Chromecast won't play videos

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

When I play a video and the chromecast is able to direct stream, the video doesn't play.

On the TV I get the OSD for the video I have chosen over a blank (black) screen. The OSD auto hides and I'm left with just the blank screen.

On the dashboard it shows that my Chromecast is connected with the video that it should be playing, it says Direct Playing. The counter remains at --:--:--

 

On the android app or the web player the remote control shows the video selected and the time elapsed remains at 0:00

 

If I press stop the video stops successfully, the TV goes back to the emby splash screen.

 

The log (attached) shows

 

    System.IO.IOException: Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

 

Sometimes chromecasting will work, but most of the time it fails with this error. I've tried files with different containers, different h.264 profiles and forcing the server to transcode by setting the bitrate really low.

server-63621738149.txt

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

It seems that this happens when the chromecast tries to direct stream certain videos. Once this error has occured the chromecast needs to be rebooted before it will start playing successfully again. Here is the media info from a video that "broke" the chromecast

 

[Luke 40154]

Yea it's trying to direct play that title when it probably should be transcoding. To confirm I am correct, try dropping to your in-app chromecast bitrate setting to 5mbps. thanks.

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

Yeah, it plays fine then but only after I've rebooted the chromecast.

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

Is this on the list to be fixed? When I try to play videos that are level 5.1 the chromecast still tries to direct stream them when they need to be transcoded.

[Luke 40154]

In a future update we will add automatic switching to transcoding when the video player reports an error with direct play. thanks !

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

I just tried the new chromecast player that was released yesterday. This problem is still the same. Chromecast tries to direct stream videos that are level 5.1 and the only way to get the chromecast working again is to power cycle.

[Luke 40154]

can you provide a sample file for testing? Thanks !

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

Can I not upload an mkv here? I tried but I get a you aren't permitted error

Edited June 6, 2017 by fuzzthekingoftrees

[Luke 40154]

You won't be able to here, no. Do you have something like dropbox or google drive?

[Luke 40154]

On second thought, try to play the video again with Chromecast. I decided to drop the max supported level to 50 rather than 51. That should force it to transcode. thanks.

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

This is much better. I can play anything that is level 5.1

I tried playing some level 5.0 files with mixed results. I have an mkv with two aac audio tracks. If I start the video playing then it plays OK with the default track as a direct stream. If I switch to the second track I get an ffmpeg-directstream log (attached). And the video fails to play. I the have to power cycle the chromecast before it will play anything else.

 

ffmpeg-directstream-bffa9940-36ca-40b8-ae5c-484196096011.txt

Edited June 8, 2017 by fuzzthekingoftrees

[Luke 40154]

Ok, I've pushed another update to drop the max level to 42. Please try that out. Thanks.

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

I think the chromecast issue is fine now, it transcodes and plays fine as long as I have acceleration turned off.

 

With the acceleration turned on I get an ffmpeg error. Quick Sync has been working really well recently so it would be good to have it working.

ffmpeg-transcode-f3c8739e-8a52-4cbd-883b-bb1393a809cc.txt

[Luke 40154]

You could try removing your customized ffmpeg and going back to the emby default.

[fuzzthekingoftrees 10]

I tried to go back to the default version but it's missing. The folder %appdata%\MediaBrowser-Server\ffmpeg\20170308 is empty

Is there somewhere I can download the files that should be in that folder.

[Luke 40154]

What you can do is just rename your existing ffmpeg folder, and then restart the server. when the server can't find it, it will download the default. let us know if this helps. thanks.