@jodyalbritton I have been playing with AirBubble for Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.airbubble&hl=en it seems to work great, have not purchased it yet as I tried a few others before this one all with some kind of issue.
This one stays running and all devices connected from AirFoil on Mac seem to stay in sync.
Any luck with this? My thoughts exactly. Stick my pi right behind my home stereo with VLC installedā¦
@mattjfrank - thanks for the suggestion for this (on my actiON Dashboard request).
Trying this VLC thing on Androidā¦ Iām unable to make it connect to it. The testing to the VLC on Windows PC workedā¦ but I cannot make this new VLC Thing Device to VLC on Android.
Iām wondering if I have to make any configuration changes on the VLC Andriod app as well and if so what are they ?
Thanks,
The VLC Android and iOS clients canāt be controlled remotely like the Windows/OSX/Linux Clients can.
To play the VLC Audio on your Android Tablet you would need to setup the Windows VLC and then use something like Air Foil on the PC and Android tablet, AirFoil takes the audio from your PCās VLC and sends it to your Android tablet. I actually use AirFoil on my Mac and receive the audio on my Android Tablet with AirBubble.
Wanted to say thanks again to @geko for this app and @jody.albritton for the airplay/airfoil idea. I found a REALLY old android phone tonight in the office. Hooked it up in the bedroom. Now I got audio pretty much anywhere in my house for ST alerts. Next will be to get some cheap AirPlay receiver/speakers because android seems to be the only point of failure sometimes. At any rate itās awesome.
Whatās New:
This allows using VLC Thing as a text-to-speech synthesizer. For example, Smart Alarm (as of Version 2.1) can utilize devices with āSpeech Synthesisā capability to play voice notification when an alarm is set off.
VLC Thing source code and installation instructions are available on GitHub:
Copied code, got this error when trying to save ā¦
I realized there was a ā//" in line 1 that should be "/ā Changed it, and it saved fine after that.
Got the device installed, followed all directions on setting up VLC on my Mac and the VLC Thing Device on ST. Keep getting āError: An unexpected error occurred.ā message when I try to test.
I pulled my Macās IP address from System Preferences > Network.
Where can I confirm VLC TCP port?? Iām not seeing that in System Preferences or in VLC Preferences.
I downloaded VLC Remote (iOS) - I can see my Mac and control it from that APP.
Iāve run through all of the connection help info thatās provide for VLC and VLC Remote. I can control VLC from my iPhone/iPad by entering āhttp://(My IP Address):8080ā in Safari from those devices. So I know remote access is possible, just not getting it to work through VLC Thing ā¦
Is your IP address 10.0.0.x by any chance?
Yes, I must have goofed something up when copying the code - I just overwrote it again with a fresh copy and it started working.
Any luck trying @geko code with raspberry pi? Please let me knowā¦ I am planning to do this over the weekend! 
@geko Has anyone seen these errors in VLC?
This is the one I get for playing the Test sound:
Your input canāt be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL āhttps://s3.amazonaws.com/smartapp-media/tts/68259880f3736fdd64c9bdc16bce665c3c3acfc3.mp3ā. Check the log for details.
And from Smart Alarm:
Your input canāt be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL āhttps://s3.amazonaws.com/smartapp-media/tts/home_alarm_is_disarmed_.mp3ā. Check the log for details.
Thanks
David
Nope. Seems to be working fine. Have you tried opening these URLs in the browser?
Nope but I do get audio clipping issues when I type custom statements. It only plays a short bit of the end.
Just a comment-- this is way cool! I set it up this weekend, so far it is working very well for me. Thx for the great code!
BTW - I noticed that the VLC Thing āthingā always says āconnectā in yellow - this confused me at first, but it does not need to actually say connected for it to work (for anyone else setting this up).
Also, the port for VLC is 8080 ā this also took me a minute to figure out.
What I did was use my browser pointed to the VLC boxās ip (10.0.1.5:8080) and if you get a password prompt and enter your password (no username) you should see the interface. If you get this working, VLC thing should also be able to connect properly. Just make sure the ST hub and the VLC machine are both on the same subnet in your network.
Thanks again!!
CC
@geko Yes, I can download them and can even play through VLC. Iāve tried pretty much everything I can think of including enabling port forwarding on my router and even putting the VLC machine into my DMZ, but to no avail.
Iām going to try a test install to a different computer tonight and see if that makes a difference.
If anyone has any ideas Iād be glad to try them!
Did you check and make sure there was nothing else on port 8080?
Or did you change the port from 8080 either in the code or in the VLC options?
David,
Make sure there is a gateway and DNS setting on the VLC machine in the network settings.
Hi Guys, thanks for the help.
@viguera Yes, Port 8080 is in use only by VLC.
@geko Thanks that seems to solved some things.
@ccitarella All the networking is good on the VLC machine.
I ended up removing everything, VLC from computer and VLC Thing Device type, and device from ST and then re-installing everything from scratch.
So the good news is that I can now play messages through VLC thing. The weird thing is that VLC shows Yellow and Connect and never seems to makes a full connection or show music information. Iāve added custom Windows Firewall rules for TCP/UDP connections on port 8080,and for the VLC app.
Just wanted to give you guys an idea that Iām now using.
I setup a portable Bluetooth Speaker that connects to my computer via a USB dongle. Total cost around $35, could easily do it for less.
WAF (Wife acceptance factor) for audible alerts 1 point, having VLCThing play The Imperial March (Darth Vaderās theme) when I arrive -10 points. 
