Quality of Google Chromecast vs. Nvidis Shield.

by StraightOuttaMypos

Bought an Nvidia Shield the other day thinking I would utilize it's gaming capabilities. Turns out, I only end up watching purchased movies from Google Play and YouTube. Figured I would downgrade to a Google Chromecast.

My question is, will the quality of my purchased movies from Google be the same? Only reason I ask is because when I cast from my phone to the Shield, my HD purchased movies are noticeably worse. I'm assuming this is because it's my phone playing the content, not the Shield doing the heavy lifting. Does Google Chromecast use the same method?

vectorzulu

I'm assuming this is because it's my phone playing the content, not the Shield doing the heavy lifting.

Not really. It's the same thing as chromecast, the phone sends over a URL and the device plays the content from the URL.

I don't know why the quality is worse, but did you try playing the same movies directly from the apps on your Shield?

KagitinganSt

The only thing I can think off that could explain why it's looks worse is the wifi antenna on the Chromecast could be not as good as the Shield

traCkready

The phone does nothing when casting, that's the point. All casting does is point the device to the desired stream. There should no difference between casting and the internal application.

The SHIELD will be potentially faster to buffer up to full quality and have an easier time maintaining it compared to a chromecast. Also, general load time and responsivness will be better with the SHIELD. Let's also not forget 4k which is not an option with the chromecast. If you don't have a UHD set obviously this will be of littler concern.

ISaidGoodDey

How are you casting your movies to the shield? The heavy lifting should not be done on your phone

kyjelly68

don't have a shield but I have a nexus player and a chromecast (about to be donated to my mom)

the major thing I noticed is the speed of the casting is much faster on the nexus player relative to the chromecast (takes about 10s from start to finish on the chromecast and like 2s on the nexus player). could be worth the extra upgrade for some people I suppose but it was the apps I could install like kodi,having Google voice search on the remote and not needing a phone (my wife isn't as techy) to play content that makes it worthwhile

RedPandaAlex

Are you casting from inside the app or are you casting at the system level, where it casts whatever is on your screen? If you cast from inside the app, it should be the same quality whether you cast or not.

JimboLodisC

Google Cast is Google Cast. Works the same on Chromecasts and Android TV. If you can go hard-wired, do it. Google has an ethernet adapter that works for either Chromecast. (but not the NP, you have to grab a microUSB adapter for that)

Also, try accessing your movies through youtube.com/purchases and casting there. It might not make a difference if it's accessing from the same server/source but it's a different app so maybe that would make a small difference. (like maybe the Cast helper app that the Chromecast downloads for YouTube videos works better than the Play Movies helper app?)