Hulu+ - Low quality streaming - Google Chromecast

Hello everyone!
I just recently got myself a Chromecast to use specifically with Netflix and Hulu Plus (casting from an iOS device).
Thanks to this forum I knew how to proceed for everything beforehand, using Smart DNS in my router, blacklisting google's DNS servers, etc. I have a TP-Link router.
Netflix is working perfectly, bumps to the 720p stream in about 6 seconds and another 5-6 seconds later it streams at 1080p without any noticeable drops so far.
Hulu Plus however is being problematic. It might smart in HD (sometimes) but either a few minutes later or after the commercials it drops to SD quality and rarely ramps up again. Starting the stream again helps, but only for a short while.
As I currently don't have another H+ device to test, i was wondering if the hulu plus implementation with Chromecast is indeed flawed or if this is happening just to myself (I understand that being overseas might not help - although I'm not sure which CDN I'm getting the content from), but it's really annoying seeing all the godawful pixels on my screen constantly - the Ads... pfft, well, those are always in 720p, go figure!
Anyway, hopefully you'll be able to share your experiences with me!
Cheers, thanks.

Related

Chromecast and new Nexus 7, YouTube issues

Hello,
I am using Chromecast with my new Nexus 7. I have issues with YouTube, since it plays perfectly the first video I start but always timeouts on the next one I try to play. I have to disconnect and reconnect to be able to make YouTube video streaming work again.
Any ideas of what might be the problem?
Thanks in advance!
I haven't noticed this on my Nexus 7 (2013). I will check again tonight and will report.
Mine is very seemless. I tried creating queue And they played all without any glitch. Check your internet connections?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Screw Google Chromecast
Yeah, the chromecast sucks. Don't buy one. I was excited, but it just goes to a spinning circle all the damn time. A 6 minute 480p video took 25 minutes to play. That's 19 full minutes of the buffering circle.
Before you jump on my ****, I do IT for a living, it's got 2 bars, and all 10 other devices have NO issue playing youtube (on the same wifiN router), so don't go there.
Yes, that's more or less what happens to me. Resetting the device makes it work again, I assume it might be because Chromecast gets very worm, I can't find any other explanation than cheap hardware.
crhylove said:
Yeah, the chromecast sucks. Don't buy one. I was excited, but it just goes to a spinning circle all the damn time. A 6 minute 480p video took 25 minutes to play. That's 19 full minutes of the buffering circle.
Before you jump on my ****, I do IT for a living, it's got 2 bars, and all 10 other devices have NO issue playing youtube (on the same wifiN router), so don't go there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I was disappointed that this thing didn't have an ethernet port. For wireless, I noticed it doesn't even run on 5Ghz. At least not properly, I don't think. I need the router in the same room for it to run ~smoothly
Otherwise, when my brother leaves the tv on while I'm up in my room. I play scary youtube videos with loud noises to wake him up.
crhylove said:
Yeah, the chromecast sucks. Don't buy one. I was excited, but it just goes to a spinning circle all the damn time. A 6 minute 480p video took 25 minutes to play. That's 19 full minutes of the buffering circle.
Before you jump on my ****, I do IT for a living, it's got 2 bars, and all 10 other devices have NO issue playing youtube (on the same wifiN router), so don't go there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As an IT guy you should understand that every situation is unique. The good news is that there's almost always a solution. The times when problems can't be solved are rare. I would encourage you to look at other avenues to solve this so you can help others when they need it. Your blanket statement that it's a bad product and doesn't work simply isn't the norm. Most experience the opposite of you.
I did have problems with my Actiontec router but found a solution. My daughter, who also has an Actiontec router in her condo just plugged it in and it worked. She's a doctor and, believe me, her technical skills are not that great. It just worked for her. Another daughter of mine, a school teacher, had the plug and play experience also. Just works.
Like you, I work in IT. I manage 80 IT folks. The one thing I stress on my staff is a little message that a Calculus professor used to tell us when I was an undergrad at UCLA: "There are so many ways to solve the problem you can't help but get the right answer." So, I challenge you to keep trying and don't give up. I'm sure there's a solution for you. Once you find that solution your skills will have been enhanced and you'll be better able to help others that come here with similar problems.
Good luck
giuliastro said:
Hello,
