Chromecast audio - attributes for streaming radio

Development
1

I have a Chromecast Audio and Google Mini that have been properly configured in HA. When I ask Google “Play CBC Radio”, the attributes for the media player are:

volume_level: 0.2199999988079071
is_volume_muted: false
media_content_id: http://cbc_r1_tor.akacast.akamaistream.net/7/632/451661/v1/rc.akacast.akamaistream.net/cbc_r1_tor
media_content_type: music
media_position: 1.194548
media_position_updated_at: 2019-02-15T15:47:59.201977+00:00
media_title: q
media_artist: Q is an energetic daily arts, culture and entertainment magazine that takes you on a smart and surprising ride, interviewing personalities and tackling the cultural issues that matter.
app_id: 12F05308
app_name: TuneIn Free
friendly_name: Office
entity_picture: /api/media_player_proxy/media_player.office?token=64ec715480a5864e5011972fd8c70058197a544fb5cd4485189cc38b3f38ce94&cache=2a6069d9a87994e7
supported_features: 21437

If I instead call the “media_player.play_media” service with the “media_content_id” set to above, not only does it take ~30s before it starts to play, but the attributes are:

volume_level: 0.2199999988079071
is_volume_muted: false
media_content_id: http://cbc_r1_tor.akacast.akamaistream.net/7/632/451661/v1/rc.akacast.akamaistream.net/cbc_r1_tor
media_position: 0.891475
media_position_updated_at: 2019-02-15T15:47:03.749872+00:00
app_id: CC1AD845
app_name: Default Media Receiver
friendly_name: Office
supported_features: 21437

Note that there is no title or artwork information associated with the stream. Is Google doing some black magic here? How can I get the Chromecast Audio to play the “fuller” stream?

1 Like
2

Hi, how do you launch tuneIn on a CC ?

3

I think this is the difference between Google assistant with its partner apps like tune-in, vs home assistant, the stand-alone open-source software doing the best it can on its own.

Google assistant leverages tune-in and all its metadata about “CBC radio”, while all HA has to go on is the URL that you’ve provided.

4

I have the very same impression.