As new versions of Google Cast are released, this page will provide important information.
June 12, 2014
Google Cast Chrome extension - beta release 14.605.0.3
The Google Cast Chrome extension is available in a beta channel. See this Google Cast Developer Community post for more information. Instructions for using the beta channel version are here.
In this release:
- Beta Chrome Sender API event, chrome.cast.addReceiverActionListener fires immediately upon launch, allowing a site to respond as soon as a receiver has been picked.
- Improved ability to represent DIAL and custom devices & activities in Cast extension UI.
- Fixes for device discovery issues following sleep/wake cycles.
- Users can share non-personal statistics to help identify & resolve issues and to improve the Cast experience.
May 30, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
- New version, 0.7.0
- New URL: http://www.gstatic.com/cast/sdk/libs/mediaplayer/0.7.0/media_player.js
- Improvements to adaptive bitrate heuristics
- Contains refactoring of all aspects of the library code
- Fixes handling of HLS discontinuities
- Improves HLS playlist reloading
- Improves tracking of buffered time for HLS
- Adds server 408 response retry handling
May 21, 2014
iOS sender API
- New version 2.2.1
- Fix to prevent app crashing when binary is run on iOS 5.
Note: Cast API calls will run only on iOS 6 and above. The application binary that is installed on all versions was causing iOS 5 applications to crash if the binary included Cast API calls.
- Various bug fixes
- Application going into background is now handled as an implicit disconnect so it will not cause the styled/default media receiver to terminate
Android sender API
- Various bug fixes
- Updated JavaDoc for RemoteMediaPlayer to explain what RemoteMediaPlayer requestStatus does
- Detach data channel when disconnecting
- Enforcing valid custom namespace name
Styled and Default Media Receivers
- Implemented explicit disconnect logic.
May 7, 2014
Receiver API
In this release:
- New events to enable better connection/disconnection management, application visiblility changes, and volume changes
- CastReceiverManager properties and methods to support new events
- CastReceiverManager.setInactivityTimeout method added to help with debugging long-running sessions
April 25, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
In this release:
- New version 0.6.0
- New URL: http://www.gstatic.com/cast/sdk/libs/mediaplayer/0.6.0/media_player.js
- WebVTT polyfill to support WebVTT specification changes.
Important: all applications using closed captions of any type in the Media Player Library will need to switch to 0.6.0 or later to support upcoming WebVTT specification related changes in Chrome on Chromecast that make the previous implementation of closed captions (including WebVTT, TTML, and CEA-608) not work. Version 0.6.0 has code that enables closed captions to work on current and future builds of Chrome on Chromecast.
- Fixes in 608 closed captions decoder.
- Updated timeout logic when downloading segments to be based on segment duration.
- Support MPEG DASH BaseUrl in adaptation and representation when resolving segment url.
Google Cast Chrome extension - beta release 14.421.1.0
The Google Cast Chrome extension is available in a beta channel. See this Google Cast Developer Community post for more information. Instructions for using the beta channel version are here.
In this release:
- Security change for Cast channel
- Zoom suppression for fullscreen-in-tab
April 4, 2014
Google Cast Chrome extension - beta release 14.402.0.3
The Google Cast Chrome extension is available in a beta channel. See this Google Cast Developer Community post for more information. Instructions for using the beta channel version are here.
