Chrome Cast playback.

[yocker 1247]

Chrome Cast seems to not want to resume any videos and just plays back the video from the beginning.
It can't skip forward or backwards in a video either.

This is when the video is being transcoded.

Is this normal?

Edited October 23, 2025 by yocker

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[yocker 1247]

16 hours ago, Luke said:

 

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

 

I couldn't get the app to save any logs so only have the server logs.

It's very easy to replicate though:
Start cast to a device, skip in video or you can just start a video that you are already a bit into.
It only happens when transcoding, no problems when direct playing.

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, and the ffmpeg log?

[yocker 1247]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, and the ffmpeg log?

 

ffmpeg-transcode-de05c4eb-7863-4e51-a0d5-374cd15d4704_1.txt

[Luke 42077]

As a test, if you turn off hardware transcoding in server transcoding settings, how does that compare?

[yocker 1247]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

As a test, if you turn off hardware transcoding in server transcoding settings, how does that compare?

It's the same.

I've tested it with multiple servers, external/internal networks and nothing fixes it for me.

Edited October 30, 2025 by yocker

[Luke 42077]

HI, can you give it another try?

[yocker 1247]

30 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI, can you give it another try?

Tried it with both the android app, Microsoft Edge and two different servers casting to different devices, all with the same result.

These logs are using Emby Server for Windows, Microsoft Edge casting to a Google Nest Hub.

embyserver (1).txt ffmpeg-transcode-1027f4f1-5729-4b76-ba32-47fec3ae3425_1 (1).txt ffmpeg-transcode-af6632ab-99ec-441a-8700-0fa10f0abc2e_1 (1).txt

[yocker 1247]

@LukeAny news?

Is it only me having a problem with this?

[nospotify 184]

17 hours ago, yocker said:

@LukeAny news?

Is it only me having a problem with this?

I had similar problem, which seemed to be resolved in latest Emby release. But Emby and Chromecast have never seemed to work seamlessly together.

[yocker 1247]

3 minutes ago, nospotify said:

I had similar problem, which seemed to be resolved in latest Emby release. But Emby and Chromecast have never seemed to work seamlessly together.

Sadly only works here when not skipping forward or backwards in a movie.
Even resuming a video doesn't work.

Could it be a setting that made it work for you when you updated?

[nospotify 184]

30 minutes ago, yocker said:

Sadly only works here when not skipping forward or backwards in a movie.
Even resuming a video doesn't work.

Could it be a setting that made it work for you when you updated?

After a lot of back and forth with Luke, he acknowledged there was an internal Emby problem and promised it would be fixed, and then with the new release it was. And he and others here suggested I just give up on actual chromecasting, and instead run the generic Emby app on my Chromecast device. You lose some functionality - and what I considered ease of use - but it was easier than spending more time futzing with Emby.

[no6mis 2]

On 12/15/2025 at 12:46 AM, yocker said:

Sadly only works here when not skipping forward or backwards in a movie.
Even resuming a video doesn't work.

I have the same problem on my Chromecast with Emby for Android 3.5.21. However, it doesn't happen with all videos. I haven't been able to figure out which videos are affected. With the videos that are affected, I can neither fast forward nor select chapters, nor can I resume playback.

The problem only occurs on Chromecast. The same video works without any problems on my Android phone (same Emby version) or Emby on Windows.

Edited December 18, 2025 by no6mis

[nospotify 184]

2 hours ago, no6mis said:

I have the same problem on my Chromecast with Emby for Android 3.5.21. However, it doesn't happen with all videos. I haven't been able to figure out which videos are affected. With the videos that are affected, I can neither fast forward nor select chapters, nor can I resume playback.

The problem only occurs on Chromecast. The same video works without any problems on my Android phone (same Emby version) or Emby on Windows.

When I had this problem, it apparently directly related to how pristine the file headers are, and Chromecast's apparently more finicky willingness to work with Emby when a streamed media file is less than perfect. I suggested that Emby should offer more flexibility/error correction (or whatever the correct technical concept is - I'm not an engineer). But one of the senior developers made a rare appearance here to argue along the lines of 'if we accommodate imperfect files then everyone will start using lower quality files.' Without wanting to sound snarky, I think that's a puzzling, anti-user mindset, since other streaming platforms (Plex, etc.) are more accommodating of imperfect media files and no one is going to start sloppier encoding or re-encoding if they know Emby flawlessly handles a wider range of source material. 

[yocker 1247]

14 hours ago, nospotify said:

When I had this problem, it apparently directly related to how pristine the file headers are, and Chromecast's apparently more finicky willingness to work with Emby when a streamed media file is less than perfect. I suggested that Emby should offer more flexibility/error correction (or whatever the correct technical concept is - I'm not an engineer). But one of the senior developers made a rare appearance here to argue along the lines of 'if we accommodate imperfect files then everyone will start using lower quality files.' Without wanting to sound snarky, I think that's a puzzling, anti-user mindset, since other streaming platforms (Plex, etc.) are more accommodating of imperfect media files and no one is going to start sloppier encoding or re-encoding if they know Emby flawlessly handles a wider range of source material. 

For me it's a problem with all files as long as they have to be transcoded.
As soon as it direct plays Chrome Cast works as it should.

Let me be more precise.
I start a video that i cast to my TV, it transcodes and it's fine.
If i skip forward or backwards it tried to start the video back at the beginning but the transcode does correctly go to where it should 
Same thing happens if i resume a video that i was 30 minutes into, the video tries to play from the start but transcode is correctly at the 30 min mark.

Just for shits n' giggles i tried letting the video catch up to the time i was into the video and it then started.

Basically it makes casting rather useless unless direct playing.

I've tried every settings under the sun in Emby, apps, TV or what ever device i'm casting to and nothing fixes the problem.
Also tried casting from multiple devices and even browsers.

Emby just can't figure out starting a video in the middle when transcoding is happening.
I know of other people running Emby server with the same problem as well.

I hate to be "that guy" but.. It works perfectly well in Jellyfin so shouldn't be my hardware at fault.

@Luke
Sorry for poking you but any news about this?
It a feature i very much need so i'm very curios if you can replicate the problem. 
 

Edited December 19, 2025 by yocker

[yocker 1247]

Messed around with the Diagnose plugin.

In Parameter Adjustment:
I replaced: -map_metadata -1
With:          -map_metadata 0

That seems to actually make skipping in chrome cast work.

Can anyone else confirm ?

[yocker 1247]

Testet it more it and seems to fix Chrome cast for all my users as well.

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, yocker said:

Messed around with the Diagnose plugin.

In Parameter Adjustment:
I replaced: -map_metadata -1
With:          -map_metadata 0

That seems to actually make skipping in chrome cast work.

Can anyone else confirm ?

That’s interesting. Can you try it more to see if that holds up?

[yocker 1247]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

That’s interesting. Can you try it more to see if that holds up?

Tested with everything possible that i have and other users on my server as well.
It seems to work for everything and every one without any ill effects.

I refined it a little and it seems to be (with a lack of better words) a bit faster at skipping with:
Text to replace:     -map_metadata -1
Replacement text: -map_metadata 0 -map_chapters 0 -max_muxing_queue_size 2048

----
Text to replace:      -avoid_negative_ts disabled
Replacement text: -avoid_negative_ts make_zero

Also works but with this it would be tricking the device to believe the new time you have skipped to is the start of the video so the progress bar resets to zero.

Edited December 20, 2025 by yocker