topic Re: PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS) in Streaming

PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS)

-ceej — Sun, 05 May 2024 05:33:21 GMT

We watch several shows on PBS Video (Passport) - All Creatures Great and Small, Royal Flying Doctor Service, ... So we installed the PBS Video app to our new Chromecast and activated it. We can 'open' the PBS service and find RFDS and play it. But if I try to add RFDS to the Chromecast Watchlist (by searching), it only finds RFDS on Google TV, and only as a pay-per-episode. (1) How can I get it to find PBS as the Service for those Programs? (2) Can I manually identify / connect the PBS app as the proper Streaming Service? Finally, (3) How can I remove something from the Library / Watchlist?

Argh.. I just searched for Epic Train Journeys From Above, also on PBS. It was found; but there was no How To Watch button, just a Watchlist-it button, which I clicked. It is now in our Watchlist, but DOES NOT PLAY since there is no Service identified! It lists all episodes by season, but clicking on an episode only opens a page with the title and a description and NOTHING ELSE (sorry for yelling).

-ceej

PS - there are not enough issue categories! This is not so much a Getting Started issue. And I do not know what is meant by "Issues casting supported app". This is my first post; I'm assuming that I will get some email notification if/when there are replies.

Thanks for any suggestions about this problem, and about posting in general.

Re: PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS)

Byteguy — Mon, 06 May 2024 20:59:48 GMT

Google tries to integrate with a lot of apps so it can see what they have, but it also depends on that app working with Google. Many do not (for various reasons).

You cannot do anything to make a service's offering appear in Search or connect to Watchlist.

Right now, if you KNOW it is on PBS, your best bet is to do that searching and "add to my list" inside the PBS app.

As for integration, you can make a suggestion to Google about what you would like by using the "Send Feedback" option:
https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6292231

Google doesn't read every post in this forum but they do read and track all the feedback they receive that way. Just so you know, they won't respond directly to feedback so don't ask them any questions.

Re: PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS)

-ceej — Mon, 06 May 2024 21:24:11 GMT

Thanks. FWIIW - this is what I sent:

Chromecast can't always find the show or episode that I want through its search function . But I still want an entry in my watch list. Here are two suggestions: (1) Provide a form for manual entry. Let the user identify the app and type in the title of the show. Or better, (2) When I have the app in question open and the show in question highlighted or actually running, provide a way for me to use the Chromecast remote to go back to Chromecast and tell it to grab what I'm currently looking at and put it in my watch list.

Those would go a long way for the Chromecast Watchlist to actually become a (full) record of my personal current streaming catalog and a jumping off spot to allow me to get to any of them.

Thanks for listening. I hope you give this some serious consideration, or are already working on a design and implementation of your own. But I wanted to let you know that it's an important feature.

Re: PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS)

Byteguy — Tue, 07 May 2024 17:49:01 GMT

You are not talking to Google here. We are users volunteering to help other users. We can't make changes to Chromecast.

Please use the Feedback option link that I gave you to suggest features to Google.

Re: PBS Vidio App not listed as Streaming Service Source for my Program Series (RFDS)

-ceej — Tue, 07 May 2024 19:46:16 GMT

Please pardon me, I don't want to sound like an ah, but did you read my reply???

See the first sentence: Thanks. FWIIW - this is what I sent:

I thanked you, then copied what I put on the feedback form so that others on this forum might know about my action and my suggestion.

Again, thanks for pointing me to the feedback link.

-ceej