Just take my money: Google Chromecast

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Smpl Mnmlst
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#989392 18-Feb-2014 06:37

Google has recently released a SDK for general use so hopefully there will soon be a big increase in the number of apps that work with Chromecast - which is what CC has been crying out for since day one.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

watsonash

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#1003145 12-Mar-2014 09:26

hi, looking for help with my Chromecast and Netflix.
I'm using Vodafone ADSL.
I use UnoTelly as my DNS provider.
I'm using an inline virtual router (pfsense) to be able to use my original Vodafone HG556a with its ATA port connected to 2talk. I configure DNS forwarder on pfsense, to be able to selectively push just the Netflix and iplayer domains over to UnoTelly DNS - the others get handled by the local DNS server.
When I view Netflix content on Windows 7 MediaCentre PC (uses Silverlight), Netflix quality/reliability is great - no picture drop offs etc. Problem here that Windows 7 Media Centre isn't a premium device so I can't get 1080p/5.1 sound out of Netflix.

When I create a pfsense rule to block all public DNS traffic to the Chromecast (ie. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and OpenDNS), then the Chromecast kicks into life and I can watch Netflix - but I see a lot of buffering (several times every few minutes). Even though pfsense supports destination NAT, in my case the pfsense virtual machine is downstream from my ADSL router, so destination NAT doesn't work as expected as the traffic traverses through the HG556a.

I believe I can flash DD-WRT on the HG556a, but then I loose the ATA functionality on the HG556a - which means I'd need another ATA device like the Linksys.
With DD-WRT I can manipulate iptables, but as pfsense seems to be based on freebsd rather than linux, I don't have access to iptables under pfsense.

Before I go down the DD-WRT route, can anyone with a Chromecast using Vodafone as an ISP confirm that the Chromecast works reliably for Netflix? If so were you able to do it by blocking the public DNS and allowing the Chromecast to fall back to the UnoTelly router DNS, or did you do it using iptables, or other?
I am not sure how to rule out wifi congestion (I have 2 APs with the same SSID - one set to channel 1, the other set to channel 11 to avoid overlap but they are in earshot of each other). However, streaming through youtube seems to be solid.
I do see less issues with Netflix on Chromecast during the day (presumably when Vodafone bandwidth is more consistent).

Ironically on the stock HG556a, I can telnet into the router and issue the iptables commands, but these are lost after a modem reset/reboot.
<pre>
iptables -I PREROUTING -t nat -p udp -d 8.8.4.4 --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination [UnoDns server]
iptables -I PREROUTING -t nat -p udp -d 8.8.8.8 --dport 53 -j DNAT --to-destination [UnoDns server]
</pre>

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

The Chromecast itself showed so much promise, but at the moment I'm finding by far the best Netflix in NZ experience (on Vodafone ADSL atleast) is to do it through Win7 MediaCentre and just use the tablet Netflix app to work out the Netflix program to watch and then select that via a keyboard to the Netflix MCE app.
I'm close to chucking it all in the bin and getting the VHS out of the shed ;-)

kyonz

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#1004536 12-Mar-2014 20:18

@watsonash

I've read that on Vodafone you will have lots of issues unless you have a static IP with them - from what I've read they use transparent proxies which can cause you a huge headache.

Perhaps you should look at requesting a static ip? (I'm not sure what the process is for that)

They are actually on the Unlocator list of ISPs that aren't compatible.

https://support.unlocator.com/customer/portal/articles/1248043-list-of-internet-providers-that-do-not-work-with-unlocator

watsonash

91 posts

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#1004574 12-Mar-2014 21:31

thanks @kyonz, from what I believe it's only Vodafone cable that has an inline transparent proxy - the ADSL/VDSL service is supposedly unaffected.. but I will make a call with Vodafone to confirm.
Incidentally, I've been running some more tests and I believe I have made some progress which are quite interesting;
1. WIFI. I have 2xAPs - one of them (which is the one where the chromecast was attached to which was a Tenda) had channel bandwidth set to 20/40 so the extension channel was set to channel 5. I changed the channel bandwidth to only use 20. I have 3xneighbours wifi points that give a low signal but are visible from that AP. Once I had set the bandwidth down to 20 only, the Chromecast sprung into life and streaming doesn't drop out! The other significant thing is that it appears to be the end of the Vodafone billing month - I wonder if every one switches their torrents/downloads to max just before the end of the month to use any spare capacity and perhaps this could explain why the drop offs get worse towards the end of the billing month, even though I am well within my cap. Just a theory though.

