Chromecast Rooted
forum.xda-developers.com
forum.xda-developers.com
[1] https://github.com/thibauts/node-castv2/issues/2
[2] https://github.com/thibauts/node-castv2
[3] https://github.com/thibauts/node-castv2/blob/master/lib/serv...
Normally, vulnerabilities would be considered a bad thing. Heartbleed is a great example of that. But in cases like these, it's a very good thing. This is why I always like to remind those whose goal is to build more secure systems to consider the implications of their work, lest our devices become even more secure against us. They usually have in mind a world where everyone has full control of their devices which are then highly secure against attacks by others, and that's a good thing; but I think it's far more likely to turn into one where corporations have all the control and devices are secure against their owners, especially as typical users continue to choose security over freedom.
I'm not arguing against unlimited freedom - just arguing against the expectation of unlimited freedom when all things are considered.
Like in `iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p udp -s 192.168.1.100 --dport 53 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.2`
This restriction could be unlocked one day.
(Yes, I know, I should just upgrade the TV, but in that case I probably wouldn't have bought the Chromecast.)
If I get around to it I am going to port a dashboard I built for the chromecast to act as the normal home screen.
The problem with how it works now is you would manually have to re-cast the dashboard when you turn it on, or after you were done casting anything else. I did that for the first day, but after that it just didn't really seem to be as worthwhile.
And the main benefit of that ROM seems to be that you can set an alternate DNS server to get around (some) forms of region controlling, as well as set your own application whitelist - not sure whats missing from the existing whitelist or what killer app you would root this for, but if I own the device, I should have total control over the device.
I agree (mostly) with you, but I still want to prod at this because I think it's interesting.
I'm guessing you probably own a (recent) car, a microwave, etc. Do you have total control over these devices? If not, does it bother you as much as not having total control over the Chromecast? How are they different (or not) from a Chromecast? A phone? A computer?
My microwave, on the other hand, I'm not sure there's much else I want it to do that I'd consider reprogramming it for ;-)
The only reason that total control is not granted by default is that companies fear that they will no longer control their customer. I can understand in instances where safety or device damage may be an issue (like, no, I dont want root access to a tesla for example), but for consumer devices, I should not be forced to use apples store to add software to my phone. I should not be forced to use googles software to use their hardware either.
Your car on the other hand has a pretty narrow application field. Your microwave too. Those are tools that perform their intended task as good as they can.
Now if there was a firmware switch limiting your microwave from performing its intended task to its fullest capabilities you probably would want to 'root' it too.
1. "Lost" is relative for a device that cost $35. I could just... buy another one.
I made a transcoding proxy for Chromecast, for it to work, I'd have to piggyback the url-player (without selling my identity). I don't like stuff like that.
It's $5, but just FYI, you don't have to pay or register your app if you make a Default Media Receiver. You don't get on-TV UI, but that's probably fine if you're just transcoding and displaying video.
What are Chromecasts used for? Should I buy one?
It has a simple unintrusive ui which is nice.
Netflix/Hulu - no user myself and I'm not sure if those services are available outside of the US/available in DE. Tab casting, as far as I understand that, is a Chrome feature. I'm a Firefox guy. Would I be able to do something useful with that device?
Right now it seems like it would be equivalent to the Pi w/ xbmc, in an arguably smaller/nicer package. I'm hoping for a killer feature that I haven't considered/noticed :)
I'm basically in the same situation as you. I already have Raspbmc set up on my Raspberry Pi, and see little reason to purchase a Chromecast. In my understanding, the "killer feature" is that it's supported by an increasingly large number of Android apps, which don't have support for casting to arbitrary UPnP targets as far as I'm aware.
Currently my main applications used by my chromecast are watchever (a service like netflix), twitch (using a third party app shame on me ;)) and youtube while I use the Pi mainly for "offline" media.
The most appealing feature of the chromecast is that it "just works" and I never had major problem with it (super easy setup, great integration into existing apps, turns on the tv once it is activated on my phone and so on). For me it delivers on the promises, which manufacturers of "smart TVs" made but failed to achieve in their products.
If your remote has a keyboard on it then more power to you, but none of mine do, and the phone is 1000x easier.
For my money, the best remote I ever used was the original TiVo. There's something a lot more haptic about a physical remote with real buttons. And I have yet to see a Chromecast remote app that's very good. Where's the dedicated "skip back 9 seconds" button? Or "turn close captioning on"? These are things I do all the time while watching shows.
Then, I gave away my Apple TV and bought a Chromecast. Searching for content.. jumping between content sources.. it's all easier on the phone.
What I like about Chromecast is that their integration is simply a small button added to other apps that I'm already familiar with.
For example, I use Netflix as normal but basically choose where the output should go. It's actually quite similar to Apple's AirPlay integration although the Chromecast has never had an issue (AirPlay always seemed to have latency issues).
Not if you want to pick what to watch with someone else.
Bad argument. Any remote control can run out of battery.
But moreover, when your phone dies and you're using it as a remote at home, you likely have the charger right there are home too. When the AAAs in your dedicated remote die (though PERHAPS more infrequently) you need to go running around to see where you shoved that container of AAAs, find that they're all actually the dead ones, and then go to the store.
Battery is only the second worst part about using a phone as a remote, the worst being that a phone is anti-social while watching television (on a television) is social.
I reverted back to using foobar2000 on windows with the upnp plugin and my Sony DLNA capable TV for all local media (and a USB stick for mp3s rsync'ed with my laptop). Works fine. The TV does youtube, netflix, amazon video, iplayer etc already. This is a 3 year old Bravia EX unit worth about £100 now.
The only issue I still have is that the wifi dongle I attached to the RPi can only pull 10Mb/s. I hear this is due to lack of power provided by the RPi to its USB ports and that it can be mitigated by using a powered USB hub, but I haven't tried that yet. 10Mb/s is enough to stream SD and some HD, but not all HD. I've tweaked the buffering settings to make this a little more bearable but honestly I usually end up transcoding a lower-bitrate version for the RPi to stream, which is a pain without a UPnP server to do that transparently.
They want to work with the big content companies. The end game might be ads on the chromecast served through Google with the stick is access to chromecast and the carrot is ad-optimization by Google and maybe blocking pirated content.
This is not just a constant thing we're seeing either. Expect Google to become ever more restrictive and anti-piracy, as they delve deeper into the content selling business. The days of the "Open Google" are long gone now, and they're never coming back.
It sounds like with your current set up a chromecast might only be slightly more convenient, so you might not be missing much.
I have a Chromecast and I love it, but the one thing I want to use it for that I haven't been able to figure out how is to show a dashboard at work. We have these giant TVs that are basically off all the time, except when there's a football game or something on, and I want to put up my stats dashboard for our app. Chromecast should theoretically make it easy for me to just stream the dashboard to the screen, but what I've found happens is that it goes to sleep after 10 minutes or so.
I don't want to spend hours and hours rooting around and figuring out application IDs and stuff. I just wanna click some buttons and have my dashboard show up and stay up all day. Are there any resources for that?
Or is Chromecast just the wrong tool for the job?
Hackability is just icing on the cake.
I haven't followed the Chromecast, but why is it locked in the first place!?
I've found some of these here[1] but owning no chromecast I can't do any test by myself.
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/1umk7t/lets_make...
However, they might be able to grab the private keys from it and use them to build add Chromecast emulation to XBMC.
The device is ideal for hotels since you usually get a nice HD TV in the room. But half the time I can't stream from Chromecast because of the wifi login.
A rooted Chromecast would essentially let me log in to the hotel wifi like I would on my laptop or phone. Then I can stream away.