Chromecast 3RD Gen - 1080p50

[Popeye13_Official]

A quick question - Will the Chromecast 3rd Gen stream BT SPORT @ 1080p50 or does it cap out at 25fps like the 2nd gen?

Many thanks

[DarrenDev]

None of the devices are capped at 25fps @Popeye13_Official - non-Ultra devices are capped at 720p50.  The 3rd gen Chromecast is supposedly capable of 1080p50, but this isn't currently enabled.

Ultra devices have no cap, so will go up to 2160p50 if the subscription and bandwidth allow.

[Popeye13_Official]

Many thanks for your reply.

Im better off with either an CC-Ultra really then, so atleast will get full HD and 50FPS.

[DarrenDev · Accepted solution]

Definitely better with an Ultra, or if you could stretch that little further you'd get the absolute best experience from the new Chromecast with Google TV

[Popeye13_Official]

Many thanks for your advice. I went for the CC-Ultra because of existing compatibility with many more apps such as iPlayer and NowTV ect. I'll be leaving Sky soon and i want the best possible OTT experience i can find and for me, FPS matter, meaning i'll be able to get Sky Sports and BT Sport in the best possible FHD quality outside satellite.

Much obliged mate

[DarrenDev]

The new Google Chromecast with Google TV still has Chromecast Ultra built into it as a fallback, but no problem - you're still (hopefully) going to get a great experience!

[Mallett94]

@DarrenDev How come you have said that 3rd Gen CC is disabled for 1080p50 for BT Sport app? I have certainly achieved this before. However, it always took a while for the BT Sport app buffering in when casting to the 3rd gen CC to get up to the 50fps.

I found that it was much better and instantaneous to actually cast the bt sport online player tab from google chrome on a computer to the 3rd gen CC, then go into 'large screen' when casting the tab which when in 'Optimised' mode would then send the full BT Sport online player stream URL to the CC 3rd gen which would then go straight to 1080p50.

@Popeye13_Officical I agree with Darren definitely get the new Chromecast with Google TV if you can, its basically the same price as the old Ultra? It is a chromecast ultra in itself but also has ful android tv built in as well with actual UKTV catch up apps, BT Sport etc built in as native apps on the CC device itself which you can use with a remote, rather than having to cast from a smartphone or tablet.

Note that for now, NowTV still needs to be 'casted' to the new CC, but this is the same for the Ultra as well. They both have the bandwith to support full bandwith for the NowTV Boost pass with sports as well.

[DarrenDev]

It genuinely shouldn't be possible for the CC 3rd gen to reach 1080p50 - I wrote the code to prevent it, as the Google Cast Receiver code wasn't clever enough to know old devices didn't support it and would instead crash out of the stream.  It's the only Chromecast device I don't have in my collection to test though.

If it is working, then it would also report that it's capable of running BT Sport Ultimate ... which should definitely fail as the codec being used isn't supported by that device.

I'm also amazed that the web player worked OK when casting the tab, but it's not something I've ever tried.

[Mallett94]

Tbf, I haven't used my CC Gen 3 for casting the BT Sport Android app for probably nearly a year. I guess what could have happened when casting the app is that it would buffer into 1080p25 at first and then drop down to 720p50? It would certainly make sense because I always thought the quality looked better casting the online web player tab in full screen optimised mode looked incredible. Yeah Darren you should try it out!

I now rotate between using BT Sport app on AppleTV4K, CC Ultra and native Android TV app on my XF9005.