2. After researching a little more, it appears pfsense doesn't do DNS masquerading in the way I need to so I'm going to swing my virtual router to use vyatta (which I have used with great success on unrelated commercial deployments). Vyatta supports iptables/dnsmasq/openvpn/ddns and a few other features I require (but only runs on x86). This should give me the control over the public DNS I need via a VM. Once I get my configuration perfected, I'll try and do a little write up on geekzone to help anyone else battling with the same sort of issues.

This little Chromecast has given me more headaches than any other part of my HTPC - if Google had just stuck a 100Mb/s wired connection on the thing for a couple of dollars extra it would make things so much easier! Anyone who releases a wifi only product and expects every man and his dog to be able to easily get HD 5.1 quality streaming out of it clearly has a screw loose! The content locking via hardcoded DNS goes against everything in software/hardware development - especially open source - and it also contradicts the way things like Win7 MCE plugin/Android Netflix App works (which don't have that requirement)

richms

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#1004575 12-Mar-2014 21:34

Wifi has been my biggest gripe with the chromecast. No 50Hz on youtube is my second problem.

Also I paid for the plex sub thing to try that, but its never worked right so gave up on that. Something that isnt plex would be good if it would send mkv's to the chromecast without making the server try to transcode it.

Richard rich.ms

dontpanic42

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#1004632 12-Mar-2014 22:45

richms: Something that isnt plex would be good if it would send mkv's to the chromecast without making the server try to transcode it.

I've been using the AllCast media server casting (from Android) to the Chromecast and it seems to work OK.
It's not entirely flawless with frame rates and playback, but the feature has only very recently been implemented; and it could also be my WiFi limiting performance.

I can't remember exactly, but I think you may need to pay for the Premium version (US$4.99 or something, once off purchase) for the media server streaming to work.

freitasm

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#1004659 13-Mar-2014 07:33

kyonz: I've read that on Vodafone you will have lots of issues unless you have a static IP with them - from what I've read they use transparent proxies which can cause you a huge headache.

Perhaps you should look at requesting a static ip? (I'm not sure what the process is for that)

Using a static IP won't make a difference for their proxy servers. For example ALL Vodafone cable are static, because that's a requirement for the cable network (TelstraClear HFC).

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old3eyes

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#1004675 13-Mar-2014 08:41

richms: Wifi has been my biggest gripe with the chromecast. No 50Hz on youtube is my second problem.

Also I paid for the plex sub thing to try that, but its never worked right so gave up on that. Something that isnt plex would be good if it would send mkv's to the chromecast without making the server try to transcode it.

I agree on WiFi. 50Hz. Never had any problems with that....

Regards,

Old3eyes

watsonash

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#1004678 13-Mar-2014 08:55

wahoo. After quite a lot of effort, I've been able to get the Chromecast pushed through a Vyatta Core 6.6R1 virtual router so I can tame the "beast". I can now get rock steady Chromecast Netflix streaming via Vodafone ADSL. There were some compilications like having to patch the dnsmasq handling in Vyatta 6.6 to enable more control, having to deal with a quirk of dyndns updater because the routing device is downstream from the edge router etc. I will put out full build notes of what I've done soon as it may help many people.
The style of deployment I've gone for means you keep your existing edge router and it doesn't need to support any fancy features at all as all the intelligence gets handled via the virtual router.
phew. that really was much harder than I thought, but I am now happy I don't have to throw the Chromecast in the bin!

richms

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#1004762 13-Mar-2014 11:08

old3eyes:
richms: Wifi has been my biggest gripe with the chromecast. No 50Hz on youtube is my second problem.

Also I paid for the plex sub thing to try that, but its never worked right so gave up on that. Something that isnt plex would be good if it would send mkv's to the chromecast without making the server try to transcode it.

I agree on WiFi. 50Hz. Never had any problems with that....

Go and watch some topgear youtube clips and see why it is needed. Without proper motion based frame rate conversion (which a $35 dongle will never have) it is just doubling up frames occasionally to make 25 into 30 so any of their loverly smooth panning shots etc become jumpy mess.

