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

Plex Players Streaming Devices
162

isn’t that just enabling the passthrough on either the hdmi or the optical audio in the advanced section of the options?

update:

i just tested the windows 10 client for with a documentary that is in 4K HDR with true 7.1 audio, and it worked and everything was direct no transcode.

windows 10 desktop.xml has this line that you could transpose or take parts of from and put in your Chromecast.xml

<DirectPlayProfiles>
    <VideoProfile container="mkv" codec="mpeg4,msmpeg4,msmpeg4v2,hevc,h264,vc1" audioCodec="aac,ac3,eac3,mp3,flac,pcm" /> <!-- Even though FLAC isn't documented as working inside a MKV container, it does -->

i beleive eac3 is the audiocodec that is doing the true 7.1 so you could just try adding that to your Chromecast.xml.

of course just cause you tell it not to transcode doesn’t mean you will be able to hear any sound.

163

Thanks, I didn’t know there was a difference between ac3 and eac3. I’ve seen eac3 in the logs. I’m using a 2nd gen Chromecast and not an ultra.
This issue is a Plex problem as emby just works. I feel daily sure this issue has existed for many years but was not able to narrow down the issue.

Is there a way to send logs and proper diagnostic to Plex?

I don’t believe The option inside Plex for diagnosis actually does anything other than tell them your usage patterns

164

you are welcome to message logs to me and I will add them to bug report. (click on my username/avatar to message)

165

Did those logs help to identify the issue?

166

Please Plex! Sort this annoying issue out.

167

@BigWheel did those logs help identify the problem? Do you need any further information?

168

I GOT IT!!! (OK this is clunky as hell, but please bear with me)
(it’ll require some toggling/fiddling)

Using…
Chromecast Ultra (Model NC2-6A5-D)
Android OS11 on Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Plex on Android (v. 8.17.1.25326)
Samsung cheapie monitor from Target
HDMI Audio Extractor UHD 2160P 192Khz

Go to Settings on Plex App on your phone
Go to Quality
Under Video Quality: Turn off Automatically Adjust Quality

Then… GO back to Settings Page
Hit Advanced
Choose Player:
Under Device Support, Make sure to downgrade the H264 maximum level from 6.1 down to 5.1. (it’s the only one I tried, but it seems to work)
Also, under Audio Passthrough, choose ‘disabled’
Optional Audio Support: I have AC3 and EAC3 checked (other two are grayed out)
I did not need to choose “use external player” (but I do know that VLC will work as well)

#1: Disconnect /TURN OFF Chromecast (on the android, just stop casting, don’t physically disconnect any cables)
#2: Run Plex on phone (You can run Plex first, then stop Casting)
#3: Pull up video on Plex, hit Play
#4: Hit Cast on Plex (on your phone)
#5: YOU MAY GET AN ERROR (i.e. “something went wrong”) It’s OK, go to you phone, and in Plex disconnect from Chromecast, allow it to keep playing on Plex, wait a sec, then hit Chromecast again. I eventually get “Plex : Loading… Playback will begin in a moment”
#5b: You at some point may see On the monitor it says “Plex: Ready to cast. Choose some media in Plex and Play it here”
#7: hit play on plex on phone

I did sometimes have to toggle on and off Chromecast on my phone (via Plex). Don’t know why but it seemed to help at times. Like if i’m loading a movie and on the phone I get “Something Went Wrong. It looks like something went wrong. Please try again. “Retry””, I then toggle on Chromecast in Plex and on my monitor I get “Ready to cast. Choose some media in Plex and play it here” and then I pick the movie on Plex and damn, it works! I don’t hit “retry” I just hit back button, to the Movie screen on Plex with all the movies, pick one, and POW , it worked!

EDIT: Now sometimes I can’t load a movie, and I instead START with chromecast ON and then load the movie, hit play, and it (maybe?) works! ???

