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Let me start by saying I don't currently own a Kaiser but I am tempted by it.
One of the things i need to know is how does slingplayer perform on it, especially at the highest resolution, say with the following settings:
Enable slingstream optimization
High action
video resolution : 320 by 240
audio : mono low
I have read up on all the sling related posts on this device and the results seem to be inconclusive, some say they are getting around 24 frames per second and works great, others mention that the fps is pretty low.
If you have used sling player on this device then could you please post the frames per second that you are getting at the highest resolution possible i.e. 320 by 240, both on wifi and on a 3G/HSDPA connection if possible.
Also, is the performance in full screen (landscape) just as good as in portrait mode?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
I have a Slingbox Solo connected to my cable box.
The HD channels look good, although the playback is noticibly choppy, but still very watchable. While watching some sports games, it sometimes gets hard to read the scores when they're really small and at the top. Overall I'd say it's a good experience, but personally I think it should be better given the caliber of device I'm using (a Tilt, obviously), but it could just come back to our favorite video drivers.
Anything else you'd like to know, just ask.
Thanks for the quick response, but what frame rate are you getting and what resolution and type of connection is that with?
Remote connect w/Kaiser & slingbox tuner
Great stuff...I just ordered a slingbox tuner, which is fine for my needs. I hope I will not be returning it...I have a question on how one connects to it say when you are on the road, away etc.. I have AT$T with Media.net.
I have a slingbox classic (old gray one) and I get 24fps after a minute or so with 3G, 300-400kbit/sec (limited by slingbox's connection speed). I generally use it to watch news/sports news so I cannot comment on fast moving pictures but for my usage I am happy with it.
If I start to lose phone signal down to 1-2 bars and/or connection speed to 150-200kbit/sec, screen becomes choppy (around 5fps).
the prog is good but noticably worse video quality with the tilt than the 8525/Hermes. I used the same network and video settings. I thought the video driver problem was a crock of **** until I tried sling and wow it sucks in comparision. But Sling is GREAT!
Got the box, Slingbox Tuner..hooked it up..bada bing------bada BOOM ! Works great on wi-fi, will be testing out at work he he,tomorrow...ssssshush !
anybody experiencing poor resolution quality while casting your chrome tab? I know my connection is not the problem because I have 54mpbs fiber optics...
Got to your chromecast extensions options and change the tab projection quality
lezombi said:
Got to your chromecast extensions options and change the tab projection quality
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Click to collapse
yes already tried that and still same problem
I have the same problem. Any time I cast a tab I lose lots of video quality. When I cast the entire screen it looks much better but that won't allow audio streaming right now.
Netflix and youtube quality is great but chrome tab must still be in beta
<AOL>Me too</AOL>
Seeing the same thing. Casting the whole screen to my 1080p screen looks great. Casting a tab looks like someone miscoded an antialiasing routine.
Tab casting has nothing to do with your Internet speed, and everything to do with your internal network speed and PC power.
Your PC is rendering the page and streaming to the Chromecast. My HP Ultrabook can barely handle 3 frames per second using wifi, but my desktop does a good job at full 720p video hardwired to the router.
My TV happens to be only 720p. I assume that Chromecast will max out the streaming at 1080p on Netflix and YouTube whenever possible, as it's still pushing a 1080p stream out to my TV.
Like many ISPs, mine has a download cap. I was thinking it would make sense to limit to 720p, as I won't be able to tell the difference without a 1080p TV, and it'd save me bandwidth when streaming. It occurred to me that if there is no way to force Chromecast down to 720p, perhaps I can throttle it down.
I ran a test on my desktop, streaming a 1 minute YouTube video ("Lose Yourself To Dance" is conveniently 1:02 and available in 1080p). At 1080p it consumes 44 MB/min which is about 5.9 Mbps. At 720p, 17 MB/min or 2.3 Mbps.
