VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

[echopulse]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

I've been waiting for Vudu to use adaptive streaming. It should make buffering less of an issue. About when did you start encoding streams with adaptive bitrates?

[jjohns]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

Given you say it's only on older titles in HDX, this is likely the issue:

While the streaming is "adaptive" (adjusts to available bandwidth) some of our older streams only have 1080p bitrates, approx 3-4.5Mbps up to 9Mbps. Our newer streams also have 480p & 720p bitrates to seamlessly go down to 1Mbps.

The original Chromecast's wifi & CPU isn't particularly great, and so it can be spotty streaming high bitrate 1080p unless the wifi has a strong connection to the router. On the newer content that will not be very noticeable as when the B/W drops the bitrate will go down to 1Mbps - but on older content you may buffer and need to switch manually to HD/SD quality.

We are converting the rest of our content to be adaptive down to lower bitrates, but it's not all there yet. In the meantime, of course, if the Chromecast can't reliably stream HDX you can switch to SD manually...

Thanks Jake.

Agreed about the original Chromecast's wifi & CPU. However, I'm using the newest Chromecast on a 5 Ghz 802.11ac network. Considering the issue doesn't happen when streaming in HDX to my phones and tablets on that same network, I'm rather doubting it's network related. Plus, the Chromecast wasn't having issues playing HDX titles prior to the release of the redesigned Android app.

Additionally, I believe nimmzwei is having the same problems on an Nvidia Shield TV, so it's not specific to the Chromecast hardware.

But, you could very well be right that it's something about the non-adaptive HDX streams that isn't playing nicely when Cast. Fingers crossed that they'll work better once converted.

As you say, in the meantime manually changing stream quality is a viable work-around.

[Jake]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

Given you say it's only on older titles in HDX, this is likely the issue:

While the streaming is "adaptive" (adjusts to available bandwidth) some of our older streams only have 1080p bitrates, approx 3-4.5Mbps up to 9Mbps. Our newer streams also have 480p & 720p bitrates to seamlessly go down to 1Mbps.

The original Chromecast's wifi & CPU isn't particularly great, and so it can be spotty streaming high bitrate 1080p unless the wifi has a strong connection to the router. On the newer content that will not be very noticeable as when the B/W drops the bitrate will go down to 1Mbps - but on older content you may buffer and need to switch manually to HD/SD quality.

We are converting the rest of our content to be adaptive down to lower bitrates, but it's not all there yet. In the meantime, of course, if the Chromecast can't reliably stream HDX you can switch to SD manually...

[rafael.torres]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

@rafael: Yeah, I'm well aware of how casting works. If you'd actually read the whole thread, you'd know, that the issue has nothing to do with buffering / network performance...

The new version of the android app is a blessing, allowing to change the stream to HD. The interrupt-issue is gone. BUT:

When I stream in HD and pause then un-pause, the VUDU-app on the Chromecast force-closes after a few more minutes of playback. I still have to verify if this is a new issue or how it is related to the movie streamed or the streaming quality.

@nimmzwei: Thanks for reporting it. Let me know if you figure out anymore information. I've opened an internal bug to investigate this particular crash issue. We will try to reproduce it and hopefully provide a fix (no guarantees on date).

Every time that the app crashes (apologies in advance for that), do you mind clicking on the "report" button? By doing that, we receive a crash report that help us investigate the issue.

EDIT: Fixing grammar

[nimmzwei]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

@rafael: Yeah, I'm well aware of how casting works. If you'd actually read the whole thread, you'd know, that the issue has nothing to do with buffering / network performance...

The new version of the android app is a blessing, allowing to change the stream to HD. The interrupt-issue is gone. BUT:

When I stream in HD and pause then un-pause, the VUDU-app on the Chromecast force-closes after a few more minutes of playback. I still have to verify if this is a new issue or how it is related to the movie streamed or the streaming quality.

[jjohns]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

This how chomecast architecture works ( concerning all apps, not only VUDU):

- Sender: This part is responsible to find available Chromecast devices on the same network and send commands to it when connection is stabilized. This is in general implemented by an app ( Android, IOS, Web and etc )

-Receiver: This part runs on the Chromecast device itself and is responsible for streaming the content DIRECTLY from the server. Notice that the sender has no role in playing content.

Once the receiver gets the "streaming command", the sender job is done.This buffering issue that is reported here is related to the receiver app and not the sender app, this is why you will experience it independently of the sender.

The buffering is most likely related to "quality" of the connection between your Chromecast device and the server that is providing the content. So, this issue will most likely be related to geographic physical location of the Chromecast device and the server. That being said, I do recommend opening a ticket for each case, so we can further debug it case by case.

