Ok, I give up... Something very strange is going on and, after days of messing with this, I have to ask for help. I have a PHP script that serves an MP4 file from outside of the document root. This script works great, except for one very important (to me at least) detail: it will not give me the option to cast the content. On the same server, when I access an MP4 file that IS inside the document root, I load the page and when I click the three dots in the bottom right corner of the Chrome video player, I have the option to Download or Cast to my Chromecast. Using my script, I only have the option to Download, and I REALLLLY need to CAST! I have tweaked this so much that the headers output from either method are all but identical. Here is my code...
<?php
$file=$_GET['file'];
//validate
if($file=="." || $file==".."){$file="";}
$mediaRoot="../../../hostMedia";
$file=$mediaRoot . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
$file=str_replace('\\',"/",$file);
$filesize = filesize($file);
$offset = 0;
$length = $filesize;
// find the requested range
preg_match('/bytes=(\d+)-(\d+)?/', $_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'], $matches);
$offset = intval($matches[1]);
$length = (($matches[2]) ? intval($matches[2]) : $filesize) - $offset;
// output the right headers for partial content
header('HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content');
header('Content-Range: bytes ' . $offset . '-' . ($offset + $length-1) . '/' . $filesize);
header('Content-Type: video/mp4');
header('Content-Length: ' . $filesize);
header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
// open file for reading
$file = fopen($file, 'r');
// seek to the requested offset, this is 0 if it's not a partial content request
fseek($file, $offset);
// populate $data with all except the last byte of the file
$numBytes=($filesize-1);
$dataLen=0;
while($dataLen<$numBytes){
$lenGrab=($numBytes-$dataLen);
if($lenGrab>(1024*2700)){$lenGrab=(1024*2700);}
$data=fread($file, $lenGrab);
print($data);
$dataLen+=strlen($data);
}
// close file
fclose($file);
?>
A thousand "thank-you"s to whoever solves this one!
UPDATE
Ok, taking @Brian Heward's advice, I have spent countless hours making sure that the headers are ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL!!! I was so sure it would work, but alas, it still fails to give me the option to cast. Here is my updated PHP...
<?php
session_start();
$accessCode=$_SESSION['accessCode'];
$file=$_GET['file'];
//handle injection
if($file=="." || $file==".."){$file="";}
if($accessCode=="blahblahblah8"){
$mediaRoot="../../../hostMedia";
$file=$mediaRoot . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
$file=str_replace('\\',"/",$file);
$filesize = filesize($file);
$offset = 0;
$length = $filesize;
$lastMod=filemtime($file);
if ( isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']) ) {
// if the HTTP_RANGE header is set we're dealing with partial content
$partialContent = true;
// find the requested range
preg_match('/bytes=(\d+)-(\d+)?/', $_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'], $matches);
$offset = intval($matches[1]);
$length = (($matches[2]) ? intval($matches[2]) : $filesize) - $offset;
} else {
$partialContent = false;
}
if ( $partialContent ) {
// output the right headers for partial content
header('HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content');
header('Content-Range: bytes ' . $offset . '-' . ($offset + $length-1) . '/' . $filesize);
}else{
header('HTTP/1.1 200 OK');
}
// output the regular HTTP headers
header('Content-Type: video/mp4');
header('Content-Length: ' . $length);
header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
header('ETag: "3410d79f-576de84c004aa"');
header('Last-Modified: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s \G\M\T', $lastMod));
// don't forget to send the data too
$file = fopen($file, 'r');
// seek to the requested offset, this is 0 if it's not a partial content request
fseek($file, $offset);
//populate $data with all except the last byte of the file
$numBytes=($length);
$dataLen=0;
while($dataLen<$numBytes){
$lenGrab=($numBytes-$dataLen);
if($lenGrab>(1024*2700)){$lenGrab=(1024*2700);}
$data=fread($file, $lenGrab);
print($data);
$dataLen+=strlen($data);
}
fclose($file);
}else{
echo "You are not authorized to view this media.";
}
?>
If someone can get this thing to work, you are seriously a superhero!
FINAL UPDATE (for now...)
Well, after many, many hours of frustration, I had to abandon the approach and try something different. Luckily, there are usually more than one way to accomplish something, and I have found another way. I am hosting the .mp4 files inside the doc root in a folder protected using HTTP Basic Auth. Very similar to what I was trying to achieve and it is working for me. Thanks for your advice and direction!