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Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

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Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#101

Post by dazc »

nolok wrote: post #43
dazc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for me at least, amazon's copycat worked first time out of the box. Chromecast, alas, turned out to be an expensive plastic brick.

No offense but I bought a lot of chromecast and even my most tech inept family users have "moved to the tech age" with it and never bother me to get it working. I'm sure amazon thingy works just as well, but your trouble with it are more anecdotal than the rules.

'...but your trouble with it are more anecdotal than the rules.'

Hence why I said 'for me at least'.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#102

Post by dazc »

organsnyder wrote: post #20
dazc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for me at least, amazon's copycat worked first time out of the box. Chromecast, alas, turned out to be an expensive plastic brick.

What issues did you encounter? And how can you call a $35 device "expensive"?

I plugged it in and followed the simple set-up instructions. The process was interrupted because my device required an update.

No surprises there but the update process descended into a continuous loop farce that didn't look like it was ever going to end.

So I put everything back in its box with the intention to try again at some point in future; 2 years later it is still there.

The price was not so high that it warranted an instant return; I intended to have another go when I had more time - just never got around to it.

So yeah, it was expensive in this respect. Maybe I should have persisted but I value my time and don't see why I should waste it on small issues like this.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chromecast+udate+problem

I noticed amazon offered a better option actually with a LAN connection instead of wi-fi so I opted for this knowing that sending it straight back wouldn't be a problem, if it came to it.

I bought the Chromecast from another UK retailer where a refund would involve a lot more effort..

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#103

Post by gremlinsinc »

skybrian wrote: post #86
gremlinsinc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The thing that pisses me off, is that Amazon video doesn't even support Chromecast for streaming, how hard would it be to code that in? I bought firefly from amazon thinking I could easily stream it to my chromecast, but nope.. -- I won't get amazon video, or support any of there video things till I can. They need to let bygones be bygones and accept each others apps/gadget/technology to make it so each other…

It mostly works for me using Chrome on a MacBook to play Amazon video and casting the tab to Chromecast. However, I do have to disconnect and reconnect the Chromecast occasionally. Maybe a Roku would be more reliable?

I hate/refuse to cast tabs, it's buggy/ugly and I don't like it personally. If I can't pass the stream to chromecast, I just don't do it. I prefer to do all my streaming from my phone not laptop too, using one of the webcast apps that can cast any web page's videos to chromecast.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#104

Post by gremlinsinc »

kuschku wrote: post #82
gremlinsinc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The thing that pisses me off, is that Amazon video doesn't even support Chromecast for streaming, how hard would it be to code that in? I bought firefly from amazon thinking I could easily stream it to my chromecast, but nope.. -- I won't get amazon video, or support any of there video things till I can. They need to let bygones be bygones and accept each others apps/gadget/technology to make it so each other…

> how hard would it be to code that in? How hard is it to support a protocol that the vendor obfuscates, and changes frequently, to prevent you from streaming to it? Interesting question. From my own experiences trying to build an open source library to stream to it (and to receive streams): Very hard when the vendor is Google. The only way to stream to Chromecasts is with Google’s proprietary library, and Google wil…

can't amazon create a play store bridge where if amazon needs to use a play service it opens the bridge and does it through the other app? Wouldn't work on kindle devices without google play, etc... but fuck those, I just need it to work on my Moto v4. Don't know why Amazon has to control the app store anyways, I much prefer Play and won't buy any amazon devices till they have native support of ALL google apps via google play.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#105

Post by nolok »

kuschku wrote: post #66
nolok wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They fired the second shot when they refused to make anything to stream from a kindle fire to a chromecast. That's literally a "amazon media playing thingy" and it can't stream to the market leader casting device. I love competition but this to me is a case of "ohh, screw that, just make whatever work with whatever"

> They fired the second shot when they refused to make anything to stream from a kindle fire to a chromecast. That's literally a "amazon media playing thingy" and it can't stream to the market leader casting device. Actually, Amazon had apps that did this. Google changed the Chromecast protocol, and demanded that app developers use their proprietary library. I once had an app that was affected by this, too. The fault…

Vlc version 4 is now shipping with the ability to cast to a chromecast, without any proprietary library.

