[Chromecast Ultra] Augmented profiles need to be updated to support H264 5.1 and 5.2

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

I spent a couple of hours trying to find answers, so far zero useful stuff. Here goes:

Currently the Augumented profile for all Chromecasts is locked to 4.2. This means whatever you put in user/system Chromecast.xml profile will just get ignored. Plex will force transcode because MDE will decide that level 51 > 42. It’s impossible to adjust the 42 to something else

I have a bunch of h264 High@L5.1 4k material which is not efficient to re-code and would result in loss of quality and double the storage size

Please give us an option to increase Chromecast max supported profile. It’s been confirmed that CC Ultra supports H264 High@L5.2 2160p 30fps. There is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to Direct Play these materials. Hardware transcoding on my Synology can’t keep up with it, let alone software transcoding

Below is the video mediainfo

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : High@L5.1
Format settings             : CABAC / 6 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC      : Yes
Format settings, Reference  : 6 frames
Codec ID                    : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Bit rate                    : 37.3 Mb/s
Width                       : 3 840 pixels
Height                      : 1 920 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 2.000
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 24.000 FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits

And relevant MDE logs:


grep -P '(?<!has)MDE' Plex\ Media\ Server.log
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.484 [0x7f6c69f76700] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Augmented profile: { "directPlay": { "mp4": { "mimeType": "video/mp4; codecs=\"avc1.42E01E\"", "video": { "codecs": { "h264": { "maxLevel": 42 }, "hevc": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "vp9": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 } }, "maxWidth": 4096, "maxHeight": 2160, "maxBitDepth": 8, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "audio": { "codecs": { "aac": { "maxSamplingRate": 48000, "maxChannels": 2 }, "mp3": {}, "ac3": {}, "eac3": {} } } }, "mkv": { "mimeType": "video/webm", "video": { "codecs": { "h264": { "maxLevel": 42 }, "vp8": {}, "hevc": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "vp9": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 } }, "maxWidth": 4096, "maxHeight": 2160, "maxBitDepth": 8, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "audio": { "codecs": { "aac": { "maxSamplingRate": 48000, "maxChannels": 2 }, "mp3": {}, "vorbis": {}, "ac3": {}, "eac3": {} } } }, "mpegts": { "protocol": "hls", "video": { "maxWidth": 4096, "maxHeight": 2160, "maxBitDepth": 8, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "audio": { "codecs": { "ac3": {}, "eac3": {} } } } }, "directStream": { "video": { "maxWidth": 4096, "maxHeight": 2160, "maxBitDepth": 8, "maxFrameRate": 60, "codecs": { "h264": { "maxLevel": 42 }, "hevc": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 }, "vp9": { "maxBitDepth": 10, "maxFrameRate": 60 } } }, "audio": { "codecs": { "aac": { "maxSamplingRate": 48000, "maxChannels": 2 }, "mp3": {}, "opus": {}, "vorbis": {} }, "maxChannels": 6 } } }
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.645 [0x7f6c69f76700] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Finished analysis of 4k (mkv, h264, eac3, 51, high)
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.645 [0x7f6c69f76700] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; level: 51 > 42
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.645 [0x7f6c69f76700] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; level: 51 > 42
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.646 [0x7f6c69f76700] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Starting analysis of 4k (mkv, h264, eac3, 51, high)
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.797 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol http; container: mkv
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.797 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 15203
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.797 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: Jason's Birthday: Direct Play is disabled
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.797 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: Jason's Birthday: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.798 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Dec 23, 2019 11:41:03.800 [0x7f6c6a264700] DEBUG - MDE: Family - Jason's Birthday: selected media 0 / 15203

As always, thanks for all the hard work dear devs, I’m just frustrated there’s so may forum and reddit posts with literally zero answers or useful suggestions on how to work around this silly issue. Augumented profiles are not explained/documented anywhere

EDIT: Updated URL to CCU supported formats page to direct to archive.org since Google seems to have updated it with wrong data

5 Likes
2

Thanks for your post, I have been hoping to find someone on the same page!

