Sudden loss of connectivity

[anon(844741)]

Hey everyone.

I have had my Chromecast for a couple weeks now and I love it. I have moved back into school however and the reliability has diminished significantly. The Chromecast connects to my network and I Play Music/ YouTube/ etc apps recognize that it is on the network. I can cast, pause, change the volume and the quality looks great. Halfway through an album on Play Music, or when I change out of the app and then go back into it, I can no longer cast and the Chromecast gives the "Ready to Cast" message and says it is connected to my WiFi. The appropriate apps no longer have the cast icon and I have to restart the Chromecast (unplug, replug/ restart TV) to get it to connect again. I am considering getting a HDMI extender to get the Chromecast out from behind my receiver (maybe a signal issue, even though the signal icon shows strong connectivity).

Details:
EDIT: Chromecast is attached to a Sony STR-DH510 Receiver
Which connects to a Samsung 503 Series 5 LCD (Chroemcast draws power from the USB port)
And connects to WPA2 PSK WiFi broadcasting from a Mac Mini running OS X 10.8.4

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Craig King]

Is there anything different in that setup then when you were not at school?

 

[anon(844741)]

I had the Chromecast plugged directly into the TV rather than the receiver. I have a speaker set-up for down here and the TV does not have audio-out so the receiver is necessary for that. Additionally the Chromecast was connecting to WPA2 PSK from a Comcast Xfinity 802.11n Wireless gateway at home, and is not now. I am using the Mac Mini for WiFi due to the lack of WPA2 Enterprise support, which is what the University uses for WiFi.

 

[y2whisper]

I have issues like these as well I'm connecting through my desktop as my rental only allows guest access to the wifi Thinking it has something to do with that set up. Looking for an alternate solution so that it isn't so cumbersome to use.

 

[Craig King]

Two things.

First your reciever doesn't appear to be able to decode Dolby Digital Plus based on the manual so curious on if you are getting multichannel audio from any content. You may not if the reciever can't decode it.

Second my guess would be the issue with with the MacMini reseting the connection for some reason. I couldn't tell you why though for anything. How is the Mac Mini configured. Is it acting like a router, or is it just bridgeing the network connection so that the CC can get to internet?

 

[anon(844741)]

Apologies, I have the 510, not the 500 like I originally stated. Don't know if that changes anything.

1) I have previously been able to get what I would call "natural" surround sound from games and movies on my PS3, as well as "simulated" surround for 2-channel inputs.

2) The university uses WPA2 Enterprise WiFi, and most of my wireless devices (Chromecast, PS3, Sony Dash) do not play nice with this set-up. To allow these devices to work I have connected my Mac Mini to an Ethernet port (port-security and authentication don't appear to be in use when hard-wired) and utilized the "Internet Sharing" feature from Mac OS X. From what I can tell it creates a discover-able, network-able WiFi connection that allows local and internet access. I have been using my other devices (phone, tablet, laptop, etc) throughout this past week and they don't appear to be suffering any connectivity problems. I streamed the entire first season of 'Breaking Bad' on a different device on my WiFi yesterday and it didn't falter once, leading me to believe it is still a Chromecast issue (although I don't know what that would be).