Emby for Android on Chromecast won't transcode

[MSI2017 48]

Hi all, 

I am trying to play on a Chromecast HD. First I had the Emby for Android TV app, but that kept saying too many errors. Now and the normal android app the 4k HDR MP4 chugs. So obviously I change the resolution (which weirdly still doesn't happen automatically because why should it) but no matter what I choose it just doesn't transcode. There are no ffmpeg logs, 144p even does nothing. In-app statistics for nerds also just says ffmpeg renderer.

Logs attached. Works fine on a phone. Also, when the file is playing it doesn't show up in the  dashboard but that has been happening often lately after I switched to CF tunnel. Which isn't the issue btw, because phone outside the network works fine.

 

embyserver.txt

[MSI2017 48]

Just saw the announcement post where one of the main points why people should use emby is Seamless and Efficient Transcoding. Now, I don't know how Plex or Jellyfin works because I don't want to use Plex because of privacy reasons, and Jellyfin doesn't have the clients I need (so that backs up Emby being the best choice) but I really cannot see what is said under the seamless transcoding. Efficient yes, but only when it works. Dynamically I have never ever experienced, I made numerous posts on how Emby's handling of transcoding is stupid. It doesn't transcode to a lower bitrate when the bandwidth isn't sufficient, when a player is dropping frames beyond belief when playing a 4K file in HDR it'll never automatically kick in transcoding and now the issue which made me open this topic. 

I mostly agree with the general tone in the announcement, I do think Emby is great, and this plus my other posts are because I genuinely care. But as I said here I do think it would be great to get more on top of things such as this by freeing up some time. With the added benefit of getting the UI and UX to feel more modern is discussed quite often. 

[visproduction 315]

Of interest?

UPnError occurs 945 times in the 12 minute duration log file.

Why is there 525 times debug traffic to this address?
 http://192.168.1.1:36638/ctl/IPConn

 

[MSI2017 48]

54 minutes ago, visproduction said:

Of interest?

UPnError occurs 945 times in the 12 minute duration log file.

Why is there 525 times debug traffic to this address?
 http://192.168.1.1:36638/ctl/IPConn

 

Hmm actually @Lukecould this indeed be the issue? I'm using Cloudflare Tunnels because my old setup (external domain using Cloudflare DNS) broke. CFTunnels tunnels in your network as if you're local? Although that would explain why casting is broken, not why it isn't working on the Chromecast itself.

 

 

[Lessaj 467]

The UPNP errors are meaningless, they're from the port already being mapped. Really I don't think anyone should be using UPNP, you should be manually adding port forwarding rules.

I see some transcodes that failed instantly, and I see the reason for transcode being video codec not supported. I think the content is AV1. Do you have any example ffmpeg-transcode logs from when the issue occurred? They may contain more info about why they failed immediately.

[MSI2017 48]

2 hours ago, Lessaj said:

The UPNP errors are meaningless, they're from the port already being mapped. Really I don't think anyone should be using UPNP, you should be manually adding port forwarding rules.

I see some transcodes that failed instantly, and I see the reason for transcode being video codec not supported. I think the content is AV1. Do you have any example ffmpeg-transcode logs from when the issue occurred? They may contain more info about why they failed immediately.

Afaik they are hevc files, the transcoding logs are not there. The fact that transcoding didn't work I'm afraid also means no logs were captured 

[yocker 1248]

On 10/29/2024 at 11:42 PM, MSI2017 said:

Hi all, 

I am trying to play on a Chromecast HD. First I had the Emby for Android TV app, but that kept saying too many errors. Now and the normal android app the 4k HDR MP4 chugs. So obviously I change the resolution (which weirdly still doesn't happen automatically because why should it) but no matter what I choose it just doesn't transcode. There are no ffmpeg logs, 144p even does nothing. In-app statistics for nerds also just says ffmpeg renderer.

Logs attached. Works fine on a phone. Also, when the file is playing it doesn't show up in the  dashboard but that has been happening often lately after I switched to CF tunnel. Which isn't the issue btw, because phone outside the network works fine.

 

embyserver.txt 3.31 MB · 2 downloads

Chromecast only works over https, i'm even pretty sure it only works on port 443.
Looking at the logs there are a lot of errors with port mapping so could be the problem.

I had similar problems first time trying to use Chromecast because i had mapped my ports differently, your problem might ofc. be a different issue.

[MSI2017 48]

13 hours ago, yocker said:

Chromecast only works over https, i'm even pretty sure it only works on port 443.
Looking at the logs there are a lot of errors with port mapping so could be the problem.

I had similar problems first time trying to use Chromecast because i had mapped my ports differently, your problem might ofc. be a different issue.