I encoded sixteen different low bitrate video-only samples at 30fps H264 on both High and Main profile for both mp4 and mkv at both 1080p and 2160p for both 4.2 and 5.0. I have confirmed that any encoder level above 4.2 gets transcoded.

If the issue with providing a fix is due to the fact that Plex cannot distinguish between the Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra (and therefore provide the correct augmented profile), then could we please kindly request a temporary workaround or manual override?

Please hear us out, this is missing core feature for avid Plex users that have specifically purchased the Chromecast Ultra to play higher encoder level H264 content and we would very much appreciate some thought given to it.

2 Likes
3

Please fix this issue.

4

I guess a bump is in order after 2 weeks

5

I posted in the other thread but bumping this one as well, as it’s a serious issue in my opinion, that seems to be getting overlooked. I will continue to bump these threads until it’s fixed, or until I decide enough is enough after years of poor CC support.

This is seriously poor guys, how is this not fixed by now? I’ve been a plex pass user for 7 years, so has my father, longer infact and we use Chromecasts a lot, multiple bedrooms in both of our houses. I know many others who use chromecast. Over the years I’ve had to mess around with this so much just to get my content to work properly, messing with xml files etc. The fact I cant play my 4k content to my CCU now, and can’t even change the xml file myself to fix it, when I know they can handle it technically is ridiculous.

Please take this more seriously.

6

Just looked at the Media Server logs to add to this:

‘Jan 12, 2020 15:15:58.910 [4760] INFO - [Chromecast] [MDE] Finished analysis of 4k (mkv, h264, eac3, 51, high)
Jan 12, 2020 15:15:58.910 [4760] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; level: 51 > 42
Jan 12, 2020 15:15:58.910 [4760] WARN - [Chromecast] [MDE] Invalid profile property; level: 51 > 42’

7

Anything?

8

It’s probably gonna be “one of those threads” so…

Bump.

9

Aye, seems so.

10

Hey, I see this thread, and I’ll take a look at the augmented profiles as soon as I can. Chromecast makes it difficult to detect which device is running, so it’s not as simple as “If Chromecast Ultra, then use different profile.”

11

Thanks a ton!

I know it’s not easy to detect, I’ve seen other threads, but a simple “override” in settings would suffice. I’d say most people have just one TV so a switchable setting of “I have a CC Ultra!” would be absolutely enough for most cases I believe

Of course if a smarter solution is possible, that would be even better

12

Hi Duncan,

I appreciate the response. I see that this was 8 days ago now, still got the issue. It is nice to know that you are at least aware of this issue.

As Dark said above, I only use a CCU in my household (and my father does too who is having the same issue). If we can just get a workaround for now where we can simply select we have an Ultra only, that would be great.

Eitherway, it’s severly impacting my ability to watch my content, so any solution would be amazing.

Thank you.

13

I had some hopes when I saw release notes for version 1.18.5.2309, but it seems that the newly introduced option doesn’t affect Chromecasts

(Prefs) Exposed an advanced preference to disable video transcoding (#10891)

https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/eri856/new_beta_pms_version_available_11852260056ab4be9/

Oh well, back to waiting. On another note the CPU usage for transcoding 4k content seems to… work better now? I no longer get stuttering and my DS918+ is able to hw-transcode 4k to 4k fine… even with subs

image
image788×248 105 KB

That said it’s still a waste of CPU cycles since the CCU is ablt to play it directly

14

Ah yeah got your hopes up a little. I mean, at least we know they are aware of it, although, if we’re being honest they don’t seem to fix things quickly when it comes to the CC.

I’ll check out what the transcoding is like now although, it doesn’t make me feel great knowing my CPU is been used when it doesn’t need to be, just making it more likely to break sooner etc.

1 Like
15

Just bumping, so the issue doesn’t get buried.

1 Like
16

Another server update today, to find that this still isn’t fixed. Still lots of content there unusable without transcoding.

2 Likes
17

Another bump.

1 Like
18

Here’s a bump from me, I’m also still here, 2 months later

2 Likes
19

Yeah, we’ll probably be bumping for years at this rate mate.

2 Likes
20

The more people bumping, the quicker time shall pass.

2 Likes