@frggl said:
On my end I cannot direct stream HEVC files on my Chromecast Ultra with (srt) subtitles enabled, even though the setting for ‘Burn subtitles’ is set to ‘Only image formats’. With subtitles disabled (set to ‘none’), it direct streams without transcoding.
I think I remember it working last month, so it may be occurring since a recent update. I am using only1hammy’s latest xml with width and height changed to 1920 and 1080.
Anyone got PLEX and Chromecast Ultra direct streaming HEVC/h.265 with subtitles turned on? If so, I’d love to know your settings!
You’re right. SRT subtitle support without transcoding doesn’t seem to work at all with this profile (h265, h264…). It even transcodes “h264 to h264” when .srt is enabled.
Does anyone have a copy of the original Chromecast.xml from Plex?
Weird. Cant get it to work again as it seem the last update replaced my chromecast.xml file again. Any how, if i put the one from few posts ago + change the limits to 1080p its still transcoding. Argh.
ok seems to be solved again. I really cant say way and what the heck was wrong but my Phone (Android ) was always playing directly while the chromecast got transcoded material. In my Plex Andorid app, I started the Chromecast playback and thenm i switched to advanced settings and any how direct play was disabled there. I switched it on (seems to fit for the chromecast then even if u are in the app) and now its getting direct video again.
I always started the cast via my smatphone plex app. Not from chrome.
Anybody knows what has to be added to support OPUS? Now its getting transcoded to vorbis as i added vorbis to audio codecs in my chromecast.xml.
I’m in the same case, my Chromecast Ultra want to transcode a movie A (h264) and will not transcode a movie B (h264 too). I don’t understand why.
But the movie A have the first audio track in DTS and the second audio track is AC3. For movie B the first audio track is AC3 and the second is DTS.
I always choosen the AC3 when I would to play a movie.
In addition, the audio icon of movie poster of movie A is DTS but the audio icon of movie B is Dolby digital.
Curious if anyone has heard anything about the CC Ultra getting it’s own profile? When I use the modified XML file so that I can play 4k video without transcode, it breaks 1080p playback for my non-ultra CC’s. Sucks having to swap out the XML and restart plex any time I plan to watch 4k movies.
@mikejc2 said:
Curious if anyone has heard anything about the CC Ultra getting it’s own profile? When I use the modified XML file so that I can play 4k video without transcode, it breaks 1080p playback for my non-ultra CC’s. Sucks having to swap out the XML and restart plex any time I plan to watch 4k movies.
Sadly not. In the same position as you.
It’s been 6-7 months since the CCU debuted and there has been no support from Plex for the device. The lack of information and assistance from Plex is the area they most need to improve upon, and most annoyingly is that it’s done that way on purpose. Too much time spent writing witty e-mail zingers to offer support?
I don’t want to sound silly with my question but do I need a 4K tv for the CCU to be able to direct stream Hevc content? I am trying to watch the test file posted by @only1hammy on my 1080p tv and plex is transcoding video and audio, whereas a Hevc 1080p video, direct streams without any problems. Thank you guys.
@EchoPlexTv said:
I don’t want to sound silly with my question but do I need a 4K tv for the CCU to be able to direct stream Hevc content?
AFAIK CCU only supports 4K video when connected to a 4K TV, whatever that means (it was on a Google forum). On the other hand this site Playback 4K HEVC files on Chromecast Ultra Successfully seems to confirm that 1080p HEVC is supported. There is also a list of HEVC profiles supported by the CCU so you could check your file against them
I found on a Google forum the information that “CCU supports 4K HEVC only when connected to a 4K television” and somewhere else (here: http://www.multipelife.com/play-4k-hevc-on-chromecast-ultra.html ) they confirmed that it can play 1080p HEVC on 1080p televisions. There’s also a list of supported HEVC profiles, you could check your file against them…
@EchoPlexTv said:
I don’t want to sound silly with my question but do I need a 4K tv for the CCU to be able to direct stream Hevc content?
AFAIK CCU only supports 4K video when connected to a 4K TV, whatever that means (it was on a Google forum). On the other hand this site Playback 4K HEVC files on Chromecast Ultra Successfully seems to confirm that 1080p HEVC is supported. There is also a list of HEVC profiles supported by the CCU so you could check your file against them
I found on a Google forum the information that “CCU supports 4K HEVC only when connected to a 4K television” and somewhere else (here: http://www.multipelife.com/play-4k-hevc-on-chromecast-ultra.html ) they confirmed that it can play 1080p HEVC on 1080p televisions. There’s also a list of supported HEVC profiles, you could check your file against them…
Thank you @zpaolo11x that’s what I thought. It seems reasonable plex needs to transcode 4K HEVC files into a 1080p screen. I want also confirm Plex will Direct stream 1080 HEVC with (srt) subtitles.
Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone contributing to this thread\discussion. Encountered some hevc content recently, using chromecast with plex on a qnap NAS. With a bit of wrangling, able to get things direct playing rather than trying to transcode. Beats having to upgrade to CCU or change source format. Thanks again!
Whoops, bit premature - did a bit more testing, far better performance with hevc it seems, but still transcode. Might have to bite the CCU bullet regardless.
Can anyone confirm that our custom xml still works for them? I have noticed recently that HEVC material gets transcoded to H.264 even though I’m using the same xml as before.
I just purchased the CCU over the weekend and found this thread when it wasn’t working as expected. I tried the custom xml from here but didn’t work with some movies. I found this Reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/61atmy/4k_for_the_chromecast_ultra/) and their given pastebin link (http://pastebin.com/wFxE46JV) works great, so far. I had to write up a script to change the xml for my first gen chromecast to ensure proper playback. Hoping Plex will offer proper support for CCU soon.
@pyroclast said:
I just purchased the CCU over the weekend and found this thread when it wasn’t working as expected. I tried the custom xml from here but didn’t work with some movies. I found this Reddit thread (Reddit - Dive into anything) and their given pastebin link (Chromecast4K - Pastebin.com) works great, so far. I had to write up a script to change the xml for my first gen chromecast to ensure proper playback. Hoping Plex will offer proper support for CCU soon.
Sadly, this doesn’t work for me and produces the same transcoding to H.264 message as our other profiles (which also used to work for me…).
I wonder what has changed. I have tried to be vigilant and not update PMS, though it says I’m on the latest version (1.5.5.3634).
I have tested all the Chromecast.xml files i have been able to locate to get h265/hevc direct stream working to a chromecast ultra on a 4k tv.
I have rebuilt a plex server from scratch as well and still no luck.I have tried with the 1.5.5.3634 versions and the Version 3.7.0 (v1.7.2.3878-8088811b8) that comes from the Plex Pass update stream.
I have been looking though the logs and i can’t find any obvious reason that it wouldn’t be running.
If there are any other suggestions or parts of the log i could look at that would be great. I cant help given all the reading that an update stopped the changes working or something like that.
I am using the test video posted earlier in this thread.
@only1hammy I’ve been having no end of issues lately but last night I ‘downgraded’ my Plex Android apk from the latest to a previous one (5.09 I think it was) and things have improved again. I’m using Plex Android as my controller to cast to my TV and I think the latest changes (around the Quality settings) have made things worse when using CC/Ultra,k in that it was forcing more transcoding and less direct play/stream (as the option to direct play seems to have been removed). I’ll do more testing around that this weekend.
