Should I use Chromecast or Alexa Cast?

[davidc]

Should I use ChromeCast or AlexaCast?
I don't have any other devices using either.
I have an Android phone (Google Pixel 8 Pro) and am using Amazon Music Unlimited app on the phone.
I want to use the Amazon Music app on my phone, not the WiiM Home app
What are the pros and cons of using either? Alexa is part of Amazon, but Chromecast is part of Google Android.
In my situation, is one easier to use? Less buggy?

 

[Brantome]

AlexaCast as it supports up to 24/192 bit perfect on all WiiM devices. Amazon Music only supports HD via ChromeCast on the Pro, Pro Plus and Amp.

 

[davidc]

AlexaCast as it supports up to 24/192 bit perfect on all WiiM devices. Chromecast only supports HD on the Pro, Pro Plus and Amp.

Bramtome, didn't you post on the AudioScienceReview forum: Whatever. But the fact remains that the WiiM Pro supports Chromecast up to 24/192 as confirmed by WiiM and my use of the BubbleUPNP and Hi-Fi Cast Apps. Didn't I just read that within the last couple of weeks Chromecast is now supported for the highest resolutions as well? If not, how do I get rid of the square Chromecast icon at the bottom of the Amazon Music screen on my phone and get the Alexa Cast icon there as I want to use the Amazon Music app to select music to stream

 

[Brantome]

No, what I posted yesterday on ASR was “Chromecast Gen 2 and Gen 3 support HD quality playback. Support for other Google Cast devices will vary by model.” which I took from https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/i/faq under “Which Android devices support HD?”

I had previously doubted that HD was supported going by the page I usually consulted at https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3022219031 which still states “At this time Amazon Music HD is not supported on Chromecast. ” but the first link above and the tests I did myself suggest that this older link is outdated and that Amazon Music does indeed support HD (I.e. 16/44.1) when casting using ChromeCast.

AlexaCast on WiiM devices however does support Amazon Music all the way up to 24/192 whether that be from teh WiiM app, AlexaCast from the Amazon Music app, or indeed using Alexa voice control. WiiM devices can also play in an Alexa multi room music (MRM) group with other WiiM devices or Echos. However, Amazon cap playback there at 24/48.

 

[Brantome]

The quote about WiiM supporting ChromeCast up to 24/192 is true, but not in the context of Amazon Music which caps it at 16/44.1 HD quality. Similarly, Qobuz caps ChromeCast at 24/96 even though WiiM devices can handle the higher casting resolution. Unfortunately what you’re casting from matters

 

[davidc]

No, what I posted yesterday on ASR was “Chromecast Gen 2 and Gen 3 support HD quality playback. Support for other Google Cast devices will vary by model.” which I took from https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/i/faq under “Which Android devices support HD?”

I had previously doubted that HD was supported going by the page I usually consulted at https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3022219031 which still states “At this time Amazon Music HD is not supported on Chromecast. ” but the first link above and the tests I did myself suggest that this older link is outdated and that Amazon Music does indeed support HD (I.e. 16/44.1) when casting using ChromeCast.

AlexaCast on WiiM devices however does support Amazon Music all the way up to 24/192 whether that be from teh WiiM app, AlexaCast from the Amazon Music app, or indeed using Alexa voice control. WiiM devices can also play in an Alexa multi room music (MRM) group with other WiiM devices or Echos. However, Amazon cap playback there at 24/48.

Gotcha. I'm now reading a few other threads explaining it as well. I am going to try to delink my Amazon Music app from Chromecast and I'm going to go back to defaults for the WiiM Amp and set it up again, this time using only Alexa

 

[Brantome]

If not, how do I get rid of the square Chromecast icon at the bottom of the Amazon Music screen on my phone and get the Alexa Cast icon there as I want to use the Amazon Music app to select music to stream

In order to use AlexaCast, you must link your WiiM Home app to Alexa via that menu entry on the WiiM Home app Browse page. Once you do that, the round AlexaCast icon will appear in the Amazon Music app. The rectangular chromecast icon will remain if ChromeCast was enabled on your WiiM. To get rid of it, you need to factory reset your WiiM and not link it to ChromeCast, so you’re as well leaving it there

 

[davidc]

In order to use AlexaCast, you must link your WiiM Home app to Alexa via that menu entry on the WiiM Home app Browse page. Once you do that, the round AlexaCast icon will appear in the Amazon Music app. The rectangular chromecast icon will remain if ChromeCast was enabled on your WiiM. To get rid of it, you need to factory reset your WiiM and not link it to ChromeCast, so you’re as well leaving it there

Thank you!!

