Sonos App on TV?

Chromecast provides a wireless way to display the Sonos App on your TV .

(i) buy a Chromecast dongle and install it on your TV ($35).
(ii) install the free Chrome browser and free Google Cast (Chrome Browser Extension) software on a PC that is connected to the same wireless network as the Chromecast dongle.
(iii) follow the set-up instructions and make sure that your PC and TV are properly configured wrt Chromecast.
(iv) Launch the Chrome browser on the PC, click on the Google Cast icon (within a Chrome browser tab), configure 'Cast this tab to...cast entire screen (experimental)', then click on the name of the Chromecast dongle that you want to 'cast' to. See the following for more details...

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/162443-chromecast-tab-casting-how-to-stream-your-desktop-browser-and-local-media-to-your-tv-video

(v) launch the Sonos app on your PC. You'll see the Sonos app mirrored on the TV.

I use an old laptop as the PC part of this set-up and I set it up so that it remains on and running with the lid closed. That way, I can plug the laptop into a wall socket, close it, and move it out of the way; the laptop will keep sending the Sonos app screen image to the TV.

Of course with Sonos you can run multiple Sonos apps simultaneously on multiple devices; user inputs to the Sonos app on one device are mirrored on the other devices. So, I use an Android tablet or phone for real-time control of the Sonos app (music queue, pause, volume, etc), while the Sonos app running on the laptop responds to all changes instigated on the Android device and mirrors the updated Sonos app image to the TV (with a slight time delay that is totally acceptable to me).

This should work with a Mac, as well, but I don't have a Mac to try that out.

I have a public display TV in our office, which has a builtin computer. I have installed this with a bare bone linux installation which only runs Chrome in kiosk mode upon boot.

When booted, it will present a custom template of my web controller (http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?p=210383) which runs on another server (a virtual one in my case, but could be a raspberry pi or even the computer in the screen itself) and it looks like this:

http://upload.grabbarna.se/files/IMG_20131125_105225.jpg

Since we only use Spotify, I also fetch the high res cover art from one of their web services which works much better on a bigger screen. I will also add track time to it (I had that on my previous .NET based dashboard app), and will make a redesign as well (which will show previous, current and next track).

Since this is web based, any modern browser would be able to present this kind of info, including any modern smart TV which has a browser. Depending on how the navigation works, it might even be possible to control it via a remote. I don't have a smart TV my self so I don't have a clue on how you browse using it.

If you want to get a feeling of how it looks in reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-Nhzd0ueg&feature=youtu.be

did a redesign today, made it look a lot nicer.

Nice app, jishi!
Thanks for sharing your work.

I have an idea. Why not use an android tv stick/dongle. You can view android on your tv and just use the official Sonos controller. They come with remotes so no mouse/keyboard from the couch plus these dongles are really small, not power hungry and very quick on/standby like a normal android smartphone. Oh and they are very cheap.

Anybody willing to try?

Here is a video demostration. Skip to 2:00 to see the interface.

youtube.com/watch?v=5s8JdNniV8E

Bringing this to the top. I have been a pretty devoted chromecast/google play music user when it comes to music streaming and have gotten spoiled with being able to see things like album art, artist, etc on the TV screen. I have 3 Sonos connect setups in my home, running through Yamaha Aventage receivers, all situated around TVs and it just sucks not being able to display that type of info on the screen. Even better would be if you could display the entire app on the screen as you control it from your device. I love Sonos and for a system as advanced as it is, it's pretty amazing this functionality is not available.

My TVs are all Sony android based and chromecasts as well that I can play around with screen mirroring and such so that's probably an option but it would be nice if the connect could just output the app to a screen or something along those lines.

Can't believe here we are a year later. No easy way to display Sonos on a TV screen, or even on the Google Echo Show/Dot. Or Amazon TV. Or a Roku App.

If you have an newer Apple TV then you may want to look at this fantastic app...

https://www.tunesmap.com

Can't believe here we are a year later. No easy way to display Sonos on a TV screen, or even on the Google Echo Show/Dot. Or Amazon TV. Or a Roku App.

Why can't you believe it? No promise or mention has ever been made about this ability. What could be more convenient than a hand held controller anyway? I can't see Sonos investing in a big way until TV so called smart interfaces get some sort of standard or maybe accept the running of Android or iOS apps.

Why can't you believe it?

Because this is 2018? And it would take relatively little effort to suport at least one of those formats. Seriously.