In this release:
- Universal media controls in extension UI
- Device discovery using mDNS or DIAL
- Allows app filtering to show only devices usable for a given context
- UI selector for casting vs. mirroring
April 2, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
- New version 0.5.0
- New URL: http://www.gstatic.com/cast/sdk/libs/mediaplayer/0.5.0/media_player.js
- Test your app with this version before switching to the new library in your production app
- Added 608 closed captions support for HLS mpeg2 transport streams
- Issues fixed in this version:
- Extract segment info of live smooth streaming from Tfrf box
- Audio out of sync for live smooth streaming - Issue 203
- Live SmoothStreaming have audio and video a few seconds off
- Audio only HLS stops playback 10 mins after playback starts
- Do not insert a 30 ms gap when detecting discrepancy between processed time and end of range in the source buffer for HLS - Issue 199
March 25, 2014
Google Cast Android SDK
Now using Google Play Services version 4.3, including the following specific to Cast:
- The Cast sender application now maintains a WiFi lock while casting
- Various bug fixes for handling connection and disconnection issues
- Fix for photo MediaMetadata incorrectly imports/exports JSON objects
- Fix for Cast.CastApi.getApplicationMetadata returns null
- Fix for Cast device list not removing devices that have powered down
- Various bug fixes in the SDK sample apps
- Improved error and exception handling
The Cast SDK includes the following API changes:
- The
com.google.android.gms.cast.RemoteMediaPlayerstop,pauseandplaymethods no longer throwIOExceptionand now returnPendingResult<RemoteMediaPlayer.MediaChannelResult> - The
com.google.android.gms.cast.Cast.CastOptions.BuildermethodsetDebuggingEnabledhas been changed tosetVerboseLoggingEnabled com.google.android.gms.cast.Cast.CastApi.removeMessageReceivedCallbacksremovedIllegalStateExceptionand addedIllegalArgumentException
Google Cast iOS SDK
Updates to the SDK for iOS, version 2.1.0.529 include the following:
- 64-bit builds are now fully supported
- Fixed:
setVolumedoesn't work when the sender device is muted - Logs provide a warning when a given namespace does not start with urn:x-cast:
- The SDK version number appears in the API reference documentation in the lower left corner of each page
- The SDK version number is listed in the Bundle version property of the Info.plist file
March 19, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
- New version 0.4.0, Revision 1
- New URL: http://www.gstatic.com/cast/sdk/libs/mediaplayer/0.4.0/media_player.js
- Test your app with this version before switching to the new library in your production app
- Issues fixed in this version:
- Some HLS VOD/sVOD trailers could not be displayed on the Chromecast
- HLS video doesn't resume playback, when network recovered
- Node namespaces sometimes not ignored in TTML parsing
March 10, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
- Allow starting at "live" by using the
Infinity property as the
initialTimeparameter to the player.load API call - Fixed issues with multiple, consecutive seeks
- Fixed issues with seeking/playing to the end of the stream then seeking after sourceclose and ended
- Fixed a crash that can happen if captions are disabled more than once
- Print out bitrates in debug output when bitrate quality level changes
March 7, 2014
Updated the Design Checklist - check it out! The specifics are in the changelog.
Google Cast Chrome extension
Stable channel, version 14.218.0.5 includes the following:
- All changes from the beta release of February 20, 2104
- Fixes for full screen and DIAL discovery
Beta channnel, version 14.305.0.0 includes the following:
- Cleanup session info when receiver leaves
- Files are checked correctly for forbidden strings
- Specify Chromecast IP address in advanced extension options
- Update demo app to use asyncronous script load instead of script tag
- Return EXTENSION_MISSING error for any subsequent API method call after extension enabled-and-reenabled
Media Player Library (beta)
The Media Player Library has been updated with the following:
- Add support for DASH segment template within representation
- Expose auto pause and auto resume duration to the application
- Calculate default audio codec private data based on sampling rate
- Big numbers support for smooth streaming to handle live scenarios
- Improvements in ID3 tag handling
- Prevent changes in quality if already at the end of stream
- Explicitly fix up mdat offset in trun
- To work around media element precision issues around 'ended' event, fixed duration precision to 4 digits after the decimal point
- Reset time offset in HLS on quality changes
- Expire license generate key request after 2 minutes
- ABR quality level changes improvements
February 24, 2014
Media Player Library (beta)
The Media Player Library has been updated with the following:
- Add APIs to get the HTTP status code that is received from the server:
- cast.player.api.ErrorCode.NETWORK
- Optional
cast.player.api.RequestStatusparameter to host.onError passed whenerrorCodeiscast.player.api.ErrorCode.NETWORK - cast.player.api.RequestStatus
- Change manifest loader to retry only on http timeouts and not on http errors
- When parsing mp4, don't assume that mdat follows uuid sample encryption box
- When parsing mp4, fix up data offset in trun since some content is encoded with the wrong offset that fails in Chrome mp4 parser
February 20, 2014
Google Cast Chrome extension - beta release
The Google Cast Chrome extension is now available in a beta channel. See this Google Cast Developer Community post for more information. Instructions for using the beta channel version are here.
