Amazon Debuts Video-Streaming Feature That Rivals Apple AirPlay (bloomberg.com) 29
Amazon introduced a new feature that mimics Apple's AirPlay while working across different platforms, setting the stage for iPhone and Android users to wirelessly stream video to its TV hardware. From a report: The feature, called Matter Casting, is part of a push by Amazon to create interoperable services -- an alternative to the propriety technology developed by Apple and Google. It will make it easier for iOS and Android phones to send video to Amazon devices, such as its Fire TV boxes and sticks, as well as the Echo Show 15 smart display. [...] The feature will work with a range of other video services, including Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, Starz and ZDF, Amazon said.
"That Rivals" - "That Mimics" (Score:2)
Honestly? The headline says "it rivals", and the first sentence says "it mimics"? I was under the impression that we here at Slashdot are somehow "better" than this...
Extra Byte Missing From Apple Logo Soon. (Score:1)
Amazon going to get in trouble for patent violations in 3..2..1..
XKCD (Score:2)
Yes, we need yet-another-remote-video-casting protocol [xkcd.com] that will fix ALL THE PROBLEMS, right?
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I mean, I have a streaming box in front of every TV in the house (AppleTV and some FireTV cubes)....
If I want to watch something, I just pick up the remote and quickly select something to watch.
Why would I need to stream something from my phone to that box on the tv?
If I'm in front of my big screen TVs, I'm watching that, I'm not watching content on my phone...so...
Why do people need this? Is there something I'm missing
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The use case is device switching. You are watching something on your phone or tablet and you want to show it on your TV instead. There are multiple ways to handle this. The first ways is a simple streaming from your handheld to your box. Another way is that your streaming box starts the content as it was handed over. However that may entail logging into accounts, starting points, getting preferences and settings, etc. The content could be something quick like a clip or a movie.
Google and Apple have done thi
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I will say that there is a use case that makes a little sense: you come across a video while doing other things on your phone, and realize there's a 40+ inch TV on the wall in front of you to view that video on, or you want to share it with other people in the room. You can quickly throw that onto the larger screen.
As far as watching content that you need to seek out first, yeah that's what a connected device is for, and going to do it far better because there's no battery to crap out on you.
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Why do people need this? Is there something I'm missing here?
Yes, some of us socialize, as rare a concept as that can be for /.
When my parents come over for dinner, they might want to see photos/videos from a recent vacation. Especially photos of the kids. I just open the photo app on my phone, and now all the photos/videos are on the 75" TV which my parents can actually see. Their aging eyes don't stand a chance looking at my phone, especially at the same time (which requires it to be even further away).
Occasionally someone will want to watch something that isn'
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Geez, make assumptions much?
I'm plenty social, I love having
Not interested in more proprietary protocols (Score:5, Informative)
Google closed the Chromecast protocol by making Android only accept cryptographically authenticated stream sinks, i.e. Google's own Chromecast devices. We do not need another one of those. Come up with a public standard and stick to it. I know why they're not doing it, I just don't care about another protocol that treats me like a criminal.
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There's a rock climbing series I can only purchase and view on Vimeo.
So I can't figure out how to watch it on my Amazon FireStick.
Not surprisingly, Chromecast only seems to work with Youtube. I can't find a way to ChromeCast from Vimeo app. Despite their web support saying I should be able to do that, no ChromeCast icon appears in the lower right corner of the video.
We definitely need a standard for this with solid support. I can't believe in this day and age there are "dead ends" like this that just don
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Google closed the Chromecast protocol by making Android only accept cryptographically authenticated stream sinks, i.e. Google's own Chromecast devices. We do not need another one of those. Come up with a public standard and stick to it. I know why they're not doing it, I just don't care about another protocol that treats me like a criminal.
What I really don't understand is this: Amazon hardware already supports Chromecast. What could possibly possess them to create their own protocol that isn't compatible with anything when they already have one?
