Hello,
Since the December update for the Chromecast with Google TV device (which included an HDR fix) HDR content from my plex server to the Chromecast is automatically transcoding and causing some sort of memory leak. I have tested several 4K and 1080p files which definitely played without transcoding before and all now transcode from HEVC to h264, maintaining the same resolution and bitrate. Following this, the server gradually increases in memory usage (though plex’s reported memory usage isn’t changing). After some time the server runs out of memory and locks up.
I have now tested the same files on the Xbox Series X Plex app and all play great, with no transcoding or memory leak issues. I also rolled back my plex server to the previous updates as far as last month and there was no change on the Chromecast behaviour. So I think the Chromecast is definitely the culprit. Disabling hardware transcoding and HDR tone mapping has no effect.
I am running Linux (Ubuntu) 64 bit with an Nvidia Quadro p400 doing the hardware transcoding.
I wanted to share this information in case others are likewise struggling to figure out why their server is crashing and happen to use the Chromecast with Google TV.
