Got To Glow

Updated September 2026: the original version claimed Chromecast has no Dolby Digital support. That was wrong, and Google has since discontinued Chromecast entirely, so this comparison has been rebuilt around the decision people actually face now.

If you have a television, a DTH set-top box running Android and a streaming stick in the back of a drawer, the question is not which one is better in the abstract. It is which one you should be using, and whether the one you own is worth keeping.

First, the correction

I originally wrote that Chromecast could not do Dolby Digital and that a DTH Android box was the clear winner on sound. That was not accurate. Chromecast with Google TV, the 4K model, handles Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and passes surround audio through to a soundbar or receiver.

Where the confusion comes from is real, and it is worth explaining because it applies to every streaming device. What reaches your soundbar depends on four things in a chain. Whether the app has the surround track, whether the device can pass it, whether the HDMI connection supports it, and whether the television is set to pass audio through rather than downmix it to stereo.

Most people who conclude that a device "does not support Dolby" have a setting wrong somewhere in that chain, usually on the television rather than the streaming device. I was one of them.

Second, the thing that changed

Google discontinued the Chromecast line in August 2024 and replaced it with the Google TV Streamer. So the comparison in the original post is now between a DTH box and a product you cannot buy new.

That matters for anyone still using one. A discontinued device keeps working, but the clock on software updates is running, and streaming devices are only as good as the apps they can still run.

What a DTH Android box is genuinely better at

One input, one remote, everything in it. Live television and streaming apps on the same box, so nobody at home has to change the HDMI source to watch the news. In a household where not everyone wants to learn a second remote, that is the whole argument and it is a strong one.

It also handles the live channels a streaming stick cannot. Sport and news, in particular, are still where DTH earns its subscription for a lot of Indian homes.

What a dedicated streaming device is better at

Speed, updates and app availability. A dedicated streaming box is a computer that does one job, and it gets replaced and updated on its own cycle rather than whenever your DTH provider decides to refresh its hardware.

Operator-supplied boxes tend to age badly. The interface is built around the operator's own content, the app store is a subset of what Google TV offers, and updates arrive late or not at all. If your box has become slow, that is usually why.

Keep, replace, or add

Here is how I would decide, in order.

If your DTH box is quick and runs the apps you use, keep it. One box, one remote. Do not spend money to solve a problem you do not have.

If it is slow but you still watch live television, add rather than replace. Keep the DTH box for live channels, put a current streaming device on a second HDMI input for apps. You are not paying twice for the same job, you are giving each job the right device.

If you have stopped watching live television, replace. Cancel the subscription, use one streaming device, and take the saving. Check what you actually watched over the last month before deciding, because most people overestimate how much live television they use and underestimate the sport.

Before you buy anything, check the audio chain

If surround sound is the reason you are considering a new box, spend twenty minutes on the settings first. On the television, find the audio output setting and set it to pass through or bitstream rather than PCM or stereo. Check the soundbar is on an HDMI input that supports audio return. Check the app itself, because some titles simply do not carry a surround track.

Work through that and there is a fair chance the box you already own does what you thought you needed to replace it for. That is the cheapest upgrade available, and it is the one nobody sells you.

The same keep-or-replace thinking applies to everything else in the house. My version of it for laptops is in this account of an ageing MacBook, and the cost side of repairing rather than replacing is in this post.