I am using Chromecast with my new Nexus 7. I have issues with YouTube, since it plays perfectly the first video I start but always timeouts on the next one I try to play. I have to disconnect and reconnect to be able to make YouTube video streaming work again.
Any ideas of what might be the problem?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This appears to be a glitch not resulting from any sort of connection. The issue isn't signal but some sort of failure in the code. What happens is it plays a video, goes to queue up the next one, shows the banner and dies. A fix is to toggle the app to play on the device and then back to the TV but it clears your queue which is annoying. Once its toggled it immediately plays for me.
Hoping they fix it soon. But it isn't a deal breaker by any means.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
Yes, by switching device / tv then video plays. I really hope it's some coding bug and not heating related, since code fan be fixed.
TabGuy said:
As an IT guy you should understand that every situation is unique. The good news is that there's almost always a solution. The times when problems can't be solved are rare. I would encourage you to look at other avenues to solve this so you can help others when they need it. Your blanket statement that it's a bad product and doesn't work simply isn't the norm. Most experience the opposite of you.
I did have problems with my Actiontec router but found a solution. My daughter, who also has an Actiontec router in her condo just plugged it in and it worked. She's a doctor and, believe me, her technical skills are not that great. It just worked for her. Another daughter of mine, a school teacher, had the plug and play experience also. Just works.
Like you, I work in IT. I manage 80 IT folks. The one thing I stress on my staff is a little message that a Calculus professor used to tell us when I was an undergrad at UCLA: "There are so many ways to solve the problem you can't help but get the right answer." So, I challenge you to keep trying and don't give up. I'm sure there's a solution for you. Once you find that solution your skills will have been enhanced and you'll be better able to help others that come here with similar problems.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every IT situation is unique, sure. But this device can't keep from constantly buffering even at 480p. It's ridiculous. And no, it's not the router. I have 5 android phones, 3 laptops, and 2 android tablets that all play youtube without EVER stopping in the middle of the video, and most of them at 1080p. 2 of those phones are really old ones (model escapes me at the moment, I don't use them much these days). It's the device. It's not either of my routers, it's not my 30mb down connection, and it's certainly not user error or network congestion. Probably the NSA backdoor google installed in it is slowing it down.
F Google, and F this broken crap device.
Oh, and additionally it can't play side loaded songs from my phone in Google Play music. It can't even stream an mp3 WITH NO VIDEO. This is not just bad hardware, this is outright crap design.
"Connecting..." in YouTube
I'm seeing something similar too... I can playback the first video fine, the tablet then displays "Connecting..." in the YouTube app - but I can't control the video or add new videos to the queue. I have to kill the app to play another video. BTW, same thing happens on my Nexus 10... but I don't see the problem if I'm using a PC+chrome. I've got another Chromecast that should be coming in a few days... so will compare to see if it is a hardware issue or something else.
I was watching YouTube on my Chromecast yesterday and had something very similar happen. The first video I watched had no problems but every video after that had buffering problems. I even tried re-casting it, leaving the app, and restarting it but the problem didn't go away. I thought it was a heat issue so I disconnected it and haven't tried it since but am going to try again tonight. They were long videos (about an hour or so each) but I doubt that has anything to do with the buffering issue.
I know it wasn't my internet because when I played YouTube on my laptop and my PS3, it could stream at the highest quality no problem. It seems to be only happening on the Chromecast.
crhylove said:
Oh, and additionally it can't play side loaded songs from my phone in Google Play music. It can't even stream an mp3 WITH NO VIDEO. This is not just bad hardware, this is outright crap design.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't really played around with it but I can agree with you on the fact that it WILL NOT play side loaded music which is just crap. What's the point of having it connect to your device to stream music if it CANNOT play it?? Stupid if you ask me, I hope that GOOGLE is planning on fixing their device. Why put a plug in from people rooting the device and being able to make the device work the way they want it to? Sorry your device doesnt work either..
-AkWingnut
I am still having this issue. Basically with YouTube not being able to stream 2 videos in a row the device is crap. Still waiting to be able to stream local pictures and videos, Google please hurry.

