Help: Send Tidal music from streaming backend(MPD/LMS) -> Chromecast - HOW?

1

So I have decided to do a music project - and I need your examples/help here.

Goal: Stream Tidal music(Playlist) to a Chromecast unit.

Requirement: No hardware! Only software(docker over time)!..fed up with boxes already.

Issue: Tidal is difficult to get stream through a backend server - So have investigated current options
Option 1: LMS(Logitech Media Server) officially supports it currently through squeezelite.
Option 2: MyVolumio have native support - But costs 3€/month
Option 3: Volumio does support it with customization - but playlists does not work :frowning:
Option 4: Modipy does have a Tidal addon, but maintainer have not used it for months.

Regardless of what option i Choose I can’t seem to get my head around the hass.io config.

Scenario:
How would I have either a Squeezelite/MPD/Volumio player in my setup which then proxies the stream over to my Chromecast unit(Pioneer VSX AVR)?

Is this even possible? If so, please share your setup/thought and/or config.

Thanks in advance
Morten

2

There is a lms plugin for chromecast.

Edit: once installed you can just treat the chromecast as a lms player.

3

Update:

Finally got TIDAL working though Home Assistant! (But also a very custom solution!)

So for anyone interested in Tidal playback with control options from Home Assistant here is what you need.

What you get: Play “Top 100” or any other playlist from TIDAL on my AVR in 1-single click
Reason: Simplicity, Instant playback & WAF…and Pioneer app for Tidal playback is slooooow!

-1 x Tidal subscription(HiFi or Premium)
-1 x Logitech Media Server as backend + Either chromecast or AirPlay Bridge
-1 x Playback device(like Chromecast or AVR with AitPlay/ChromeCast support)

Install LMS + bridge addon and verify from the webinterface that you can play music on your playback device through the bridge.
I run LMS through Docker on my QNAP NAS - Use this image https://hub.docker.com/r/larsks/logitech-media-server/

Configure your playback device as media_player in HASS.

Use a combination of shell_command(curl) and template switch to expose the LMS URLs you want to config in HASS. See squeezebox and how to control it with a webbrowser or with the arduino for more inspiration

Play playlist example:
Have the Tidal managed playlists saved as favorite playlist in LMS - then I use this link for playback of the playlist:
http://192.168.0.107:9002/plugins/Favorites/index.html?action=play&index=0 (change index number for the favorite entry you want to playback - First Favorite entry = 0)

This method have been verified working with both Chromecast and AirPlay
Personally I had issues with the chromecast bridge - Seems to be very slow on my Pioneer AVR - But Airplay works well.

I have choosen to set it all up in my Lovelace config with the following:

- type: picture-glance
  title: Tidal
  entities:
  - entity: switch.tidalplaytop100
    icon: mdi:star-circle
  - entity: switch.tidalplaydanceelectronic
    icon: mdi:track-light
  - entity: switch.tidalplaydinner
    icon: mdi:silverware-fork-knife
  - entity: switch.tidalnext
    icon: mdi:skip-next
  - entity: switch.tidalstop     
    icon: mdi:stop
  - entity: media_player.am335x_opt
    icon: mdi:dots-horizontal
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: media_player.turn_off
      service_data:
        entity_id: media_player.am335x_opt
  image: 12264-tidal-logo.gif

What works well:

  • Native basic TIDAL functions can be controlled from HASS…Free of charge! (MyVolumio charges € 28.99 yearly)
  • AVR powers on automatically via AirPlay/Chromecast and starts playback in 1-single click.
  • Chromecast bridge supports native Back/Next on Android lock screen (Assume Airplay does as well…not tested)
  • LMS supports multiple playback devices - So possibility for further customizations/setup options.

What does not work that well.

  • The whole overhead of LMS - It works and is stable, but is somewhat old-school!
  • Automatic shuffle of the playlist - Not natively supported, but can be worked around with a couple of extra curl commands(Load playlist + shuffle link + skip next) in the switch definition.
    *Mix of Media_player actions and LMS URLs in the Lovelace card/Hass config.

Final Result:
-TIDAL lovelace Card with shortcuts(from left) for AVR control, 3 x favorited playlists, “Skip next” and “Stop” buttons.

Tidal-lovelace

Please give your input, questions or pm me for further details :slight_smile:

4

Just an idea - may be Tidal could be streamed through Plex linking?

5

Maybe - I’ll give it a look.

Only alternative solutions I have been investigating are:
Volumio - Older version should support Tidal(not native) - According to forum posts, newer version no longer work!
MyVolumio - €2.99/month for native Tidal - Too expensive for my little usecase.
MPD/Mopidy - Tidal addon only works with an official API key(Which are no longer available)
PiCorePlayer - Hardware based player/server for Rpi2/3/4
RuneAudio - Does not support Tidal
AudioPhile - Does not support Tidal

I would much rather prefer Volumio as a product - But no docker usecases seems to be out there

/Morten

6

Yes and no. Yes you can play Tidal on any Plex device - but the device tends to be a TV, not a Hi-Fi system. So this solution is only good if you want a 55" graphic of the album you are listening to!

1 Like
9

As for Tidal, I use DRmare Tidal Music Converter to stream them to my devices for listening. Really nice!

10

Fed up of waiting for Tidal to properly integrate with Google Assistant as a default music player, I recently switched to Spotify. I really should have done it sooner as there are so many integrations and custom cards available for Spotify and HA. Key difference is that I found that my Tidal app used to “forget” it was casting to a Chromecast Audio device and so became uncontrollable. With Spotify you can run the app, the desktop PC app and home assistant integration simultaneously and control the music from all three!! No more losing control.

I used the Soundiiz service to transfer over all my playlists. Made it very simple!

I am using these integrations and cards:

12

Besides Soundiiz, you can also use Tidal music converter to help you transfer your playlists to Spotify. Here’s more info if you are interested: https://www.audfree.com/tidal/transfer-tidal-playlists-to-spotify.html