without no problem. I added the plex-> chromecast as device (i have a v2).

Created a simple flow , when i say showtime it should plexcast a specific video. Autocomplete works , so it sees my plex libary content just fine.

The problem is that when it casts the video i see a the progres bar for a very brief moment , like 3 seconds and then its just stuck displaying the blue chromecast logo on screen. When view the google cast app on my phone it says "default media receiver".

I also noticed that when homey says "enjoy watch // ing + video // title" it always stuters twice where "//" represents the break during homeys speech. I also tried watching a random movie using the "watch random movie" command , same result. 

I tried multiple video's , and also cast them using the plex app on my phone , works just fine that way

I am running V 0.8.29 and plex app  v1.01

MikeOne

Hi @John , I'm not sure about this one. @posthok confirmed that it is working on his synology, however, he didn't say which player he's got. 
The issue in this case might be chromecast. Because I'm using a non-optimised universal transcoding to offer media to the chromecast, it might simply be that the synology is not powerful enough to do that on-the-fly transcoding (PHT is mich smarter than my process at the moment). I really need to make that process more intelligent and allow for direct streaming for most types. The challenge is that I need to reverse egineer the logic needed to decide when to transcode and when not (or choose specific transcoders instead of universal).

i'm very sorry it doesn't work for you. I hope once this matures and more and more people start using it in their specific setups, I'll have more information to make it better and better. Truth is that chromecasting from PMS as implemented for the homey is pretty much a reverse-engineered hack as it really shouldn't even work using a non-authorized casting device like the homey :-)

I'm sure this will be fixed, just might take me a little while I'm afraid..

MennoVanGrinsven

I have connected 2 chrome cast devices. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. How can I choose between the two? 

Also do I need to create a flow to start a movie or van I just say something . Because I cannot seem to get it to work yet . 

MikeOne

Oh.. And as a PS.. There is an update in the way 1.0.3, that forces local pms access instread of using the remote IP (as 1.0.1 does). In case your problem is not related to transcoding, this might actually help you...

posthok

I'm casting to aMennoVanGrinsven said:

I have connected 2 chrome cast devices. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. How can I choose between the two? 

Also do I need to create a flow to start a movie or van I just say something . Because I cannot seem to get it to work yet . 

You'll have to add two chromecasts in the device section. Rename the device's to chromecast 1 en 2. Then send media to 1 or 2 in a flow. 

MikeOne

Hey @MennoVanGrinsven , you don't need a flow, this can be done with voice only. You are probably now in a situation that it will only play on one chromecast, this is simply the first chromecast it will find in it's array of devices.

Now there is a known issue currently in Homey that is causing the Zones not to work properly. The workaround is to simply go to devices and rename the chromecast to the zone it is in ('living' and 'bedroom' for example). Now there are 3 scenario's:

1) You don't mention the name of the device (I want to watch star trek) - it will then choose the first chromecast it finds in its internal array of devices.
2) I want to watch star trek in the living (plays living room chromecast)
3) I want to watch star trek in the bedroom (bedroom chromecast).

If you are lucky, then one you use the most is the first one in the array :-)

The Homey bug should be fixed soon and then the renaming is no longer needed..

MennoVanGrinsven

@posthok chromate are added and called woonkamer and slaapkamer. Also added two plex devices with the chrome casts added.

I added a flow: You said something -> Play Plex Media. But i cannot drop the text label into the Play Plex Media card

MikeOne

Actually, now I think about it, you can't actually use a flow to do this. You could if you have for example one chromecast and one PHT (as this will give you two devices in the flow editor) - but not with two devices of the same (driver) type.

As I said, you can simply do this by voice. However, I will build in arguments for the flow cards to choose which player (if there are more of the same type). On my list of things to do :-)

MennoVanGrinsven

MikeOne said:

Actually, now I think about it, you can't actually use a flow to do this. You could if you have for example one chromecast and one PHT (as this will give you two devices in the flow editor) - but not with two devices of the same (driver) type.