Well it should be HTTPS as far as the Chromecast is concerned right? Because tunnels goes over https. @CarloAby clue perhaps? I remember you helping a lot when I setup CF

Edited October 31, 2024 by MSI2017

[yocker 1248]

3 hours ago, MSI2017 said:

Well it should be HTTPS as far as the Chromecast is concerned right? Because tunnels goes over https. @CarloAby clue perhaps? I remember you helping a lot when I setup CF

Maybe, my concern is that you might not have port forwarded so that 443 is used on the internet side and that Chromecast requires that.

For me to get Chromecast to work, what ever internal port used had to be forwarded to 443 external.
Otherwise the Chromecast just kept trying on port 443 and failed no matter what port i entered into the Emby client.

Been looking at Google a bit and it does seem like Chromecast requires port 443 and will not work on any other port.
If any one knows better than me then please correct me!!

 

Edited October 31, 2024 by yocker

[MSI2017 48]

On 10/29/2024 at 11:42 PM, MSI2017 said:

Hi all, 

I am trying to play on a Chromecast HD. First I had the Emby for Android TV app, but that kept saying too many errors. Now and the normal android app the 4k HDR MP4 chugs. So obviously I change the resolution (which weirdly still doesn't happen automatically because why should it) but no matter what I choose it just doesn't transcode. There are no ffmpeg logs, 144p even does nothing. In-app statistics for nerds also just says ffmpeg renderer.

Logs attached. Works fine on a phone. Also, when the file is playing it doesn't show up in the  dashboard but that has been happening often lately after I switched to CF tunnel. Which isn't the issue btw, because phone outside the network works fine.

 

embyserver.txt 3.31 MB · 4 downloads

@Lukecould you please give this a glance and see if there is anything you notice? many thanks!

[yocker 1248]

Using a VPN can also cause the problems you are facing.
Some Android phones (Apple too?) have Google VPN on by default, i've never tested it but guess it could cause problems.

Other than that i'm out of ideas, sorry. It's very much sounds like a misconfiguration somewhere though.

Edit: Forgot to mention Cloudflare can only cause Chromecast to not work.

Edited November 5, 2024 by yocker

[Luke 42079]

Are you using a reverse proxy?

[MSI2017 48]

Just now, Luke said:

Are you using a reverse proxy?

Just Cloudflare tunnels 

[Luke 42079]

Requests in your server log are coming in with the wrong http method (e.g. GET instead of POST or DELETE). Looks like a misconfigured reverse proxy.

[MSI2017 48]

Just now, Luke said:

Requests in your server log are coming in with the wrong http method (e.g. GET instead of POST or DELETE). Looks like a misconfigured reverse proxy.

So when just using CF Tunnels to get in by the use of my domain, where should I look? 

 

Thank you for the answer by the way

[Luke 42079]

2 minutes ago, MSI2017 said:

So when just using CF Tunnels to get in by the use of my domain, where should I look? 

 

Thank you for the answer by the way

You should make sure the original request method is preserved, rather than blindly redirecting everything to a GET like it currently appears to be doing. 

[MSI2017 48]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

You should make sure the original request method is preserved, rather than blindly redirecting everything to a GET like it currently appears to be doing. 

Would it be changing the proxy type? That is the only thing that can be edited that seems meaningful. Additionally, I forgot to mention that cloudflared does connect with the localhost, which is not https. Since it's a tunnel I don't think it matters but worth to mention I figured.

[Luke 42079]

15 hours ago, MSI2017 said:

Would it be changing the proxy type? That is the only thing that can be edited that seems meaningful. Additionally, I forgot to mention that cloudflared does connect with the localhost, which is not https. Since it's a tunnel I don't think it matters but worth to mention I figured.

I don't think so. Have you gone through this topic?

 

[Carlo 4561]

On 10/31/2024 at 11:56 AM, MSI2017 said:

Well it should be HTTPS as far as the Chromecast is concerned right? Because tunnels goes over https. @CarloAby clue perhaps? I remember you helping a lot when I setup CF

Did you get this working?
If not, try something for me.  Turn off the tunnel and restart Emby server.
Try playing a movie or show and see if you can cast to the Chromecast.
With the tunnel still off try the browser-to-browser cast below.

Now try this.  Using Edge or Chrome browser opens the web app, so you're connected to your Emby Server. 
On another computer in your home LAN open a browser and try to cast to the Edge browser on the first computer.
If you don't have 2 computers to try this use one computer using Edge/Chrome and use Firefox to do the casting.

Start your tunnel and restart Emby back up.

Now try both tests again
What results did you get?

Did it work, work. not work, work for the four casting tests?