I promised above I’d report back about my progress and experience of replacing my Chromecast with addons on Kodi, which in my case is running on Librelec, a minimal Linux os which simply boots Kodi.
In the meantime I’ve managed to get the Netflix and Dutch national broadcasting service NPO, as well as Spotify and Youtube to work properly. Although at first I did this via the extensions menu of Yatse, a Kodi remote, I’ve now also got a good setup on Kodi, which works well (and is quite good-looking). In the following I’ll demonstrate some possibilities, which to an extent mimic Chromecast functionality. They may benefit current or future users of /e/, who may like me be struggling with missing Chromecast functionality. I can conclude after two weeks that this setup seems to have replaced the Chromecast for me, which also means I’ve succesfully displaced pretty much all Google products.
Spotify
Firstly, Spotify. With an unofficial addon I’ve managed to get Spotify working on Kodi. One needs a Spotify subscription and after logging in you can stream music on Spotify. Besides Spotify functionality, it is also possible to use Spotify connect, which means that by selecting Kodi on your phone, you can select music to play from your phone on your Kodi device, or control it from your computer. Although my experience so far is that it is a bit buggy sometimes, this is a cool feature. Nonetheless, already being able to stream from Spotify on my tv and sound system is a good step towards replacing the Chromecast, in my case.
Overview of some albums in the Spotify addon
The option to use Spotify connect
A screenshot from the Spotify app demonstrating it’s connection to Kodi
A screenshot from Spotify on Linux demonstrating its connection to Kodi while being on the same network
Youtube
Although it was a bit of a hassle to setup, I’ve managed to get the Youtube addon running on Kodi. It requires an API which you need to setup yourself (meaning you’re still using a google product), but afterwards you can use Youtube, without even having to login.
As an additional “bonus”, since I didn’t expect to get this feature, I accidentally found out this morning that the open source Youtube application Newpipe, combined with the Yatse app, make it possible to share videos to Kodi. When clicking the share button in Newpipe, Yatse offers the feature to “play on mediacentre” (“afspelen op mediacenter” in Dutch), which actually works, thereby perfectly mimicking Chromecast functionality. I’ve not added screenshots of Youtube (it’s just youtube, I guess), but I’ve added the option to share that way.
*menu of options after clicking sharing button, which reveals “play on mediacentre” (Kodi) option
NPO - Retrospect addon on Kodi
As mentioned in the previous post, Retrospect is a Kodi addon which features all kinds of regional and national broadcasting services. I use it to watch NPO content. Where in my previous post I suggested to use it through the Yatse remote app, meanwhile I’ve figured out it can also be used nicely from Kodi, where it would look something like this.
Screenshot from the Retrospect addon, running on Kodi. For screenshot of Retrospect working from Yatse, see previous post on this topic
If anyone would specifically want the Chromecast-feel of using it from a phone, Yatse works well to navigate through the addon via the phone (see previous post), but it can also be done through Kodi menus where themes apply, giving it a tv experience.
Netflix
The unoffial Netflix addon on Kodi is not supported by all Kodi themes, which I first worked around by using the Yatse extension option (see previous post). But now I’ve managed to nicely set it up with a TV interface. As with Spotify, a subscription is required, but then you can make use of Netflix from the app or browser. For example, I add things to my list while browsing on my phone and can then play those from the Kodi addon.
Screenshot demonstrating the Netflix options from the unofficial Kodi addon
Screenshot of the interface of the addon while browsing through series
With both the Spotify and Netflix addon, it seems as if listening and viewing statistic are not shared with the respective services. This on the one hand means more data kept to yourself, but on the other hand it may be a nuisance, since it means that this may impact recommendations, for example. I’ve been using Last.fm for years, so I’ve added the Last.fm addon on Kodi, but this may be a note to users.
If you’ve got any questions or want some help getting this to work similarly and you get stuck when following online guides, wikis and tutorials, I might be able to help out a bit. I at least wanted to share an alternative to the Chromecast, which was really embedded in may daily life by means of the services here mentioned. Having succesfully replaced the Chromecast feels like a big win