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Google Refreshes Its Streaming Dongle: Unveils $69 Chromecast Ultra With 4K and HDR Capabilities (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-your-streaming-delights dept.

On the sidelines of Pixel smartphones announcement and $79 Daydream View VR headset, Google also announced a refresh for its streaming dongle. Called the Chromecast Ultra, the dongle offers 4K and HDR capabilities. The Chromecast Ultra, the company says, is the fastest Chromecast it has event made (it can load videos about 1.8 times faster than the standard Chromecast (all thanks to improved Wi-Fi connectivity). The Chromecast Ultra also includes an Ethernet port on the power adapter. Engadget adds: It's still a svelte puck like the earlier models, but it has a bit of a stealth bomber aesthetic. And at $69, it's far more expensive than the current $35 Chromecast. Still, it comes in $10 less than Roku's cheapest 4K player, and will be useful for anyone who wants to quickly stream high-res video to their new 4K TV.

25 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Easy summary by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    Added stuff you can't see / won't use*, now for double the price.

    *Not you, personally. I'm sure you can see the difference on your 80" 4k OLED curved set with deep color. I meant the rest of us with normal eyes and typical equipment. You know, the 99.9% of us who don't calibrate every TV in our house to 8 different times of the day so that we can watch with the correct color balance depending on the room lighting.

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    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:Easy summary by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      *Not you, personally. I'm sure you can see the difference on your 80" 4k OLED curved set with deep color. I meant the rest of us with normal eyes and typical equipment. You know, the 99.9% of us who don't calibrate every TV in our house to 8 different times of the day so that we can watch with the correct color balance depending on the room lighting.

      Apparently, HDR is actually noticable if you have sets that properly support it. The 4K not so much, which isn't a huge loss since most movies are 2K only (2048x1080, just a bit wider than normal 1080p), so they've been somewhat upscaled for UHD. (You do get some benefit - a 2K movie uses all 1080 lines for movie information, unlike a Blu-Ray where you have letterboxing taking up about 120 of those lines.) Reason is most VFX is only done at 2K.

      But HDR is the big thing going to BT.2020 colourspace. (HDTV uses BT.709 which is very similar to sRGB).

    2. Re:Easy summary by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      Willing to bet that you'll notice it side by side, but not in a typical mixed-lighting room with direct and indirect sources which are reflected from the (ubiquitous glossy or semi-gloss) screen in a room at 20-50 ft-candles where most people watch TV. For most people, you could just click on the hideous "vibrant" mode on most TVs and they'd think the TV looked better.

      It's like getting high definition or 192kHz/48 bit sound from your phone, and then using the included earbuds to listen to music on the New York subway to listen to it.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    3. Re:Easy summary by Kjella · · Score: 1

      But HDR is the big thing going to BT.2020 colourspace.

      Technically HDR doesn't have anything to do with the color space, the UHD standard is a combination of four independent upgrades.

      1. 3840x2160 resolution -> more detail
      2. HDR -> higher contrast
      3. Rec.2020 -> greater range of colors
      4. 10 bit color -> less banding

      You want the last one to offset the effects of the two previous ones, you've stretched the range of both contrast and color space so you need greater granularity to achieve the same precision. With YUV encoding that would be Y and UV respectively, you've roughly doubled the available colors (35.9% -> 75.8% of CIE 1931) but have 16 times more steps to pick from (2 bits = 4 in U, same in V). As for contrast non-SD TVs have maybe 400 nits, now we have 1000 nits so I guess the extra bits pretty much go to extra range. Technically both HDTV with 10 bit and UHD with 8 bit would both be possible though, the latter just wouldn't look very good.

      The standard is now every bit as good and in some parts superior to the DCI 4K cinema standard, so yeah... the standard is a lot better than average consumer gear, as I understand only a few super-expensive laser projectors do full Rec.2020 and nothing does full 12 bit HDR up to 10.000 nits and even that isn't as bright as the real world when the sun is shining. But you don't need to take advantage of it all to at least see some difference...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Easy summary by non0score · · Score: 1

      You make it sound sinister. Just buy the Chromecast 2 if you don't have the proper goods; it's still being sold.

  2. Why would anyone want this over a Mi Box? by BobboBrown · · Score: 1

    Apart from physical size, the Mi Box has this thing beat. Same price, 4K + HDR, Google Cast, but it's also an Android TV box with support for running apps, games etc. Any ideas?

    1. Re:Why would anyone want this over a Mi Box? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Well for one, it doesn't have a backdoor for the Chinese government.

