HTC Evo 4G LTE - Aggressive task killing with Netflix Chromecast controls?

[AaronTV]

In theory I love the functionality of the Chromecast device. However, I've come across a mildly annoying scenario a few times now when using my EVO 4G LTE as the "casting" device. Initially, there are controls on the lock screen and/or in the drop down menu for controlling playback of the current selection. However, after a few minutes of watching Netflix, my phone seems to kill the controls. This leaves me with no way to pause/stop the program I'm watching. So far, this has caused an issue when a phone call came in and I wanted to pause before answering it (I'm not certain this would work even if the controls hadn't been killed). It also popped up a couple of times when my wife needed to leave the room and I wanted to pause it first. I had to open the Netflix app back up and wait for the "now playing" banner to re-appear on the top before I could pause it.

Is anyone else experiencing this on your device? Any solutions?

 

[ay]

In theory I love the functionality of the Chromecast device. However, I've come across a mildly annoying scenario a few times now when using my EVO 4G LTE as the "casting" device. Initially, there are controls on the lock screen and/or in the drop down menu for controlling playback of the current selection. However, after a few minutes of watching Netflix, my phone seems to kill the controls. This leaves me with no way to pause/stop the program I'm watching. So far, this has caused an issue when a phone call came in and I wanted to pause before answering it (I'm not certain this would work even if the controls hadn't been killed). It also popped up a couple of times when my wife needed to leave the room and I wanted to pause it first. I had to open the Netflix app back up and wait for the "now playing" banner to re-appear on the top before I could pause it.

Is anyone else experiencing this on your device? Any solutions?

I've been having a similar issue, but only with YouTube, and mostly with Google Music so far (which is what I "cast" the most). Individual songs in Google Music, I have no problem with. However, the phone seems to kill the Chromecast connection between (never during) playback of Playlists and Queued songs. As a test, I've been running Google Music with a Playlist from my Nexus 7, and so far it hasn't once lost the Chromecast connection. The phone never fails to the lose the connection when playing a Playlist (it's just a matter of how many songs it get through before the connection fails). This definitely seems to be an HTC issue, I assume with Sense. I'm going to contact HTC to report it, and see if they can't get it addressed in the promised (as of last night) update we're getting to Android 4.3 and Sense 5.0 by the end of the year.

 

[AaronTV]

Yeah, it happens with YouTube and Google Play Music for me as well. I usually lose the play controls after only a few minutes. If this is only happening on specific phones (like Evo LTE) then my guess is it's a memory management issue. The Evo LTE has always been a poor multi-tasker, even after it was improved some.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[AaronTV]

The recent Netflix update has eliminated any issues I was having. Streaming Netflix to Chromecast now works wonderfully and has been a pleasure to use.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[ay]

The recent Netflix update has eliminated any issues I was having. Streaming Netflix to Chromecast now works wonderfully and has been a pleasure to use.

Posted via Android Central App

Glad to hear your Netflix issue has been resolved. I actually never experienced that issue. How about Google Music? Does that still lose connection for you? The problem continues on my end.

 

[AaronTV]

Yeah, Play Music still stops working within the first song or two. I haven't noticed any issues with YouTube recently.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[obiXXL]

when i cast play music, if my phone is charging, it works perfectly. If the phone isn't plugged in, play music stops soon after the screen goes off.

Evo 4g lte

 

[scrounger]

Is your device set to turn off wifi when it goes to sleep?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[ay]

when i cast play music, if my phone is charging, it works perfectly. If the phone isn't plugged in, play music stops soon after the screen goes off.

Evo 4g lte

Unfortunately, for me, the problem exists either way. If the phone is charging, the playlist tends to continue a little longer than when it is not charging, but the problem exists whether or not I'm charging. And, for the record, yes, I have the phone set to keep the wifi connection alive when the screen goes off. I've spoken to HTC about the issue, and asked that they look into it when they release our next reported update in the coming months, but I'm not too confident about it being addressed.

 

[AaronTV]

I recently picked up a Nexus 5 and I haven't run into a single issue using the Chromecast yet. It's been refreshingly awesome. Netflix, YouTube, Play Music. It's all working wonderfully.

Posted with Nexus 5 via Android Central App

 

[ay]

I recently picked up a Nexus 5 and I haven't run into a single issue using the Chromecast yet. It's been refreshingly awesome. Netflix, YouTube, Play Music. It's all working wonderfully.

Posted with Nexus 5 via Android Central App

Thanks for confirming that. That's exactly what I plan on doing. I've never once experienced this issue on my Nexus 7 either.