Mind you even the 24fps 3:2 pulldown seems to have issues on the chromecast, I suspect they have just stuck an android device in a dongle form rather than designing it from the ground up to be a video player. Samsung blueray player with plex on it is way better for video quality than the chromecast

Richard rich.ms

watsonash

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#1006691 16-Mar-2014 12:57

watsonash: wahoo. After quite a lot of effort, I've been able to get the Chromecast pushed through a Vyatta Core 6.6R1 virtual router so I can tame the "beast". I can now get rock steady Chromecast Netflix streaming via Vodafone ADSL. There were some compilications like having to patch the dnsmasq handling in Vyatta 6.6 to enable more control, having to deal with a quirk of dyndns updater because the routing device is downstream from the edge router etc. I will put out full build notes of what I've done soon as it may help many people.
The style of deployment I've gone for means you keep your existing edge router and it doesn't need to support any fancy features at all as all the intelligence gets handled via the virtual router.
phew. that really was much harder than I thought, but I am now happy I don't have to throw the Chromecast in the bin!

had some stuttering issues last night... suddenly realised I've been using a Genius Luxmate 810 WIFI keyboard and saw it has always been running on the 2.4Ghz frequency (same as the Chromecast). This morning I went out and bought a USB extender cable for all of $2 so I can position the keyboard WIFI dongle to the front of my Media Centre rather than the back (Chromecast is plugged into back of AVR into one of the inputs, and access point at back of receiver as well). Now there doesn't seem to be any interference and Netflix stream stable at HD. Can't believe some of the many issues I had could be simply related to this! Give me a wired connection any day of the week! I'll monitor the situation in the evenings in-case there are additional bandwidth issues from the ISP during peak times.

watsonash

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#1007286 17-Mar-2014 13:49

ok.. interesting observaiton here... at around 20:00 on Sunday night, I was tyring to watch a film on Netflix using the Chromecast.. the movie started playing fine for around 2 minutes, then started buffering and again played for a minute or two and then buffered. As soon as I went to my Media Centre and played the same content via the Netflix Media Centre plugin to Windows 7, everything worked fine and the stream was rock solid.
When I later went back to the Chromecast the playback was perfect...
So this leads me to believe that Silverlight playback (via the media centre PC) is much more reliable than the Chromecast HTML5 based streaming. I can only assume that my issue with the Chromecast is not so much with ISP bandwidth but something else.
Has anyone else had this same sort of experience? Everything is telling me this is somehow wifi related even though I don't see any issues.
The Chromecast appears to be a real pain and is very hit and miss in its current form.

freitasm

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#1007290 17-Mar-2014 13:52

I actually used my Chromecast 0 minutes in the last couple of months. Still better off using my Windows 7 Media Centre (which I have just upgraded last week to a BRIX, replacing the old Dell Zino HD).

watsonash

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#1007746 17-Mar-2014 23:28

nice small form factor case but a little pricey and restrictive - where would you stick the TBS6985?
The only problem I have with Windows 7 is that the Netflix MCE plugin doesn't support 5.1 by design.
I think I've resolved the issue. With the Vyatta configuration I had, I was redirecting the primary and secondary Google DNS of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to UnoTelly. What I read was that a change was made quite recently to the way Netflix load balances across multiple CDNs so in the case of the Chromecast specifically, you also need to redirect the Level3 and OpenDNS servers as well, ie; 209.244.0.3, 209.244.0.4 and 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220. Once I had added the 6 DNS redirections to point them to UnoTelly in the DNSMasq settings, the Chromecast reliably starts working! at flippin last! HD and 5.1 sound coming through nicely!
I think in my case, because I only pointed the first two to UnoTelly, every few minutes the Chromecast would attempt to test the performance of the other DNS servers and then see they were not US based (as I didn't have a redirection for them) and this then causes the Netflix stream to break. Now I have a tight and precise config, I'll be documenting my setup in-case it helps anyone else. What a mission!
I have to strongly agree with many other posters, that in some respects the Chromecast is a pointless device as the functionality should also be additional provided as software installable on any platform for people running HTPCs.
Despite a now fully working Chromecast/Netflix setup, Netflix quality is no match for a DTS-Master sound track on a well mastered blu-ray and the content down our local "video store" is probably 100 times greater than the entire Netflix catalog - and I find watching a blu-ray doesn't drive me to drink in quite the same way the Chromecast does!

freitasm

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#1007747 17-Mar-2014 23:31

I use a HDHomeRun, don't need space for a tuner inside the HTPC ;-)

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