Emby server can't correctly stream/control MKV files on Chromecast HD

[wordlover 102]

@cayars Sorry, I sincerely don't understand:

1. The Discogs problems are documented and being discussed elsewhere in these forums - I have no "configuration" other than selecting it as one of multiple sources for artist and album metadata and images, and I haven't refreshed my Music library's metadata in a while.

2. All the problems with controlling playback of mkv files on Chromecast HDwGTV occurred in the most recent hour of those logs,

3. The errors pertain to their own video library ("TV shows") that doesn't get touched by Discogs settings, and

4. There was no other activity on the Emby server during this period. I streamed a TV show, made the mistake of trying to rewind it 10 seconds, and everything stopped working, as has been reported repeatedly above. I immediately collected all the logs from that past hour or so and appended them to my post above. 

Isn't it possible for you to just look at the most recent hour of the log (doesn't it concatenate chronologically?) and the ffmpeg files without having to pay attention to earlier entries?

[Carlo 4330]

Thanks, it helped alot.

Looking at the last few playbacks I'm seeing errors:

Error App: [SmartPlaylist][Error]: Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'source')

Ary you starting these shows/movies from a playlist?

If yes can you try the same file by searching for it and playing it directly and not from a collection or playlist?

If that didn't work can you shutdown Emby and move the SmartPlaylist DLL out of the plugin directory and restart Emby.

Try again playing the file directly from a search.  You can upload the log files from this test and let us know how it went.

Carlo

OS If it didn't improve go ahead and shutdown Emby and copy the SmartPlaylist DLL back and restart.

[wordlover 102]

13 hours ago, cayars said:

Thanks, it helped alot.

Looking at the last few playbacks I'm seeing errors:

Error App: [SmartPlaylist][Error]: Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'source')

Ary you starting these shows/movies from a playlist?

If yes can you try the same file by searching for it and playing it directly and not from a collection or playlist?

If that didn't work can you shutdown Emby and move the SmartPlaylist DLL out of the plugin directory and restart Emby.

Try again playing the file directly from a search.  You can upload the log files from this test and let us know how it went.

Carlo

OS If it didn't improve go ahead and shutdown Emby and copy the SmartPlaylist DLL back and restart.

@cayars @Luke Thanks, but these files (as reported throughout the thread above, over the past month) were all selected and played directly. The SmartPlaylist plugin isn't used at all for the Movie or TV libraries. But to check this, I completely uninstalled Smart Playlist plugin and restarted Emby. The problem continues as before.

What I did (and all logs are attached below), which leads to the same problem reported multiple times above:

1. Cast a video to Chromecast HDwGTV - it plays fine, but seek is broken, playback is then frozen, correct still image appears on screen, but time bar on Android control app is incorrect, and there is no ability to start actual video playback again. 

2. Playback on original Chromecast - everything works fine.

Again, every log from today is attached. To resummarize: this happens only with MKV files, and only when streaming to new Chromecast HDwGTV dongle. There are no problems with playback directly on any Android device, nor when streaming the same files to an older model Chromecast dongle. I don't know how to more carefully and thoroughly and precisely report this playback problem.

There was an earlier problem - reported by many - with Emby generating only a black screen when connecting to new Chromecast HDwGTV. Luke fixed that, after identifying some new aspect to Google's new Chromecast dongle software, I think, which required modifying Emby's code. Is that not the same with this situation?

embyserver.txt embyserver-63804881387.txt ffmpeg-remux-04eed857-3156-443f-891b-07ec775d70c5_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-5e3b0176-31df-4aa3-8506-f1201dc15d3e_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-37d3930d-a264-4420-bfad-9ba339b40f14_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-54fecd94-2801-44da-8c14-5f6d32f2b4e1_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-1986ab79-eef7-4a81-ac83-f594ec842714_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-3158b874-ef8c-4393-bdef-ed2a2f09e120_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-8730ec35-797a-421b-9468-f8743753c59f_1.txt hardware_detection-63804881418.txt

[visproduction 122]

I still suspect Chromecast update.  Have a look here: https://piunikaweb.com/2021/03/01/chromecast-google-tv-keeps-turning-off-wi-fi-issues-with-5ghz-band/

===
After changing Settings -> System -> Energy Saver = Never I was able to play 2.9 movies (around 7-8 hours straight) yesterday without the wifi connection being dropped.
===

[wordlover 102]

27 minutes ago, visproduction said:

I still suspect Chromecast update.  Have a look here: https://piunikaweb.com/2021/03/01/chromecast-google-tv-keeps-turning-off-wi-fi-issues-with-5ghz-band/

===
After changing Settings -> System -> Energy Saver = Never I was able to play 2.9 movies (around 7-8 hours straight) yesterday without the wifi connection being dropped.
===

I appreciate your continued interest, but this problem has nothing to do with loss of wifi connection, it happens 5 minutes after powering up, and it doesn't affect MP4 files, just mkv.