 

[davidc]

Was there a reset button on the WiiM Home app?

 

[Brantome]

Was there a reset button on the WiiM Home app?

There’s a simple reboot option under device settings, but to factory reset I think you need to keep the play icon pressed down for 12(?) seconds and then the device will reset and take you thru discovery and setup again.

 

[davidc]

Got everything done! This time I did not enable Chromecast on the WiiM Home app. Also interesting is my new Denon AVR-x4800h cannot support 192kHz sampling. It doesn't matter, though; my hearing is down 30dB at 15kHz. lol
One note, though...on the Amazon Music app (at least on an Android phone), the casting icon at the bottom of the screen is still rectangular. However, if you press it, it will bring up the list of devices to connect to, and the WiiM device icon for casting is the round Alexa.

 

[Brantome]

Got everything done! This time I did not enable Chromecast on the WiiM Home app. Also interesting is my new Denon AVR-x4800h cannot support 192kHz sampling. It doesn't matter, though; my hearing is down 30dB at 15kHz. lol
One note, though...on the Amazon Music app (at least on an Android phone), the casting icon at the bottom of the screen is still rectangular. However, if you press it, it will bring up the list of devices to connect to, and the WiiM device icon for casting is the round Alexa.

Yeah, I think it just adopts that standard rectangular casting icon as it leads to a list that can have a mix of AlexaCast and ChromeCast devices or indeed groups.

 

[davidc]

O

Yeah, I think it just adopts that standard rectangular casting icon as it leads to a list that can have a mix of AlexaCast and ChromeCast devices or indeed groups.

Thank you so much, Brantome; I've finally got things all sorted out.

I want to add my wife's phone now. I've got an Amazon Unlimited Family plan, and I've added her in.
She's got Amazon Music on her phone, logged in under her account, and can access Amazon Music Unlimited and play it on the phone's speakers.
I've installed the WiiM Home app on her phone and set it up correctly (I think).
I've installed Alexa on her phone and set it up correctly (I think).
In the WiiM Home app, Amazon Music and Alex both appear, and I believe I've enabled Alexa Cast correctly, but I'm not positive.

The problem is no casting icon. I do not see any casting icon on her phone, either with the WiiM Home app or the Amazon Music app.

Can you help? Thank you.

 

[Brantome]

O

Thank you so much, Brantome; I've finally got things all sorted out.

I want to add my wife's phone now. I've got an Amazon Unlimited Family plan, and I've added her in.
She's got Amazon Music on her phone, logged in under her account, and can access Amazon Music Unlimited and play it on the phone's speakers.
I've installed the WiiM Home app on her phone and set it up correctly (I think).
I've installed Alexa on her phone and set it up correctly (I think).
In the WiiM Home app, Amazon Music and Alex both appear, and I believe I've enabled Alexa Cast correctly, but I'm not positive.

The problem is no casting icon. I do not see any casting icon on her phone, either with the WiiM Home app or the Amazon Music app.

Can you help? Thank you.

The WiiM would need to be associated with her amazon/alexa account for it to appear on her Amazon Music app. If she did that, it would no longer appear on yours. The Amazon Music app and Alexa can’t really handle different accounts even though the subscriptions are under a family plan - you’d have the same issue with echo devices which is in effect what the WiiM devices appear as in Alexa.

I know that in Alexa you can set up an Amazon Household with two adult accounts, each with their own amazon music account and ask Alexa to switch profile to toggle between each to access the necessary Amazon music library, but it’s ages since I tried that to see if that then allowed the echo to appear in the corresponding amazon music app as a casting destination. Nor have I tried asking a WiiM device to switch profile as I can an Echo. I’d need to experiment to see whether it would work as hoped. Amazon/Alexa really aren’t great at handling profiles for multiple user use, it’s not really a WiiM issue. I’ll try and remember to do some testing in the coming days.

Best you can do in the meantime is share either your or her Amazon Music/Alexa account, but I appreciate that will mess up music recommendations etc in the owning account. Or you may have a spare family subscription membership you can devote to the WiiM, and share playlists to that from your original accounts and not worry about messing up the WiiM account recommendations.

