Casting from Android App to Chromecast

[Guest Esspeecy]

Yesterday I was able to cast from my Android App to my Chromecast with no problems. Today, I get a spinning circle like it's trying to load a show, and then a black screen and nothing. The Dashboard shows that the app has "finishing playing xyz", the in-app cast player controls appear but there's no time, metadata etc so it's like it's just failing to stream at all. Playback is fine in the web browser and on the app itself. Anything I cast now hits this problem, not just a particular TV show or movie.

Can you help please? I've attached the logs. My phone is a Google Pixel 5 with Android 12 (updated to 12 way before this happened), Emby Server running on Windows 10 is 4.6.7.0.

Logs are attached. Only thing I can think of is Emby Server has recently been updated. Chromecast has been hard and soft rebooted, Emby Server and PC have been restarted, phone has been restarted.

Thank you!

EmbyChromecast.zip

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Esspeecy,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42079]

Hi, I don't know if this will matter, but as a test, please try deleting this directory:

C:\Users\Shaun\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\fonts

Then restarting Emby server and trying again and seeing if the problem persists. Thanks.

[Guest Esspeecy]

Thank you, will give this a try and let you know

[Luke 42079]

@Esspeecy did this help?

[Guest Esspeecy]

14 hours ago, Luke said:

@Esspeecy did this help?

Hi Luke, I've just tried it and there's no change.

[Luke 42079]

19 minutes ago, Esspeecy said:

Hi Luke, I've just tried it and there's no change.

@Esspeecy can you please attach a new log example? Thanks.

[Guest Esspeecy]

On 01/12/2021 at 20:18, Luke said:

@Esspeecy can you please attach a new log example? Thanks.

Logs attached, plus a screenshot showing what the Android in-app player controls look like once the spinning circle has stopped on the Chromecast, and a black screen is left.

ffmpeg-remux-f4ec230d-9985-4f9e-96ae-14bb8e332944_1.zip

[Guest Esspeecy]

On 01/12/2021 at 20:18, Luke said:

@Esspeecy can you please attach a new log example? Thanks.

Hi there, is there any update on this please? I attached logs as requested.

[Luke 42079]

@Esspeecy As a test, if you disable the subtitles prior to playback, how does that compare?

[Guest Esspeecy]

Just now, Luke said:

@Esspeecy As a test, if you disable the subtitles prior to playback, how does that compare?

No change, but I have installed the latest beta and it's been working fine.

[Luke 42079]

OK thanks for the update.

[Guest Esspeecy]

On 20/12/2021 at 17:34, Luke said:

OK thanks for the update.

Hi Luke, this issue is now occuring when I try and Resume when using Chromecast, version 4.7.0.32.

I've attached the logs again. Can you please advise?

Thank you

103835_ResumeOnChromecast.zip

[Luke 42079]

On 3/27/2022 at 5:04 PM, Esspeecy said:

Hi Luke, this issue is now occuring when I try and Resume when using Chromecast, version 4.7.0.32.

I've attached the logs again. Can you please advise?

Thank you

103835_ResumeOnChromecast.zip 152.89 kB · 0 downloads

@Esspeecy  have you updated to 4.7.0.35? Can you please describe what you are seeing? Thanks.

[Guest Esspeecy]

Hi Luke,

I'm on 4.8.0.8.

I've attached a screenshot showing what I see in the web browser - the TV just has the spinning circle and then goes black

Thanks

Shaun

 

[Luke 42079]

7 hours ago, Esspeecy said:

Hi Luke,

I'm on 4.8.0.8.

I've attached a screenshot showing what I see in the web browser - the TV just has the spinning circle and then goes black

Thanks

Shaun

 

@Esspeecy 

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[Guest Esspeecy]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

@Esspeecy 

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

Hi Luke,

Main and transcode logs are attached, plus collated screenshots from the web and Android app versions of Emby - perhaps a second after the spinning circle has stopped on the Chromecast display, the screen goes black and the Pause button becomes a Play button. Subsequent presses of the Play button does nothing at all.