[visproduction 122]

W,

Hmm.  I found this list from Google on what is supported.  It looks like .mkv is rather limited to exactly some codec version.  h.265 still has royalties payments from industry, so it's reasonable that only some versions might be supported and not all combinations.  Have a look to see if your test videos codec versions are listed here.  Did you ever try a test video?  Videos from anywhere can have all sort of errors that software players smooth over and playback perfectly elsewhere.
https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

[wordlover 102]

5 minutes ago, visproduction said:

W,

Hmm.  I found this list from Google on what is supported.  It looks like .mkv is rather limited to exactly some codec version.  h.265 still has royalties payments from industry, so it's reasonable that only some versions might be supported and not all combinations.  Have a look to see if your test videos codec versions are listed here.  Did you ever try a test video?  Videos from anywhere can have all sort of errors that software players smooth over and playback perfectly elsewhere.
https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

Aha - this seems pointed more in the right direction - no problems playing back MKV files on old Chromecast, only on new CCHDwGTV. @cayars @Luke - could this be part of or related to the problem?

 

[Carlo 4330]

Yes it could be.  Do you have any Android devices that support Chromecasting?
If so, can you cast ok to these devices?

I tried to google "CCHDwGTV" but didn't get anything back.  I don't have a newer Chromecast just the older ones as Android TV devices (Shield TV, MiBox, FireCube, FireSticks, etc) all have this built in. With the black Friday and holiday sales going on, I'll try and pick one up to have for testing.

Carlo

PS, as you know from PMs I haven't been able to reproduce this issue using Android Chromecasts.

[wordlover 102]

Lots of info at @visproduction's link below. I only have an original Chromecast dongle, which works fine, and the new one, which does not.

https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media

 

[wordlover 102]

I am really really frustrated and disappointed. I'm a now a Premier customer. Please take a look at these logs and tell me what can be done to fix the broken connection/control between Emby and Chromecast HD when playing mkv files. Is there a transcoding problem? Is Emby not properly interacting with the API of the new Chromecast dongle? Please solve this problem.

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-29dc4465-7169-41b6-8fd9-fd9cbbd3f306_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-7040d823-1733-49a8-8350-ad7a567cf839_1.txt

[visproduction 122]

W,

Hopefully, you will get some feedback and perhaps there is an easy fix. 

Something to keep in mind is that Chromecast's approach to connecting your video streaming services may also be new security options to stop other video streaming from happening, at all.  It is not their goal to support everything that use to work on their system.  It's more to their advantage to block any other service from working.  There are new security fixes that were released by Chromecast, in the last two months that might well block Emby casting via Wifi.  They may have coded blocking into their update to help stop other Wifi traffic from interfering with their licensed and allowed programming.  I do not see exactly what is happening and I personally avoid these issues by connecting the TV directly to the network via Ethernet.  I think Wifi and online services have a history of getting updates that cause non-licensed services to stop working.  All online streaming services update their product several times a year and often block 3rd party related software and streaming.  The fact that old Chromecast works does not prove that the new system should work.  I think you are imagining that everyone is working together, to never cause a connection problem.  That is not what happens.

Anyway, have a look here as well for more info and maybe an answer:  https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/chromecast-android-12-google-tv/
and  https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/7124014?hl=en

Hope that helps.

Edited November 29, 2022 by visproduction

[wordlover 102]

Again for @Luke @cayars - latest logs attached.

Played an mkv file to 1:00:00 or so. Clicked 'advance 30 seconds' button, and then the still image on TV screen (from Chromecast HD dongle) jumped to 30 seconds ahead, while the timebar on the Android app running on tablet jumped back to the absolute beginning (0:01), and there is no way to do anything more to control the video playback other than stop. And there is no way to "resume" or slide timebar to resume at the location playback stopped working, other than let the entire video play for another hour again. 

 

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-remux-2f4ac25d-a684-465f-acf3-17c286df1723_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-999d8091-1130-4ef7-86a8-6b11bc4218a0_1.txt

[Carlo 4330]

I'm going to try this another way but using my original Chrome Cast as well as Fire TVs/Android TVs doing Chromecast Receiving this works just fine.
My devices are all hardwired.

Are you using WiFi for either device?
What specific hardware device is receiving the ChromeCast stream?

Carlo

[wordlover 102]

It doesn't make sense to say "can't reproduce this problem" when you don't have the actual device in hand to test. 

Yes, I am all on wifi. Old Chromecast works fine. Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex all work fine on both Chromecast dongles. Problem arises when Emby casting is controlled with either of two very different devices (Samsung tablet, Pixel 5 phone). Only Emby isn't working properly with the new CCHDwGTV dongle when casting mkv files. All this information has been exhaustively detailed above in this thread. And see below re: other problems with this newer dongle, which Luke investigated and solved.

I don't know how much clearer it can be: Emby isn't correctly casting and controlling mkv files on Chromecast HD w/ Google TV dongle and whatever software that device is running. 

