I installed a brand new Chromecast 2020 (the one with the remote) for the parents yesterday and everything is up and working great no issues using it with Plex at all. I made sure I let it do it’s update when I first started it and yeah just works. They live an hour away from me so it’s all remote.
Hi Dave,
I want to submit a support ticket to Google regarding this, what would be the best way to word this so that they don’t dismiss this as a “Plex Issue”? It sounds like I would state that I am having an issue with ExoPlayer?
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Google are already aware of this, and are investigating, so I’m not sure where you’d even file a ticket for this
Just to say I’m another one suffering with this specific issue with crashes and restarts. I bought a CCTV solely to run the Plex app and this keeps happening, as well as a few other issues unfortunately. For eg: if I try and play anything with DTS I get the ‘check your connection’ error and it won’t play the media and crashes/restarts the whole system. These problems combined are making it an expensive paperweight at the moment.
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Plex crashes Chromecast-with-Google-TV after selecting the next episode icon in the overlay as an episode is ending. The next episode loads but the image is stretched horizontally or the aspect ratio is borked, not sure. After a few seconds it freezes then a few seconds later the Chromecast crashes and reboots. Skipping into the episode quickly doesn’t help nor does exiting out to the episode selection after it loads. This only started occurring in recent days as I began a new TV series.
An affected file, as reported by Plex: MKV, 1.4mbit, 1080p, 23.976fps, HEVC 120 Main 10 video + 1 track, AC3, 5.1, 384kbit, 48KHz audio - 44mins runtime
This played on a TV with 2.0 audio, a 4K display, CCwGTV at 1080p, 60Hz, SDR, YCbCr 4:4:4 8bit, via ethernet from a Windows Plex Server.
Plex v8.21.2.27212, on internal storage
Plex Server on Windows v1.23.3.4707-ebb5fe9f3
CCwGTV:
model GZRNL
Android TV security patch 5-4-2021
kernel 4.9.180
Android TV build QTS1.210311.008.7350836
Edit: force-closing the Plex app and re-opening avoids the issue. Plex absolutely can fix this without Google’s intervention, at least in the form of a temporary fix.
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Precisely what am I experiencing as well, thank you for the detailed writeup.
Is there a place that us consumers can voice our concerns/complaints at Google for this issue?
I’m sure that those of us who are impacted by this issue would gladly add our voices to your ticket.
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I am seeing the exact same thing, seems to be common around x265 content, weird stretched video stuttering audio, static like, after a reboot selecting the exact same episode will play fine, google TV slows to a crawl and crashes/reboots when clicking back half the time.
I’ve resorted to using my old chromecast and casting from my phones plex app as that works fine.
The issue presents itself for movies as well as TV shows encoded in x265 just not every time but nearly half the time.
Android TV plex app is just too unreliable and the randomness of this issue makes it largely unusable 
Ad my name to the list, it is getting annoying, sometimes changing the video quality fixes it but is really bad
Not that I’m aware of. The issue I’d previously linked to before is primarily for developers, and not general consumers.
Just wanting to chime in here, that I have been having the same problems.
i opened a ticket with chromecast support on this https://support.google.com/chromecast/gethelp (way back on aug 21st; sorry i have been back to the forum in a while)
maybe if everyone else did too it would get more traction
you can reference my case number Case ID [1-5975000031703].
i gave them links to all these threads here to try to impress upon them how many people were having this issue with their exoplayer.
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Not saying it’s related but this issue resolved for me when I enabled surround sound in the Chromecasts settings.
It’s a relatives device so haven’t extensive experience with it - but was surprised to see such a strange setting.
Issue reported in April. Now about to enter October. Really? 6 months for an easily reproduced crash. You guys gotta push Google harder. They already hide your app. Step up.
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Google just released an update to ExoPlayer. Can’t see that any of the fixes include our issue though. Need to wait for the Plex guys to incorporate now and see if it works.
I think maybe they’ve released three updates since the ExoPlayer was last updated. So you might have to scan the fixes back through 14.2 to get the full picture of improvements.
Looking through the updates since this was reported to Google, nothing has specifically been marked as a fix for this issue and the report remains open. Good work Google!
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I’ve been testing out the inexpensive onn Android 4K TV device (the Walmart one). It hasn’t crashed yet, but I have experienced the same zooming issue on HEVC that we’ve seen here. I can’t say yet if it’s related to this bug, but both devices are using Amlogic S905 chips, though slightly different versions of the chip.
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I’ve just updated to the new plex app and tested on one of my CCWGTV devices (I’m unsure if the plex app is using the new exoplayer or not). Surprise… Surprise… It is still not fixed. The app still displays the same buggy behaviour outlined in the OP.
I find it ridiculous that this issue was reported back in April and all that has been done, since now, is essentially passing the buck to Google and opening a github issue.
The fact that you’ve released an app for CCWGTV means that you support the device. The app is not in alpha or beta stages thus it should warrant some attention, at the very least a follow up request to the github issue one of your developers created.
I moved from Emby to Plex for the simplicity and polish that Plex offers. Using a previous version of the app, be it a viable workaround for one maybe two months, creates its own problems hence why you update it regularly. It is not a long term solution.
I’ve invested in three CCWGTVs devices under the false pretences that the plex app fully supports them. They’re all past their return dates and I’m not going to replace them. With regret, If this issue is not resolved by the time of my next plexpass renewal, I will have no choice but to cancel and switch to a competitor.
I fully understand that your developers are busy working on new futures etc. And this post is in no way trying to undermine their hard work, but functionality trumps all. This bug renders the device inoperable and your app’s support for the device non-existent. The fact of the matter is that I’m frustrated, it’s been six months and it seems like you’ve forgotten or don’t care enough about your CCWGTV users.
Please provide us with a viable workaround (other than downgrade to a previous version of the plex app) or keep at Google to fix their exoplayer. Google will not acknowledge your end users, if we post on the issue at github, as we are not their intended users due to exoplayer being a tool for developers, so we need one of your developers to do it. Taking into account Google being notoriously slow fixing issues like this, is even more reason to keep chasing them about it. To be honest if either of the above happens, I’d be persuaded to renew my plexpass for another month.
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I’ve resorted to going back to KODI for most of my content now due to it working better for what I need it for.
