No sound when casting screen - Google Chromecast

When I use the "Cast screen" on my Nexus 7, and selects a video (not Youtube), it always displays video, but mostly there is no sound. Sometimes the sound works, but I have not been able to figure out why/when the sound is also working. Occasionally after having rebooted my N7, restarted apps etc., the sound might suddenly work again.
The situation is identical on two separate setups (different networks with different chromecasts), where the only thing in common is my N7

mlun said:
When I use the "Cast screen" on my Nexus 7, and selects a video (not Youtube), it always displays video, but mostly there is no sound. Sometimes the sound works, but I have not been able to figure out why/when the sound is also working. Occasionally after having rebooted my N7, restarted apps etc., the sound might suddenly work again.
The situation is identical on two separate setups (different networks with different chromecasts), where the only thing in common is my N7
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usually a sign that the Audio codec of what you are playing is not compatible with the CCast.
Not sure if that applies to Mirror mode as I would suspect the Mirror system uses it's own codec but perhaps it doesn't.

Asphyx said:
usually a sign that the Audio codec of what you are playing is not compatible with the CCast.
Not sure if that applies to Mirror mode as I would suspect the Mirror system uses it's own codec but perhaps it doesn't.
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Click to collapse
If you connect to the chromecast and then go to settings reboot chromecast and it will start working again I assume this is just a symptom of it still being in beta but every time it has happened to me I just reboot the chromecast and it works with no problems