On my Tomato router I can see the MAC address of the Chromecast under Status. So I assigned it to Quality of Service (QoS) class "C", and configured class "C" with a % of max bandwidth corresponding to roughly 4,000 kbit/s. This means any attempt to stream full 1080p will have buffering issues, but 720p will stream smoothly. I then tested it on YouTube and Netflix - everything still looks excellent. So clearly the apps are designed to drop down to a lower bitrate when necessary.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other thoughts.
I have no need for this but it is a great post and find. I'm sure this will help out many people who have bandwidth caps.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
jam10238 said:
I have no need for this but it is a great post and find. I'm sure this will help out many people who have bandwidth caps.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops!!!... I somehow read Netflix instead of YouTube. LOL. But I believe same thing applies to YouTube as well.
Anyway...I believe Netflix servers will sense your display resolution and send appropriately sized resolution vids to your TV. So if your TV cannot use the 1080p, it should drop down to the next highest setting your TV is capable of automatically. You should not need to set anything.
Someone with more technical knowledge and assist you further but I believe reading somewhere that Netflix holds multiple resolution copies of each movie file and will stream vids depending on your display capability and ISP speed.
I hope this helps.
This takes the guess work out of the equation though. Im sure the OP could monitor the bandwidth pre and post QoS to determine if that is in fact the case....Perhaps Netflix sends the 1080p signal if the bandwidth is there, but CC downconverts to 720p after the download....
cvcduty said:
Oops!!!... I somehow read Netflix instead of YouTube. LOL. But I believe same thing applies to YouTube as well.
Anyway...I believe Netflix servers will sense your display resolution and send appropriately sized resolution vids to your TV. So if your TV cannot use the 1080p, it should drop down to the next highest setting your TV is capable of automatically. You should not need to set anything.
Someone with more technical knowledge and assist you further but I believe reading somewhere that Netflix holds multiple resolution copies of each movie file and will stream vids depending on your display capability and ISP speed.
I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is, Netflix has no idea my TV is only 720p, because Chromecast is requesting the video at 1080p if possible. According to my TV's info screen, the HDMI signal from Chromecast is 1080p which means my TV subsequently downscales the signal. I figure that if Chromecast were "listening" to my TV's actual resolution it would be putting out only a 720p signal. So I strongly suspect it's using 1080p bandwidth even when that's excessive.
jam10238 said:
This takes the guess work out of the equation though. Im sure the OP could monitor the bandwidth pre and post QoS to determine if that is in fact the case....Perhaps Netflix sends the 1080p signal if the bandwidth is there, but CC downconverts to 720p after the download....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If Chromecast were downconverting, it would be sending a 720p signal to my TV. But it's not - it's pushing 1080p out and my TV is what's scaling it down.
cmstlist said:
The issue is, Netflix has no idea my TV is only 720p, because Chromecast is requesting the video at 1080p if possible. According to my TV's info screen, the HDMI signal from Chromecast is 1080p which means my TV subsequently downscales the signal. I figure that if Chromecast were "listening" to my TV's actual resolution it would be putting out only a 720p signal. So I strongly suspect it's using 1080p bandwidth even when that's excessive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an annoying flaw on CC, it does not let you choose the output resolution. I have a 720p projector but because it supports downscaling 1080p, CC would choose the highest resolution supported. I would rather have CC output my projector's native resolution than going through downscaling.
Just a quick addendum: Don't forget that QoS classificaiton rules on Tomato are ordered, such that if you add a new rule for Chromecast at the bottom, existing rules may override it. I realized today that QoS wasn't working when my roommate was streaming to Chromecast and the router showed throughput above 5 Mbps. The details screen showed me that no connections were being set to Class C. After pushing the Chromecast rule to the top of the stack, I was able to keep the bandwidth down to less than half of what it was before.
Having said that - now that I've throttled downstream to 3.2 Mbps I do see a slight difference in picture quality. It could be that the 720p stream has a bit of detail lost to compression artifacts - or other artifacts from the 720->1080->720 round-trip conversion - where the 1080p stream downsampled to 720p does not. But it's still excellent-looking from the couch position!