Google Cast Chrome Sender API - beta updates
With the beta release of the Google Cast Chrome extension the following APIs have been updated in the beta channel.
- Media metadata properties have been updated:
- GenericMediaMetadata.releaseDate replaces
releaseYear(deprecated). - MovieMediaMetadata.releaseDate replaces
releaseYear(deprecated). - TvShowMediaMetadata.title replaces
episodeTitle(deprecated). - TvShowMediaMetadata.season replaces
seasonNumber(deprecated). - TvShowMediaMetadata.episode replaces
episodeNumber(deprecated). - TvShowMediaMetadata.originalAirdate replaces
releaseYear(deprecated). - MusicTrackMediaMetadata.artist replaces
artistName(deprecated). - MusicTrackMediaMetadata.releaseDate replaces
releaseYear(deprecated).
- GenericMediaMetadata.releaseDate replaces
- The MusicTrackMediaMetadat API has the following new properties:
- The new Media.getEstimatedTime provides an estimate of the real playback position based on the last information reported by the receiver; this is preferred over the currentTime property.
- The Error constructor now includes the
opt_detailsparameter to provide for error objects.
Also, to determine if the API is available and initialize it, you can provide a callback function, window['__onGCastApiAvailable'] instead of calling cast.isAvailable. See Initialization in the Chrome Sender App overview for more information.
February 3, 2014
- Official Google Cast SDK Release!!!
- Completely overhauled APIs
- Google Cast Android API now incorporated with Google Play services for Android
- Support for adaptive streaming: MPEG-DASH, SmoothStreaming, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
- Security enhancements
- Update of the Cast_Icons and GoogleCastIcons
Chrome Sender SDK update
This release of the Chrome Sender SDK works with the following Cast Receiver build, Cast extension, and Chrome versions:
| Cast Chrome SDK version | Cast Receiver build | Cast extension version | Chrome version |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 3, 2014 | 15250 | 14.123.1.2 | 32.0.1700.72 |
Google Cast extension - version 14.123.1.2
- Major update to support the public Google Cast SDK. See the Google Developer blog for more information.
- API is now included by the site instead of being injected by the extension.
- Device selection is now always handled by the extension.
- App launches can now be initiated from the extension-provided Cast icon.
- Continuity of a Cast session across page transitions is now supported.
- Navigating to a Cast-enabled page while mirroring can automatically launch the corresponding app.
- Media can be played on an available Cast receiver using the Default Media Receiver, eliminating the need to write receiver-side logic for some use cases.
October 24, 2013
- Update of the Cast_Icons and GoogleCastIcons
1.0.7
October 8, 2013
Updates for iOS:
- Minor GCKWebSocket bug fix
- Fix crash when ending session, plus some other fixes.
- Fix buffer state bug.
- 1.0.6 was not released
1.0.5
September 25, 2013
Android- Avoid pointless DNS lookups when converting dot-separated IP address string to InetAddress object.
- Make player state optional. (Fixes a crash)
- Separate two distinct error conditions when checking if socket is still connected.
- Checking to make sure mSelectInterfaceTask is the current object, before setting it to null in onCancelled.
- Multiple bugfixes - including crashing bugs
- Give socket time to drain before closing it.
- Made delegate properties weak, and wrote a logging facility for the SDK.
- Minor fix in CGKWebSocket
1.0.4
September 12, 2013
- Update Android and iOS SDK's to 1.0.4 - 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 were internal updates
- Android – Raw discovery API in Android has been deprecated - MediaRouterProvider should be used.
- Android – Removed obsolete classes
- iOS - End Session in background task
- iOS - Fixed uncaught exception crash in GCKSimpleHTTPSrequest when used with file:// URL
- iOS - Fixed a crash related to when app responds to a message by ending the session
- Cast Icons and artwork are now avaiable on the downloads page
1.0.1
August 21, 2013
- Update Android and iOS SDK's to 1.0.1
- Documentation updates for Chrome, Android, iOS, and the Receiver
- iOS - 'namespace' renamed to 'protocolNamespace' to allow Objective-C++ development
1.0
July 24, 2013
First release!
This release of Google Cast is a developer preview to let you experiment with this unique second-screen functionality in your applications. The APIs in this preview release are subject to change.
