Chromecast Issues: v2.3.53

[jjspierx 11]

I have seen a few other posts indicating issues with Chromecast on the past few versions of the Android Client.  I am still seeing some issues in v53 that I updated too yesterday.  In general, the app works great for me with the exception of Chromecast-ing. Unfortunately, the only thing I use the Android client for is for Chromecast, so this awesome Android client is almost unusable for me in it's current state.  Let's try to give detailed information in this thread about the Chromecast issues, so the dev's can resolve them for us.

 

When I open the Android app, and press the cast button, and select my Chromecast device, my TV changes to show that Emby is available for casting now.  However, the background is black.  If I try to play media, while the background is still black, nothing happens when I press the play or resume button.  If I wait 20-30 seconds, the background changes from black to a random fanart background from my media.  At this point, I can now SOMETIMES press play, and get media to play.  Although sometimes even then it won't work.  When it starts playing media, it will play the entire media file, but if I try to pause or stop the media playing, it will work about 50% of the time.  When it doesn't work, I have exit Emby, and go into another app that casts to disconnect the Emby connection.  When pausing or stopping does work, there is only a 50% chance, that I will start again when unpause, or press play again.

 

Also, while a video is paused, the timer continues to count.  It will even count past the total playback time of the media.  For instance, a 22 minute tv episode, if paused for 40 minutes, might show 45 minutes.  Even when i start playing it again, it will continue its count and show that the episode is at 45 minutes out of 22 minutes.

 

I am running Lollipop on a 2nd Gen 2014 MotoX.  I have verified the same behavior on a Kitkat MotoG.

 

I am not sure where to find the log files on my phone, I have looked around but couldn't find them.  Let me know where to find them, and I'd be happy to post them.  

 

 

 

 

[TheShanMan 34]

I'm having almost the same problem, but mine never does anything after I hit play/resume.

 

Honestly I'm pretty frustrated with this app. I don't use it a whole lot, especially with chromecast, but I've had so many problems with it over the lifetime of the app, especially when used with chromecast, while other chromecast apps like youtube work just great. I know the devs don't have the resources of netflix or google and my expectations reflect that, but the fact that I had to buy the app really makes it a disappointment overall. I do think it has gotten better overall since its inception but trying to chromecast the other night and having no success at all leaves me wondering when I'll be able to start counting on it to work consistently. I think the prior time I tried to use the app (without chromecast), seeking several times in a movie to find the spot where I fell asleep totally messed it up. So it seems like there's always something basic failing. Sorry for the rant.

[cqjs2001 0]

I am haveing this same problem. I also only use this app for casting.

I have also noticed that if I wait for long enough (time varys) I can sometimes press play after Im lucky enough to get one show to play, to get the next one to play. And sometimes the app forgets that it is casting and I have to reboot both the chromecast and the app completely to get it to maybe sync back up.

Netflix and Hulu both seem to work flawlessly and fast, Im hoping this app gets back to that, I really l;oved it in the past.

[Luke 37060]

we're working it. i have noticed one workaround which is connecting to the device, the switching to another device, then switching back. i'm working on getting the first time connection issue resolved.

[meeok2 0]

Sounds about right (exactly right)

Only use Android app for Chromecast on my TV, and only use my TV for Emby Chromecast, so basically my TV is worthless right now...

[ressu 13]

Time to chime in on the importance of Chromecast support. I'm in the same boat, there are certain workarounds that I've discovered that make Chromecast not quite useless, but I have a better tolerance for problems than what my wife does and I get to hear about it quite often. As for the chromecast support, I use chromecast for about 95% of playbacks and the playback is almost always invoked from an Android device.

 

The workarounds I've discovered are as follows:

 

1. Playback can only be started when the background is displaying an image (which isn't always the case, but is a quick way to check whether we are properly connected). You don't need to switch to a different device to reconnect, you just need to bring up the device menu and exit the menu. Usually that is enough to trigger a good connection (But not always).
2. I've also experienced the 50% startup accuracy on playback itself. Chromecast starts playing the episode, but never enters playing state. Quick fix is to just hit play again on the Android device and usually the second time works. I've yet to check whether this is related to sync or something like that, but it's still a workaround.
3. Language selection rarely works and subtitle selection doesn't work at all (It's not implemented, which was discussed in another thread). So the only way to work around this is to modify the original file. If your file is an MKV file and subtitles are internal to that file, you can set them to forced with mkvpropedit, but that's a bit more advanced process.

 

The last problem hits me the hardest, since being an anime fan, I have quite a few series that have softsubs and not being able to reliably toggle language and subtitles makes life quite miserable.

 

But those are the workarounds I use, in case they are of use to someone else as well. Life with Emby is somewhat tolerable, but the frustration level is pretty high at times.