android tv not recognized for speaker group

[keesfluitman]

i want to use my tv in my speaker group so i can use my amplifier. my chromecast ultra is recognized in my bedroom, but it wont let me add my tv. i have a philips oled. 

any ideas?

[Muddi · Accepted solution]

Hey all,

Apologies for the confusion around the supported devices for speaker groups. We let the right teams know, and we can confirm that speakers with Chromecast built-in are supported. We've also updated the list of supported devices on our Help Center article "Create and manage speaker groups" to make it more specific than before. 

Thanks for your feedback here in the community -- feel free to update the thread if you have any further questions!

Cheers,

Muddi

[Maxoux]

Don't hope too much, the issue exist for more than a year, and the support is as useful as a chatbot since then

[Richard_b]

Is there any update to Google TV possible? And is the speaker group working in Google TV.

Latest security patch of android tv is 2021.  

[Richard_b]

I have send an email to support: #

Dear Support,

Google support, Please respond on the Google Community forum,

[mjpalm21]

Post a 1 star review on Amazon, Best Buy, and the manufacture's website citing the inability for the TV to be used in a speaker group.  The manufacturers hate bad reviews and hopefully they will influence Google to fix this.

[bona77]

The problem seems to be just how the TV's built-in chromecast advertises itself on the network. I found this post about the protocol:

https://blog.oakbits.com/google-cast-protocol-discovery-and-connection.html

Using on my network the command:
avahi-browse -r _googlecast._tcp

I noticed that the devices available for the group have "nf=3" and the others "nf=1". I didn't find out what nf is supposed to mean. See:

My sony tv:
txt = ["rs=" "nf=3" "bs=FADF7D35$43F" "st=0" "ca=264709" "fn=TVRoom" "ic=/setup/icon.png" "md=BRAVIA 4K UR2 " "ve=05"

A chromecast:
txt = ["rs=" "nf=1" "bs=FA8FBA3AD47E" "st=0" "ca=201221" "fn=Guest" "ic=/setup/icon.png" "md=Chromecast" "ve= 05"

I thought a mdns proxy on the network could work when advertising the tv with nf=1. Another possibility could be to try to force the creation of a group. Does anyone know where the information related to speaker-groups is stored?

[Richard_b]

Got an answer from support!

Hi Richard,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Nest Customer Care Team.

My name is Harold, a Technical Specialist from the Google Nest Customer Care Team. I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with your speaker group with your Chromecast TV Built-In. 

Appreciate you flagging this. We've let the right folks know! Rest assured that we should be getting a response soon.

 Meanwhile, Submitting feedback about your Chromecast device will help us find out more about the issue. Use this in the issue description CCT3 33495 Google TV speaker group.

For your reference your case number is 3-9494000032912. If you need more help, you can contact us again and reference this case number or reply to this email to reopen your case.

Have a new question? There are lots of ways to get back in touch with us below.

Thank you,
Harold

The Google Nest Customer Care Team

[Mokkery]

Great to hear, though remaining skeptical how much a priority this issue is. But perhaps if all of us submit feedback with "CCT3 33495 Google TV speaker group" on the app, it could cause a big enough a wave to get them to notice this more?

[matthewjames88]

I agree we should all leave feedback on the Google home app for Chromecast TV built in with CCT3 33495 Google TV speaker group

Google Speaker Group not working for all Chromecast Built in TVs. Please fix this fault. Thank you 

[Wabo84]

I have the same issue, I hope google will look at it for real this time.  the case CCT3 33495 Google TV speaker group is not the first , the other case was closed without fix….  At least just an explanation why it’s not possible to fix it.

[mjpalm21]

Just post a 1 star review on Amazon, Best Buy, and the manufacture's website citing the inability for the TV to be used in a speaker group.  The manufacturers hate bad reviews and hopefully they will influence Google to fix this.

[PPrincen]

Left a 1* review on google home app

[bona77]

I

I've been digging a little deeper into the subject, I finally think I found how the google home app determines whether or not the device can be part of a group. Using the chromecast api:

https://192.168.0.118:8443/setup/eureka_info?params=device_info

On devices that support speake groups appears:
multizone_supported: yes
In my sony bravia the key multizone_supported doesn't even exist.
Furthermore,
https://192.168.0.118:8443/setup/eureka_info?params=multizone
It shows general information about the speaker group (like delay, etc) and also information about the groups the speaker is a part of.

I don't know if it's a question of the manufacturer that integrates chromcast to choose whether or not to support multizone. Or if it's the chromecast application built in running on the TV that you choose to disable.

any way, for those fighting their tv support team these information could be relevant.

[SJWallflower]

Seems you've done the technical work to isolate the issue... Nicely done! 

[Maxoux]

Very interesting info ! Sadly i'm not at home until next week but i'll definitely look what my tv answer.

I'm also curious about what would happens if we could mitm the request and make it appear as if multizone is enabled, probably won't work but i'm desperate enough for now.

Can you share the response you got from both requests you mentionned ? Also are you sure it's in https ? Could be a pain if SSL is at play

[bona77]

Yes, it is https, you can find more information about it here:
https://rithvikvibhu.github.io/GHLocalApi/
But you only need to ignore ssl when opening it in the browser.
I believe is not enough fake the mutlzone=true in device_info will do the trick. The page "/multizone" appears empty in my TV, but for a "valid" group we have something like it:

{
"multizone": {
"audio_output_delay": 0,
"audio_output_delay_hdmi": 0,
"audio_output_delay_oem": 6475,
"aux_in_group": "",
"dynamic_groups": [],
"groups": [
{
"cast_port": 40208,
"channel_selection": "",
"elected_leader": "self",
"leader": "",
"multichannel_group": false,
"name": "Grupo principal",
"stereo_balance": 0,
"uuid": "e06c7f56-ab74-4bcd-a03e-fd7846f11ad5"
}
],
"multichannel_status": 0
}
}

[Richard_b]

@googlesupport please respond to this, we need an update!