Audio stuttering from YouTube and Play Music

So, casting from Netflix seems to work fine, but anything from YouTube or Play Music results in audio so choppy it sounds like a toddler trying to learn to be a DJ. Video from YouTube plays fine, with no hesitation. Any ideas?
Local files seem to be okay as well. Netflix audio stutters a little at first (maybe 1min),but eventually smooths out. It still does it long enough to be annoying. Kinda regretting my chromecast...
Really, no one?
no issues like that here. well once a youtube video did after i resumed from pausing it reloading the vid solved that issue.
Local files? you're still able to play them?
Yeah, dropping a file into Chrome and casting the tab seems to work. When casting a tab, I'm assuming that a mild delay is typical, right?
To some degree as that is still in beta. Network conditions also play a bigger part when casting via chrome
Sent from my C6506 using Tapatalk 4
Well, someone (on another site, obviously) suggested it might be a bad unit, so I returned it. Grabbed another today...and same thing. Is there a particular wireless security type that it doesn't like? I'm on a 2.4Ghz router. Is there a particular channel that's better?
stick1300 said:
Well, someone (on another site, obviously) suggested it might be a bad unit, so I returned it. Grabbed another today...and same thing. Is there a particular wireless security type that it doesn't like? I'm on a 2.4Ghz router. Is there a particular channel that's better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en
Use WPA-personal/WPA-PSK is sufficient.
I'm using WPA-personal. And all WiFi Analyzer seems to be telling me is that I have great reception. The channel I'm on fluctuates between 9 and 10 stars, but a couple seem to hold on 10, so I guess I could switch, but it doesn't seem to be a big difference.

Shows the day after and jumpy video

2 Issues (are others seeing these problems?):
1) Twice now I've tried to play two rather popular shows the day after initial showing (Castle and Walking Dead) during "prime time" (around 8pm est) and they wouldn't load the most recent episode. It would act like it's casting, the episode would flash up on the tv, and then it would go back to the play movies and tv casting screen on both the tv and my phone. Meanwhile, older episodes and purchased movies streamed fine. I"m wondering if it's some kind of server overload or something.
One more thing to note, the episodes played fine directly on my phone
2) When playing video on Play Movies and TV I seem to get these little jumps in the stream. Not buffering, maybe better described as frame rate lags or a dropped frame or something. Nothing crazy noticeable but annoying none the less. I don't see this on Netflix. Anyone else see anything like this? Is it my connection or what? Any thoughts on the matter?
Regardless of my issues, here's hoping this thing takes off!
Unfortunately the jumpy video is a symptom of the poor performance of Google's tab-casting code. It requires your computer to do the transcoding of the stream in real time with very little buffering, and Google's "beta" code just isn't up to the task on any but the very fastest computers. Plex does a far better job transcoding the same streams on the same computer.
I was referring to casting from my phone as the device was intended, not a tab cast. Unfortunately I have found that my laptop cannot handle casting as it's too old . But thank you for the reply
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app

Chromecast Network Problem - Help!

