WebM stream to chromecast

[krasno]

anyone else but me that have lost the capability to cast to Chromecast using webM ?

I only see a grey screen with a moving line (searching??) in bottom of screen + Channel name for example ZDF. but no picture no sound.

 

I have tried everything possible, from resetting chromecasts, disabling defender, firewalls, reinstalling DVBViewer and DVBViewer mediaserver + have reinstalled chrome,  the picture is streamed to the mobile phone (android), but when I press the chromecast button video stops, and is connected to Chromecast instead + TV with the result: grey screen and no sound. 

That was the short version... but would like to know if anyone else but me had same problem, or if anyone have a chromecast could check it out, be course I am about to loose my mind 

news flasH: I got an idea and connected my old PC with the old DVBViewer 5.5.2.0 an recording service 1.32.0.0,and then every thing works..!!!

on the new pc I use 6.0.6.0 and media server 2.0.2.0. 

 

so is the problem in the new Media server somewhere? or??
 

 

[Griga]

The default audio format for WebM has been changed from Vorbis to the more up-to-date Opus in DMS 2.0.2. Dunno if this causes the trouble...  it depends on the content of your ffmpegprefs.ini in the config subdirectory of the installation folder (where DVBViewer.exe is). Have a look at it. See if you can find -acodec libopus. If yes, replace it by -acodec libvorbis throughout, save, restart the DMS and try if the change does the trick.

[krasno]

On 6/13/2017 at 9:35 PM, Griga said:

The default audio format for WebM has been changed from Vorbis to the more up-to-date Opus in DMS 2.0.2. Dunno if this causes the trouble...  it depends on the content of your ffmpegprefs.ini in the config subdirectory of the installation folder (where DVBViewer.exe is). Have a look at it. See if you can find -acodec libopus. If yes, replace it by -acodec libvorbis throughout, save, restart the DMS and try if the change does the trick.

i guess that's not the reason, I can't find acodec libopus, and it looks like it uses WebM I have attached the ffmpegprefs.ini ...  

It's really strange.. any other ideas?, then please let me know

I can see I have an old ffmpegprefs.bak file in same folder, I'll try to use that instead and see what happens, I only had time to compare them for 10 seconds, and they look very much alike, but..I mean after 10 seconds only, I could be wrong..there could be a difference somewhere.  i'll get back asap with the result.

ffmpegprefs.ini

Edited June 14, 2017 by krasno

[Griga]

48 minutes ago, krasno said:

I can see I have an old ffmpegprefs.bak file in same folder, I'll try to use that instead and see what happens,

 

Rather the other way round: Remove your ffmpegprefs.ini and restart the DMS 2.0.2 in order to force recreation of an up-to-date default file.

[krasno]

On 6/14/2017 at 10:36 PM, Griga said:

 

Rather the other way round: Remove your ffmpegprefs.ini and restart the DMS 2.0.2 in order to force recreation of an up-to-date default file.

I have posted ealier today, but right now I can not find it.. so if this ends up being a double answer then....

 

I deleted ffmpefprefs.ini, a new was created, but the problem remains... 
any other "things" to try? other than downgrade to an ol' RS..??

[Griga]

Is your FFmpeg build up-to-date? Did you download the version offered by the DMS installer? If not:

 

https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win64/static/ffmpeg-20170330-ad7aff0-win64-static.zip

 

That is the one the DMS was tested with.

[krasno]

I always download the offered versions, but have also now downloaded the one from the link you send, just in case it would help..

After that I restarted PC and tried again,  with no luck, I'm sorry..

I also re-installed the Chromecast device, but it still doesn't work. 

 

what else to try? 

I have attached the support.zip file, just in case it could help   
As far as I can see it looks like WebM is started, and no errors, but 'm not that clever you know ( damn..), I could be terrible wrong..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

support.zip

[Griga]

1 hour ago, krasno said:

As far as I can see it looks like WebM is started

 

Looks like everything is set up and started correctly, but then it is stopped, sometimes after a few seconds, sometimes after some milliseconds. Dunno why. Either the client breaks the connection for some reason or FFmpeg encounters something it can't cope with. Perform the following steps:

1. Stop DMS
2. Delete the svcdebug.log in the configuration folder.
3. Start DMS
4. Open the web interface in your browser. Go to the Configuration Page -> UPnP, tick the "UPnP debug logging" checkbox and click Save. This enables extended logging. It is automatically reset on next DMS stop/start.
5. Reproduce the problem.
6. Stop DMS (otherwise the log may be incomplete because half of it is still in some Windows buffers).
7. Attach the new svcdebug.log (zip it to reduce the size, if necessary).

