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Google Media

Google Launches Third-Gen Chromecast With 60fps Video, Multiroom Audio Support (variety.com) 39

Posted by msmash from the about-time dept.
Alongside the new Pixel smartphones, and the Pixel Slate laptop-tablet hybrid, Google on Tuesday also announced a new version of its Chromecast streaming adapter, the third generation of the company's streaming device, which supports playback video at higher frame rates and can also stream multiroom audio. From a report: The new device goes on sale Tuesday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Sweden. Stateside, the new Chromecast once again costs $35 -- the same as its predecessor. [...] The bigger changes are on the inside: The new Chromecast is 15% faster than the previous model, which allows it to stream 1080p HD video with a rate of up to 60 frames per second (fps). "Everything becomes much smoother," said Google Home product manager Chris Chan during a recent interview with Variety. He specifically cited the growth of 60fps content on YouTube as one of the reasons Google added the new feature.
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Google Launches Third-Gen Chromecast With 60fps Video, Multiroom Audio Support More

Google Launches Third-Gen Chromecast With 60fps Video, Multiroom Audio Support

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  • AV1 support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by enriquevagu ( 1026480 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @04:33PM (#57452718)

    Since AV1 [wikipedia.org] has been standardized six months ago and there are no HW decoders available yet, it will not support the flagship new royalty-free video codec from Google. Somewhat odd they have not delayed the launch some few months; 15% faster is an incremental improvement.

    • Re:AV1 support (Score:4, Insightful)

      by llamalad ( 12917 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @04:36PM (#57452736)

      You must be new here... Why sell one significantly upgraded product when you can sell two incremental upgrades instead?

      • The counterpoint is that IMO Google is basically giving away the Chromecasts to keep peoples' eyeballs on their content through Youtube and other services. I mean how profitable can it possibly be to sell one for $35, after build, packaging, transport, and letting retail take a piece? Like maybe $5? Instead of making $5 twice, why not delay a few months and then release the ChromeCast Pro Two - Revenge of the AVI codec and charge $50 for it? That way instead of 2 x $5, you make 1 x $20 !

        So I really don'

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Maybe they can add it with software later. The hardware accelerated part of AV1 could be implemented as shaders on the GPU.

      Glad to see 60fps support. Hopefully it's got full frame rate switching for 24 and 25 FPS too.

    • Shouldn't it be just an automatic firmware upgrade to support any new protocol? In other words, the hardware should already be ready for it, it's just a question of updating the software.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trongy ( 64652 )

      The Chromecast is first and foremost an inexpensive device. My guess is that new silicon with AV1 support would not meet the Chromecast price-point for a few years.

      There was no Chromecast Ultra replacement announced today - presumably the eventual replacement will have AV1 support.

  • I'd be really happy if it did 23.976fps so I could watch movies on Netflix without having to suffer judder from the pulldown.

  • Reliability (lack of) (Score:3)

    by Andy Smith ( 55346 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @05:30PM (#57452934)

    We use our Chromecast a lot (using it right now) but ooh boy is it unreliable! You can start a show, and 2 minutes later the app has lost the Chromecast so you can't pause or rewind etc. Then a few minutes later it's there again. Then it's not there but "local device" is, and sometimes you can connect to that, sometimes you can't. It's really frustrating.

    • Re: Reliability (lack of) (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Same issue. Is yours by any chance a 1st gen unit? Ours is and I've heard some people say newer versions work better but I don't really care enough to spend the money to upgrade what (mostly) already works

      • Yes, first gen, and I feel the same -- tempted to upgrade, but it works enough that we just put up with the flakiness.

      • I have a newer gen, same exact problem so no it aint better on newer versions, I have almost stopped using mine completely now as it is so god damn annoying.

        • I've had zero problems since putting a WAP within two feet of a 2nd gen Chromecast, but did have some of this before with a weak signal.

          • I have strong wifi signal throughout my house, The AP is in the next room. Nothing else has wifi problems and the chromecast when playing doesn't disconnect or stop playing just the damn controls for it become intermittent. basically makes the device useless unless you intend to never use pause etc which with my wife is not an option as toilet breaks or plot explanations at some point are an almost certainty. I switched to using a Fetch TV device in one room and a generic android pvr in another room, they w
    • Make sure your phone isn't configured to once in a while disconnect from wifi and check if 3G/4G is better. Many phones do this in order to ignore shitty or saturated wifi internet connections. Once the wifi is disabled, the phone can't see the chromecast anymore and problems arise.
      • My wife has a WiFi-only (Google Pixel C) tablet whose apps drop the connection to the Chromecast regularly. I recently moved my WAP so that it resides in the same room and have not seen an improvement.
  • I never know that infamous creator of sonichu [encyclopediadramatica.rs] has become a google employee.

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