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      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  3. Xiaomi Box by BWS · · Score: 1

    Why would you buy an Chromecast Ultra when you can pay the same for the Xiaomi Box? More Features on the Box http://www.mi.com/en/mibox/

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    -- Note: These Comments are Generated by ME! Not You! ME!
    1. Re:Xiaomi Box by ADRA · · Score: 1

      Even if I was more DIY for buying PI's, my apartment is so saturated with Wifi that I can't even reliably stream with anything in B/G/N bands. Even AC is getting a little more congested these days. I'm on a Nexus Player now which is great, but I'd have at least considered this box if it had come a year or so ago. If you just want a play streamer, this article's box works best. If you need more of an appliance media concentrator, you'll now have to look somewhere else as they discontinued the Nexus Player...

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      Bye!
    2. Re:Xiaomi Box by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Why would you buy an Chromecast Ultra when you can pay the same for the Xiaomi Box?

      Because Xiaomi is either incompetent or corrupt where it comes to security, take your pick, no one cares.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Xiaomi Box by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Why buy one of these when you can buy a Raspberry Pi 3 for $35? It can be setup to use either Linux or Android.

      Bullshit. Android on Pi equals fail. What's super-sad is that Liz of the Pi Foundation demo'd Android running on the original Pi and then they refused to release their code and refused to tell us why. They just showed it, and then never spoke of it again and refused to answer any questions.

      Is there in fact any Linux ARM SBC with both a fully mainlined kernel and which doesn't jerk the user base around?

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      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Xiaomi Box by SuperDre · · Score: 1

      No HDR and no 4K..... (not that both are important)

  4. Re:Any tablets/phones with HDR screens? by BaronM · · Score: 1

    iPhone 7/7plus. HDR plus full color management to properly display sRGB content. PC monitors exist as well that can support 10-bit per channel color, but again, you'll need color management to avoid screwing up all of the content that assumes sRGB.

  5. Ethernet by darkain · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Optional Ethernet adapter... THAT ALONE = SOLD! Congested wifi in the city pisses me the fuck off. This has been the one and only feature I've wanted from these streaming devices all along.

    1. Re:Ethernet by Fwipp · · Score: 1

      It also supports the 5GHz wifi spectrum, which is usually much less crowded.

    2. Re:Ethernet by mrbester · · Score: 1

      An OTG Y cable, a USB to Ethernet adaptor and a CAT5 cable are all you need to get. Or you could get the all in one that is an accessory for the Chromecast from Google...

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    3. Re:Ethernet by Ingenium13 · · Score: 3, Informative

      They've had an ethernet adapter as an option since the original Chromecast 2 years ago, it was like $20 or $25 though I think. I bought it because I was sick of my 1st gen Chromecast not working well on congested 2.4 ghz wifi. It still works on my 2nd gen / 5 Ghz Chromecast too. Basically the price of the "old" chromecast + price of ethernet adapter = price of the new Chromecast. It's likely the exact same power/ethernet adapter.

    4. Re:Ethernet by Centurix · · Score: 1

      This one comes as standard with an ethernet adapter built into the external power brick.

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      Task Mangler
    5. Re:Ethernet by lars_stefan_axelsson · · Score: 1

      Yes, I have one as well, for similar reasons. Works a treat.

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      Stefan Axelsson
  6. Re:Any tablets/phones with HDR screens? by Fwipp · · Score: 1

    The tablet/phone doesn't need an HDR screen. Just the content has to be available in HDR (same with 4k).

  7. Re:Difference by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    "Streaming dongle" sounds like the side effect of a drug you see advertised on MeTV.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. Re:Difference by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

    I read that as: "Google Refreshes Its Steaming Dongle..." and assumed that they had just screwed someone else.

    I read it as "Streaming Dongle" but just figured Google'd just had too much beer recently (you don't buy beer, you just rent it).

  9. Just ordered! by wkwilley2 · · Score: 1

    YES!!!!! Now I can stream Southpark in 4K!

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    Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
  10. Re:Why would I buy? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    He'd also have to save up his allowance, so he's trying to come up with cool reasons for not wanting it.

  11. overrated by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    4K and HDR are highly overrated. HDR especially, just make sure your TV is calibrated will also do a lot to the quality of the image, and most 4K content (except 4K blurays) is not really 4K, yes the resolution might be 4K, but the quality is crap. Mostly it doesn't even come close to a decent mastered bluray (with that, I'm not talking about the 1GB bluray rips which people seem to think that's FullHD bluray quality)..