Chromecast with Google TV: subtitles too small when transcoding audio

[zdol]

Hello,

I have gotten myself a Chromecast with Google TV (HD) to hook up to an older TV and use with Plex. In general the user experience is great, I quite like the Plex app on this Android TV stick and it’s quite an upgrade from the beloved app by Orca on my Samsung TV.

Things took a weird turn though, when I noticed that subtitles (srt external), which I almost always use, did not match the desired appearance settings all the time, these settings are ignored and the result is subtitles too small and too low on the screen - quite a discomfort to read due to size and placement.

After spending too much time, it became apparent that when audio is transcoded, the player behaves differently and subtitles are stuck to a certain unique appearance (even the outline is different, bolder) The Chromecast with Google TV does not support EAC3 audio (Dolby Digital Plus) or Dolby Atmos, but insteads offers passthrough - something useless when using an older TV (which is exactly what the use of this stick is supposed to be, one would think…) so Plex rightfully transcodes the audio to a compatible stream (opus in my case)

Unfortunately, when transcoding takes place, subtitles are stuck to this specific, non comforable position. Do other people have this issue? Is it a known bug? Is it resolvable?
It basically ruins the experience, and I’m seriously thinking about remuxing the mkv/mp4 files with proper audio streams in, but besides being a nightmare and a waste of time, it’s not gonna cut it for long; it’s what Plex is supposed to do automatically.

I don’t mind that audio transcoding takes place, I think it’s a major issue that I cannot control the subtitle appearance.

I’ve tried it all: Plex app settings, Chromecast settings, TV settings, all combinations (passthrough, force output etc.) only remuxing the original files with compatible audio streams works cause the transcoding never takes place (video always direct plays.)

Bonus bug: internal subtitles do not render correctly at all (unreadable, weird characters etc)

Any tips are appreciated! Thanks!

Server Version#: 1.31.2.6810-a607d384f
Player Version#: 9.17.0.38861

[zdol]

Looks like there is no solution to this, or some limitation on the “Exoplayer” that is used by Plex.

I ended up crafting some scripts to automate the process of adding an additional AAC track to those files that had audio that is not directly playable on the Chromecast with Google TV. Not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world. It just bugs me that I have to transcode files myself.

I remain truly curious on what the true cause of this behavior is and I wish that someone in the know (Plex developer or not) would shed some light on this. To sum it. up (cause I guess my original post was kinda lengthy):

On a Chromecast with Google TV (Android 12), when transcoding audio, subtitle size cannot change and subtitle settings do not apply, instead the appearance is fixed to a specific font, size, and placement on screen.