The only two things I want out of a mirroring service are for it to be supported ubiquitously by phones and TVs, and for apps to not be able to refuse to support it. I couldn't give a single f**k about HDCP. It has already been thoroughly broken a million times over by HDMI splitters that you can b
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What I really don't understand is this: Amazon hardware already supports Chromecast. What could possibly possess them to create their own protocol that isn't compatible with anything when they already have one?
If I were to guess, Google does not let Amazon monetize it the way Amazon wants to monetize it. Not that Google is not monetizing Chromecast now, only that Amazon wants to monetize it too. For example, I do not put it past Amazon to inject ads the casting process. I was watching a YouTube clip on my Fire phone and switch to my FireTV. Well there is an ad. But it is not a YouTube ad.
Re:Not interested in more proprietary protocols (Score:5, Informative)
What I really don't understand is this: Amazon hardware already supports Chromecast. What could possibly possess them to create their own protocol that isn't compatible with anything when they already have one?
They didn't create their own protocol. This is a feature of the open Matter protocol that Apple, Google, Amazon, and others have adopted. Amazon is just the first company to announce support for Casting in particular, which is already a feature of the Matter protocol. What remains to be seen is whether the other big players will follow suit, but it's pretty much a given that Matter Casting will receive broad support from third-party devices in the years ahead, given that the Matter protocol is already seeing a broad rollout.
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Come up with a public standard and stick to it.
This is a public standard. The "Matter" in "Matter Cast" is because this is part of the open Matter standard. Casting is a feature that the Matter protocol—which has been adopted by Apple, Google, and Amazon—already supports. Amazon happens to be the first company to announce hardware that supports the feature.
The Verge's writeup of the announcement [theverge.com] makes that distinction readily apparent right at the start.
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Sadly nobody reads the articles, or even seems to pay the slightest bit of attention, but that never stops them from commenting on things they don't know anything about.
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Is your complaint that nobody reads the paywalled Bloomberg article or is it that nobody cares to research the topic before commenting? Also, are you sure it's going to be open as in "I can write my own stream sink and use it with all phones"? Or is it like Chromecast, where there are open implementations, but Android phones won't use them?
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What difference does it make? Either read the article, or if it's paywalled then spend 2 seconds googling it. There is a Verge article covering the exact same topic at the top of the Google results if you search for Amazon matter video: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/9/24030324/amazon-matter-casting-echo-show-fire-tv-prime-video
Or are you seriously arguing that people should just keep commenting on things they know nothing about? We all just have to read whatever drivel comes out of the mouth of the villag
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are you seriously arguing that people should just keep commenting on things they know nothing about?
You must be new here. Also, you fail to grasp that there is a reason there are so many "casting" standards, and it isn't a technical reason. It is naive to believe that Amazon of all companies is going to be first to provide a truly open solution where you can use a stream sink you made yourself. As I wrote before, There are open source Chromecast sinks, but Android simply won't stream to them.
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Matter _is_ a public standard and it is supported by Amazon, Apple, and Google.
Is Bloomberg confused, or is it Amazon? (Score:2)
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Matter Casting? Sounds like what Dave Jr. does on his cell phone.
Ask Mr. Mustaine about that joke if you don't get it.
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Read it again? I think we are just conditioned to read proprietary into announcements with the word Amazon in it. The actual text reads like it is actually just them debuting an already open standard, which does rival the closed standards that are in use already.
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Naming this Matter Casting sounds like it may be a part of the new Matter protocol for interoperating IoT devices. If that's so, then this isn't Amazon trying to compete with or replace AirPlay and Chromecasting. They are just the first ones to announce compatibility with streaming with the non-proprietary Matter spec.
That's exactly what this is. The Verge's headline for the same announcement was Amazon is trying to fix content casting with an open standard [theverge.com], which makes what's going on far clearer than the summary from Bloomberg above.
To your question about whether they're trying to force this into the Matter protocol, they actually already did. As reported back in 2021 [theverge.com], Amazon led a successful push to get Casting added to Matter. As a result, Matter has had Casting support baked in from day one. Amazon is just the fir
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Ummm NO (Score:2)