[bona77]

Wow!
https://www.soundcertificate.com/files/ccbi4a/documents/CCBI4A_MR_TestSpec_v4.3.pdf
Look into page 34:
curl -v -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"uuid":"test-uuid", "name":"test-group", "leader":"<leader IP>"}'  http://<follower IP>:8008/setup/multizone/join_group

I think it won't work as http and somehack to get in https will be required. I don't have time to test it right now, but it might work.

[keesfluitman]

Home they will answer you. Probably not

[Richard_b]

Maybe i have some better news!

I asked the status:

Hi Richard,

Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience. We're working on a fix. 

Thank you,
Harold

[SJWallflower]

I wont hold my breath though Richard... We'd all be long dead by now if we had with how long this issue is persistent, and prevalent...

You know it's bad when even reps from manufacturers are quoting this support thread as their customer service response... This support thread is probably one of the hottest unresolved issues... And we all know that more people read these things than give their input in majority of cases... Yet so many people input here... Imagine how many more experience the problem and say nothing 🙈

[Richard_b]

I am still hopefully 😎

[Richard_b]

https://9to5google.com/2022/09/10/google-home-android-preview-program/

Hope this will make it all better! Also for IOS

[mattmce]

Known fact, built-in Chromecast TVs can NOT join speaker groups. Google says they are working on the problem. A couple of years ago I decided to invest in Alexa or Google home speaker group system Apparently I made the mistake of believing Google wouldn't outright lie about their product.

[Richard_b]

Contacted support for an update:

Hi Richard,

Thank you for providing additional information.

We hear you, no news about that right now. However, our teams are already aware. If you haven't sent feedback yet, please do. 

Submit feedback with "CCT3 33495 Google TV speaker group" on the app,

[Prisma3]

Hey everyone,

I'm also having the same problems and it's extremely annoying that we lost this functionality.

But I just discovered a way of connecting the TV to several Google Nest speakers without using groups.

If you connect your TV via Bluetooth to one single Nest speaker then you click on media and somehow you can add all others you want from there.

Not ideal but it works.

Careful because if you do it with a display at the beginning of the process it doesn't work. Doesn't make any sense.

I hope Google finally lets us use TVs as speaker groups. Waiting for two years for this to be solved 

[Richard_b]

 

 

Google support is really bad, they don’t give updates. I purchased a Chromecast Google TV HD, it shows my chromecast in speaker group and it joined correct. But cannot play on speaker group with voice or with google home ‘media’ section. Without Chromecast added in speaker group, i don't have any problems.

Strange thing, speaker group works correct in Spotify select a song and then select the group i created in Google Home.

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Chromecast/New-Chromecast-HD-with-problems-with-multi-room-an...

Started a new topic with problems with speaker group on Chromecast HD and with ambient.

Hope someone can help me!

Chromecast v3 works correct with this group, and no problems but without apps function.

[Bearcats]

Hello, I have the same problem with my Sony TV. Has this problem been addressed yet?

[Jensjoy]

I find it absolutely appalling that all of these people were complaining about this challenge needing fixing and it's been over a year and I still have the same problem with my Sony Bravia TV I think we should go on to the Sony website and post bad reviews so nobody else will buy this TV and maybe they will fix this for us

[Bookworm3894]

It isn't just the Sony TVs. It is any of the ChromeCast built-ins. Though, the Sony is probably the most popular I've seen here so I get your point.

I've just sat here for a half hour getting more and more mad reading replies from the past year about how this issue hasn't been resolved or even truly acknowledged by Google (and really, what should I expect). We just bought our TCL GoogleTV a week ago and I wish I'd seen this thread before. You'd think with how big it is, you would have seen SOMETHING in some reviews somewhere!

[keesfluitman]

A community manager already marked it as answered. So dont expect anything new from google.

[Bookworm3894]

Oh, I don't.

[LuXMaN]

Congratz

[Maxoux]

Yeah, The answer is so random and demonstrate how much they don't bother to read complains I had to report it.

I mean, at this point it IS inappropriate

[Bookworm3894]

I agree. Really what is happening is the "community specialists" are ignoring the real problems, trying to find insignificant minor solutions to get this solved and further bury the problem. I don't thing the specialists have any bearing on getting this resolved at all. They probably have no connection with any engineering team, and are even probably a step down from Customer service agents you'd call. There really is no solution to this but a firmware update which these people cannot provide and can also take years to actually push as someone who works in Software development myself.

[bona77]

Could the answer in question be considered inappropriate? It seems to be the only action we can take.

[LuXMaN]

Same problem on My Philips tv

[Ludowik]

I confirm, model 706oled65

I think I should change my évaluation on the Philips Web site

[GrapeSparkling]

This issue is still not solved as of December 2022, hopefully in 5 more years our thousand dollar devices can have the same functionality as a $50 dongle 😅

[Jensjoy]

😂😜Sometimes sarcastic humour is our only resource....seems fruitless to try here. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Sarij]

I've just swapped to Spotify. See if the problem persists. I gave speakers throughout the house a nd can rarely connect to them now without interruption