You can try to change your video quality settings from your account settings on the Netflix website:
-- I cannot post a link yet, but under the settings, it is "Manage Video Quality" in the 'Your Profile' section.
I don't know what the resolution would be if you knocked it down a notch, but you can make a change and see if it still looks good (enough) on your television.
twcoll said:
You can try to change your video quality settings from your account settings on the Netflix website:
-- I cannot post a link yet, but under the settings, it is "Manage Video Quality" in the 'Your Profile' section.
I don't know what the resolution would be if you knocked it down a notch, but you can make a change and see if it still looks good (enough) on your television.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this makes no difference. I believe this setting is ignored when streaming via Chromecast.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Wait, does your ISP event support 1080p (Super HD)? If your ISP has a bandwidth cap then it might not support it. Last time I checked, TWC doesn't support Super HD which is really lame.
To check, just google Netflix Super HD and click the first link.
OuHiroshi said:
Wait, does your ISP event support 1080p (Super HD)? If your ISP has a bandwidth cap then it might not support it. Last time I checked, TWC doesn't support Super HD which is really lame.
To check, just google Netflix Super HD and click the first link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few answers to that:
1) Yes I believe Telus Optik is reported to natively support Super HD.
2) I'm using Unblock-Us to get American Netflix, which apparently also results in having an IP that supports Super HD. So I kind of have to counterfoil that by making sure it doesn't try and stream 1080p.
3) What I'm unclear on is whether Super HD is even relevant with Chromecast. Do specific DRM-authorized devices like Chromecast get access to 1080p no matter who your ISP is? Or do you need *both* an authorized device and a Super HD ISP?
I noticed recently that, even while leaving QoS disabled on my router, Netflix is using a lot less bandwidth and delivering a less crisp but still passable image to my TV.
I suspect that Netflix made a change either to the app or the backend that now respects the bandwidth setting in the Netflix account on Chromecast, whereas previously it would always play at maximum bitrate.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Is nobody aware that Netflix has a global bandwidth setting affecting all devices in your online account settings?
DJames1 said:
Is nobody aware that Netflix has a global bandwidth setting affecting all devices in your online account settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am aware. However, my experience was that, until relatively recently, the bandwidth usage of Netflix on Chromecast was unresponsive to the global bandwidth setting, and it would use the maximum available bitrate. Even with my account set to the lowest bandwidth setting it was chewing up about 4000-6000 Mbps. Something changed recently and now it's respecting the global setting.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Slightly naive and off the topic but if I have a device like an Amazon Fire TV and I set the video resolution to 720 would Netflix still stream at 1080 and display at 720?
Not really a solution to your issues but unless you have no choice as it is the only access available you really need to find an alternative to tiered internet access if at all possible.
I live in a Rural area myself so I know this is not always an option for people.
If netflix is ignoring some global setting for your account perhaps there is a setting to reduce bandwidth being sent on the playback screen?
I just got my Chromecast and the Netflix/Youtube playback works awesome and I have no issues with HD, but when I stream a tab from Chrome on my Macbook Air it looks very bad. It looks the same no matter what setting I've tried and seems like there is glitching graphically, not just poor resolution. I even moved it from my TV to a desktop monitor that is close to my router and it does the same thing. Has anyone ran into this issue?
EDIT: Tried streaming a tab from my Windows desktop and it looks fine, so it appears to be isolated to my Mac.
It could be your MacBook not the chromecast.. I can share my whole screen and watch movies through chromecast without a hitch.
It diesnt sound like your WiFi is bad so it has to be your laptop
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
I tried installing the Chrome beta release and it works fine now on my Macbook. I was just worried that it might somehow be defective, though I thought that would be pretty unlikely since Netflix streams perfectly. I'm not sure why I would have issues with the stable release of Chrome, but it looks perfect streaming 720p tabs on the Beta release now.
bretto13 said:
I tried installing the Chrome beta release and it works fine now on my Macbook. I was just worried that it might somehow be defective, though I thought that would be pretty unlikely since Netflix streams perfectly. I'm not sure why I would have issues with the stable release of Chrome, but it looks perfect streaming 720p tabs on the Beta release now.
