v5.10.x breaks direct play on Chromecast for >20Mbps files

Version 5.9.x of android app direct plays my Blu-ray rips h264 AAC to my wired Chromecast smooth as silk.

Version 5.10.x of android app forces my Blu-ray rips to transcode. Nothing I seem to change in app allows me to direct stream them once more. I select original quality and it gets ignored on playback screen.

TV shows are still direct playing, so Plex must be trying to be clever on file sizes or bit rates and is making the wrong decision. Please fix this is really annoying, should have been picked​ up in regression testing.

I’ve also noticed​ on playback screen there is no option for subtitles. I only need subtitles for foreign non English speaking parts so just turn them on when I realise I need them. However all my rips have English subtitles available, so could this be interfering here, although no subtitles are appearing on screen, but is it triggering some transcoding logic because of it. It doesn’t make sense why the subtitles aren’t selectable when the movie is playing through Chromecast anymore.

What does your log file say the reason for the transcode is? Does this happen even on movies it was Direct Playing before?

It could be that the bitrates of your media is higher than the Chromecast can support. Which is why I suggest you check an older (supposedly known working) movie to see if it forces transcodes now.

I mentioned above a slightly older version of Android app allows playing on Chromecast via direct play. The same movies which are forced to transcode on latest version of android app when using Chromecast.

I specifically rip the Blu-ray’s leaving video as is h264 and converting audio to AAC to avoid transcoding.

The quality menu option in Android app changed significantly recently and I’m pretty sure it’s related to that.

Ive turned off the 'Videos smaller than 20Mbs will play at original quality" option, but what about those that >20Mbps and are perfectly capable of being direct played to Chromecast?

I’ll try and get some log snippets to compare difference as to what is happening here.

Ok, as I thought the new android app and I assume IOS plex app is forcing transcoding when a file exceeds 20 Mbps, despite my chromecast being able to direct play the file without issue >:)

The movie file I was testing was MIDNIGHT_SPECIAL, I have the full logs if Plex support wish me to send them on, snippets from them below:

New Android App 5.10.1.264:

May 30, 2017 13:37:03.486 [7536] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing direct play
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.533 [8040] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; bitrate: 28042 > 20000
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.596 [11308] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing video direct stream
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.643 [5032] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; bitrate: 28042 > 20000
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.721 [7536] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing audio direct stream
May

May 30, 2017 13:37:03.846 [14252] VERBOSE - [TranscodeOutputStream] Waiting 100ms for more data…
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.846 [14832] DEBUG - [TranscodeOutputStream] Input processing thread started at offset 0 for -1 bytes.
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.846 [11308] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Finished analysis of 1080 (mkv, h264, aac, 41, high)
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.908 [5032] INFO - [Chromecast] canPlay: true
May 30, 2017 13:37:03.955 [10928] VERBOSE - [TranscodeOutputStream] Waiting 100ms for more data…
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.002 [7536] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectPlay: false
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.064 [10928] VERBOSE - [TranscodeOutputStream] Waiting 100ms for more data…
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.127 [8040] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectStreamVideo: false
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.174 [10928] VERBOSE - [TranscodeOutputStream] Waiting 100ms for more data…
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.205 [14252] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectStreamAudio: true
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.268 [5032] INFO - [Chromecast] bitrate: 20000
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.283 [12444] VERBOSE - [TranscodeOutputStream] Waiting 100ms for more data…
May 30, 2017 13:37:04.346 [14252] INFO - [Chromecast] videoResolution: 1080

[PlexPy Showing Video Transcoding]

[New Android App showing Quality setting screens]
Quality always defaults to 20Mbps by App, even when I select play original quality the stream does not restart and direct play, it is ignored, hence it always transcodes, there appears to be no workaround.

Old Android App 5.9.0.707:
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.457 [12124] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing direct play
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.551 [13900] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing video direct stream
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.661 [0200] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing audio direct stream
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.739 [12124] VERBOSE - [Chromecast] [MDE] Analyzing playability
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.832 [13516] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Finished analysis of 1080 (mkv, h264, aac, 41, high)
May 30, 2017 13:31:18.957 [0200] INFO - [Chromecast] canPlay: true
May 30, 2017 13:31:19.051 [12124] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectPlay: true
May 30, 2017 13:31:19.145 [13516] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectStreamVideo: true
May 30, 2017 13:31:19.239 [11056] INFO - [Chromecast] canDirectStreamAudio: true
May 30, 2017 13:31:19.473 [12124] INFO - [Chromecast] bitrate: 28042

[PlexPy Showing Direct Play Status]

[Android App showing Original Quality has been set]

To summarise there is a bug in new Android App which forces transcoding of any files that exceed 20Mbps, not good for my electricity bill.

Please Fix!

Hi @saltyzip ,

could you post full Android/PMS logs? that would be very useful to identify the issue.

Thanks in advance

Encrypted Zip file attached with the logs, I’ll pm you the password.

If you need more information let me know, and thanks for looking into this.

You have setting on your android that are forcing it to transcode. Try going back and setting things so that can direct play if possible then try this again.

I wish I knew what setting that was because I’ve tried turning stuff on and off. If I click maximum quality in the app when playing a movie it ignores it completely.

In old version it would restart the stream, but since 5.10.x it doesn’t work.

The default settings in the app should force direct play anyway, I shouldn’t have to go tweaking settings to make it.

Hey there!

the team has identified the issue and we are working on it.

thank you all for your help!

No problem, thanks for picking up my thread on the forum, and taking me seriously with the issue

My family love Plex and as I travel a lot it is my portable entertainment system too, so there is mutual benefits to resolving this one.

Any news on when the fix will be available, as I’m missing watching Blu Ray movie rips on my Chromecast?

I’m also having this issues so… bump

Has this been fixed yet? Casting to chromecast ultra was forcing transcode via android but was fine when carrying from pms server on windows via chrome? Using latest Android app, and latest pms server on plex pass branch.

Still waiting for fix here too.

Was this fixed in iOS app? If I try to select “Maximum” for internet streaming, it bumps down to “Convert to 1080p…” for no reason.

Latest Plex app and server version. iPhone 7. Chromecast Ultra.

It’s still not fixed in Android app either. So glad my server is powerful enough to transcode, as I would have gone spare by now if I had relied on direct play.

Any news on a fix for reigning in the McStreamy engine so it listens to its master and plays original quality?

It has been almost three months since this was reported and it’s still an issue. Is there an ETA on when it will be fixed? It’s getting annoying having to cast from my computer any time I need something to direct play.

I agree this is frustrating, there has been plenty of updates to app and server but non that fix this issue.

Any updates on this?! I had to roll back to v5.9 because of this issue. Its annoying as it adds unnecessary load on my server and you lose quality. Some sort of update would be nice…