Chromecast Ultra and 2nd Gen - Error code: h4 (Not Supported)

Plex Players Streaming Devices
122

can one of you provide a file that doesn’t play.

1 Like
123

@BigWheel I’m happy to send a file. I’m assuming I can’t post it here, so is there another method?

124

Put it on Google Drive or similar and message me a link to it ( click on my username/avatar to see message button)

125

Thanks! Link sent.

126

I can provide, literally, dozens of them.

I can also provide you with (1) An original TiVo file, (2) a transcoded video with 2 audio channels that works and (3) another transcoded video using exactly the same ffmpeg options, but with 6 audio channels, that exhibits the error in the original subject line of this thread. I can also provide you with (4) VPN access and login credentials to the Plex server on which this is happening, if necessary.

127

thanks. if i need more I’ll let you know.

128

Was just about to buy the lifetime-pass a couple of hours ago, when I ran into this problem while testing on free. No purchase for now then!

Android, MacBook Air and served from a remote Win server to Chromecast (2nd gen).

129

Bare metal
Windows Server 2016 Essentials
Media is either MPEG-4 or MPEG-TS almost all are 5.1 surround.
MPEG-4 files created with HandBrake, MPEG-TS files are recordings by Plex or Channels DVR from a HD HomeRun Extend set to heavy transcode.
Everything direct plays locally.

I did see the “Opps, something went wrong” error on the Chromecast at my lady friend’s place on Friday, but clearing the Plex app’s storage on my Pixel 3 fixed it.

130

Found a quick fix by accident for this (in my case). When I get this annoying popup, I just click on x it and than play again. Works every time.

131

Ok everyone, so this might be something significant. Maybe a solution?
Maybe we can get others to test this and see how it works for others.

I have been spending time digging into logs and refining my Plex Media Server Docker deployment on Unraid (6.3.0).

Firstly, I migrated my Plex docker from the linuxserver image to the official plexinc image.

After that, I continued investigating the playback issues I’ve been getting and thought I’d try to Optimise a few series to get playback working in a “compatible” format.

Then I noticed that the optimised media would not optimise, after some hours of poking around.

In the logs I noticed a message repeating, around the times I tried to play media and also at the optimise transcode attempts:

Jobs: Exec of /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs/EasyAudioEncoder-798-linux-x86_64/EasyAudioEncoder/EasyAudioEncoder failed. (13)

So I figured I would try to alleviate the apparent issue with executing the audio-transcode binary:

chmod -R 777 /mnt/user/appdata/plex/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/

this may also work for others:

chmod -R 777 "/mnt/user/appdata/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Codecs/"

…and now I get this in my unraid log:

Dolby, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and the double D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.

…and playback seems to be working.

What this chmod -R 777 <dir> command does is set permissions on all recursive directories and files FOR EVERYONE to READ+WRITE+EXECUTE.

It appears to have solved the issue, at least in my current testing.
At this point I’m not sure if this has resolved the issue, but I need to test more extensively.
I’ve been doing a lot of things in recent months to try and fix this, so this might be something else unrelated that fixed it in conjunction with this permissions fix.
I’m also unsure if this is due to the migration to using the official plexinc docker image or something else entirely that I’m missing… but it seems to work.

So I’d ask and advise others try this and report the following:

  • version of Plex running?
  • on docker/baremetal/VM/etc?
  • what OS?

Thanks guys.

2 Likes
132

Sadly, no dice. I’ve attached the log from an attempt at playback of a recording after changing the file permissions as you suggested. Of particular interest, I would think:

Invalid profile property; channels: 5 > 2

and eventually:

Finished analysis of 720 (mp4, h264, aac, 21, )
Direct stream audio failed; option is disabled
Direct stream video failed; option is disabled
Direct play failed; option is disabled

5 channel audio is not a challenge for the Chromecast.

My server version is 1.20.4.3517
I’m running bare metal
My OS is Linux Pi2Bv1.1 5.4.72-v7l+ running on a Pi 4 Model B

log.txt (24.0 KB)

133

I’m probably tempting fate when I say this, but, I’ve not seen this message in a few weeks. It’s not from having a plex pass (which I got few weeks ago), and not from using hardware encoding - I’ve had the error since both of those. I think it’s since the latest update I’ve not seen the error. Maybe, just maybe … can we dare to dream.

