JohnZoidberg's Posts

Hello @GattoPazzo  When you say "no matter when it's connected straight to the modem", do you mean this issue doesn't occur in that case? If so, I would focus on the Ethernet linkage between your Chromecast and your router. I would try replacing the cable between them, trying a different port on the router, or inserting an unmanaged Ethernet switch in between them. If you can get to a point where you're sure the Ethernet connections are reliable, then you may need to start investigating the router itself. I am not familiar with that router, but if it has any QoS features, it may be worth looking at those.

Yeah, eARC can carry more than ARC (which is pretty much just toslink over HDMI). It should have enough capacity to carry the full-decoded 5.1 channel PCM. That said, I am not sure this ends up working perfectly for every TV, so it may not be a guarantee of success. But, I have my CCU plugged into my receiver, and that works quite well for me, so I don't have to worry about potential eARC compatibility issues. The receiver just needs to support multi-channel PCM coming in from the CCU over HDMI. Most receivers that support HDMI should have no trouble with that. ARC/eARC runs over HDMI as well, but it's in the reverse direction (coming from the TV), so when you connect the CCU directly to the receiver, ARC/eARC aren't in play. I haven't found any official documentation on what audio codec Stadia uses, but I have seen an analysis that claims it uses Opus, a scalable open codec that supports low latency (which is an important consideration for Stadia compared to pre-encoded content like Netflix).

Source material from Netflix (for example) is available with Dolby Digital encoding built in. So, when playing that through the CCU, it just passes it straight through to the TV, which can pass it straight through the Toslink or ARC paths. However, Stadia audio is not available in that format – it only uses open source codecs for audio. When connected to a receiver directly, the CCU will decode into multi-channel PCM to make 5.1 work. But, since neither toslink nor ARC support 5.1 channel PCM, the TV has to negotiate stereo PCM with the CCU. So, it's not "fishy" – it's a result of a number of constraints conspiring to result in sub-optimal behavior under some conditions.

You'll receive an email with a sort of coupon code for the premiere bundle. You'll use that to place your order in the Google store and go through the standard process at that point, where it will ask for your shipping address.

Just recently (November 19th), it was announced that official iOS support is coming soon: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stadia/comments/jx7n9q/stadia_update_november_19_2020/  "Public iOS Testing  - A few weeks from now, we'll be launching the first phase of iOS support via a web app. In other words, you'll be able to play Stadia games on your iOS devices for the first time. As we test performance and add more features, your feedback will help us improve the Stadia experience for everyone."

I think my CPU is even older than yours. But, I have an Nvidia 1060 that does the VP9 decoding, and it works perfectly. You could put something like an Nvidia 1030 in there for less money than a new CPU – that should be able to decode VP9 nicely.

Maybe (but don't hold your breath). The Stadia controller has something called "tandem" mode: https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/10043273?hl=en which allows another controller (including the Xbox Adaptive Controller) to be plugged in via the USB-C port. However, this does not support mouse and keyboard at this time, and it's entirely possible it never will. I personally would love to see that, but it's likely this feature was developed to enable greater accessibility for those who can't use the standard controller directly, and there just may not be enough of us who'd like to see this to justify prioritizing development of this feature. All of that said, if you want to see it, use the Feedback feature in the Stadia app to let Google know.

Hulu, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon are likely sending multi-channel audio in a Dolby Digital compressed format. Stadia (and YouTube) use an open-source audio compression format that is decompressed on the CCU into multi-channel (or stereo) PCM. It's common for TVs to negotiate a stereo PCM format in this case.

Supporting Dolby Digital would certainly be nice. However, it would bring in additional licensing costs. Instead of connecting the CCU directly to the TV, connect it to the audio device (which should have an HDMI out that can feed the TV). If needed, an HDMI switch in front of that can make more inputs available.

I believe Stadia 5.1 channel audio is uncompressed coming out of the Chromecast Ultra and that ARC can only support compressed 5.1 channel audio (eARC may be able to carry uncompressed 5.1 channel audio, but that is a newer technology than plain ARC). If you can connect the Chromecast Ultra directly to your audio system and send just the video from there to the TV, you may have more luck.

Hello @Myrdivar  If the problem doesn't exist when you use incognito mode, then that's a pretty strong indication that this is an issue with one of the extensions you are using. An adblocker, for example? Try disabling all of your extensions and then re-enable them one-by-one until you see the issue return to figure out which extension is causing the problem. If it's an adblocker, you may be able to disable it on just the stadia web site.

I do like this answer, but I would also consider starting out playing with Crayta. It has a lot of pre-canned graphical and behavioral options, but you can also dig into the Lua code and add some more customization. It would be a good introduction to game development prior to diving into something like Unity (which will be required at some point).