As I said, you can simply do this by voice. However, I will build in arguments for the flow cards to choose which player (if there are more of the same type). On my list of things to do :-)

This is what i have got now.
What voice commands do you recommend ? I am using dutch language

MikeOne

Well, as I mentioned before, no guarantees for dutch :-)

I'm not sure what I'm looking at here? You should go to /manager/zones/ page, find your device, click the name and name it as explained. Than you *should* (again, not sure about dutch) be able to just say "star trek kijken in slaapkamer"

MennoVanGrinsven

MikeOne said:

Well, as I mentioned before, no guarantees for dutch :-)

I'm not sure what I'm looking at here? You should go to /manager/zones/ page, find your device, click the name and name it as explained. Than you *should* (again, not sure about dutch) be able to just say "star trek kijken in slaapkamer"

Ah you are looking at a part of the devices in the flow page

MennoVanGrinsven

Homey keeps saying: "I could not find any media items"

MikeOne

It means the media cache is empty.

Hmm... but you are able to play stuff sometimes? In that case, it is probably the auto-refresh that is maybe running too often (or you accidentally got unlucky). There is an interval (every 30 min) - that refreshes PMS and updates the cache. i guess when you have a huge library it might take a bit for the cache to be loaded again?

MennoVanGrinsven

@MikeOne ;
I have not been able to play anything as of yet. I always get that message. But i have a large library. But it has been a few hours that i reinstalled the app.

MikeOne

That doesn't sound right. Indexing a library of a 1000 items takes about 10 seconds. 

if it was set to english, say: okay homey, refresh media (media updaten ofzo?)

unless of course your PMS connection isn't working?

MennoVanGrinsven

@MikeOne no problems with the connection as far as i can see. i can access my server from my local ip and through plex.tv. oh wait... i remember there was something about the ssl connection. it is set to required in my pms

MikeOne

Yeah, that doesn't help :-)

phb

Still  not working  here  will  wait  for  new  version  in the app store 

MennoVanGrinsven

I have not actually tried yet, but in the speech-input I read that homey asks which ice age movie I would like to watch . So u guess the app part is working now for me. Now to try the actual casting to chrome cast. 

MikeOne

Just in case you din't realize, you will *also* need to add your chromecasts as a Plex Driver. So even though you might have added them for the Homey Chromecast app, you also need to add them for Plex (in the devices window).

MikeOne

So @phb , what exactly is and isn't working for you? Did you also follow the install steps on the first post of this forum thread?

phb

@MikeOne My plex server installed again. plex app installed. chromecast new app is installed. Follewed your step by step explanation.  De plex app response to my voice,  and connects to the chromcast. I can see on my TV that it connected. A blue progress bar is showing on the screen. After a few minutes it stops and homey says.. Enjoy your  movie..

phb

PMS is on a win 10 pc and  I can reach my server   via 4G and WiFi  on my mobile , tablet and laptop

phb

have a v1 and a v2 version chromecast, both same results

MikeOne

It is slightly strange as the blue bar indicates it does try to play the movie. In other words, at that point it is between pms and the chromecast to sort it out. Homey is no longer involved.

the new version has just been approved btw. Reboot homey and your pms and go through the serup steps again. It might improve.

MennoVanGrinsven

@phb same result here. Black screen with a blue "searching"  bar. After a while homey said enjoy watching xxxx and then I just see a blue cast picture . This is with a chrome cast v2. 

jorden

The blue cast picture might take up to 20-30 seconds, depending on the movie / encoding / server transcoding speed.

phb

@MennoVanGrinsven  thank goodness someone else with the same problem pfff , waiting now for the version v 1.0.2 maybe that helps us ;-)

@jorden i know it takes some time to transcode... but nothing happens  after 20-30m seconds

MennoVanGrinsven

@jorden like @phb mentioned it takes a while. Before the cast icon appears. A few minutes after that the normal backdrop picture comes back . 

MikeOne

Not sure what it is, I tried a lot of movies from my library and 95% runs without a hitch..

i need your specific scenarios so I can reproduce this issue.

is there anyone here that does have a working chromecast setup?

btw, I just publised 1.0.5 in the app store. Please give it a go.