Hacker News Reader

Comment by jluxenberg | Hacker News Reader

I use this HDMI audio extractor to turn a Chromecast into what you describe: http://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-Premium-Extractor-Conve...

View on HN

Here's a slightly cheaper way to do the same thing: http://liliputing.com/2014/02/10-adapter-turns-chromecast-in...

I can confirm that that little device no longer works. The old models worked without the VGA portion needing to be plugged in, however the new models shipping from China don't work unless the VGA unit is plugged into something, which basically defeats the purpose.

I am now using this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMZOUVK/ref=oh_aui_detai... which is working great.

I solved that issue via a dummy VGA plug, like this: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?200444-DV...! In fact, I simply plugged the three resistors straight into the pins of VGA port on the HDMI converter. Works like a charm. :)

When I first got my Chromecast, I was beyond frustrated that the music always cut out (even though watching videos was fine). One day, I was determined to get to the bottom of it, and realized that my roommate's Yamaha RX-V571 will reset the HDMI connection every two seconds if it can't handshake the video. He has an HDMI->VGA adaptor and a VGA projector plugged into the same receiver. So, whenever I want to listen to music in our living room, I have to turn his projector on for two seconds. It's beyond stupid, but at least it works.

That's odd, my slightly older Yamaha (RX-V367) works fine with the chromecast as an HDMI device with no tv hooked up. Wonder why the newer model doesn't like it.

can't reply deeper... this is for the Yamaha comment next to this: disable auto resolution. it usually fixes this.

> can't reply deeper

What's that all about, then?

When people start replying to each other too quickly, HN makes you take a bit of cooling off time.

I am doing the same thing without the HDMI audio extractor. The Chromecast is plugged directly into an HDMI port on the receiver. It works fine. Maybe whether the extractor is necessary depends on the receiver.

Same here. TV on, I get video, TV off and it's audio only.

That is pretty slick. I've had a Squeezebox for years, but it's not too helpful for Youtube benders. For now, I've just got audio out from the TV to the stereo which works fine for casting. The audio's not hi-def but usually the quality of the source audio is the bottleneck in my experience, not the RCA audio connection.

this thing works great, I do the same thing. I wonder if these integrated speaker devices will support playing content that is not audo-only... like youtube videos. it's great to be able to get music from youtube videos. I hope they don't limit the stuff you can cast to audio-only with these new google-cast for audio devices.

Do you have to connect the HDMI out to anything for that to work?

No, no need to connect HDMI out to anything. I just connect the optical out to my receiver.

Thank you, that is very helpful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com