SOLVED: Direct play on chromecast

[codecjunkie]

Jellyfin version 10.9.6
Debian repository
Chromecast Ultra
All my movies are encoded h.264 video, and aac stereo or ac-3 surround audio in mp4 container.


Hi!

After upgrading to 10.9.6 from 10.8.x direct play stopped working.
Now ac-3 is transcoded to aac stereo, and if audio in movie already is aac stereo it gets remuxed into HLS without transcoding.

While using 10.8.x direct play worked perfect.
Attached ffmpeg log for a stereo movie getting remuxed from mp4 to HLS.

Am I missing some new settings introduced in 10.9.6?
Any tip is highly appreciated :-)

[TheDreadPirate]

In this log it looks like it is just remuxing (changing container, no re-encoding).

Code:

Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

[codecjunkie]

Exactly, why remux a file natively supported by CC? Before the upgrade this file would have been direct played.

[TheDreadPirate]

The Jellyfin-Chromecast app was updated on the 28th of May. Is that around the time it started remuxing?

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-chr...tag/v1.2.0

[codecjunkie]

Sorry for late answer.
I was away for a long period of time and did not use the server around that date. When I was back in June I immediately updated to 10.9.6 before using the system and noticing the problem with remux/transcode.

Just now updated to 10.9.7 and did some testing, discovered that movies with low vide bitrate <2-3 Mbit/s direct plays but as soon the bitrate increases it gets remuxed.

DVD h.264 aac-stereo .mp4 --> direct play
Bluray h.264 aac-stereo .mp4 --> remux
AC-3 passthrough does not work at all, always transcodes to aac stereo.

Forgot to mention that AC-3 passthrough also worked before upgrade.
I really love jellyfin gui and handling, as soon as direct play starts working again I'm staying on that version forever :-D

[codecjunkie]

Found out how to change loglevel, logged viewing two 1080p movies on chromecast, one with aac stereo audio and one with ac-3 surround. Both in mp4 container.
Attached movie logs, and some info about device profile.

My theory regarding video bitrate was wrong, jellyfin seems to limit video resolution for some reason.


EDIT: Clicked "Mark as solution" on wrong banner, it should be post below

[codecjunkie]

Never managed to get direct play to work on Chromecast Ultra. It always came down to surround audio not supported.

Replaced my Ultras with CCwGTV, downloaded the app "Jellyfin for Android TV" and disabled "Downmix to stereo" in audio settings in app.
Now direct play work flawlessly.

[Alliyance]

I'm so happy to see that someone else is having the same issue. Remuxing for unknown reason on Chromecast. I sent a bug to github but they closed it. I reported on here a few days ago and was told not to worry about but it's really bugging me. it's a strange behavior. It happened with client who has a soundbar or external audio. But my log says only remuxing. Copy.v code0 Copy. A code 0

Will try to disable the downmix to stereo

My files are all

H264
AAC audio 5.1
50000 bitate

[widardd]

New Chromecast Ultra user here and the same issue. There is no downmix setting i can disable and max audio channels is set to 5.1 and DTS allowed. 5.1 is working in any other app on chromecast, surprisingly even youtube.