Features, settings & updates

[crossmr]

So I bought a streaming stick+ around christmas time on sale on Amazon. it was for a secondary TV so I haven't used it much. Mostly set it up, tested it, and made sure it was working. A couple weeks ago I wanted to chromecast to it and suddenly I couldn't. I'm sure this worked around Christmas time when I received it. My desktop running chrome can see my Roku, but instead of letting me chromecast to it, I get a message saying "Available for specific video sites", so yes, roku is on my network and connected. 

My phone, in youtube, can't even see the roku. In netflix on my phone I can see the roku, and activate chromecast, but it's not really clear if it's just firing up the netflix app and telling it what to play or if it is actually casting. Google provides very little on this, other than the fact that some people with various smart TVs that had built in chromecast reported a similar issue to this a couple months ago (when I wasn't using it) after firmware upgrades. Anyone else with the streaming stick+ able to chromecast properly with it? 

[StreamerUser · Accepted solution]

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@crossmr wrote:

So I bought a streaming stick+ around christmas time on sale on Amazon. it was for a secondary TV so I haven't used it much. Mostly set it up, tested it, and made sure it was working. A couple weeks ago I wanted to chromecast to it and suddenly I couldn't. I'm sure this worked around Christmas time when I received it. My desktop running chrome can see my Roku, but instead of letting me chromecast to it, I get a message saying "Available for specific video sites", so yes, roku is on my network and connected. 

My phone, in youtube, can't even see the roku. In netflix on my phone I can see the roku, and activate chromecast, but it's not really clear if it's just firing up the netflix app and telling it what to play or if it is actually casting. Google provides very little on this, other than the fact that some people with various smart TVs that had built in chromecast reported a similar issue to this a couple months ago (when I wasn't using it) after firmware upgrades. Anyone else with the streaming stick+ able to chromecast properly with it? 

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A few things:

1)  Roku supports DIAL (casting) Miracast (mirroring) and AirPlay2 (casting & mirroring)

2) Roku does not support GoogleCast (aka ChromeCast - casting & mirroring)

3) NetFlix and YouTube support DIAL-based casting for Roku devices (and others without GoogleCast).

4)  Chrome on a PC will only be able to cast (using DIAL) from certain sites (e.g. YouTube.com or NetFlix.com) to Roku.

5)  Your phone/tablet etc is using the DIAL functionality within NF/YT when casting (remote control) to Roku devices.

6)  If your Roku devices dont appear as cast-able from within NF/YT on your phone/tablet (or PC), try disabling/re-enabling WiFi/network connection on your phone/tablet/PC;  If it still doesnt appear after that, restart your Roku.

[crossmr]

Hmm.. that's interesting. I thought I casted in general back when I set it up, but maybe I didn't. That's unfortunate. 

Youtube on my phone definitely cannot see the roku. Only netflix does. 

On chrome, going to youtube.com or netflix.com does not allow me to cast to the roku. the roku has been restarted many times while trying to sort this out, unfortunately it doesn't solve my problem as I need to cast the browser for dual language subtitle support. Is it possible to screen mirror a windows 10 desktop that doesn't have it's own wireless? It connects to same router the TV does, just via ethernet. This seems to provide chromecast connectivity for my main smart TV which has built in chromecast. 

[StreamerUser]

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@crossmr wrote:

Hmm.. that's interesting. I thought I casted in general back when I set it up, but maybe I didn't. That's unfortunate. 

Youtube on my phone definitely cannot see the roku. Only netflix does. 

On chrome, going to youtube.com or netflix.com does not allow me to cast to the roku. the roku has been restarted many times while trying to sort this out, unfortunately it doesn't solve my problem as I need to cast the browser for dual language subtitle support. Is it possible to screen mirror a windows 10 desktop that doesn't have it's own wireless? It connects to same router the TV does, just via ethernet. This seems to provide chromecast connectivity for my main smart TV which has built in chromecast. 

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Not sure what you mean by "casted in general", but if you mean mirrored, then you may have using Miracast (many Android devices support Miracast and GoogleCast, though its device/model/firmware version dependent:  e.g. Samsung SmartView on Android 10 and lower)

(FYI, generally, casting refers to "remote control" from within apps, whereas mirroring refers to "remote display" from the device OS).

If you havent restarted the WiFi on your phone or restarted your phone (unknown brand/model), and restarted the SS+, I would do so (also make sure the YT and other apps are up to date).

You can also try switching the bands (2.4Ghz or 5Ghz) on your phone/tablet and or your SS+ (If you dont have separate SSIDs for the different band on your WiFi, I highly recommend doing so.).

Since Miracast requires 2.4Ghz and WiFi Direct (at least for initial setup) and Roku doesnt support infrastructure-mode (for Miracast), you wont be able to screen mirror (using Miracast) from your PC since it lacks WiFi.  This is a Roku Miracast implementation limitation (they use the older R1 of the spec), not of Miracast in general or your Windows 10 PC.

(GoogleCast also supports infrastructure-mode casting/mirroring too (which is what you are seeing), but Roku does not support GoogleCast)

Chrome does support casting (DIAL) to the Roku on all Windows versions - the casting options should change when you go to youtube.com from "Available for specific video sites" to "Available" - if they dont, there is either a configuration issue with Chrome, or you should restart all the devices (Roku, modem/router/gateway, PC).