You seem to be a die-hard Chromecast follower like I was a few months ago when their devices did work correctly. I am reporting supporting statements based on real issues experienced by me with the Chromecast after recent changes made to its functionality. They were all working reliably about a month back.
I have been a Chromecast power-user since its introduction and have total 6 devices from different generations on different HDTV's. It cannot be possible that all devices started demonstrating the same degraded functionality at the same time.
Network is ATT fiber at 300 MBPS and devices have great signal which is within 10 feet line of sight. All Chromecast devices, TV and cellphone has been rebooted. It actually plays well when it works, but is very erratic and unreliable in its behavior as mentioned in my original post.
At certain intervals the devices auto update it's firmware and the software is also updated to add and remove functionality. I presume in one such upgrade the way the Chromecast can be managed from an Android cellphone has changed and good working functions have been removed such as audio control. Casting to device works momentarily, then in a matter of few minutes the device disconnects from the cellphone. Sometimes stops playing videos mid-steam.
Chromecast now behaves just what I would expect from a poorly designed and operating product. Sad part is this is not how it was only a few months ago. Hence asking if its time to move to the competition if Google has no interest in fixing the user reported problems?
