There appears to be no response from Plex employees on the the chromecast + subtitle issues which are currently flooding the chromecast subforum.
Is there any way to actually contact Plex? How long should customers put up with blocking issues? At the very least, some sort of acknowledgement would be appropriate?
Would it be possible for you to post some links to one of the threads that describe the issue?
I looked in the Chromecast section but it’s unclear which of the two threads (showing on the 1st page) relating to subtitles you are referring to.
sure
… from the first page of the chromecast subforum
so now this reached the Plex Pass forum:
this appears to be the most active thread with an actual Plex employee:
We are now at ~35 days without a solution.
Are there cases of users who watch 25min+ content with subs on chromecast who don’t experience this issue? or is everyone of those affected? Out of curiosity, what % of Plex users would this be? 10% ?
@Akeem83 said:
We are now at ~35 days without a solution.
Are there cases of users who watch 25min+ content with subs on chromecast who don’t experience this issue? or is everyone of those affected? Out of curiosity, what % of Plex users would this be? 10% ?
I’m guessing, just guessing, that it is actually less than 1% of Plex users possibly as low as .1% or even less. I base that not on any actual knowledge of Plex users that use Chromecast but rather on the small sample of people that I know that own a Chromcast. (About 25-30) Of those only about10 keep their Chromecast active and of those only one uses his regularly but, in his case, not for Plex.
Also factoring in the people I know that use Plex. (About 40) only about 10 of those own a Chromecast and not one use Plex with the Chromecast.
When you combine those two overlapping, but not identical, sets it seems in the group I know that there is 0% of Chromecast users that also use Plex that would be effected by this bug.
Now I know that my sample is not large enough to be representative but it is suggestive. It seems that for a good number of people the Chromecast is just too much trouble to use when you have easier alternatives like Roku, Fire TV and the other myriad of devices that play Plex content without the need of adding a third device to the mix. The first two being the server and the display device. Adding another like a phone or a tablet just complicates the operation.
Of course none of that reduces the need for a fix but it dies give a clue as to why Plex might consider it a low priority. There might be only one developer that works on the Chromecast app and that work might not be full time.
In truth that is speculation but it is as valid a speculation as any.
Thank you. Good to have extra data, as my own stats (PlexPy) from multiple users show:
Chrome:410 Chromecast 317 Android 161 Firefox 35 Safari 10 iOS 10
Chromecast 317/943= 34%
with 80% (guess) longer than 25min en 80% (guess) subtitle use -> 22% of all plays affected
off course sub use will be a lot lower in English speaking countries
I admit these may be skewed results because of me donating chromecasts and setting them up for use.
This is a major bug and should be treated with a high priority.
It’appears highly unprofessional whether a user knows about the bug or not
and it’s so irritating that many users are looking for alternatives for Plex:
@Akeem83 said:
This is a major bug and should be treated with a high priority.
It’appears highly unprofessional whether a user knows about the bug or not
and it’s so irritating that many users are looking for alternatives for Plex:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1284173/#Comment_1284173
Not to negate the problem as it really “should” get fixed but I looked through that thread and did not find more that two people mention that they were looking for alternatives to Plex. Hyperbole is often counter productive and actually reduces others perception of the issues being discussed.
Casting Plex is also almost certainly a tiny minority of Plex users.
That is not to say that Plex should not look at the problem and try to fix it but the users that are reporting the problem are not helping much. I see no logs or any other attachments that the developers could use to see what is going wrong.
The common belief is that if “I” am having a problem then everyone trying to do the same as I will have the problem. Unfortunately that is not the case. Many time what seems to be a general problem because several people are having it is actually caused by something that is unique to their environments.
People wanting help should, particularly after some time as passed, include details of what equipment they have and how it is interconnected and the logs around the time it happens. Along with that they should detail the exact steps they preform to make the problem appear.
In cases, like this one, where the files themselves could play a part, samples of the files should be included and if local subtitle files are involved the format they are in should be indicated. Plex is quite persnickety about the format of subtitle files.
I know it seems that all of that should not be needed but it often is. In the past I have had what I thought was a simple problem to duplicate but the developers stated they could not reproduce it. Once I gave them my log and other details they either fixed the problem or determined what in my environment was the culprit.
I am really not trying to minimize the problem but users of a system as complex as Plex need to give the developers as much help as possible, particularly when they have a “fringe” problem.
wow, not interested in arguing stats here peoples - just wanna know when its gunna be fixed
@bayney said:
wow, not interested in arguing stats here peoples - just wanna know when its gunna be fixed
Well, wow, I do not see anyone including logs or details about the issue or details about the environment. While I am not a developer and I don’t use my Chromecast much. (It is not even hooked up most of the time) I might try to duplicate the problem if I knew more BUT I do not see any problem in the test I just conducted. I cast a title with subtitles to my Chromecast and it played fine beginning to end (about 1.5 hours) and the subs worked and I did not see any overlay pop up. Clearly there is something different in the setup of users that have the problem. But if a simple user like me cannot reproduce it how can a developer fix it?