Related

Audio/Video out of sync

I've only been using the Chromecast for a day, but it seems the audio and video are getting out of sync after a while and the only way to get it back is to reboot it.
apastuszak said:
I've only been using the Chromecast for a day, but it seems the audio and video are getting out of sync after a while and the only way to get it back is to reboot it.
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Click to collapse
What application are you playing from?
bhiga said:
What application are you playing from?
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Click to collapse
YouTube and Netflix.
apastuszak said:
YouTube and Netflix.
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Click to collapse
That's odd. If you play the same links on a computer, tablet or phone, does the audio stay in-sync?
Does it happen on all videos, or just certain ones or certain types?
Note that A/V sync drift can come from various sources:
In the source - this drift is actually present in the source. If you start playback, pause, then resume, it will still be out of sync, and will be out of sync by the same amount (unless introduced drift is also occurring). Jumping forward/back will also have things out of sync, though the amount might vary depending on the other factors below.
Encoding - since YouTube and other streaming services usually have to encode the source video to their streaming format, an error in the encoding can cause sync drift. Essentially it's the same problem as "In the source" except viewing the original source won't show the drift, because only the encoded versions have it. It's not an error per-se, but often times streaming encoding will not re-sync A/V mid-stream very often, which can lead to things being out of sync if you jump forward/back in the content rather than playing it all the way straight-through.
Introduced during playback - this drift is introduced by the playback or streaming, usually by the player, sometimes caused by audio resampling or other processing. In these cases the audio will start in sync then gradually fall out of sync as playback progresses. Pausing and resuming (not jumping forward/back) will usually re-sync the audio again, then it will gradually fall out of sync as playback continues.
bhiga said:
That's odd. If you play the same links on a computer, tablet or phone, does the audio stay in-sync?
Does it happen on all videos, or just certain ones or certain types?
Note that A/V sync drift can come from various sources:
In the source - this drift is actually present in the source. If you start playback, pause, then resume, it will still be out of sync, and will be out of sync by the same amount (unless introduced drift is also occurring). Jumping forward/back will also have things out of sync, though the amount might vary depending on the other factors below.
Encoding - since YouTube and other streaming services usually have to encode the source video to their streaming format, an error in the encoding can cause sync drift. Essentially it's the same problem as "In the source" except viewing the original source won't show the drift, because only the encoded versions have it. It's not an error per-se, but often times streaming encoding will not re-sync A/V mid-stream very often, which can lead to things being out of sync if you jump forward/back in the content rather than playing it all the way straight-through.
Introduced during playback - this drift is introduced by the playback or streaming, usually by the player, sometimes caused by audio resampling or other processing. In these cases the audio will start in sync then gradually fall out of sync as playback progresses. Pausing and resuming (not jumping forward/back) will usually re-sync the audio again, then it will gradually fall out of sync as playback continues.
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Click to collapse
The original source is in sync on the source and on my Roku and TiVo. If I reboot the Chromecast, the video and audio are in sync. It seems after you watch it for a while, the audio and video drift slightly out of sync. Switching between sources (YouTube vs Netflix) or stopping and starting the video does not bring it back into sync. Only a reboot corrects the issue.
apastuszak said:
The original source is in sync on the source and on my Roku and TiVo. If I reboot the Chromecast, the video and audio are in sync. It seems after you watch it for a while, the audio and video drift slightly out of sync. Switching between sources (YouTube vs Netflix) or stopping and starting the video does not bring it back into sync. Only a reboot corrects the issue.
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Click to collapse
Interesting. Definitely sounds like it's something to do with Chromecast's decoding.
You aren't using any sort of audio breakout or external stereo, are you?
Also, what firmware build is your Chromecast on? (Check the Chromecast app)
bhiga said:
Interesting. Definitely sounds like it's something to do with Chromecast's decoding.
You aren't using any sort of audio breakout or external stereo, are you?
Also, what firmware build is your Chromecast on? (Check the Chromecast app)
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Click to collapse
I am on 14651.
In my setup the TV outputs to a stereo via toslink. My TV is rather old, I bought it in 2008. But it works great and has HDMI, so there's no need to upgrade.
apastuszak said:
I am on 14651.
In my setup the TV outputs to a stereo via toslink. My TV is rather old, I bought it in 2008. But it works great and has HDMI, so there's no need to upgrade.
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Click to collapse
I have a TV of near the same vintage, just before Sony started supporting video over DLNA.
The only other troubleshooting step I can think of it to see if there's a difference between using the TV speakers and your external. I doubt there will be a difference, but there's a tiny possibility that perhaps there are too many samples being output somewhere, which would introduce increasing drift.
bhiga said:
I have a TV of near the same vintage, just before Sony started supporting video over DLNA.
The only other troubleshooting step I can think of it to see if there's a difference between using the TV speakers and your external. I doubt there will be a difference, but there's a tiny possibility that perhaps there are too many samples being output somewhere, which would introduce increasing drift.
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Click to collapse
That's my next try.
I really like the Chromecast. Once is does Plex, the Roku may be up on eBay.
apastuszak said:
That's my next try.
I really like the Chromecast. Once is does Plex, the Roku may be up on eBay.
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Click to collapse
I love my Chromecast too, but until it gets WatchESPN, I still have a need for the Roku..lol
apastuszak said:
I've only been using the Chromecast for a day, but it seems the audio and video are getting out of sync after a while and the only way to get it back is to reboot it.
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Click to collapse
After updating to 14651 I met the same problem with you. But after a factory reset it works well now. I suggest you to do a factory reset and maybe it will work find like mine.
OOS can happen on the decoding side usually when the Video is at too high a bitrate for the device to handle....
The Audio takes nothing to decode but the higher the bitrate the longer it takes to decode and display the video.
Therefore the Audio comes ON TIME but the video gets delayed leaving you out of sync.
Does the audio PRECEDE the Video? (this is the most common form of OOS you see on the backend)
It usually only happens on the Encoding side when the Audio and Video take two different paths to the encoder.
Thats about the only time you might see Audio delayed compared to Video.
It is possible that the decoding device can get lost or face some memory condition that would cause this but usually it's because it attempted to decode some high Bitrate video in the first place.

Chromecast Network Problem - Help!