Hope that makes some sort of sense…

 

[davidc]

The WiiM would need to be associated with her amazon/alexa account for it to appear on her Amazon Music app. If she did that, it would no longer appear on yours. The Amazon Music app and Alexa can’t really handle different accounts even though the subscriptions are under a family plan - you’d have the same issue with echo devices which is in effect what the WiiM devices appear as in Alexa.

I know that in Alexa you can set up an Amazon Household with two adult accounts, each with their own amazon music account and ask Alexa to switch profile to toggle between each to access the necessary Amazon music library, but it’s ages since I tried that to see if that then allowed the echo to appear in the corresponding amazon music app as a casting destination. Nor have I tried asking a WiiM device to switch profile as I can an Echo. I’d need to experiment to see whether it would work as hoped. Amazon/Alexa really aren’t great at handling profiles for multiple user use, it’s not really a WiiM issue. I’ll try and remember to do some testing in the coming days.

Best you can do in the meantime is share either your or her Amazon Music/Alexa account, but I appreciate that will mess up music recommendations etc in the owning account. Or you may have a spare family subscription membership you can devote to the WiiM, and share playlists to that from your original accounts and not worry about messing up the WiiM account recommendations.

Hope that makes some sort of sense…

So, if I sign out of Amazon and WiiM on my phone,the casting will appear on hers?

 

[Brantome]

So, if I sign out of Amazon and WiiM on my phone,the casting will appear on hers?

As I say, I’ll need to give it a go, but I suspect that if you sign out of Alexa in the WiiM Home app, the WiiM will no longer show in your Alexa app. If she signs in to Alexa in the WiiM app with her account, I’d then expect the WiiM to be visible in her Alexa and Amazon Music apps. It might not matter who is signed in to Amazon Music in the WiiM app as that probably only governs use by the WiiM app. As I normally only use the same account for both, I haven’t tried using different accounts to see what the impact would be of using two

 

[davidc]

As I say, I’ll need to give it a go, but I suspect that if you sign out of Alexa in the WiiM Home app, the WiiM will no longer show in your Alexa app. If she signs in to Alexa in the WiiM app with her account, I’d then expect the WiiM to be visible in her Alexa and Amazon Music apps. It might not matter who is signed in to Amazon Music in the WiiM app as that probably only governs use by the WiiM app. As I normally only use the same account for both, I haven’t tried using different accounts to see what the impact would be of using two

I tell ya...this is one big exercise in frustration.

So, I finally got Amazon Music, Alexa and Wiim Home installed on my wife phone. Getting Amazon and Alexa working together with WiiM was a challenge. I'm not really sure what I did to get it to work, but it finally did.

I have an Amazon Unlimited Music subscription, where my wife is signed in on her account, not mine.

Trying to get her phone to see the WiiM for casting was really hard. I think it finally worked either when I had turned off my phone, or perhaps when I signed out of Alexa on my phone. Not sure, cause I was trying everything.

But, if I had both phones turned on, they weren't synced with each other. Sometimes mine would connect to WiiM, sometimes hers.

Sometimes WiiM would be playing different music on each phone, sometimes Amazon would be playing different music than WiiM. Sometimes one phone would lose the ability to cast and the WiiM wouldn't show in Amazons casting list. Then it would appear later. Then, I tried to use the disconnect button in the casting list on Amazon...but...

All the disconnects and reconnects and the different apps showing different things seemed to be inconsistent. But, then again, I can't say for sure if I had all settings the same each time the apps would seem to do something.

I can't be the only person that wants to connect two devices to WiiM for streaming right? I don't need to have both devices controlling WiiM at the same time. I just want to switch easily between them. At least for my wife to be able to do it. Wonder if we she should sign in to Amazon on her phone but directly to my account?

 

[Mr Ee]

Demote the wife to chromecast....
I know you already reset the wiim and didn't enable it, but doing so won't prevent you from being able to alexacast to it.

 

[davidc]

Demote the wife to chromecast....
I know you already reset the wiim and didn't enable it, but doing so won't prevent you from being able to alexacast to it.

Hmm....then I'd be forcing her to listen to lower quality sound.....

 

[Wiimer]

You may want to add a WiiM mini and connect it to the Pro's optical input.
If you turn on Pro's optical auto-sensing, you don't have to manually switch inputs.