[solved] Casting from Amazon Music app to WiiM Pro at full Ultra HD quality

[graystones]

When playing music from the Amazon Music app and selecting the cast drop-down option and selecting the WiiM Pro, does that restrict the quality to Chromecast's bitrate limitation (whatever that is? 24/96?), or does it use a different method of integrating with Amazon Music and play it up to 24/192?

I realize that playing Amazon music through the WiiM app supports up to 24/192, but using the WiiM app as the main music streaming app is clunky on Android because the app will not persist in the notification area for easy control of playback.

 

[Mr Ee]

When playing music from the Amazon Music app and selecting the cast drop-down option and selecting the WiiM Pro, does that restrict the quality to Chromecast's bitrate limitation (whatever that is? 24/96?), or does it use a different method of integrating with Amazon Music and play it up to 24/192?

I realize that playing Amazon music through the WiiM app supports up to 24/192, but using the WiiM app as the main music streaming app is clunky on Android because the app will not persist in the notification area for easy control of playback.

Do you have a square (chromecast) or round (alexacast) icon for the pro?

 

[Mr Ee]

Or, to put it another way, within the wiim app, in the Browse screen, in the Music Services section, have you logged in / enabled the Amazon Alexa entry, which is right at the bottom of the list, despite starting with A.

 

[Brantome]

AlexaCast supports bit perfect playback up to 24/192 from the Amazon Music app to a WiiM device - in fact, WiiM were the first to support this and might still be the only supplier who do. Just make sure you have Amazon Music HD/UHD toggled on in both the Alexa and amazon music settings in the WiiM Home app.

Amazon’s own documentation says that lossless playback isn’t supported with ChromeCast so you’ll probably only get lossy SD playback.

 

[graystones]

Or, to put it another way, within the wiim app, in the Browse screen, in the Music Services section, have you logged in / enabled the Amazon Alexa entry, which is right at the bottom of the list, despite starting with A.

I'm not finding this setting. In the WiiM app under the Device tab I select the gear icon for the settings of the WiiM Pro. There, the only thing I can find for Alexa is in the Voice section and it only allows me to select the language. Where do I enable Alexa cast? I only see a rectangular cast icon for all devices when in the Amazon Music app, so I'm assuming it's using Google Chromecast.

 

[graystones]

AlexaCast supports bit perfect playback up to 24/192 from the Amazon Music app to a WiiM device - in fact, WiiM were the first to support this and might still be the only supplier who do. Just make sure you have Amazon Music HD/UHD toggled on in both the Alexa and amazon music settings in the WiiM Home app.

Amazon’s own documentation says that lossless playback isn’t supported with ChromeCast so you’ll probably only get lossy SD playback.

Any idea where I enable this Alexa cast option?

 

[Brantome]

I'm not finding this setting. In the WiiM app under the Device tab I select the gear icon for the settings of the WiiM Pro. There, the only thing I can find for Alexa is in the Voice section and it only allows me to select the language. Where do I enable Alexa cast? I only see a rectangular cast icon for all devices when in the Amazon Music app, so I'm assuming it's using Google Chromecast.

It’s not in the device settings, but as per the instructions above, it’s the settings cog under the Alexa entry on the main Browse page in the WiiM Home app

 

[Brantome]

Any idea where I enable this Alexa cast option?

Once you have linked your WiiM Home App to your Amazon account under the aforementioned Browse/Alexa page, a round Alexa icon should appear in the Amazon Music app in the “connect to a device” list which you can access from the cast icon on the right hand side of the play bar, or the cog settings icon in the top right hand corner of the android amazon music app.

 

[Brantome]

Also see this WiiM FAQ page https://faq.wiimhome.com/support/so...he-device-directly-from-the-amazon-music-app-

 

[graystones]

Once you have linked your WiiM Home App to your Amazon account under the aforementioned Browse/Alexa page, a round Alexa icon should appear in the Amazon Music app in the “connect to a device” list which you can access from the cast icon on the right hand side of the play bar, or the cog settings icon in the top right hand corner of the android amazon music app.

I didn't see that option previously. Thanks.

 

[Mr Ee]

I didn't see that option previously. Thanks.

Meaning you've got it sorted, and now have the round cast icon?
Note that amazon app doesn't show the sample rate info this way, but you can see it in the wiim app.

 

[graystones]

Meaning you've got it sorted, and now have the round cast icon?
Note that amazon app doesn't show the sample rate info this way, but you can see it in the wiim app.

Correct. I now have it sorted. There was no obvious way to connect Amazon Music's direct cast feature from the settings menu after Amazon Music had been setup. It's possible it was asked during the initial setup, but I would not have associated "Alexa" with their cast feature because I'm coming from the Google universe in which Google Assistant and Chromecast are unrelated features.

 

[Brantome]

Correct. I now have it sorted. There was no obvious way to connect Amazon Music's direct cast feature from the settings menu after Amazon Music had been setup. It's possible it was asked during the initial setup, but I would not have associated "Alexa" with their cast feature because I'm coming from the Google universe in which Google Assistant and Chromecast are unrelated features.

Yeah, it’s unfortunate to a degree that Amazon Music‘s casting feature is called AlexaCast as the implied connection with the Alexa/Echo voice assistant can put some people off. Historically, the ability to cast from the Amazon Music app was constrained to Amazon Echo devices and related Alexa multi room music (MRM) groups. It was therefore delivered thru the Alexa audio subsystem and named AlexaCast. Amazon Music support was then made available to third party Alexa enabled devices but the name AlexaCast stuck…