Plex helps those who help themselves.
@Elijah_Baley said:
@bayney said:
wow, not interested in arguing stats here peoples - just wanna know when its gunna be fixedWell, wow, I do not see anyone including logs or details about the issue or details about the environment. While I am not a developer and I don’t use my Chromecast much. (It is not even hooked up most of the time) I might try to duplicate the problem if I knew more BUT I do not see any problem in the test I just conducted. I cast a title with subtitles to my Chromecast and it played fine beginning to end (about 1.5 hours) and the subs worked and I did not see any overlay pop up. Clearly there is something different in the setup of users that have the problem. But if a simple user like me cannot reproduce it how can a developer fix it?
Plex helps those who help themselves.
No way that it works for you. Many have posted logs in many topics. No reply from devs. Don’t try to be interesting!
@Robbruy said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
@bayney said:
wow, not interested in arguing stats here peoples - just wanna know when its gunna be fixedWell, wow, I do not see anyone including logs or details about the issue or details about the environment. While I am not a developer and I don’t use my Chromecast much. (It is not even hooked up most of the time) I might try to duplicate the problem if I knew more BUT I do not see any problem in the test I just conducted. I cast a title with subtitles to my Chromecast and it played fine beginning to end (about 1.5 hours) and the subs worked and I did not see any overlay pop up. Clearly there is something different in the setup of users that have the problem. But if a simple user like me cannot reproduce it how can a developer fix it?
Plex helps those who help themselves.
No way that it works for you. Many have posted logs in many topics. No reply from devs. Don’t try to be interesting!
You don’t know what works or doesn’t work for me any more than I know what works or doesn’t work for you. I do not see logs and details posted in any of the threads I have looked at but I guess there may be some in some of the threads but most people are just stating “me too.”
I was trying to be helpful by reporting that it does correctly work for me and thereby trying to produce some dialog where what is different might be exposed instead of just a lot of “me too” posts which are next to useless for the developers. But, since it seems that people would rather whine than make real attempts to get a fix I will refrain from further attempts at helpful dialog and just go back to contentedly watching content on my nearly prefect (well as close as complex electronics and software can get) setup.
Elijah, are you on chromecast firmware 1.20.66189 ?
Did you actually cast (instead of skip forward) for 30+ minutes together with a subtitle file (instead of burnt in sub)?
@Akeem83 said:
Elijah, are you on chromecast firmware 1.20.66189 ?
Did you actually cast (instead of skip forward) for 30+ minutes together with a subtitle file (instead of burnt in sub)?
To be honest I do not have a clue about my Chromcast’s firmware. I use it so rarely that I may be on an older firmware as I generally leave it disconnected in a drawer so it is possible that it has not updated in a while.
I did actually cast to it and I do not have any burned in subtitles.
I wonder from your question if it is something in the later Chromecast firmware that is actually causing the problem. Later today, or maybe tomorrow, I will hook up my Chromecast again and allow it to update and test again.
Just so you know I am not just putting it off I have a very bad hip from fighting in S.E. Asia and I cannot move around too easily sometimes and the hip has flared up so I am not really ambulatory until the inflammation goes down. Sorry for the medical report but I did not want you to take my inability to provide a good answer as just putting you off.
To provide further info: I tested from a Lenovo tablet and a Nexus 7 smartphone running Android 7.0 casting to my Chromcast. Every device on my network that can be connected wired, including my server, is connected wired. The server is running on a Windows 10 PC with all the latest patches and my server is at Version 1.2.2.2857. (The latest Plex Pass release)
I have no problem streaming on any of my devices Roku Ultra, two Roku 3s, Nevida Shield, Fire TV, Fire stick, several Android tablets and a couple of PCs as well as the Chromecast when it is active.
Again I will be happy to test some more, just later.
us.v-cdn.net/6025034/uploads/editor/b5/kmq03m8g8bl2.txt
This one does it for me. Big shout out to OleErnst. Just replace the xml file.
Some background: there’s a temporary workaround posted at the bottom of this page
The chromecast.xml mentioned above should replace the one in
- Step 2
- Exit the Plex Server and replace Chromecast.xml with the one attachment at the end of this post.
- Windows 64 bitC:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\Profiles\Chromecast.xml
- Windows 32 bitC:\Program Files\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\Profiles\Chromecast.xml
- Linux MintThe Chromecast.xml file is here: /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Profiles
- For OS X users~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Profiles/Chromecast.xml
- Step 3
- Restart the Plex Server application.
The Plex devs should include this or another solution asap for the plex+chromecast+subtitle users who don’t read the forums.
