Cast receiver configuration

[nielsvanvelzen]

To ease cast client development and make it easier to use third-party/self hosted implementations I propose some changes to how we deal with the cast receiver id in the server/web. The main changes of this proposal are:

• Configure the available cast receivers
  • Mainly making it possible to host your own without modifying jellyfin-web (or the native clients that implement casting).
• Remove the hard coded receiver ids from the frontend

I'm searching for someone to tackle the server part of this proposal. I can do the web part myself (although if someone from the web team wants to do that, please do!).

Jellyfin server changes

• Add "CastReceiverApplications" to system.xml

  • Will have a name & id for the receivers
  • Default to two entries: Stable (F007D354) and Unstable (6F511C87) (our current application ids)

• Add "CastReceiverApplications" to /System/Info endpoint Sample JSON:

  {
  "CastReceiverApplications": [
      {
          "id": "F007D354",
          "name": "Stable"
      }
  ]
  }

  Clients should use the user preferred cast client or they must use the first returned application.

• Add "CastReceiver" to UserConfiguration

  • The value is the id of the cast receiver
  • Must be one of the entries in system.xml when the value is updated (doesn't need to be validated on GET)
  • Defaults to first entry in CastReceiverApplications

• Migrate the existing chromecastVersion property from the usersettings to the new user configuration property

Jellyfin web changes

• Use the CastReceiverApplications value from the system info in the user playback settings page
• Use the CastReceiver value from the user config when using cast
• Remove hardcoded cast client values

---

This effectively supersedes #7 (which I noticed existed after I made this draft).

[crobibero]

I'll work on the server part 👍

[nielsvanvelzen]

I can work on the web part in about a week or so, unless someone else volunteers to do the web part. It should be fairly easy with basic knowledge about the jellyfin-web codebase.

[BloodyIron]

🍿

I've seen mentioned this kind of a change might make it into Jellyfin (server?) 10.9. Is that a reliable/achievable milestone? I don't entirely know how frequently minor version changes roll out for Jellyfin server/etc. So unsure what realistic napkin-math timeline to temper my anticipation with. Excited! :)

[nielsvanvelzen]

With half of the implementation already done this is extremely likely to be in 10.9 yes.

[nielsvanvelzen]

Closing as resolved. Both the server and client changes are merged for 10.9!

[BloodyIron]

Will these settings be configurable via the webGUI for the Admin section of Jellyfin? In... addition to CLI? Also, how exactly can one know acceptable values for said fields? Since the "id" value seems to accept what I assume is git hashes, not sure exactly the best way a human can determine possible workable values in said fields (CLI/webGUI whatever).

[nielsvanvelzen]

No you cannot change the list of cast receivers via the webui/cli. You'll need to modify the configuration file. This is done because this configuration is only for advanced use cases like development or when self-hosting the receiver, both require a Google Cast developer account (which is not free) and the expectation is that not a lot of users will do this.

The ids are not git hashes, those are the cast receiver ids Google generates.

[BloodyIron]

both require a Google Cast developer account (which is not free)

Well I didn't even know this part lol! That's absolute bonkers self-hosting that data (as opposed to pulling from github?) requires a Google Cast developer account. Does the github (current?) method involve a Google Cast developer account somehow? 🤔

[Maxr1998]

The current method uses cast clients hosted by the Jellyfin team.