Last year, Google transformed its chromecast on a more advanced device. Instead of remaining a simple device designed to play streaming content, the Chromecast with Google TV It came with its own internal memory and the ability to install our own applications. It kept all the features of the previous Chromecast, but now it also worked as a TV Box thanks to its own remote control. Well then, everything points to a New Generation of Chromecast would be falling.
According to the medium 9to5Google, which does not usually fail when it makes predictions about the launches of those from Mountain View, Google is in the final phase of the development of the new Chromecast with Google TV. They even dare to say the code name with which the product has been worked, "Boreal", which will replace the Chromecast with Google TV known as "Sabrina".
What can we expect from a new Chromecast with Google TV?
The leak does not talk about any specific feature, but some of the changes are speculated more obvious. For starters, the current Chromecast has very limited internal memory. It only has 8GB shared between applications, the operating system and software updates. Although the device can play games, the experience is not fully enjoyable when you start to run low on available space on the device, which is quite soon. It would be quite obvious that this new generation of the Chromecast comes with a space of 64 or even 128 gigabytes, more than enough space for be able to install more demanding games and applications.
On the other hand, one of the great defects of the current Chromecast with Google TV is that it is not aligned with the company's future plans. Google is working hard to convert AV1 to the industry standard video codec, and thus leave the VP8 and VP9 codecs behind once and for all. The current device does not support such a format, and it is not due to a software problem, but a hardware problem. AV1 has really impressive compression, but requires a processor designed for the occasion so that content playback is optimized.
The AV1 license is free, which is why many companies involved in the streaming market such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix or Microsoft are working hand in hand with Google to implement this new format. Thanks to this new codec, the bandwidth needed to cover a stream would be reduced. This directly supposes a reduction in the costs of all these companies, which, in addition, they would not have to pay licenses to the MPEG group if AV1 were to work. Another clue that points to the fact that the future Chromecast will be compatible with AV1 is the efforts that Google is making to convert YouTube content, as they are building custom AV1 transcoders on their server farms.
Finally, the price of this new device should be a lot more competitive if you really want to take on other products like Amazon's Fire TV Stick. The price of the Chromecast with Google TV is quite high compared to the competition, so it would not be strange to also see adowngrade in order to recover lost ground during this last year.