###########THIS NEXT PART MAY NOT BE NEEDED OR IMPORTANT, CAN IGNORE #####
When changing movies, I tried this:

#1: stop casting from phone
#2: hit the X at the bottom of the screen where the currently playing movie banner is
#3: Go Back to Main movie page on Plex on Android.
#4: pick different movie
#5: Goes to detail screen, and I get the image in upper left, name of movie upper right, orange progress circle arrow in middle, and POW “Something went wrong…” (arg!). Toggle ON Casting from Plex, Monitor shows Plex “Ready to Cast, choose some media and play it there”. Hit Retry on Android, orange circle arrow in middle, wait a minute, movie pops up on Plex on phone AND on your monitor, hit Play on phone… “Talking to Server: Working…” and… BAM! Error! Toast message “Unable to play media”. OK, keep going. Toggle Casting off and on on Plex.
#6: Ready To Cast on Monitor, Movie Detail page on phone/Plex… Hit play on phone…“Talking to Server, Waiting…” AHH! NOw the phone screen changes to normal play screen and IT’S WORKING!!!
#####################################

NOW LOOK I KNOW THIS MAY NOT BE PERFECT ABOVE BUT I WILL COME BACK AND MODIFY IT BUT RIGHT NOW MY KIDS OVERFLOWED THE TOILET so i have to go clean up that crap then I’ll come back and clean up this crappy post!

Remember, we live in a twilight world. There are no friends at dusk.
-TENET

169

This whole thing may also be a bandwidth issue, or just too much data for the phone, connection, etc, to handle, thus throwing errors. I think by downgrading the h264 thing that it helps. I may try a lower version to see if it works better, i.e. more reliably.

170

Please, can everyone download logs from Plex and send them to the mod. See 6 posts up, click his profile and attach the zip files. If we all do this, then Plex may have enough information to solve this issue.

Right now, this looks like many different problems.

171

I dunno, I’m still doing well with my “toggle cast on and off”. I can get things running and casting within a minute almost all the time. Maybe others can check my settings and see what you can do?

172

Too much data for the phone isn’t how chromecast works. Once connected to chromecast, the phone sends a link for it to play. You can literally turn off your phone after playing and it will continue to play.
So yea, I’m having the same issue and it’s annoying.

173

So I don’t mean to be a pain but the only way Plex will address this is if everyone downloads their logs and send them to a Plex employee. I sent mine to @BigWheel now I don’t advocate spamming the mods but in real life, mobs and protests do sometimes achieve some progress.

Now I’ve messaged @BigWheel several times now asking for an update and been ignored. So either the company doesn’t care about its Chromecast users or its too busy with some other naff add-on features for Plex? Take your pick.

read back 8 messages and you can see that @BigWheel requested logs. From Plex server, you can download them as a zip file. Click a mods name and attach the zip files. Add a brief message. Easy, report here if you did it. Then if this forum fills with people all doing this then we all know the Plex strategy going forwards.

174

Not sure if this is related because honestly, I’m not sure what version of Chromecast I have since it’s integrated with SmartCast on my Vizio TV… After the Plex update I did yesterday, most of my library gives me the H4 error. Including episodes of a show that worked perfectly a fee days ago. They are in MPEG2VIDEO main format.

I’ve tried chromecast.xml work around with no luck.

175

As a quick fix this worked for me too. Via the Google Home app, Device settings for the Chromecast, changed the “Surround sound mode” from “Auto-detect” to “Stereo only”. Though now I only get sound when converting to lower video quality. At least I can watch something and not getting h4 not supported errors.

176

Fixed the issue by turning off subtitles. Absolutely nothing else worked.

177

Thanks. Turning off subtitles fixes it for me too. However, I do need subtitles for foreign language movies.

Update: tested with some subtitle formats, SRT seems to work without issue for some files. ASS and PGS not good.

Surrounding sounds seems to cause problems, too, turning subtitles off won’t work for some of those files.

178

@BigWheel Has this problem been resolved yet? There have been numerous updates recently. But I haven’t seen anything in the release notes. Looks like there is a pretty big issue in there.

Do you want more logs to diagnose the issue?

179

Can confirm. Reset Chromecast and Plex app, h4 error. 9/19/2021

180

Trying to cast from my phone using plex app to chromecast. Hitting the cast button, seems to connect. If I try to play live channels (via networked antenna), error: “Sorry something went wrong”

What’s the deal?

181

I can connect to NVIDIA Shield and cast up to 1080 content. However, Plex will not cast 4K content - which the Shield can definitely handle. Other players - and even Plex’s Shield client - work just fine for playing the video. It would not matter so much to me if Plex’s remote control actually worked. But Plex’s remote control functionality is garbage. I need to use casting to effectively control playback and media selection from the desktop. For all content, Plex client otherwise loses track (for lack of better words), will not keep in sync with the desktop and/or server, and eventually crashes. And yes, this has been going on far too long.