BT Sport App - Chromecast w/ Google TV unable to offer 4K

[xadolak472]

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone might be able to me fix a problem I am having with the BT Sport app on my Chromecast w/ Google TV.

We have been able to stream in 4K the whole of last season using our current TV, but now were are getting a red cross in the 4K Device section of the device checker with the explanation: "Unfortunately we're unable to offer 4K on this device, due to technical limitations".

The TV that the Chromecast is plugged into is a 4K LG model, and I've tried plugging it in to another Sony 4K capable TV and we get the same error. On the native BT Sport Android app on the Sony TV, this error does not appear.

Hoping that someone might know a fix!

Thanks.

[DarrenDev]

Our contracts have required that we add content protection on all our channels this year - this adds extra work on to all devices to decrypt the video.

The Chromecast with Google TV should be capable of handling 4K video with encryption, however a bug was discovered with it last month - it's unable to keep up, so the video is really jumpy.

Google are currently investigating, and will get a fix out as soon as they can.  In the meantime, we've had to restrict the Ultimate video on that device to 2K (1440p).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[xadolak472]

That's really useful to know Darren, thank you for the speedy reply - will there be anywhere that I can check to see if/when a solution to the problem is found?

Hoping that I can ask you a couple more questions if that is possible.

1. On the device checker, if there is a red cross on the Connection section for 4K, but not for HDR - does that mean you're not able to stream in 4K, and will it just be HDR? Is there a way to check while watching which is which?

2. On my Sony Bravia w/ Android TV for some reason I'm unable to change the Motion Flow settings for the BT Sport app - YouTube, VLC, and other apps I'm able to change these settings, but on BT Sport they are greyed out.

It seems as though Android TV doesn't recognise the BT Sport App as a 'Video' app, as other apps in this category have picture settings saved in a 'Video App' profile. Do you have any idea why these features are locked on the BT Sport App? It would be great to be able to alter the Motion Flow to get a smoother picture.

Thanks!

[DarrenDev]

I'll try to remember to update here when the fix is available.  Devices will automatically update with the fix anyway.

1. The device checker is only used for your info - the answers shown there don't control the actual behaviour of the app. If it says your connection is too slow for a particular stream, it's just an indication that it's probably not going to play that stream to the best possible quality (every stream is provided at a number of quality levels, which your device will automatically switch between based on available bandwidth).  As long as your device display is capable of 4K and HDR, then it'll play the "up to" 4K HDR stream (when available) - it just might not reach 4K quality.

2. I'm intrigued by that one. I'll see if I can find out more information from Google.  Android 12 will soon be coming to Android/Google TVs which will give the BT Sport app more control over the display, so it'll automatically put it into a display mode that best suits our content - the lack of this feature is one of the first bugs I raised with Google when we launched on Google TV.