Microsoft and Chrome or Edge

Windows 11 has a feature that tries to save power when you’re using Chrome or Edge, but the feature could unknowingly cause media problems. Windows Latest was able to confirm the bug in our own tests – Chromecast audio is broken when you’re streaming to Android TV. As per reports, Chromecast tab casting slows and distorts audio since Windows 11.

Like every operating system, Windows 11 also allows you to stream video to a nearby device as long as it supports Chromecast (or now Google TV Streamer), which is typically bundled with Android TV.

There’s a bug where audio would stream fine as long as Chrome remains in the foreground, but if you minimize it or switch to another Windows app, the streaming audio would become distorted, choppy, or even sound “sped up.”

In a forum post spotted by Windows Latest, one user explained, for example, “With my old Windows 10 laptop, I had no issues streaming to my Android TV with built-in Chromecast. I just bought a new Dell XPS 15 laptop with Windows 11. Now when I try to cast something like an NHL game, it will work fine until I either minimize Chrome or set the focus on a different window. Then I get choppy, garbled audio.”

There are hundreds of reports of Windows 11 producing distorted or choppy audio when streaming media to Android TV using Chromecast or other features. Based on our findings, it looks like the issue is related to the way Windows 11 handles high-resolution timers when an app window is not active.

In a Chromium commit, Microsoft confirmed that it fixed an issue where Chrome or Edge’s high resolution timers were being slowed down when the window was minimized or covered by another app. Before the fix, when Chrome or one of its helper processes (such as the one used for casting) ran in the background, Windows 11 would reduce the frequency of timer callbacks.

This is done to reduce power usage, but it ends up causing problems with audio and video streaming, with the audio getting choppy.

According to Microsoft’s code spotted by Windows Latest, Chrome will now make an explicit call to the Windows API so that Windows does not throttle these timers.

For example, it simply means that Chrome now tells Windows that “I need my timer resolution to remain high even if I am not the active window.”

A flag called PROCESS_POWER_THROTTLING_IGNORE_TIMER_RESOLUTION) instructs Windows to to make sure casting services do not get affected by built-in power saving features.

As a result, Chrome can now handle your media streaming requests better. It also means you can now smoothly stream YouTube and other media to your nearby device, such as Android TV, without Chrome’s audio sounding choppy.

This fix will begin rolling out in a few weeks, all thanks to Microsoft’s contribution to the open web.

About The Author

Mayank Parmar

Mayank Parmar is an entrepreneur who founded Windows Latest. He is the Editor-in-Chief and has written on various topics in his seven years of career, but he is mostly known for his well-researched work on Microsoft's Windows. His articles and research works have been referred to by CNN, Business Insiders, Forbes, Fortune, CBS Interactive, Microsoft and many others over the years.