Thanks

Shaun

ffmpeg-remux-ca0cc142-fd3d-490d-b51d-4e9306731519_1.zip

[visproduction 315]

Ess,

I see in the log that you have Streamtranscode errors "cancelled during ValidateEncoderOutput" and many error Response 500 to host5.  Chromecast Wifi has a known ongoing issue with being able to keep a Wifi connection, apparently especially for 3rd party traffic.  I have not read it through and I may just be assuming that happens.  There is a similar fix that happend with Roku, where other Wfi is blocked so that Roku can keep the best connection. 

Anyway, you are using Chromecast.  Have a look here at: https://piunikaweb.com/2021/03/01/chromecast-google-tv-keeps-turning-off-wi-fi-issues-with-5ghz-band/

Both Chromcast and Roku seem to have released a software update in 2021 that tries to make sure only their preferred traffic gets through and other traffic is blocked.  I suspect this also updates to work better with Mesh Wifi issues.  Chromcast's goal is to be more dependable and have less support calls.

I know that with Roku, you can turn it off, but  I am not sure about Chromecast.  One test to do to confirm that Chromecast software might be screwing up your Wifi traffic is to connect the TV directly to the router with Ethernet, turn TV connect on to direct  and see if your problem goes away.

Using Wifi to connect to your TV runs into all sorts of possible problems.  For example: Mesh Wifi allows for multiple sources router and extenders to be active and the MESH software / hardware mix is suppose to auto determine which sender has a stronger signal.  If you walk around the house with an iPad or phone, Mesh setup will track your reception and flip you to another sending source, from the router direct to an extender.  You end up with better coverage, but there is a cost.  Mesh software speed output takes a hit because every signal has to be tested at a regular interval and then packet stream could flip to an extender.  Anyway, I mention this because Chromecast doesn't really like to have this happen with their signal, because you are not moving the TV around, so it doesn't need to flip.  It prefers to lock-in and never change to whatever has the best signal strength.  I believe both Chromcast and Roku lock out Mesh data or make it difficult to interact and that way they lock in their own perferred data stream better.  This lockout is running if you have Mesh or not.  Chromecast uses this to also fix wireless printers that are setup to broadcast instead of IP assigned.  A printer, not setup correctly, interfers with Wifi and can cut the signal strength by up to perhaps 80%.  I would guess both Chromecast and Roku were sick of trying to troubleshoot MESH and printer signal interference, so they came up with the blocking other data streams update.

I am guessing that happened to you with a Chromecast update in 2021.  The article listed above talks about this.  The easiest test is to bypass the Wifi with a direct line.  If that works, then you know it's the router Wifi to Chromcast that needs tweaking.  Personally, I never use Wifi connections to the TV, because these updates can happen overnight and you get stuck and spend many hours trying to fix it, when a simple cable run, avoids the problem.

Also just noticed in the article,  do you have 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz named the same?  Are they both named Wireless80211?  I thought that was not possible.  If so, then change the name for 5Ghz to something else and see if that helps.

Hope that helps.

Edited September 15, 2022 by visproduction

[Guest Esspeecy]

18 minutes ago, visproduction said:

Ess,

I see in the log that you hvae Streamtranscode errors "cancelled during ValidateEncoderOutput" and many error Response 500 to host5.  Chromecast Wifi has a known ongoing issue with being able to keep a Wifi connection, apparently especially for 3rd party traffic.  I have not read it through and I may just be assuming that happens.  There is a similar fix that happend with Roku, where other Wfi is blocked so that Roku can keep the best connection. 

Anyway, you are using Chromecast.  Have a look here at: https://piunikaweb.com/2021/03/01/chromecast-google-tv-keeps-turning-off-wi-fi-issues-with-5ghz-band/

Both Chromcast and Roku seem to have released a software update in 2021 that tries to make sure only their preferred traffic gets through and other traffic is blocked.  I suspect this also updates to work better with Mesh Wifi issues.  Chromcast's goal is to be more dependable and have less support calls.

