Casting TV / tying your house up a bit and shit...

[Scouse]

Thinking of tying up a number of disparate devices, some of which aren't necessarily digital into some sort of more coherent thang so I can play music / watch TV on a couple of devices as and when.

Missus sister bought her a google chrome mini at xmas (much to my chagrin as I didn't fancy google listening in on our conversations, but hey ho). I can't really chuck it without being a big cunt, so I'm rolling with it.

I've got a PC upstairs wired into a big telly, running plex media server, a not-that-smart Sony downstairs connected by a (crap) native app wirelessly, the google mini, a 1991 Kenwood stacakable hi-fi system with a bluetooth dongle sat near it which I can connect to and push music through.

I'd like to tie it all together and start controlling as much as possible by voice. I can work this shit out myself but want ideas on what people have used / are using to do their stuff.

I don't want to buy new equipment, just new connecting stuff - maybe a chromecast for the back of the telly or something to replace the crappy bluetooth thing at the back of the stereo.

What would you guys do/have done?

 

[Moriath]

I just got new stuff that all talks to each other. Can push music to anywhere wth the sony wireless speakers and my whole library is held on a nas.

Sorry can be much help with old stuff apart fro getting a chromecast dongle for you tv to cast to it maybe.

 

[Bodhi]

We've got a mix of new stuff and old stuff in the house, from an all singing all dancing Sony TV in the living room to a 1991 Sony Midi System in my office, and with the right gadgets you can make it all play nicely with anything from a vinyl record to Spotify.

Old hifis are dead easy to sort - sack off your Bluetooth Dongle and get a Chromecast Audio - We have 3 and it's easy to ping music anywhere in the house. Just go to Spotify/Google Play Music, select "Cast" or Available Devices, select the room you want and off it goes.

For true hassle free operation you do need to leave the hi fi on and with the right source selected, but I leave most of my hi-fi kit on anyway as it's better for it (less temperature cycles) but other than that it works a treat.

Haven't tried voice activation as I don't have a Google Home (and after South Park trolled every Amazon Echo in the US I doubt I will), but once it's all connected I gather that's easy enough to sort - the Chromecast Audios use the same Google Home app to configure.

Haven't found an app yet tlnot supported either, other than Spotify on the desktop (Google limitation). Plex, built in music player on my phone, you name it it works.

You can even use Google Slides to run a presentation on the telly if you are that way inclined.

Audio quality shits on Bluetooth from a great height too.