 

[bassie112 3]

I have exactly the same problem for the original 4K version of the Chromecast with Google TV. Mkv file is not able to skip/resume, after converting to mp4 it works fine again. This happened since the Android 12 update.

[wordlover 102]

2 minutes ago, bassie112 said:

I have exactly the same problem for the original 4K version of the Chromecast with Google TV. Mkv file is not able to skip/resume, after converting to mp4 it works fine again. This happened since the Android 12 update.

@cayars - here's another person reporting the same problem. 

[bassie112 3]

9 minutes ago, bassie112 said:

I have exactly the same problem for the original 4K version of the Chromecast with Google TV. Mkv file is not able to skip/resume, after converting to mp4 it works fine again. This happened since the Android 12 update.

Hmm, another mkv file did work so prob has something to do with audio and/or video properties. Also when skipping/resuming the audio does play, but video freezes at a single frame. Will do some testing to see if I can find the cause.

Edited December 12, 2022 by bassie112

[wordlover 102]

As I mentioned above, and to cayars in DM, this happens for me with a wide range of mkv files (I haven't found one where it didn't happen) as well as avi files, but not mp4 files. Yes, the video freezing at a single frame is what I see, too. He apparently finally bought a new CCHDwGTV and is testing now.

Edited December 12, 2022 by wordlover

[bassie112 3]

8 minutes ago, bassie112 said:

Hmm, another mkv file did work so prob has something to do with audio and/or video properties. Also when skipping/resuming the audio does play, but video freezes at a single frame. Will do some testing to see if I can find the cause.

Ok so for me it seems the audio stream is causing the problem. The orginal eac3 stream does not let me skip/resume the file but a converted ac3 stream does (video stream is identical). My audio set does not support eac3 so it will transcode. Maybe something goes wrong there for the new Chromecasts on Android 12.

[bassie112 3]

Also, this happens for casting. The native emby app does not play files at all. Same problem as below thread. May have to do with each other.

 

 

[Carlo 4330]

I've been testing this through the day casting to a new 4K Chromecast with Google TV device and haven't had a problem with any movie I've tried casting.

I casted the first 50 movies in one of my libs without problem.  I also tried the first 10 from the Chromecast itself without issue.

That makes me think it's either media related or doesn't happen with the 4K version.

Does anyone have small test file that reproduces this isse?

[wordlover 102]

23 minutes ago, cayars said:

I've been testing this through the day casting to a new 4K Chromecast with Google TV device and haven't had a problem with any movie I've tried casting.

I casted the first 50 movies in one of my libs without problem.  I also tried the first 10 from the Chromecast itself without issue.

That makes me think it's either media related or doesn't happen with the 4K version.

Does anyone have small test file that reproduces this isse?

Are the files you're casting mkv, avi, or MP4? And the issue isn't casting, it's advancing or rewinding and then trying to continue playback.

Edited December 13, 2022 by wordlover

[bassie112 3]

Also it may be related to transcoding or the audio stream as for me seems to be the problem. Please try ac3 vs eac3 and transcoding audio as my 4k version does show the problem (and worked fine before android 12). I will fiddle around with audio settings of the device, audio set and also native emby app as it may be some newly introduced compatibility issue...

[wordlover 102]

So it's right at hand @cayars, the problems are these:
 

MP4 file - casts fine: playback works fine, resume works fine, advance works fine, seek works fine

MKV (or apparently AVI) file - casts and plays ONLY if starting from the very beginning. Seek forward or backward breaks playback, as does stopping playback and "resume" later. After trying to resume, advance, or seek, 1. only a still image appears on TV screen, 2. there is no way to recommence playback at all, and 3. there is a complete disconnect between the frame that appears on the screen versus the time indicated on the playback bar on the controlling device (i.e. Emby Android app running on Pixel 5 phone).  Please try any MKV file you have: advancing or rewinding, or resuming after you fully stopped playback earlier and returned to home screen, while casting to the new CCHDwGTV . 

[Carlo 4330]

I went back and tested with AC3 direct playing, forcing transcodes using software and hardware (quicksync).  I can play a movie, rw, ff, stop.  Switch to another movie do the same.  Go back to the first movie and continue where I left off and be able to rw, ff, jump to chapters, etc.

At this point I would like to see if you can reproduce this issue using a sample file from:
https://sample-videos.com/
https://filesamples.com/formats/mkv

If you can reproduce the issue using a file from either of those sites anyone wanting to test this could download the same file.
If the problem can't be reproduced using one of those files, we can setup a remote support session to have a look and check a few things besides taking a look at the logs.

If need be, I can cut a 3 to 5 minute sample from a file. We can then add that file and make sure its still reproduceable.

Having a file that can be used to reproduce this will help narrow things down a lot.
IE Chromecast specific model with the issue? 4K version ok but HD version not?

Carlo