What's with Android and "casting"?

[ian87w]

I've been annoyed with the way Android handles its wireless mirroring/projection, namely compatibility.
1. I just learned that there are two standards. Google's own "Chromecast" and Miracast. And although many devices support both, they're different (I think). For example, my Honor phone apparently can support both, and so does my smart Android TV. But they are set differently.
2. Neither of them are reliable. The only thing that's reliable is if I'm casting youtube, since the smart Android TV has its own Youtube app, so it's simply passing the link and the TV does its own streaming. If I tried streaming from various websites, many won't work despite the phone can negotiate the casting. The TV will briefly appeared as if it's negotiating the casting, but it will drop to the home screen right after. As if there are some formats that won't work? How would a consumer know?
3. Mirroring is worse for quality as it's the phone streaming everything to the TV, but sometimes that's the only way for videos that are not supported with regular casting (problem 2). Google mirroring seems okay despite Google Home app putting warnings that my device is not compatible/optimized. Miracast will just not work at all.

Any tips and hints? Or is it just the way "casting" is? I mean I'm quite techy enough to willingly deal with these connectivity issues, but I'm guessing the typical person would just give up.

 

[AustinIllini]

Nothing is uniform in Android, which is one of the problems. That being said, both standards are better than AirPlay, which is still a dumpster fire.

 

[Awesomesince86]

Its the same issue with anything thats supposed to work outside of one companies control. Casting works great within Android's own suite of apps and hardware. Its when you are trying to cast to 3rd party apps or to TVs with chromecast support that you run into issues. Google makes the API and code available but how these 3rd parties implement them is out of Googles control.

Its the same type of thing that makes Android great and also more unreliable at the same time. Apple likes to keep control of these types of things and not lend them out to 3rd parties to spread compatibility. By keeping that within their garden they can control all aspects and therefore it works more reliably. But then when you step outside of Apples own apps you are out of luck. Google takes the opposite approach and makes things more widely available but by doing so they lose some quality control over things. Its a tradeoff.

 

[hallux]

Android dropped support for Miracast several years ago. Any manufacturer that has it has added it back in. Chromecast is the protocol Google pushes for casting.

Samsung also has its own protocol but you need to have a Samsung mobile device and TV for it to work.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I think casting is pretty nifty. Yes Apple have airplay but it only works between Apple devices and they are expensive.

I have a chromecast connected to one of my TVs, a kindle fire with the google play store side loaded and a Google nest hub. I paid £120 for all three devices and I can cast freely between them. I can even control my chromecast with my google home devices.

I paid a lot more for my iPads, Apple TV and homepods and they have less functionality.

 

[tbayrgs]

Nothing is uniform in Android, which is one of the problems. That being said, both standards are better than AirPlay, which is still a dumpster fire.

I’ll agree in regards to AirPlay 1 but I’ve had nothing but excellent performance with AirPlay 2. That being said, AirPlay has fewer compatible devices, though it’s been branching out (numerous TV set adding it and I believe Sonos has it too). And of course only Apple devices can serve as the casting source.

 

[ian87w]

Android dropped support for Miracast several years ago. Any manufacturer that has it has added it back in. Chromecast is the protocol Google pushes for casting.

Samsung also has its own protocol but you need to have a Samsung mobile device and TV for it to work.

Didn't know that. So Miracast ends up depending on how each OEM implemented it.

Here's what gets me. All of these, chromecast, Miracast, etc, are supposed to be standardized, right? And yet even Chromecast can fail, in which I assume it doesn't even check whether the codec being used are compatible.

It's ridiculously confusing. I guess if one only casting YouTube or Netflix, there won't be a problem. But trying to cast videos from Chrome is a crapshoot.

 

[hallux]

It's ridiculously confusing. I guess if one only casting YouTube or Netflix, there won't be a problem. But trying to cast videos from Chrome is a crapshoot.

I'll have to try when I'm done working but I think I can cast a tab, regardless of what's on it.

 

[ian87w]

I'll have to try when I'm done working but I think I can cast a tab, regardless of what's on it.

Not casting a tab/mirroring, I meant casting a streaming video embedded on a website. Majority of them will show the cast icon during playback, and I can cast some of them properly. But then the other half won't cast at all. My TV will seem like it's negotiating the link, but then it simply go back to the main screen.

 

[sracer]

I've been annoyed with the way Android handles its wireless mirroring/projection, namely compatibility.
1. I just learned that there are two standards. Google's own "Chromecast" and Miracast. And although many devices support both, they're different (I think). For example, my Honor phone apparently can support both, and so does my smart Android TV. But they are set differently.
2. Neither of them are reliable. The only thing that's reliable is if I'm casting youtube, since the smart Android TV has its own Youtube app, so it's simply passing the link and the TV does its own streaming. If I tried streaming from various websites, many won't work despite the phone can negotiate the casting. The TV will briefly appeared as if it's negotiating the casting, but it will drop to the home screen right after. As if there are some formats that won't work? How would a consumer know?
3. Mirroring is worse for quality as it's the phone streaming everything to the TV, but sometimes that's the only way for videos that are not supported with regular casting (problem 2). Google mirroring seems okay despite Google Home app putting warnings that my device is not compatible/optimized. Miracast will just not work at all.

Any tips and hints? Or is it just the way "casting" is? I mean I'm quite techy enough to willingly deal with these connectivity issues, but I'm guessing the typical person would just give up.

In my experiences, the "smart" part of smart TVs is not very reliable. I never have gotten any of my smart TVs (Android-based or proprietary) to reliably support chromecasting. (as others have mentioned, miracast is an obsolete standard)

Although I have a smart TV, I do all of my chromecasting through a chromecast dongle. Just the basic model. Casting from any device that supports it has been rock-solid. Even devices that don't support chromecasting, like Amazon's Fire tablets, are able to cast (once Google services were installed on it).

 

[Stevie jobz 2.0]

Didn't know that. So Miracast ends up depending on how each OEM implemented it.

Here's what gets me. All of these, chromecast, Miracast, etc, are supposed to be standardized, right? And yet even Chromecast can fail, in which I assume it doesn't even check whether the codec being used are compatible.

It's ridiculously confusing. I guess if one only casting YouTube or Netflix, there won't be a problem. But trying to cast videos from Chrome is a crapshoot.

Not really, if the app in question has the chrome cast icon, it casts seamlessly to your TV. If it doesn't, you go into the Google home app, cast Screen and have a mirror image. Boom!!

Just depends on the app in question, but more and more have chromecast built in....

 

[ian87w]

Not really, if the app in question has the chrome cast icon, it casts seamlessly to your TV. If it doesn't, you go into the Google home app, cast Screen and have a mirror image. Boom!!

Just depends on the app in question, but more and more have chromecast built in....

That's the thing. It doesn't. Apparently it depends on the codec being used on the video, and some would simply not work. The worse part is, there's no hint/feedback for the user. When it doesn't work, the smart TV simply goes back to home screen. As a "techie," I can deal with it, but I can imagine a lay person being totally confused.

 

[Stevie jobz 2.0]

That's the thing. It doesn't. Apparently it depends on the codec being used on the video, and some would simply not work. The worse part is, there's no hint/feedback for the user. When it doesn't work, the smart TV simply goes back to home screen. As a "techie," I can deal with it, but I can imagine a lay person being totally confused.

Maybe I've been lucky that 100% of the apps I've casted via the chrome cast app. Have worked.. Yay me!!!!??

 

[ian87w]

Maybe I've been lucky that 100% of the apps I've casted via the chrome cast app. Have worked.. Yay me!!!!??

You know what, I'm not going to argue with you. So let's agree to disagree about this. Cheers.