Also, amazon makes a tablet is "easy dumb way to consume your media", and while it is not fit for me and probably not for you, it's awesome for the people who know very little and want a recommendation. Yet amazon screwed that up with that move.

What does it matter to them if I use their 40e thingy or google's as long as I buy my media on them. Instead it's revert to Google and buy on Google play.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#106

Post by jimmaswell »

Grazester wrote: post #67
ams6110 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably needs to register the mac address with the university dhcp service so that it can get a routable IP address. University networks used to be pretty wide open but the days where you could just plug into any available Ethernet socket or hop on the wifi anonymously are gone.

We may have a winner here. Universities tend to use this network access control services that block random mac's from connecting.

For mine the Wifi was always gated but ethernet ports were open.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#107

Post by AmIFirstToThink »

If Facebook really supported Net Neutrality, it would do the same i.e. block the service for to the ISPs that create tiered internet.

Given Facebook is responsible for creating tiered internet (Facebook only mobile phones in South Asian countries), you can imagine how they are going to react to changed rules.

Question is would Google and Netflix and others including Amazon, team up to deny services to the first ISP that offers tiered internet in the USA.

Given how YouTube/Echo/Chromecast is playing out, Google and Amazon may simply choose to use ISP last-mile fast-lanes in the wars against one another than stand with the end users to enforce NN. If you look at market caps of Amazon and Google vs. Comcast/Charter you can see what they would consider as threat (Google vs Amazon) and what as just pieces on the chessboard (ISPs).

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#108

Post by now_l93 »

tzakrajs wrote: post #56

They probably want more control over the implementation of Youtube. Maybe it's not a good experience on the Fire TV and Echo Show.

That's not why. See the article. Google has stated this is because amazon doesn't sell certain google products through their store, and doesn't allow prime video on the chromecast.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#109

Post by AmIFirstToThink »

niftich wrote: post #2

Last time [1] we speculated, some saying it's a straight tit for tat [2], others, like me [3], saying it can be because Amazon half-assed the implementation after getting no help from Google. At least this time, we know the real reason. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15348063 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15348063#15349384 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15348063#15349084

When was Amazon Prime Video available on non-Amazon Android devices?

Why did Amazon pulled chromecast from the Amazon stores?

Casting is an open API with many device and app manufactures supporting it. Same goes for YouTube. I don't buy the argument that Amazon couldn't make YouTube app work on their devices.

Amazon sells things from other vendors for most of the things that they sell under Amazon brand. They stopping sell of Chromecast was clearly anti-competitive practice. This was a miscalculation on Amazon's part.

Or they both are playing smoke and mirrors game for the regulators to crack down on, enforce competition, claim victory, meanwhile forgetting about the real important stuff that these companies get away with.

Re: Google Is Pulling YouTube Off the Fire TV and Echo Show

#110

Post by kuschku »

nolok wrote: post #105
kuschku wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They fired the second shot when they refused to make anything to stream from a kindle fire to a chromecast. That's literally a "amazon media playing thingy" and it can't stream to the market leader casting device. Actually, Amazon had apps that did this. Google changed the Chromecast protocol, and demanded that app developers use their proprietary library. I once had an app that was affected by this, too. The fault…

Vlc version 4 is now shipping with the ability to cast to a chromecast, without any proprietary library. Also, amazon makes a tablet is "easy dumb way to consume your media", and while it is not fit for me and probably not for you, it's awesome for the people who know very little and want a recommendation. Yet amazon screwed that up with that move. What does it matter to them if I use their 40e thingy or google's as…

> Vlc version 4 is now shipping with the ability to cast to a chromecast, without any proprietary library.

VLC actually uses a proprietary library for it, but doesn’t ship it.

Specifically, VLC asks the OS to activate the secondary display, which leads Android to redirect this request to Google Play Services.

This feature does not work on Amazon Kindles, Replicant, LineageOS, CopperheadOS, or any other non-Google Android distributions.

Also, for full Chromecast support, you need to use 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-cast:8.3.+' – which, obviously, is proprietary.

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