castnow

castnow is commandline utility which can be used to playback media files on your chromecast device. It supports playback of local video files, youtube clips, videos on the web and torrents. You can also re-attach a running playback session.

usage

// start playback of a local video file
castnow ./myvideo.mp4

// start playback of video and mp3 files in the local directory
castnow ./mydirectory/

// playback 3 videos after each other
castnow video1.mp4 video2.mp4 video3.mp4

// start playback of some mp4 file over the web
castnow http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/ED_1280.mp4

// start playback of some youtube clip
castnow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVRrlmpcWk

// playback multiple youtube clips after each other
castnow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptRlYs3Cp4E \
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vqmJ9k2010 \
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVMYqcMFEys

// playback single youtube playlist
castnow https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIJmi5XabBPCYKEQZn9foC8MJfLGmdPz

// playback multiple youtube playlists after each other
castnow https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIJmi5XabBPCYKEQZn9foC8MJfLGmdPz \
        https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIJmi5XabBPNDJ_YyC-KNa_cZ6SwTOYC

// playback multiple youtube playlists and clips after each other
castnow https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIJmi5XabBPCYKEQZn9foC8MJfLGmdPz \
		https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrIJmi5XabBPNDJ_YyC-KNa_cZ6SwTOYC \
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vqmJ9k2010 \
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVMYqcMFEys

// start playback of some video over torrent
castnow <url-to-torrent-file OR magnet>

// start playback of some video over torrent, with local subtitles
castnow <url-to-torrent-file OR magnet> --subtitles </local/path/to/subtitles.srt>

// transcode some other videoformat to mp4 while playback (requires ffmpeg)
castnow ./myvideo.avi --tomp4

// re-attach to an currently running playback session
castnow

options

• --tomp4 Transcode a video file to mp4 while playback. This option requires ffmpeg to be installed on your computer. The play / pause controls are currently not supported in transcode mode.

• --device "my chromecast" If you have more than one chromecast in your network use the --device option to specify the device on which you want to start casting. Otherwise castnow will just use the first device it finds in the network.

• --subtitles <path/URL> This can be a path or URL to a vtt or srt file which contains subtitles.

• --myip <IP> Your main IP address (useful if you have multiple network adapters)

• --debug Output debug messages.

• --verbose Hide the player timeline.

• --peerflix-* <val> Pass options to peerflix.

• --ffmpeg-* <val> Pass options to ffmpeg.

• --help Display help message.

player controls

space   // toggle between play and pause
m       // toggle between mute and unmute
up      // volume up
down    // volume down
left    // seek backward (keep pressed / multiple press for faster seek)
right   // seek forward (keep pressed / multiple press for faster seek)
n       // next item in the playlist (only supported in launch-mode)
s       // stop playback
q       // quit

Installation

npm install castnow -g

Contributers

• tooryx
• przemyslawpluta

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Simon Kusterer Licensed under the MIT license.