BT Sport App - New Google Chromecast 4K

[DarrenDev]

Copying to this thread for visibility:

It looks like Google have pulled an absolute blinder with the update to Android 12 on the Google TV 4K device! I updated my device this morning, and it's currently playing the full 4k HDR Atmos test stream flawlessly!

I'm removing the quality limit today, but will leave the "trackdown" feature enabled - this will cause the quality to automatically drop if the device drops too many frames. The result will be that devices that haven't updated will see a slightly poorer experience for the first 10-20 seconds before settling on what they had before, whilst devices that have updated will see the best performance straight away.

[benshaw627]

Spoiler

excellent news, hopefully this lasts.

[Hdp]

Brilliant news if it resolves issues. I just did the update on my chromecast. Device checker on bt sport app still has a cross next to it for 4k. Will that be updated?

Is there a way we can test ourselves or do we need to wait for next premier league or champions league game? 

[benshaw627]

Anyone else now getting black lines down the left and right hand side, tried changing the aspect ratio on the tv to 16:9 but made no difference, only happening when streaming on the bt app

[DarrenDev]

@Hdp you were just a little ahead of me.  Check it again now and you'll see that 4K is enabled.  There's no way for you to test it until tomorrow night I'm afraid.

@benshaw627 yes, I see that too.  Google appear to have changed the native resolution of the app, causing it to drop off the bottom of the screen (so e.g. on the Settings screen, the app version and logged in username are off the bottom of the screen).  When launching the player, it makes sure that the full video is always visible, which is therefore causing black bars to appear on the left and right.  I'll need to do more digging to see if it's something we can fix (at the moment, we just tell the app to go full screen).

[DarrenDev]

OK, so black bar issue found.
The app automatically puts itself into the highest resolution available @ 50Hz when it starts.
Android 12 now declares support for "4K SMPTE" mode, which is 4096x2160. This causes the app to become taller than the TV can display, resulting in the main app being off the bottom of the screen, and the video player showing black bars on the sides.

I'm fixing it right now, and will publish to the beta track in the Play Store this afternoon. If you join the beta in the Play Store, you'll get access to the build this evening. Otherwise, I'll push it to all devices next week - it needs to go through a full test run first.

[benshaw627]

Sounds good although I have tried to find access to beta apps on the play store app on the chromecast but can not find it

[DarrenDev]

Easiest way is to open the play store in your web browser or on an Android mobile/tablet, and then join the beta from there.

[benshaw627]

Will see if i can do it later through bluestacks or just wait for the public release aa only have an iphone/ipad

[DarrenDev]

You can also join it using this link (which I think should be allowed on here): https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.bt.btsport