I'm having a major problem and I can't seem to figure out the issue :\
I've been using Avia + Chromecast without issue for weeks.
However, recently I'm having an issue where all of the sudden the video playback goes to crap and things start playing at a slideshow rate.
Once things go wrong there is no recovering. If I play the movie on a tablet or my phone it works fine. As soon as I try to cast it through Avia though it takes forever to load and then when it finally does play it's a choppy mess. Restarting the Chromecast has no effect. Restarting the device I was using to cast also has no effect. The network is showing full speed ahead (21 down) and everything plays smoothly on any of the Android devices until I try to cast it.
The only thing that fixes the problem is restarting my router. I don't understand how it could be a router problem though because if that were the case wouldn't the speed drop, and why would everything play smoothly on the individual devices themselves?
I have also tried using AllCast to see if it's an Avia problem but the same thing happens. It'll work great, I stream an entire movie in high and then once I move onto the next piece of media/movie all of the sudden it's like the Chromecast gets confused and that's all she wrote until I restart the router :crying:
I have AT&T Uverse and my connection averages 20+ down.
I have the following devices connected to my network and the problem occurs casting from any of the Android devices eventually:
Computer
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (4.3)
Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.3)
LG G Pad 8.3 (4.2.2)
Google Nexus 7 (2012) (4.4.2)
Motorola Droid X (2.3.4)
Sony Blu-Ray Player
Does anyone have any clue what could be causing the problem?
SeanPlunk said:
I'm having a major problem and I can't seem to figure out the issue :\
I've been using S***box + Avia + Chromecast without issue for weeks.
However, recently I'm having an issue where all of the sudden the video playback goes to crap and things start playing at a slideshow rate.
Once things go wrong there is no recovering. If I play the movie on a tablet or my phone it works fine. As soon as I try to cast it through Avia though it takes forever to load and then when it finally does play it's a choppy mess. Restarting the Chromecast has no effect. Restarting the device I was using to cast also has no effect. The network is showing full speed ahead (21 down) and everything plays smoothly on any of the Android devices until I try to cast it.
The only thing that fixes the problem is restarting my router. I don't understand how it could be a router problem though because if that were the case wouldn't the speed drop, and why would everything play smoothly on the individual devices themselves?
I have also tried using AllCast to see if it's an Avia problem but the same thing happens. It'll work great, I stream an entire movie in high and then once I move onto the next piece of media/movie all of the sudden it's like the Chromecast gets confused and that's all she wrote until I restart the router :crying:
I have AT&T Uverse and my connection averages 20+ down.
I have the following devices connected to my network and the problem occurs casting from any of the Android devices eventually:
Computer
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (4.3)
Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.3)
LG G Pad 8.3 (4.2.2)
Google Nexus 7 (2012) (4.4.2)
Motorola Droid X (2.3.4)
Sony Blu-Ray Player
Does anyone have any clue what could be causing the problem?
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Click to collapse
We do not discuss s***box, but I'll try to address your general network issue.
Sounds like either there's some cascading failure like packet repetition death or throttling.
If your router has any WiFi optimizations like WMM, try toggling that. Also look for QoS (Quality of Service) functions too.
bhiga said:
We do not discuss s***box, but I'll try to address your general network issue.
Sounds like either there's some cascading failure like packet repetition death or throttling.
If your router has any WiFi optimizations like WMM, try toggling that. Also look for QoS (Quality of Service) functions too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removed the reference to forbidden app, thanks for the head's up.
I'll check my options to see if any of your suggestions will help. Thanks :good:

Local Media not playing well with Chromecast

I have looked around but haven't seen anyone talking about this issue so apologize if I missed something.
I am trying to play movies that I have on my phone. They are in the .MP4 format. I currently have tried Avia, LocalCast and AllCast (though I have not purchased the full version yet). I can start watching a video and it will play great and look great. Inevitably though it will start acting like it is buffering and then it will quite working at all. On top of this, the controls on my phone (HTC One rooted) will disappear. For instance, Avia controls will be in my status bar when I first start the movie but will soon disappear giving me no control over what is playing.
At first I thought it might be Greenify doing something but I don't have them greenified. I have tried a few different things to fix this issue but it just won't go away. Could this be a problem with the Chromecast or my phone or is there just something I am not doing correctly. I don't want to use plex or anything I have to upload and then stream from.
Appreciate the help.
srb7215 said:
I have looked around but haven't seen anyone talking about this issue so apologize if I missed something.
I am trying to play movies that I have on my phone. They are in the .MP4 format. I currently have tried Avia, LocalCast and AllCast (though I have not purchased the full version yet). I can start watching a video and it will play great and look great. Inevitably though it will start acting like it is buffering and then it will quite working at all. On top of this, the controls on my phone (HTC One rooted) will disappear. For instance, Avia controls will be in my status bar when I first start the movie but will soon disappear giving me no control over what is playing.
At first I thought it might be Greenify doing something but I don't have them greenified. I have tried a few different things to fix this issue but it just won't go away. Could this be a problem with the Chromecast or my phone or is there just something I am not doing correctly. I don't want to use plex or anything I have to upload and then stream from.
Appreciate the help.
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Click to collapse
Almost sounds like your network is encountering a loop, traffic storm, or increasing packet retries.
If your router has an STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) option, try toggling that.
Also try disabling WiFi Sleep in your phone (keeps WiFi connected even when phone goes to sleep).
It could also be his device is running out of steam (overheating and therefore the OS throttles the Clock down especially true when heavy radio use like constant WiFi causes excessive heat in the unit), Starts doing some Background tasks that take priority or is generally going into a lower power state after awhile of no activity.
People need to understand while it may seem convenient to stream files off your phone or tablet they are not built for such activities.
They are meant as media consumers and not much more than that.
Too much going on inside them and Manufacturers put an extreme emphasis on saving power in all of their drivers that makes the devices just not suited to doing a long duration activity without user interaction.
Between the screen going off, WiFi going to sleep, Unit going into deep sleep mode and constant monopolizing of the Network and radios when the Device has a Pull task scheduled like getting Email....It is really not the ideal device to stream media from.
Since most media servers available today support remote (Home Cloud) streaming to a variety of devices and can transcode on the fly there is no longer any reason to store media on your device unless you have no network access at all. And in those cases the CCast won't work anyway because it needs to be able to load the player apps from the internet. Many of those same media servers also support some sort of local sync so you can store and play media locally on that mobile device when network is not available.
We need to start changing the way we think about storing and using media for Mobile...
Thanks for the advice and I will keep exploring. I have WiFi sleep disabled already.
It very well might be the device. I tried using my Touchpad and it didn't seem to run into any problems although I haven't used it enough to be sure it wasn't going to run into the same issues.
What is happening just seems like odd behavior. Like I don't understand why Avia would lose the player controls in my status bar after such a short time.
Maybe I need to think about a media server instead. Though one of the things that made me interested in the Chromecast was the portability of playing movies on large screens.
Again thanks for the response and if anyone else has any idea, I would love to hear it.
you could try y2cast from google play store, it is easy to use.
I'm getting a similar issue when try to cast Pandora. It runs fine on the tablet but won't run on the chromecast, seems like it tries but doesn't make it.

