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Emby as video service for Google Home/Chromecast


wmichael3

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wmichael3

I see there are a few other posts on this but none really capture the issue to me, so forgive me but I'm starting a new topic:

We just moved from WMC to Emby in total (after running both in parallel for a couple years - we did this about 3 weeks ago).  We went all-Chromecast at the same time.  It is the inexpensive way to make all-TVs act the same (we have 3 in the home and 1 in a vacation cabin) without having to be all-Samsung or all-Whatever Smart TV.  One of the TVs is 15 years old but has a great 720p picture, so you can see the advantage in going Chromecast.  (By the way, Emby works much better after jettisoning ServerWMC)

As you all probably know, once you start a program you can voice control the Chromecasts for pausing, skipping, rewinding, etc.  It works great. Skipping commercials with "Hey Google, skip 3 minutes" is kind of a revelation and works well with Emby - either from recorded TV or Live TV that you've paused or any other content.

What we are missing is Emby as a Google Video Service.  (In Google Home under Settings | Services | Video) As I write this there are 7 providers that do this, including Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Starz, (YouTube of course) and some lesser names.  Those services get full voice control without the "Talk to..." preface, work seamlessly with Chromecasts and as they are paid services they certainly are dealing with authentication.  If possible, this is a killer solution for full voice control that would make Emby just about perfect.  I believe that this would also handle music streaming from Emby.

So that's my feature request.  By the way, I can wax on about how great Emby is when we travel.  We take a Chromecast with us and for example, we were in France last year and watched a Packers game from an AirBnb in Paris via Emby on the TV. 

Thanks for listening and great job on the steadily improving platform.

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Hi.  We can look into this but I don't believe this is possible with our architecture.

All the services you described have a single repository of media that all users access.  This allows Google to have knowledge of and index their content, etc.  

Just so I'm sure what you are asking for, do you have a link to any Google docs for it?

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wmichael3

Here is all I could find: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7214982?hl=en.   I think there would have to be a contact with someone with Google to learn more. Yes, those services would have a single repository, but there would still have to be localization re local content restrictions and personal authentication and filtering.  Google Search has long been something that could be implemented on an individual intranet behind a firewall so who knows?  After all, Google Home certainly supports home automation and that is all local, behind a firewall and very individual.  If I can turn on a bedroom light with it then it would make sense to also control a video source.

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Yes, the way those work is by indexing a common repository.  Google search on an Android TV device is possible and we do have that implemented in our app already.

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wmichael3

Thanks for the reply.  In the absence of full Home integration, what would be useful is some sort of simple rest interface so that, for example, you could start a stream via URL to the server and send that stream to a Chromecast.    Particularly with Live TV.

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1 hour ago, wmichael3 said:

Thanks for the reply.  In the absence of full Home integration, what would be useful is some sort of simple rest interface so that, for example, you could start a stream via URL to the server and send that stream to a Chromecast.    Particularly with Live TV.

Hi.  We already have a full API. Documentation is available from your server.

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