Chromecast on Atom not working

Posted by: Coral on 18 November 2018

Dear all,

I am a new owner of Atom and was wondering what is your experience with Chromecast and if you are having some issues with it. Atom is working great when I connect it to my server and it plays flawlessly. However, when I try to cast Deezer from my Samsung phone, it tries to connect to Chromecast on Atom but does not manage to connect. I see on display of my Atom that Atom is switched into Chormecast mode but nothing more. I am not able to start a song on Deezer on my phone and it cannot play on Atom.

I am not using spotify as it is not available in my country and cannot be used. Soundcloud works ok but also sometimes has issues with connecting/starting to play.

Do you have similar situation and issue as well? Thanks for support

Posted on: 18 November 2018 by Alley Cat

Apart from the implementation not supporting gapless I've rarely had Chromecast issues on Atom or Nova.

In essence it does work, apologies I've never tried Deezer.

Posted on: 18 November 2018 by Coral

[@mention:71539985729025468] Thanks for feedback

Then it is my local network or router which blocks something...I just have to find out what...

Posted on: 19 November 2018 by Huge

Alley Cat posted:
Apart from the implementation not supporting gapless I've rarely had Chromecast issues on Atom or Nova.
In essence it does work, apologies I've never tried Deezer.

The gapless issue with Chromecast is caused by the way the app is written. If you have an Android 'phone or tablet, the answer is very simple...

Use Cast Screen mode (via the Google Home app or the OS itself) rather than casting from the individual app.

Posted on: 20 November 2018 by Coral

Thanks [@mention:36201736971392588], it works without interruptions now

Do you have an explanation why Casting does not work and Cast Screen is working without a problem?

thanks again

Posted on: 20 November 2018 by Coral

To follow up, I found an answer on Google forum on questio non difference between Chromecast and Screen/Audio mirroring:

"Chromecast is a cloud-based service. So, if you cast directly from a cast-ready app such as Spotify, Netflix, or Youtube, you're actually bringing the content straight from the Internet to your TV as opposed to the TV getting content from your phone. In this case, your phone is merely acting as the remote control and is not actually casting the content to your TV.

When you're using the Android Cast Screen feature, you're mirroring what you're seeing on your Android device to your TV. This is why certain settings are available when mirroring your phone and unavailable when casting directly from the app. Changing the equalizer settings (in addition to some other audio settings) are unavailable on Spotify when casting.

As for quality, casting directly from the cast-ready app will likely exhibit "better quality" compared to mirroring your content, because mirroring requires a lot more processing before reaching your Chromecast device. Hence, mirroring will cause faster battery drainage."

So basically, if I use Screen/Audio mirroring I am reducing the quality as opposed to using Casting from app on mobile phone. It would be great therefore to have casting from app working flawlessly as the Screen/Audio mirroring in Google home does.

Posted on: 20 November 2018 by Huge

Hi Coral,

In terms of quality, it's not quite that simple.

Yes connecting to Chromecast for a connected streaming service that gives direct Chromecast support has the advantages mentioned above. But on the other hand, connecting via the mobile device and relaying that across the local network allows the mobile device to buffer the incoming data stream and provide a more consistently timed feed to the Chromecast receiver, so reducing the processing and re-timing overhead of the electronics closer to the DAC.

In short it's a balance between battery life or gapless playback, and the sound quality could be better either way round depending on local circumstances.

Yes it would be good to get gapless direct form the streaming services, but that would require them to do a complex re-write of both their app and the service code on their servers that provide the data streams.

Posted on: 20 November 2018 by SimonPeterArnold

Chromecast on the Atom is a bit hit/miss and works better with some apps than others. BBC iplayer radio works great, Qobuz sucks. Gapless is possible if tha devs can be bothered which they clearly cant for the most part.

Posted on: 20 November 2018 by Alley Cat

Huge posted:
Alley Cat posted:
Apart from the implementation not supporting gapless I've rarely had Chromecast issues on Atom or Nova.
In essence it does work, apologies I've never tried Deezer.
The gapless issue with Chromecast is caused by the way the app is written. If you have an Android 'phone or tablet, the answer is very simple...
Use Cast Screen mode (via the Google Home app or the OS itself) rather than casting from the individual app.

So I need to buy an android device to confirm .....? I have no reason to doubt your observation, I hink I have an old Fire HD somewhere I may be able to try.

Posted on: 23 November 2018 by Huge

If you have programming experience you can confirm on a theoretical basis as the Chromecast API is published in the internet.

If you do a search here you can also find my description of how both of the two ways of using the Chromecast API work, and why the easy one (also read 'cheap to implement') doesn't support gapless but the more complex approach does.