Chromecast AAC 7.1 stopped working (AAC 5.1 works)

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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21

I am also getting the h4 (Not Supported) error on files that used to work. Also seems to be anything with AAC 7.1 audio only.

22

I cant figure out how to force plex to transcode trueHD
It does it for all other devices so why not chromecast ultra?

I’ve tried a few xml edits but I’m clueless

24

I am having the same issue, h.4 not supported.

Plex: Version 1.16.6.1592
Chromecast Ultra

Files encoded with FLAC 7.1/6.1 (16-bit) give this error; FLAC or AAC 5.1 files work as expected.

EDIT: I can provide logs but there are so many that I am not sure what is useful.

25

I can report the exact same issue here. ‘h4’ error appearing where it didn’t before.
I have tried both chromecast and plex production and beta releases - no luck.

26

Just tossing my name in the hat as well, got the same H4 error code as everyone else. I’m on a Chromecast Ultra (v.1.42.168007) and it was working perfectly until 2 days ago.

I’ve spend a few hours Googling, editing Chromecast.xml left and right, rebooting the Chromecast and Plex service multiple times. Nothing seems to fix the issue, sadly.

EDIT: And just updated Plex to newest version a few hours ago, so that’s attempted as well.

27

Same issue here. Anything with 7.1 audio stopped working with Chromecast a few months back. Expected a fix by now… Might be useful if the devs actually monitored these forums and fixed deficiencies in the software their users have paid for…

28

still broken in Version 1.17.0.1709

29

This one is Googles fault

30

Plex needs to prioritize working with Google to get it fixed.

Do a search and see how many other users can’t use Plex to stream (for the last 6 months). And those are just the ones voicing their problem because they were smart enough to use the forum:

I’m curious if Plex even knows/cares that this is an issue for people. They haven’t posted a single comment. They’re probably working on another Tidal service that no one needs.

4 Likes
31

I have a 3rd gen Chromecast, and this issue presented itself to me today. After testing different files, I’ve come to the conclusion that this error occurs with AAC 7.1 and TrueHD 7.1 audio tracks. What a bummer. On the other hand, there is a dca-ma 7.1 audio format that isn’t affected by this issue.

32

i don’t doubt for a second that something google did made it harder. But i refuse to accept a plain blame shift onto google.

i’m no software engineer, but personally i believe that this in the past could have been fixed by making tweaks to the profile. but thanks to the augmented profile (which is still a good thing don’t get me wrong) even if i tell it that aac is not supported and that it should try to transcode it to something else, the augmented profile just comes and says, yeah nah man, aac is fine, just play it.

i know it isn’t a full on solution, but couldn’t they implement a setting to disable the augmented profile for people who wish to do so?

33

yes!
Its a workaround but I’d be happy with that from plex’s end.
It transcodes fine for other devices why not the ultra. I tried all sorts do get a profile to force transcode true HD. Never got it to work.

34

Has anyone come up with a fix for this on NAS media servers? Does the XML file tweak work?

Half of my media is 7.1 and has been unviewable for the last 6 months.

Is there a way to force transcode to 7.1>5.1?

35

The proportion of Chromecast users that use Plex is way smaller than the proportion of Plex users that use Chromecast.

It doesn’t matter if it’s technically Google’s flaw, it’s beyond unacceptable that Plex hasn’t implemented a workaround.

3 Likes
36

Guys,

My philips android TV was just upgraded to the latest version and BANG
No more AAC 7.1 audio … after searching 1 minute I found all these users complaining and also this thread.
I suppose that the android TV got the same chromecast update and therefore broke all my latest movies where AAC 7.1 is used (all the blueray 's actually)

I’m using the latest plex 1.17 media server for QNAP nas

Has there been a workarround?

37

none that i am aware of, well except completely re-encoding your media of course

38

Cmon people, it’s been 4 months, tell me there is something we can do about this

1 Like
39

Is there absolutely no chance a Plex dev could even comment on this?

3 Likes
40

How hard is this for them to do?
The silence is deafening

41

I have had this problem constantly for months now, however didn’t ever think to test my non-chromecast ultra so it’s curious that the ultra is problematic.