Chromecast Live TV Channel Crashes Android App

Live TV & DVR
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Server Version#: 1.19.5.3035
Player Version#: 8.3.0.18912 (144279def)
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun CONNECT QUATRO
Guide/Lineup name: DVR—Freeview Anglia OTA Broadcast
Using XMLTV?: NO
Channel number/Name: ALL

I have noticed recently that when I try to cast live TV from an Android handset to my Chromecast Ultra, no stream is Cast and the app crashes, returning me straight to the phone’s home screen. Sometimes it crashes straight away, sometimes pauses, goes black then crashes.

This seems to be for all channels
The Android app is fine casting other Plex content
The Android app is fine playing live TV locally
The Web App on a laptop can cast live TV to the Chromecast without issue
I haven’t made any (known) changes to my setup, other than updating server and app when prompted.

I can get to the Android’s logs (and server if needed), but didn’t want to paste here incase they need obfuscating first.

Any ideas on this? Is it a known issue?

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Most Live TV is mpeg2 which the chromecast doesn’t play so the Plex server transcodes to h.264. If your server is low on cpu power then not much will happen.

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Thanks. It’s been casting fine from the phone up until about a week ago, and can still cast from the browser.

The server - whilst not bleeding edge - has a quad core 3.4GHz (E3-1231 v3), and a 1050Ti for transcoding.

I’m currently casting from the browser, with

Video
480p (MPEG2VIDEO) (hw)
SD (H264)—Transcode (hw)

Audio
English (MP2 Stereo)
AAC—Transcode

…and it’s fine. Can’t work out why the Android app just quits without warning.

4

You will need some logs to get anywhere.

If you monitor the console (https://app.plex.tv/desktop) filter on failed/error while recreating the problem, does anything pop out?

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When I hit play, the console gives two of

Unable to find title for item of type 5

and then about two seconds of

[Transcoder] [mpeg2video @ 0x6701c0] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.

That’s with the console filtering on error type. If I play it on the Android directly I get the same errors, but it plays.

Oddly, when trying to capture the logs on the Android device, it casted OK twice before crashing again. If currently playing on the android and then casting, the app stays running but the Chromecast will pizza wheel trying to start and the server dashboard says “nothing is currently being played”. Couldn’t find anything in the console suggesting an error.

Thanks for your help - if there are any relevant logs I can supply, let me know.

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Ive just configured Live TV on my Plex, but cant cast to chromecast from my phone (Huawei Mate 10 Pro Android 10).

I can cast from browser on PC, I can watch in phone. But when I try to cast from phone screen goes black for a second or two, then Im back on phones desktop. No error messages, just chrashes.

I.e, same error as Cessquill.

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If it helps, I’m on a Huawei phone too (Mate 20 Pro)

8

Same issue for me with player 8.4.2.19372

9

Every now and then I can get it to work. If I’m casting a channel from a browser and connect via the android app it’ll sometimes hop on after a few tries.

Largely though it bombs out.

10

Plex is busy with a fix; see Android app crashes when casting Live TV to Chromecast

1 Like
11

As an update of this, we’ve submitted a new 8.5 beta with a fix for it which some users have reported to have fixed the issue. If you can go and give it a go, it’d be nice. Thanks in advance

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