I'm having a major problem and I can't seem to figure out the issue :\
I've been using Avia + Chromecast without issue for weeks.
However, recently I'm having an issue where all of the sudden the video playback goes to crap and things start playing at a slideshow rate.
Once things go wrong there is no recovering. If I play the movie on a tablet or my phone it works fine. As soon as I try to cast it through Avia though it takes forever to load and then when it finally does play it's a choppy mess. Restarting the Chromecast has no effect. Restarting the device I was using to cast also has no effect. The network is showing full speed ahead (21 down) and everything plays smoothly on any of the Android devices until I try to cast it.
The only thing that fixes the problem is restarting my router. I don't understand how it could be a router problem though because if that were the case wouldn't the speed drop, and why would everything play smoothly on the individual devices themselves?
I have also tried using AllCast to see if it's an Avia problem but the same thing happens. It'll work great, I stream an entire movie in high and then once I move onto the next piece of media/movie all of the sudden it's like the Chromecast gets confused and that's all she wrote until I restart the router :crying:
I have AT&T Uverse and my connection averages 20+ down.
I have the following devices connected to my network and the problem occurs casting from any of the Android devices eventually:
Computer
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (4.3)
Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.3)
LG G Pad 8.3 (4.2.2)
Google Nexus 7 (2012) (4.4.2)
Motorola Droid X (2.3.4)
Sony Blu-Ray Player
Does anyone have any clue what could be causing the problem?
SeanPlunk said:
I'm having a major problem and I can't seem to figure out the issue :\
I've been using S***box + Avia + Chromecast without issue for weeks.
However, recently I'm having an issue where all of the sudden the video playback goes to crap and things start playing at a slideshow rate.
Once things go wrong there is no recovering. If I play the movie on a tablet or my phone it works fine. As soon as I try to cast it through Avia though it takes forever to load and then when it finally does play it's a choppy mess. Restarting the Chromecast has no effect. Restarting the device I was using to cast also has no effect. The network is showing full speed ahead (21 down) and everything plays smoothly on any of the Android devices until I try to cast it.
The only thing that fixes the problem is restarting my router. I don't understand how it could be a router problem though because if that were the case wouldn't the speed drop, and why would everything play smoothly on the individual devices themselves?
I have also tried using AllCast to see if it's an Avia problem but the same thing happens. It'll work great, I stream an entire movie in high and then once I move onto the next piece of media/movie all of the sudden it's like the Chromecast gets confused and that's all she wrote until I restart the router :crying:
I have AT&T Uverse and my connection averages 20+ down.
I have the following devices connected to my network and the problem occurs casting from any of the Android devices eventually:
Computer
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (4.3)
Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.3)
LG G Pad 8.3 (4.2.2)
Google Nexus 7 (2012) (4.4.2)
Motorola Droid X (2.3.4)
Sony Blu-Ray Player
Does anyone have any clue what could be causing the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We do not discuss s***box, but I'll try to address your general network issue.
Sounds like either there's some cascading failure like packet repetition death or throttling.
If your router has any WiFi optimizations like WMM, try toggling that. Also look for QoS (Quality of Service) functions too.
bhiga said:
We do not discuss s***box, but I'll try to address your general network issue.
Sounds like either there's some cascading failure like packet repetition death or throttling.
If your router has any WiFi optimizations like WMM, try toggling that. Also look for QoS (Quality of Service) functions too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removed the reference to forbidden app, thanks for the head's up.
I'll check my options to see if any of your suggestions will help. Thanks :good:

Cast Screen works very badly.

