Is it actually possible to play SmoothStreaming videos on Chromecast without using (format=mpd-time-csf)?

Question

I'm trying to get a video playing on Chromecast - it's available as an MS Smooth Streaming manifest (example), but I can't specify format=mpd-time-csf (example), as it's not available in that format.

Directly passing the manifest URL to the Chromecast doesn't work yet, but will be available for the final SDK release, as stated by Les Vogel here: Playing Smoothstreaming URL by providing Manifest file of smoothstreaming to Chromecast device

As I understand it can play dash/smooth videos by embedding the dash.js player into the receiver app. However, dash.js only plays smooth streaming videos if (format=mpd-time-csf) is specified - normal smooth manifests don't work.

Does this mean that in its current state, Chromecast only supports smooth video in the mpd-time-csf format? I assume the Netflix app uses Smooth for its Chromecast app - is this how they're doing it?

Answer 1

Just following up my own question in case anyone stumbles across this from Google - with the release of the SDK SmoothStreaming should be playable out of the box with the Media Player Library: https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/player.

Answer 2

Currently, unless you write your own (javascript) player than can handle smooth streaming (i.e. parse manifest, fetch fragments, use MSE extension, etc), you cannot play smooth streaming content on chromecast.

Ali.