i made a fork of Hedda’s ‘Plex-DNLA-client-profiles’ for just chromecast.xml, this is mainly for chromecast ultra but can be easily modified to help do hevc for standard chromecast.
that we we can all keep contributing our improvements as we figure them out and it will track and be available to all.
if you happen to join in on this, i thank you in advance.
I’ve mentioned elsewhere, but adjusting your chromecast.xml shouldn’t be required. We attempt to modify the transcoder profile from the Chromecast now and detect the cast and TV capabilities there, on the fly.
If you do find that changing this file lets you play content that you couldn’t before could you please let us know and we’ll see if we can update it for everyone on the Chromecast receiver side? Thanks!
Dom C, thanks for the response.
i do find that modifying the file is necessary because, it helps stream 4K,1080p,etc HEVC/h.265 and what not without transcoding using my plex to my chromecast ultra. i did the same when i was using the non-ultra chromecast but obviously not with 4K for that one.
i have to modify it after each update, because the update overwrites the changes.
previously, not sure if it still is required, but previously it was needed also for certain audio could play transcoded rather than not transcode and play nothing.
I’ve also recently picked up a Chromecast Ultra and found that I needed to change the xml file. The default appears to work okay with 2160p movies in mp4 and 1080p in mkv, but to get 2160p mkv to work without transcoding I needed to change to xtrap225’s xml file.
I’d love to have samples https://support.plex.tv/articles/201035968-generating-sample-files-from-media/ and full details of your hardware (cast version and tv/audio setup) so we can make sure as many people as possible can benefit.
We worked on improving the 4k support, but there are likely still holes where we err on the side of transcoding. The more details we have, the better. Thanks for your hard work on this!
i know you like less than 50MB so there are three there that are smaller.
inception.2010.2160p.uhd.bluray.x265.sample.mkv 10.4 MB
kong.skull.island.2017.2160p.uhd.bluray.x265.sample.mkv 8.30 MB
enders.game.2013.2160p.uhd.bluray.x265.sample.mkv 10.6 MB
@“Dom C” question for you, or really anyone who can answer.
i guess another update went in because looks like its time to manually change out the chromecast.xml again,
the default one has this in it,
<VideoCodec name="*">
<Limitations>
<UpperBound name="video.width" value="1920" isRequired="true" />
<UpperBound name="video.height" value="1080" isRequired="true" />
</Limitations>
doesn’t that limit it to 1080p, when my limit should be 4K. you stated that the chromecast is supposed to be sending this information to the plex server to generate a proper chromecast.xml.
i guess my question is, which log or whatever should i be looking at in order to see why mine is note sending the correct information to generate the file correctly?
maybe i should mention that my chromecast ultra is plugged into a Dell 27" 4K monitor, i can get the model if that is important.
The chromecast.xml file included with a Plex Media Server installation represents a baseline of support for a device; in this case it represents the first-generation Chromecast.
When the Plex Chromecast receiver is instructed to play a media stream, it first checks its own capabilities, and those of the display to which it’s attached, such as maximum resolution, on-device codec support, and audio passthrough capabilities. It uses those checks to create an augmentation to the Chromecast.xml profile. For example, although EAC3 passthrough is not expressed in Chromecast.xml, the transcoder will allow it to direct stream when the capability is expressed in the profile augmentation.
I’m working on making Chromecast device logs available through the Plex Media Server logs in a way that won’t adversely affect device performance. I’ll include information in the Chromecast release notes once such a feature goes live.
Would be great to have plex check version of Chromecast as Ultra got some more power in it.
Is there any update on this?
I have 2 chromecast ultras connected to TVs that don’t support surround sound. When I stream anything with 5.1 AAC from Plex it just refuses to play, and I have even had to resort to excavating my old WD Live TV from the garage in order to play some files.
I am a bit of a novice at this, but would appreciate help with a couple of questions:
I like Plex. But the inability to play a good third of my library means it isn’t that good in practice.
And no, I am not re-encoding the files, this isn’t a practical work around for me. It would involve re-encoding over 2,000 films and 6,000 TV episodes. The collection of over a decade.
Kiwi, did you try my file, cause it works for me?
Not yet. At work at the moment and will try it tonight.
This is broken right now. You guys broke 5.1 support on Chromecast. Please fix this asap. You guys needs some better forums moderation when things like this break and effect a large group of paying users.
To fix the channels to 5.1, scroll to the bottom where is says UpperBound name=“audio.channels” and change that value to 5 instead of 2. Hope that helps!
In the future, definitely don’t mess with XML profiles and such if you are unsure what you’re effecting. It definitively isn’t the fault of moderators that people are changing things without reading about what they’re doing.
Are you able to pastebin your xml?
For whatever reason, when I play the below media, I get a error stating: Error Code h4 (codec)
This seems to be when I any 4k content
1080p etc is working fine
On both Chromecast Ultra and standard
Codec H264
Bitrate 31619 kbps
Language English
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 2160
Level 5.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 5
Scan Type progressive
Width 3840
Display Title 4K (H.264)
Codec EAC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 448 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Display Title English (EAC3 5.1)
going back to the original xml for now… which wants to transcode 4k which is useless to me anyway
That sounds promising but, like everyone else already replied, it unfortunately does not work yet (one year later after your comment). If I don’t tweak the Chromecast.xml profile, any 4K movie gets transcoded to 1080p…
is there any update on this? from the supported media page for the ultra https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media
the chromecast is more or less able to play everything without transcoding. Currently out of the box it tries to transcode hvec down to x264 which is just not needed
This is broken and needs to be fixed. You are butchering Chromecast Ultra features to support legacy.
Well said that man.
This problem is almost two years old wtf… Why can they not fix this??? Stop giving us ■■■■■■ features no one wants like news, podcast, your own weird ■■■■■■ tv shows, etc and focus your teams energy on the core features.