[Q] little bit garbled and lower pitched sound

Hi all,
Yesterday I bought my chromecast and I've set it up without problems, but I noticed the sound played through the chromecast is just a little bit garbled and worst of all, it's pitched like a semi-half tone down. For movies and youtube this'll won't be a problem, but I play the guitar and when music is played, it's horribly out of tune.
I couldn't find anything on the internet as a solution. Does anyone encounter the same problem?
Setup:
Nexus 5 with cm11, android 4.4.4
Stock chromecast
1080p HDTV
roytje88 said:
Hi all,
Yesterday I bought my chromecast and I've set it up without problems, but I noticed the sound played through the chromecast is just a little bit garbled and worst of all, it's pitched like a semi-half tone down. For movies and youtube this'll won't be a problem, but I play the guitar and when music is played, it's horribly out of tune.
I couldn't find anything on the internet as a solution. Does anyone encounter the same problem?
Setup:
Nexus 5 with cm11, android 4.4.4
Stock chromecast
1080p HDTV
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Click to collapse
Sounds like a dolby incompatibility....
Does the source have a dolby track and does this happen with a stereo content item?
Asphyx said:
Sounds like a dolby incompatibility....
Does the source have a dolby track and does this happen with a stereo content item?
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Click to collapse
Its with all content; whether its youtube, or casting my whole android screen, google music, I even tried it casting a youtube tab from chrome on my notebook. All same results.. Lower pitched sound and a little bit chopped.
But I sure do wanna try out everything. How can I find out wheter there is a dolby track?
roytje88 said:
Its with all content; whether its youtube, or casting my whole android screen, google music, I even tried it casting a youtube tab from chrome on my notebook. All same results.. Lower pitched sound and a little bit chopped.
But I sure do wanna try out everything. How can I find out wheter there is a dolby track?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it is happening on everything then it is unlikely what I suspected it was...Especially if it happens on You Tube as well...
It could be a bad HDMI network connection between the CCast and the TV....
So try this....
1 - Try another input on the TV
2 - Try the CCast on a different TV and see if it still happens
If #1 solves it then it's that one TV Input, You can check the audio setting for that input but the CCast should communicate all of that and send the proper signal. (try re-plugging into the original input and see if the problem goes away)
If #2 has the same problem then it's a lemon CCast and you might need a replacement.
Asphyx said:
If it is happening on everything then it is unlikely what I suspected it was...Especially if it happens on You Tube as well...
It could be a bad HDMI network connection between the CCast and the TV....
So try this....
1 - Try another input on the TV
2 - Try the CCast on a different TV and see if it still happens
If #1 solves it then it's that one TV Input, You can check the audio setting for that input but the CCast should communicate all of that and send the proper signal. (try re-plugging into the original input and see if the problem goes away)
If #2 has the same problem then it's a lemon CCast and you might need a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In a clear moment #1 has already come to mind, so tried another hdmi input, same results.. I don't have another hdmi tv before wednesday.. Will try it then and will post my results..
I just tried my chromecast on another tv and it worked normally, so it was my hdtv.
I checked the internet and there was an update. Updated and my chromecast works perfectly now!
Thanks for the input!
roytje88 said:
I just tried my chromecast on another tv and it worked normally, so it was my hdtv.
I checked the internet and there was an update. Updated and my chromecast works perfectly now!
Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good glad your all well....
HDMI is really a network so any small issues and it falls apart.

[q] Audio through device and video through TV?

Is it possible to have audio play through headphones while the video is playing on the TV?
It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? That's why this question has been asked and answered several times before. Unfortunately the answer is No, it wouldn't work because there would be no way to sync the independent audio and video streams.
DJames1 said:
It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? That's why it has been asked and answered several times before: No, and it wouldn't work because there would be no way to sync the independent audio and video streams.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope a future version of Cast for Audio would address this shortcoming. Video on a TV or a computer / mobile devices + Audio on Cast compatible speakers or A/V receiver.
I use an app by Stefan Pledl called Local Cast for Chromecast and can be found in the playstore for android devices. It does exactly what you are asking and routes audio to phone. You can sync easily with a + and - in 0.1 sec increments.
it is donation ware and is worth the investment of your choice from $3.99 to $10.
Edit: I just did a bluetooth test and it worked as well after setting phone or tablet audio to BT. I routed it to my bluetooth enabled speakers.
Hope this helps.
CHEERS
Interesting! Thanks for pointing that out. It wasn't in my older version of LocalCast from the Amazon app store, but it looks like LocalCast developer Stefan Pledl decided to give this a try in the latest version of his app from the Google Play store. The option to "play audio on phone" appears when you cast a video, along with +/- 0.1 sec. time offset adjustment controls.
I tested it briefly, but unfortunately it remains kind of impractical. In about 10 minutes of trying, I could not get the audio to sync properly. It starts off with a guess of 1 sec. audio delay, but from there it's very tedious trying to click it up and down in units of 0.1 second, then wait a second for it to resync, and then wait several seconds more for someone to speak visibly so you can check the lip sync. Also the app warns that sync will be lost every time you FF/RW/skip to time index, so you can't even skip a silent portion to get to a part where people are speaking - you just have to wait it out. As you might guess, the start of most movies with titles and music has nothing you can use to judge the audio-video sync until about 5 minutes in.
Perhaps it would be ok if you spend the time to get it right one time, and then it remains close to that on future casting from the same source using the same device on the same network. But I suspect that the time offset is different with different sources, and it probably drifts if the streaming is not perfect.
It would help if you could directly enter a time offset instead of tediously bumping it up and down by 0.1 seconds at a time.

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