Chromecasting issues

[statmonkey]

I usually just broadcast stuff from apps on my phone but of late have been wanting to watch certain videos from websites, well to be honest I want to watch live horse races when my horses run and they are only broadcast on certain sites so I have to use chrome.  But alas and alack I can't get chrome to play them.  Has anyone had anyluck using vlc or anything to chromecast websites or local videos over?   Plex?  Any recommendations at all?

Seems as if I am the only one who is interested in this.  But in case someone comes along before this all changes:

1. I can't seem to get google remote desktop to work - keeps asking me to reinstall
         It requires a reboot.  This is the only known method for casting hidden streams that some providers us, well other than deconstructing the page and hijacking the stream

2. Chromium doesn't see VLC at all in the options pages?
      True enough.  VLC is working for a straight streamcast extension but so far no good.  It seems Chrome will work but alas chromium does not use the same parsing methods so extension fails to load
3. I can play the videos in firefox but can't get them to the TV?
      False.  I can get some videos streams to work but these are the standard file formats etc. that I could just download and stream myself.
4. Does Roku do this???
      No Roku faces the same issues.  It is about content control really. 

Below I will add in what has worked for me.

[statmonkey]

I had heard great things about plex and have been trying it out with Debian.  Fact if you have audio/video/local media that you want to watch on TV this program is awesome.  Works incredibly well with chromecast and the picture/media handling is pretty impressive.  I have about 4 TB of movies/docs and another 3TB of music which Plex handles as well or better than anything I have used before (XBMC, Subsonic, etc.) You install the app like this thread explains https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/51427-plex-media-server-for-debian/ Open the web page in your browser, add your media folders which is intuitive as anything, open flex with your phone and boom you are off.  I would recommend the 5.00 android app and setting up an account for the extras but within the time it took to scan my folders ALL of my media was available to my TV.  Really amazing.

Note: I have not gotten PlexHomeTheater to work but it too looks impressive.

This still doesn't give me what I want but I am guessing if I can get Google Remote Desktop to work I will be in the money.