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Click to collapse
Also while tabcasting I have noticed reducing the resolution does not impact much in image quality. I hardly see a difference. But it does reduce the stream quality. You/ anyone else having issues can try reducing the resolution to 480p using the gear icon while tabcasting. Ignore this if you are a videophile
Edit: nevermind the above. I actually did not see the attached image that is horrible quality. I did not had this bad of an issue. One more thing I have noticed is that it is better to have your laptop, connected to power, as sometimes on battery, the laptop OS power management may try to reduce wifi performance to save battery.
plyedst eight
Do you have a 2013 MacBook Air? I had the same problem with mine but fixed the issue by changing a setting in Chrome:
Chrome browser -> Settings -> Show advanced settings... -> In "System" uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available".
Had the same issue and this ^^ fixed it.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
same here. stopped the stuttering too!
I have had this issue as well using Samsung Chromebook I an stating to think it has to do with my processor.
I have the same problem, with a high end laptop.
Turning off hardware acceleration worked on my 3yr old basic computer. Going to try my Asus smart tab tonight, hoping for the same results
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I'm having the same problem streaming video from within tabs. I'm using a Dell Laptop circa 2007 though. I don't use it for anything else and it's been gathering dust so I was a bit excited that I might be able to tab stream from it and maybe use it for ESPN, AMC, or HBO.
Turning off hardware acceleration did help, but I get stuttering and the audio isn't synced with the video. Switching to 480p didn't make much of a difference. I've updated all the drivers, but it's running Windows 7 and the drivers were made for XP.
I'm hoping a chromecast update may clear this up.
Wrngway said:
I'm having the same problem streaming video from within tabs. I'm using a Dell Laptop circa 2007 though. I don't use it for anything else and it's been gathering dust so I was a bit excited that I might be able to tab stream from it and maybe use it for ESPN, AMC, or HBO.
Turning off hardware acceleration did help, but I get stuttering and the audio isn't synced with the video. Switching to 480p didn't make much of a difference. I've updated all the drivers, but it's running Windows 7 and the drivers were made for XP.
I'm hoping a chromecast update may clear this up.
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Click to collapse
I'm convinced it is more a Chrome issue than Chromecast. I can stream 1080p video just fine if it is local. The quality stays, there is no stuttering, and audio is synced. It is only when I do online content that the issues show up.
Here's a link to the minumum system requirements for streaming.
https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/3209990?hl=en
In my case, I'm running a t2300 core duo processor at 1.66 GHz. Graphics is an ATI Radion Mobility X1300. It looks like it's subpar at best based on the requirements.
Wrngway said:
Here's a link to the minumum system requirements for streaming.
https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/3209990?hl=en
In my case, I'm running a t2300 core duo processor at 1.66 GHz. Graphics is an ATI Radion Mobility X1300. It looks like it's subpar at best based on the requirements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running a 1st gen i7 965 @ 3.2 GHz and 2 GTX 280's in SLI plus 12 GB of RAM with a Belkin N900 router and 105/20 Mbps connection and with my TV sitting less than 10 feet away the quality sucks!
I don't get terrible tab casting quality, but there's no doubt that the video isn't perfectly smooth. It stutters, skipping a few frames about once per second, which is pretty distracting. I'm kind of puzzled as to why.
The video plays smoothly in Chrome on the desktop system I'm casting from, whether it's an internet stream or a local MP4 file, so it's not a source problem.
I have a pretty fast desktop system doing the casting (Intel Core i5-3770K overclocked), and it never shows more than 14% CPU usage and plenty of free physical memory while casting. Switching resolutions between 480, 720, and 720 Extreme in the casting options makes a small difference to the CPU load (range 8% to 17%), but no difference at all to the stuttering video that I can see.
