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NOTE: This article assumes that you have already installed the Google Cast extension for the Chrome browser. You must have the Google Cast extension to play media sources on your Chromecast device. If you haven't added it yet, take a step back to this article. This article also assumes that you have previously hooked up your Chromecast device and it is live on your network and ready to go.


Your Library serves as the main interface for casting media sources to your Chromecast device. This means that you need to have some media sources currently in your Library - if you haven't added any yet, do so now. Before we begin there's a couple things you need to be aware of. Most importantly: Not all media sources will successfully cast to your Chromecast device. Why is this? It has to do with something called Cross-origin resource sharing (or CORS). In a nutshell: CORS is a security feature that dictates whether you're allowed to use a resource on a platform unknown to the origin server or not (among other things). Since channel PEAR doesn't host any of the media sources you may add to your Library, you are at the mercy of the server that hosts the media source and the CORS policies it has. Unfortunately the only way to determine if something will play or not is by trial and error, so let's get started.


  • Go to your Library, select a media source, and click the Cast icon to the left of the title (as shown below). If the Cast icon doesn't appear, then your Chromecast device is configured incorrectly or you're missing the Cast extension.




  • Select your Chromecast device from the menu that pops up (as shown below)




  • If everything goes right, the media source will begin playing on your TV and you'll get the following menu:



Tips:

A quick way to determine CORS compatibility is to play the media source in your browser first by clicking the first "Play source" link at the top of the list. If the media source plays in your browser then it will more than likely play on your Chromecast device.

If a media source is failing to play even though you know it's compatible, try removing the Google Cast extension, clearing your browsers cache, and re-adding it again. You may also want to try installing the alternate Google Cast Dev extension which typically has more recent code updates and sometimes fixes these issues.