134

Sounds like I should apply the most recent update. I’ll give it a shot and report back.

135

Still having this issue on the Chromecast with Google TV.

136

Have you updated your Chromecast with Google TV? I have never seen this error on my Chromecasts with Google TV (I now have two).

https://9to5google.com/2020/11/23/chromecast-incremental-update-200819-015-november/amp/

137

It only happens for certain MKVs with truehd audio (for me).

however, I am having issues with most formats with the new Chromecast. 4k hdr refuses to direct play about 20mbps.

138

Ah, I don’t have any of those.

139

I also faced this issue with a 2nd gen chromecast.
Roughly every 10 mins during playback this error occured and I had to restart the stream to watch the movie.

Happened by casting it either from my android phone or from PC (Chrome).

As a Chromecast user I’ve seen plenty of bugs with Chromecast, from infinite loops (play, pause, play, pause, …) to h4 error codes and simply “Playback failed” without any code.

This happens too frequently. Not everytime… but too frequently.

One thing I noted is that some errors stopped happening when Plex burns-in the subtitles.

140

Same here
Plex Pass, currently not working but on web, android, ios, windows-app. Chromecast not.
Anybody from PLEX Support here?

141

Thought I’d chime in here, as a Plex novice and not (yet) a Pass subscriber with a 2nd gen Chromecast plugged into a Yamaha RX-V479 receiver. I too had at a particular movie the “Error code: h4 (not supported)” message.

Some info on the file:

Media

  • Length 2:21:53
  • Bitrate 22522 kbps
  • Width 1920
  • Height 804
  • Aspect Ratio 2.35
  • Video Resolution 1080p
  • Container MKV
  • Video Frame Rate 24p
  • Video Profile high

Deel

  • Duur 2:21:53

  • File ---------- (2019) [Bluray-1080p Proper].mkv

  • Size 22.32 GB

  • Container MKV

  • Video Profile high

  • Codec H264

  • Bitrate 20986 kbps

  • Taal English

  • Bit Depth 8

  • Chroma Location left

  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0

  • Coded Height 816

  • Coded Width 1920

  • Color Primaries bt709

  • Color Range tv

  • Color Space bt709

  • Color Trc bt709

  • Frame Rate 23.976 fps

  • Height 804

  • Niveau 4.1

  • Profiel high

  • Ref Frames 5

  • Scan Type progressive

  • Width 1920

  • Display Title 1080p (H.264)

  • Extended Display Title 1080p (H.264)

  • Codec EAC3

  • Kanalen 8

  • Bitrate 1536 kbps

  • Taal English

  • Audio Channel Layout 7.1

  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz

  • Titel E-AC3 DD+7.1

  • Display Title English (EAC3 7.1)

  • Extended Display Title E-AC3 DD+7.1 (English EAC3)

  • Codec SRT

  • Taal English

  • Display Title English (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title English (SRT)

  • Codec SRT

  • Taal English

  • Titel SDH

  • Display Title English (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title SDH (English SRT)

  • Geforceerd true

  • Codec SRT

  • Taal English

  • Titel Forced

  • Display Title English Geforceerd (SRT)

  • Extended Display Title Forced (English SRT)

  • Codec SRT

  • Taal Nederlands

  • Format SRT

  • Display Title Nederlands (SRT Extern)

  • Extended Display Title Nederlands (SRT Extern)

Other mediafiles play just fine. This is the first, but maybe not the only mediafile that gave me the H4 error code. I tried looking for a solution, instead of opting to go for Emby or Jellyfin while I’m still just getting to know Plex in the first place.

I thought I found a problem in the default Chromecast.xml profile included by Plex, specifically about not being able to DirectPlay some mediafiles. Maybe this is not the root issue, but I made me try a Chromecast Ultra profile I found on Github. I placed that in the newly created “Profiles” folder, restarted my Plex container (yes, I’m running it in Docker) to be sure and hurray, there it plays on my Chromecast 2nd gen!

Judging from the log files, DirectPlay still isn’t supported, but now transcoding to something my Chromecast accepts works just fine:

Maybe this has something to do with it in the Chromecast profile:

<VideoAudioCodec name="*">
      <Limitations>
        <UpperBound name="audio.channels" value="6" />
      </Limitations>
    </VideoAudioCodec>