[Chromecast] Stream highest possible Quality to Chromecast

[hevaKmaI]

After casting Spotify from my iPhone or Android phone onto my new Chromecast audio device(s) I was disappointed to discover that I could not set the device to extreme quality, even though I am a premium member. It would be good to allow a default extreme quality setting on all devices used on my account or to allow setting the quality in the iOS/Android app.

Support says Spotify transcodes from their native Vorbis codec to 256kbps AAC, which further reduces audio quality, especially since Chromecast Audio seems to natively support Vorbis.  Spotify should strive to make their service use the best possible audio quality on any platform, and that doesn't seem to be the case right now with Chromecast.

[osornios]

Updated on 2018-07-07

Marked as new idea, which is a repost of this inactive idea.

[jacoblott43]

I agree I got one today and I noticed that.

[xkg02s-u_shl]

Just a minor correction. Spotify does all transcodes from the lossless source material and not from a pre-existing lossy source.

Agreed on using the new codec though. It benefits both the user and spotify by promoting higher quality and reduces the amount of data they have to store

[vinnn]

AAC is a more efficient compression codec than Ogg Vorbis and at a bitrate of 256Kbps AAC would be comparable (possibly better quality in some scenarios) than 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis.

I think it is unlikely that there is any real-time transcoding happening that'd be such an inefficient use of processing resources, Spotify's platform will likely host different formats of the same content. The desktop or mobile app with pull the Vorbis container from Spotify whereas a CCA (or other devices using the Google Cast receiver API) will pull the appropriate AAC container from Spotify.

Spotify have probably stuck to AAC for Google Cast devices simply because AAC is more widely supported across Google Cast API, which is documented over at the Google Cast developer reference docs.

[wlodi]

Please implement this or AT LEAST improve your casting functionality. The real-time transcoding is just producing sound of really terrible quality, at least increase the bitrate, otherwise lots of track just sound terrible. I found a workaround to this, which is either connecting to Google Home via Bluetooth or casting my phone's screen to Chromecast, both of which produce superior audio quality compared to native casting. But it really shouldn't be this way, please fix this. I'm massively disappointed in this functionality as a premium subscriber.

[xkg02s-u_shl]

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@vinnn wrote:

...

Spotify's platform will likely host different formats of the same content.

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But Chromecast supports Vorbis. If all devices used the same format, spotify doesn't have to use additional resources to transcode and store their entire catalog in another format

[adam2434]

Would still love for Spotify to implement the highest quality stream for Chromecast Audio, whether in Vorbis or AAC.

If AAC is potentially superior to Vorbis, why not stream 320 kbps AAC to the Chromecast, as well as to the mobile/desktop apps and other streaming devices (for Premium subscribers)?

Given that iTunes is AAC, hardware support for AAC has to be almost universal at this point, right?  

So why not simplify streaming codecs and offer 320 kbps AAC universally to all devices for Premium  subscribers, and lower AAC bitrates for the lower quality streaming options?

This would eliminate the need for maintaining both Vorbis and AAC streams, and would provide the highest quality stream to all devices for Premium subscribers.

[jaynyc]

what is the ETA to Spotify streaming 320 Vorbis or AAC to various Google Chromecast endpoints, including the (now discontinued) Chromecast Audio?

For comparison, Tidal is able to stream FLAC to Google Chromecast end points...

[trankillity]

Adding my voice to this. Have just gotten into a connected household using the Google ecosystem and the quality when sending Spotify to my Sony DN1080 receiver via Chromecast (transcoded to AAC 256kb/s) is much worse than sending the same song to the receiver using Spotify Connect (native Ogg 320kb/s).

This issue is also going to become much more pronounced and more frequently reported with more of the big speaker brands adding Google Assistant support in their top-tier smart speakers (Google Home Max, Sonos One, Sonos Beam, JBL, UE, etc).

[trenttelfer]

Just in case people don’t want to wait for Spotify for this feature. Deezer premium supports 320kbps streams to chromecast audio.