Server Version#: 1.32.0.6950
Player Version#: 9.20.1.979
Hello,
I started using plex with a plex pass recently and in my current setup I use my windows pc as a server for my flac audio library and stream audio primarily to a chromecast 2nd gen which is connected to an audio-video receiver via hdmi.
The issue is that when I start an audio track sometimes there are 1 second interval stuttering that happens 2 or 3 times in the first 10 seconds of the song. That only happens on the chromecast though. Mobile (plexamp), PC and laptop don’t have this issue. I tried monitoring the bandwidth and for the same song the results where:
0.5 seconds wide 131Mbps peak (PC-laptop)
Constant 10-20Mbps (Mobile plexamp)
30 seconds wide 150Mbps average (190Mbps peak) with ups and downs (Chromecast)
Apparently the chromecast uses a lot more bandwidth for the same audio file. From what I read I understand that it maybe has something to do with transcoding so I enabled HDMI passthrough on the chromecast plex app but that didn’t make a difference. The CPU and RAM usage are always constant and at a minimum.
My receiver is able to process FLAC so I don’t know if plex needs to transcode the audio. Is there something I can do to put an end to the stuttering? I’m also considering getting an ethernet adapter for the chromecast in order to process that bandwidth
Thanks a lot! Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Today I run some more tests and the problem seems to occur only in FLAC files with 192kHz. The 96kHz don’t have stutters. Also for 96kHz and lower the bandwidth used in the Plex server dashboard is pretty similar to the bandwidth used by the mobile app. Probable cause is that chromecast (i have Chromecast 4k with Google TV) don’t support 192kHz FLAC. It is possible because documentation on the Chromecast Audio says that it only supports up to 96kHz Supported Media for Google Cast | Google Developers I cant find documentation on audio codecs for my chromecast though. Anyway I have ordered an ethernet adapter and I will see if the issue gets resolved by a stronger internet connection. If not I will replace any 192kHz files with their 96kHz equivalent
Edit: This issue also doesn’t occur when streaming the 192kHz files from my phone’s plexamp app and I cast to the chromecast
Really disappointed but nothing seems to help. Nor connecting chromecast to ethernet not even down sampling the files. It just lags at the first 10 seconds of a song. Are there any clues as to why this might happen? Is it the plex app on the chromecast? Casting my mobile plexamp to the chromecast works without lags (but I don’t have gapless playback) and from what I read in that scenario, the files are still loaded directly from the server and are not passing through my phone. So what’s up with the chromecast app?
Everything is now fixed. I’m posting the solutions in case someone goes through the same thing. Most importantly I converted all my flac files to m4a files with alac encoder. I used a free tool called fre:ac. In this tool you can also convert 192kHz sample rate to 92kHz (or lower of course) which I found is necessary in order to stop the stuttering. Plex handles m4a files way better than FLAC it seems. I also kept the ethernet connection on the chromecast cause without it sometimes there were some small problems with stuttering. Finally the latest plex app for chromecast kept crashing randomly when I chose a song (with flac AND with mp4 files). To fix this temporarily, I sideloaded a previous version of the plex app on the chromecast (version 8.24 which you can find on this forum as an apk download). With these done everything works perfectly and the experience is everything I wanted. Thanks plex! I’ll be happy to answer any questions
