Chromecast... you have such potential

[benl]

<rant>

I've been a Chromecast user since day one, and have over a dozen Chromecast audio pucks, speakers, and video devices, and have found it great when it works. But when it doesn't... oh boy it's a royal pain; especially of late I've found I have to budget at least ############ minutes at the start of any streaming session to reboot <all the things, often multiple times> before it all starts working. Ironically Youtube Music is the worst offender where very soon after starting it totally loses sync with what's actually playing on the Chromecast.

Anyway, I'm off to something else; maybe Sonos or Airplay.

[Ashepherdson]

I have to say this is not the experience I have with my Chromecast unless there is a network issue.  When I used to use the Linksys velop mesh system I had similar issues to you, as soon as we switched to the nest wifi system all issues went away.  Have you looked at your wifi setup to see if there are any pain points ?

[benl]

Appreciate the reply to my expression of frustration.

What can I say, I have a gift for finding bugs. I see these issues on every combination of three sites (i.e. totally separate Internet connections, routers and APs (both UniFi and TPLink); multiple clients (Android phones and tablets, Chromebooks, macOS) and streaming services. Today's "last straw" was a new one: a stream that plays fine locally (in the browser) but my Chromecast audio devices randomly start playing at some incorrect bit rate: https://www.abc.net.au/jazz/listen-live/player/ (or play the same stream via Android, e.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.radioapp). To quote Adrian Cronauer / Robin Williams' character in Good Morning Vietnam: "For those of you recovering from a hangover, that's gonna sound just right."
I've also been delivering bug reports and feedback to Google (extensive in some cases, e.g. incl. packet captures) for years, including via Google One (which was not useful in the slightest).

Anyways... I'm going to try and find something that works more reliably for me. Hope your good luck continues! 🙂

[Jeran]

Hey there benl,

I am really sorry to hear that your Chromecast devices are giving you so much trouble. I know I've had my fair share of issues with the devices in the past as well, as well as many harsh words when the devices act up! You mentioned that you have a knack for finding issues, and you already report them to Google, but I encourage you to keep submitting feedback to Google, so they are aware of the most common pain-points for users. However, posting on the forums also helps get the word out as well, so I do appreciate you for posting your concerns.

However, if you do decide to move on to other devices that work better for you, that's more than welcome! 

If you had any more questions or concerns, please let us know.

Best regards,

Jeran

[Jeran]

Hey there,

Did you have any more questions or need any additional help?

Thank you,
Jeran
 

[benl]

G'Day Jeran,

Thanks for following up. Nope, I don't see there's anything else that can be addressed in this forum. (Now, if you happen to be Google's Chromecast product manager, we could probably keep chatting... 🙂 )

Ta,

Ben

[Jeran]

Good afternoon benl,

No problem at all! Sadly, I am not a product manager myself, but I'll be happy to pass along your frustrations to appropriate folks. For now, I'll go ahead and lock up the thread. If you run into any more issues in the future, please feel free to make a new thread.

Thank you for helping out, Ashepherdson!

Best regards,

Jeran