Play a video, photo or stream on a screen
Send a video, picture, sound or stream to a Cast screen from its page, keep one-tap presets for speakers, and play local files on a TV that is a UPnP media renderer.
A video or photo playing on the TV, with play, pause, stop and volume on the screen’s page, and presets such as Morning radio one tap away on a speaker.
- A Cast screen or speaker on the same home network: see Google Cast.
- For a TV’s own media player: a TV that is a UPnP media renderer, and the host settings in step 6.
Follow these steps in your own Denframe. This website never connects to your household, your accounts or your devices, and never asks for your credentials.
Open the screen’s page
On Home, choose a Cast screen’s tile to open its page, then open Play a video, photo or stream. Wall panels and other paired displays show dashboards, not this section.
Play a link
Paste the address into Media URL. Denframe guesses the Type from the address (such as
video/mp4); correct it if it is wrong. Title is optional. Choose Cast URL.The screen must be able to fetch the address itself.
Play a file from this computer
Under the separator, choose Choose audio, video, or image and pick a file (pictures in JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP), then Upload & cast. The file is uploaded to Denframe’s media and played from there.
Control playback
Now playing shows the title and progress. Play, Pause, Stop and Mute control it, and Volume sets the level. Refresh status reads the screen again. When the media is an address a phone can open, Continue on my phone offers it there.
Controls return only while the screen is online.
Keep presets for a speaker
On a speaker’s or speaker group’s page, Presets keeps one-tap shortcuts. Open Create a preset, give it a Preset name, choose the Receiver, set the volume and, optionally, a Media URL (optional), then Save preset.
Run plays a preset; Delete removes it.
Play local files on a UPnP TV
Some TVs play files themselves as UPnP media renderers. Turn on discovery and playback in the host’s environment, then restart Denframe:
Host environment DENFRAME_NETWORK_DISCOVERY=true DENFRAME_UPNP_PLAYBACK=trueDiscovery is read-only: it doesn’t change the TV’s input or open an app. On the TV’s card, choose Choose local media or upload a file, pick a file the TV supports, and choose Play media. Pause media, Resume media, Stop media, Seek media and Set TV volume appear only when the TV advertises them.
Playing media can switch the TV away from its browser or the current input. The TV must advertise the file’s exact type; codecs are not guaranteed and nothing is converted. Each picture is played on its own (no slideshow). Media links expire after an hour, and Stop media ends them, though a TV may keep what it has already buffered.
Discovery uses multicast on the local network: guest Wi-Fi, client isolation, separate VLANs or a container network can hide the TV. A TV found only through DIAL can’t stream local media.
Check it worked
The video, picture or sound plays on the screen, and Now playing on its page shows its title and progress. On a UPnP TV, the card’s status line shows the media’s state.
If it doesn’t work
Cast URL does nothing, or the screen shows an error
Check that the screen is online and that it can reach the address: a link that only works on this computer, or behind a sign-in, won’t play. Check the Type matches the file.
Play a video, photo or stream is missing
It appears on Cast screens only. A paired display shows dashboards.
The TV is not found for local media
Check that discovery is on, that the host and TV are on the same network without guest Wi-Fi or isolation, and that a container host can receive multicast.
Experimental media playback is disabled on this host
Set DENFRAME_UPNP_PLAYBACK=true on the host and restart it.
No files match the TV’s formats
The TV accepts only the file types it advertises. Try a common type, such as MP4 (H.264) video or a JPEG picture.