Yes, I'm aware of all of that.

But, this doesn't appear to be a buffering issue, in the traditional sense. When content buffers on the Chromecast, I see the spinning wheel and the quality and progress bar display on the bottom of the screen and if it's persistently buffering then it automatically switches to a lower quality stream.

The issue that some of us are seeing is different in that ONLY the spinning wheel appears and the quality does not automatically change. The stream just keeps doing it at regular intervals and never changes from HDX. Also, when the content starts playing again, it skips ahead several seconds and this does not happen when it's normal buffering.

The issue does not occur for newer HDX titles, only older ones. Also, I don't have buffering issues when streaming HDX content from other devices on the same network; just the Chromecast.

EDIT:

Meant to add, thanks for the info anyway. I appreciate your chiming in.

I believe nimmzwei already opened a ticket on this issue.

Now that we can manually change the stream quality as a work-around, it's not a huge issue for me. It would be nice if this problem could get fixed, but I'm happy that I can stream older titles again by manually switching to HD.

[rafael.torres]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

This how chomecast architecture works ( concerning all apps, not only VUDU):

- Sender: This part is responsible to find available Chromecast devices on the same network and send commands to it when connection is stabilized. This is in general implemented by an app ( Android, IOS, Web and etc )

-Receiver: This part runs on the Chromecast device itself and is responsible for streaming the content DIRECTLY from the server. Notice that the sender has no role in playing content.

Once the receiver gets the "streaming command", the sender job is done.This buffering issue that is reported here is related to the receiver app and not the sender app, this is why you will experience it independently of the sender.

The buffering is most likely related to "quality" of the connection between your Chromecast device and the server that is providing the content. So, this issue will most likely be related to geographic physical location of the Chromecast device and the server. That being said, I do recommend opening a ticket for each case, so we can further debug it case by case.

[jjohns]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

I just installed the new version of the Android app...

The HDX playback issues on Chromecast for older titles still exist, but I'm glad to see we now have the ability to change stream quality! HD playback is working nicely.

Thanks VUDU!

[nimmzwei]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

I couldn't resist the $14.99 offer on the latest "Terminator" and watched it yesterday. New release = flawless streaming on Chromecast in HDX... do the theory still holds.

I think, that the issues with casting OLDER releases on Chromecast and the issues with casting NEW releases to the NVIDIA Shield are somehow related - both show A/V-sync problems.

@ticket. Thanks for the reminder. Done!

[jjohns]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

The casting problems with older release still exist. I tried to cast "Jaws" yesterday and had interruptions every 2 min. or so.

@VUDU support: Is this registered as an actual problem? Are you looking into it?

FWIW, this casting issue appears to affect the iOS app also. I just tried casting an older movie with my iPad and experienced the same frequent interruptions and skipping ahead a few seconds on resume. The problem went away after changing the stream quality to HD instead of HDX. The Android app really needs the ability to change stream quality when casting...

[MaxH]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

@VUDU support: Is this registered as an actual problem?

Have you filed a ticket?

[nimmzwei]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

The casting problems with older release still exist. I tried to cast "Jaws" yesterday and had interruptions every 2 min. or so.

@VUDU support: Is this registered as an actual problem? Are you looking into it?

[Banetbc]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

While most of this thread has been troubleshooting, I would like to add my voice to requesting a native Android TV app(Nexus Player in particular). It would be nice to have this application directly on the Nexus Player instead of having to worry about potential casting issues (although I'd be fine with the casting working 100% as well).

[nimmzwei]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

Thanks jjohns for testing! I'll give Big Hero 6 a go today and tell you what I find.

[jjohns]

Re: VUDU on Android-TV and casting problems with new app / Marshmallow

Interesting. You may be on to something there!

So far, the only title I had found that streamed smoothly (excluding SD titles, which seem ok) was You Don't Mess With The Zohan (Unrated), which only recently got released in HDX.

I'm testing Inside Out right now and will try Jurassic World afterwards, to see if they play smoothly for me too. I've yet to see any interruptions yet on Inside Out, so looking good!

After that, I'll test some other movies to try and find the most recent release in my collection that exhibits the problem.

Inside Out streamed all the way through for me without interruptions.

I'm still testing, but here's what I've found so far:

The oldest release in my collection that streams smoothly would appear to be the theatrical release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I streamed the first 15 minutes of it and saw no interruptions.

The next oldest movies in my collection are The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part 1) and Big Hero 6. Both of those movies experienced interruptions within minutes of starting the stream.