Selfhosted

I've seen Thread mentioned twice so far, but I don't think I've heard of it, and apparently a name like that makes it impossible to find any information about it. Do you have a link plz?

I don't know the specifics of Miracast, but my impression was that it is specifically used to cast a video stream from one device to another device. That is sometimes useful, but not what I typically use my Chromecast for.

The most useful feature of my Chromecast is the ability to be logged into Plex/Netflix/HBO/Spotify/YouTube/etc on my (or my guest's) mobile device, and effectively send a link and a (probably ephemeral) token to the Chromecast so that it can stream directly from the server to the Chromecast without my mobile device spending battery power and bandwidth being a middle-man.

And I assume the difficult part here is down to copyright reasons. Most of those streaming sites already limit the number of devices you can permit to stream content (which sucks, but is besides the point), so my impression is that they need to have some kind of under-the-table agreement with the Chromecast/Roku/Firestick/Apple TV/etc. folks to ensure that the device will correctly validate the credentials, not save any of the content, and properly dispose of everything when it's done. And I assume Google has similar talks about when a device on the network is allowed to be listed as a casting device to apps.

Does Miracast already handle this?

Isn't Miracast for sending video data? The thing I like about Chromecast is that the phone or remote app just tells the Chromecast where to load the media directly from, and then only sends playback control commands. That makes it a lot lighter resource wise because you don't need to proxy the stream through a device like a phone that wants to go to sleep to save battery.

https://xkcd.com/927/

Also Matter is the smart home interop standard. Seems close enough for some confusion in what Matter compatible means on a device.

Being locked into googles DNS gives me problems

I solved that by adding an 8.8.8.8 ip to my pihole interface. Because of how TCP/IP works, this has the fewest hops and is, therefore, the one to be used. I'm blocking all outbound DNS traffic for good measure.

If something could cast from one of my devices to another of my devices using the cast button, that's all I want. I can strap one of those devices to my TV and be golden.

This looks neat, though sounds like only the grayjay/futo app can cast to it, and I doubt any official streaming app would natively adopt it. Assuming it's not just casting a video feed from your phone, my guess as to how it works is, it just copies the relevant cookies over to the fcast device where it can just pretend to be your phone as far as the server is concerned.

This would be fine if it supports all the apps I use, and I'm the only one ever casting, but I don't want to force guests to install and configure another middleware app to just to cast stuff. My hope is that Matter will somehow solve these, but I probably shouldn't get my hopes up.

I should try setting up fcast either way though, see how it goes. Thanks.

Good bot