I think I get a pretty good connection to my WiFi-N router from the TV+Chromecast location. A laptop in the same location shows connected at 130 Mbps with Excellent signal strength. I can force a wide channel for even more speed, but it doesn't make any difference that I can see. Certainly normal internet video HD streams seem to be perfectly smooth when coming direct from Youtube or Netflix over WiFi, never a stumble. You would think that if WiFi bandwidth were the problem, switching from 720 to 480 would make a difference, but it doesn't.
So what's the problem here? Is it just a quick and dirty beta implementation by Google that doesn't do a very good job? Is there some hidden bottleneck? Is it impossible to re-encode video with high efficiency for casting on a typical system? (but in that case why are they using an algorithm that uses only a small percentage of one CPU core?)
I've tried some of the suggested tricks, like turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome, which increases CPU usage a bit, but makes not much if any apparent difference in smoothness of video. I've also tried disabling real-time anti-virus checking, but it's hard to tell if it's any better.
I not sure if there are any other Chromecast owners who actually get smooth video tab casting performance or not. People who say it's fine for them may not have looked very closely, and maybe wouldn't notice video stuttering unless it was pointed out to them.
There's more to it than CPU bandwidth but I can't say what.
I can say that I am well aware of what stuttering and frame loss looks like and I get little to none on a MacBook Pro that doesn't meet Google's requirements for tab casting.
I guess my point is that it's still in beta and we all can hope for better.
Have you tried using Plex?
EarlyMon said:
Have you tried using Plex?
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Click to collapse
I don't see how using Plex would make any difference. Plex doesn't have native Chromecast support, so I'd still be casting a tab.
Well whatever the problem is at least it only cost $35 because I would be really pissed if I paid more for it in its current state.
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I went out and bought a n n150 usb wifi adapter for my desktop. It's an I5-33570k processor overclocked to 4.5GHz, 8 Gb of ram, and a GTX570 graphics card. I'm getting much better reslts from this than my circa 2007 dell laptop.. Video is definitely watchable and quality is generally SD or better. There is some very slight frame loss, which is noticable. The wifi signal is --60dbm where the chromecast is.
I still need to play around with some settings. I have the chromecast set to 720p, but not extreme bandwidth. For some reason unchecking hardware accelerationleads to videos not taking up the entire tab.
I have almost the same desktop system configuration as you Wrngway, and I get the same results: reasonable tab-casting performance with low CPU utilization, but still getting some very noticeable dropped frames.
I also tried my 2009-vintage Core-2 Duo laptop (P8400 CPU at 2.27 GHz). No good - 100% CPU utilization, the video stutters on the laptop screen and on the Chromecast it's just jerky frames and then it freezes after a few seconds. Dropping the res to 480p improves things slightly, but still not watchable.
Actually I have a new theory about what's wrong with tab casting that causes it to skip frames and stutter even though it's running at low CPU utilization. The problem is that it isn't buffering enough. When you compare the Chromecast TV output to the computer screen, it's obvious that there's less than 1/2 sec. lag. When the picture content changes rapidly in the incoming video stream, there's a spike in decoding/encoding performance requirement that momentarily exceeds real-time CPU capacity, causing frames to be dropped. An instant later it catches up when the performance requirement drops. The CPU utilization is relatively low on average, but there's still not enough CPU power to handle the peaks. The solution would be more buffering and less aggressive frame dropping. There's actually a buffer length setting in the hidden Chrome extension settings, but it doesn't appear to have any effect. In any case, the encoding algorithm would have be smartened up to not drop frames as long as there's plenty of buffer time to catch up.
I tried many things (Youtube, GMusic, ect.) what are working well, but cast a Tab not. I can cast tab or entire screen anytime with good quality and it seems to be continuous, the laptop (Corei5, 8GB RAM, Nvidia620) CPU load is about 45-50% @ 720p casting, works like a charm.
When I switch Audio mode on, the CPU load drops to 35-40% and I receive very good (continuous) audio quality and very low FPS (0.5-1 FPS - choppy) video quality. About the connection: the router, the laptop and the chromecast are within 3 feets on a router with 802.11n.
Do You have any suggestions, what I have to do to be able to cast with audio?