I purchased the Turbo yesterday, there are many things I like but Cast Screen to my Samsung 2014 Smart TV is horrible, the videos are choppy and not worth watching at all, even something as basic as pictures is also pixelated and slow, my wife has Galaxy Note 3 with native Screen Mirroring feature and so does the TV and it works perfectly. Any suggestions or help to get my new Turbo to play smooth videos and pictures on my TV would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Has anybody used the Cast Screen feature at all? Any feedback is greatly appreciated..... continued, I tried WiFi direct; at first it would not even connect to my Samsung 2014 Smart TV, after much frustration I changed the wifi frequency on theTurbo from Auto to 2.4 gigahertz and it connected. My happiness was very short lived, my TV requires for WiFi direct to work that I install a Samsung app. called Smart View 2.0...which cannot be installed on the Turbo; it is not compatible.
I no longer expect that I will receive a reply here that will help me but at least I can be of some help to those sitting on the fence whether to buy a Turbo: If playing your videos from your phone on your TV is VERY important to you: Do Not buy the Turbo, if having a WiFi Hotspot without paying Verizon for double dipping is very important to you: Do Not buy the Turbo. If battery life, performance, reception, storage ( I have the 64 gb model) and overall good feel and looks matters most to you: BUY the Turbo. Good Luck
I can cast NHL Gamecenter to my Samsung TV with no stutter at all. I even have a crappy internet connection. I haven't tried any other videos, but photos are tack sharp. No idea why you might be having issues.
I also can cast Netflix or Slingplayer from the phone to my TV, works ok but it is also silly since my TV has Netflix built-in and Slingplayer plays my own TV channels, the problem I am having is with Screen MIrroring, that is what Samsung calls it, Motorola calls it Cast Screen, when I project my phone unto the TV screen the results are very poor, Videos are choppy and pictures load very, very slowly, when my wife connects her Samsung Note 3 to the TV the results are flawless, no lag, videos on her phone play in full 55" splendor perfectly, with the Turbo it is a terrible experience.
I was hoping someone here could try to play their own phone videos on their big screen HDTV and report back on results or better yet help me to get better results with my Turbo.
I also can cast Netflix or Slingplayer from the phone to my TV, works ok but it is also silly since my TV has Netflix built-in and Slingplayer plays my own TV channels, the problem I am having is with Screen MIrroring, that is what Samsung calls it, Motorola calls it Cast Screen, when I project my phone unto the TV screen the results are very poor, Videos are choppy and pictures load very, very slowly, when my wife connects her Samsung Note 3 to the TV the results are flawless, no lag, videos on her phone play in full 55" splendor perfectly, with the Turbo it is a terrible experience.
I was hoping someone here could try to play their own phone videos on their big screen HDTV and report back on results or better yet help me to get better results with my Turbo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if my experience is helpful because I have a Sony Xperia Z3v and a LG Smart TV. I have much better success with screen mirroring (Miracast) when I have my phone connected to my 5GHz N channel of my router. If I use 2.4GHz, I get similar results as you or it won't connect at all.
Thanks for the comeback, I have a 2.4 gigahertz router so it is my only option, What I notice is a distinct difference in quality between my wife's Note 3 and my Turbo. It may be that since my TV is Samsung and so is my wife's phone, they are optimized for each other. In other words Motorola and Samsung don't like each other. Thanks again.
UPDATE: For reasons I cannot explain Screen Mirroring or Cast Screen from my Turbo to my HDTV is working perfectly and smoothly, I have the exact same hardware and software that worked terrible for the first 3 days of Turbo ownership, maybe I was not holding my mouth just right... now only one thing keeping me from the Perfect Turbo experience: I still have no WiFi Hotspot so I will have to hope an app. is developed that works without root or paying Verizon for double dipping.
Turbo
smokie11 said:
UPDATE: For reasons I cannot explain Screen Mirroring or Cast Screen from my Turbo to my HDTV is working perfectly and smoothly, I have the exact same hardware and software that worked terrible for the first 3 days of Turbo ownership, maybe I was not holding my mouth just right... now only one thing keeping me from the Perfect Turbo experience: I still have no WiFi Hotspot so I will have to hope an app. is developed that works without root or paying Verizon for double dipping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has your performance still sucked? I have a Motorola Turbo and Samsung H7150 and my screen mirroring is horrible.
Screen Cast
I'm using Microsoft's Wireless Display Adaptor and I'm unable to stream Netflix. I get audio,but no video. Anybody else having the same problem? Thanks
I have the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 and I have similar issues with casting my screen to two different Sony HDTV's. Videos from my phone drive will play choppy sound while projecting pixelated chunks of video to the TV. Netflix plays sound but completely refuses to show any video. I will try setting my phone wifi frequency to 5GHz and see. My friend can cast his Samsung with no problem. Might be time to just get an HDMI hookup.

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