I know that with Roku, you can turn it off, but  I am not sure about Chromecast.  One test to do to confirm that Chromecast software might be screwing up your Wifi traffic is to connect the TV directly to the router with Ethernet, turn TV connect on to direct  and see if your problem goes away.

Using Wifi to connect to your TV runs into all sorts of possible problems.  For example: Mesh Wifi allows for multiple sources router and extenders to be active and the MESH software / hardware mix is suppose to auto determine which sender has a stronger signal.  If you walk around the house with an iPad or phone, Mesh setup will track your reception and flip you to another sending source, from the router direct to an extender.  You end up with better coverage, but there is a cost.  Mesh software speed output takes a hit because every signal has to be tested at a regular interval and then packet stream could flip to an extender.  Anyway, I mention this because Chromecast doesn't really like to have this happen with their signal, because you are not moving the TV around, so it doesn't need to flip.  It prefers to lock-in and never change to whatever has the best signal strength.  I believe both Chromcast and Roku lock out Mesh data or make it difficult to interact and that way they lock in their own perferred data stream better.  This lockout is running if you have Mesh or not.  Chromecast uses this to also fix wireless printers that are setup to broadcast instead of IP assigned.  A printer, not setup correctly, interfers with Wifi and can cut the signal strength by up to perhaps 80%.  I would guess both Chromecast and Roku were sick of trying to troubleshoot MESH and printer signal interference, so they came up with the blocking other data streams update.

I am guessing that happened to you with a Chromecast update in 2021.  The article listed above talks about this.  The easiest test is to bypass the Wifi with a direct line.  If that works, then you know it's the router Wifi to Chromcast that needs tweaking.  Personally, I never use Wifi connections to the TV, because these updates can happen overnight and you get stuck and spend many hours trying to fix it, when a simple cable run, avoids the problem.

Hope that helps.

 

I'll certainly give this a go but I definitely cannot use ethernet because it's not a smart TV, this is why I have a Chromecast.

Interestingly I was able to get it working by opening Emby in incognito mode and then casting the browser to Chromecast

[visproduction 315]

On 9/12/2022 at 10:47 AM, Esspeecy said:

...  Interestingly I was able to get it working by opening Emby in incognito mode and then casting the browser to Chromecast

Hmmm, That is curious.  Does anyone know why this might happen?
Perhaps the regular browser has cached data that go to pages that had some error. You going back to a page just loads the old page that had the problem.   If you clear the browser cache, then a normal browser might start working again.  Shortcut to clear for Chrome browser is [Cltr] [Shift] [del].  This is really handy, because otherwise I think it's about 6 mouse clicks. 

[Luke 42079]

On 9/12/2022 at 1:47 PM, Esspeecy said:

I'll certainly give this a go but I definitely cannot use ethernet because it's not a smart TV, this is why I have a Chromecast.

Interestingly I was able to get it working by opening Emby in incognito mode and then casting the browser to Chromecast

Maybe the difference in the two is what subtitle track you had selected?

[ArMaCampFlow 0]

Hello everyone, I get a Chromecast and I live in Cuba. So, i use my home emby server as Netflix at my home because we don't have internet by wifi only mobile data. 

I cant cast from may emby to the Chromecast.My question is if is important Chromecast internet access at the moment when i cast from my mobile. Both devices are connected to the same network and Chromecast device is visible in my mobile. But the operation nevers complete.

Gracias 

[Luke 42079]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:31 PM, ArMaCampFlow said:

Hello everyone, I get a Chromecast and I live in Cuba. So, i use my home emby server as Netflix at my home because we don't have internet by wifi only mobile data. 

I cant cast from may emby to the Chromecast.My question is if is important Chromecast internet access at the moment when i cast from my mobile. Both devices are connected to the same network and Chromecast device is visible in my mobile. But the operation nevers complete.

Gracias 

Hi, all Chromecast apps require an internet connection in order to cast to your Chromecast. Is this your problem?