Maybe this will tell us more... here I'm usually testing the WebM output with with Chrome and Firefox under Windows and Android and I can't see any problem.

[krasno]

Good morning

I have attached the requested file. I look forward to hear what you can see in it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

svcdebug.log

Edited June 17, 2017 by krasno

[Griga]

Seems there are two clients accessing two WebM streams at the same time, both the same channel with the same FFmpeg preset, but different IPs. The second request arrives 17 seconds after the first one. The user agents are

 

192.168.0.151 Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.1.1; ONEPLUS A3003 Build/NMF26F) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.83 Mobile Safari/537.36

 

192.168.0.121 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux armv7l) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.0 Safari/537.36 CrKey/1.24.88007

 

Is there an explanation for that?

[Tjod]

The first one is a smartphone (and the one with "CrKey" is the chromecast device), which is used to control the chromecast. It is used to select the stream.
And it checks the streaming URL first.
Then it sends the streaming URL to chromecast, which then accesses it on its own. So that the smartphone controlling the device is not involved in transferring the stream.

[Griga]

2 hours ago, Tjod said:

So that the smartphone controlling the device is not involved in transferring the stream.

 

But it receives the stream continuously, because it doesn't close the connection, and in the end there are two clients keeping two FFmpeg instances busy with transcoding. Krasno should check in the task manager if his server PC ist fast enough for it.

 

Actually the smartphone establshes two connections, but the second one is closed after 30 ms. The first one remains. The old Recording Service would probably have done the following:

1. Receive the first smartphone request.
2. Start stream
3. Receive the second smartphone request.
4. Kick the first connection and stop the corresponding stream because it didn't allow a client to receive two transcoded streams at the same time.
5. Start a new stream.
6. Stop the stream after 30 ms because the smartphone closes the second connection.
7. Receive the chromecast request
8. Start stream

...so that only one stream is delivered to a single client.

 

However, the DMS handles (4.) differently. It doesn't kick the first smartphone connection because it recognises that the second request is an identical one from the same client. So when chromecast drops in there are two independent streams.

 

[krasno]

this became a little long, but..

 

I know it is not the fastest PC on this planet, but on the other hand it has worked until... not totally sure, but it could be the time when I installed DMS, but it has worked in the beginning ,I am quite sure.  I have not been much at home recently, so I have not used live TV from the PC in a long time. But i have used Plex from same PC with no problems..

I use Plex, and the PC can transcode a blue ray to for example 720P with no problems, (sometimes it has some small problems with when streaming in full HD, but .ts files (720P) is never a problem at all. 

And it has worked before with no problem at all..

Before when I used wifi it was a problem in some parts of the house, but that was be course of bad  wi-fi coverage, so I bought a couple of these:

https://store.google.com/product/ethernet_adapter_for_chromecast

One of the 3 Chromecasts is a Ultra HD and is delivered with ethernet adapter similar to the ones in the link.

So only the Chromecast Audio's I have uses wifi.. (with no problems at all)

So I think it is not bad connection. At least it was worse earlier,  when I used wi-fi only...

 

If I stream TV from the net (using the mobile) or Youtube or other streams I have no problems using the Chromecasts. 

And I know live TV and recorded is not the same... and I also know the stream does not come from the phone, but directly from "the net"

 

Anyway that was the PC I call the new one, it is actually not that new, I agree in that, BUT, the old is from 2008 or is it 2007? not sure.., and it works!!... with the old RS as mentioned before.. 

 

RS and DMS shouldn't they do it the same way? 

 

Chromecasts receive the streams from the PC where DMS ( and DVBViewer) are installed as soon as you press the Chromecast button on the phone. Until then the stream can be seen on the mobile. Understood this way the stream can no longer be seen on the mobile from the moment you press the Chromecast button. After that everything is handled by Chromecast.( and the PC) and the phone's "screen" is bank. 

the phone can be turned off totally !!

so:

The problem starts when I press the Chromecast button you could say..

 

Could it be so stupid that the stream are streamed two times at the same time?: one time on the w-lan and the other on the lan? 

the PC is ONLY connected with cable. The mobile uses w-lan, from the router ( of course...) ..I gotta think
that could be a problem hahaha  

 

Just tried to set one Chromecast up on wi-fi, ( lan-cable unplugged) ..unfortunately that gives same result: grey screen and no sound, but it has to be set up from scratz, mean it doesn't look like it is using two communication lines as soon as the set-up is over. During set-up it communicate directly with the phone!!.

Set-up is NOT possible directly from a PC, at least not yet according to Google.

So maybe the theory about w-lan + cable-lan at the same time died.. but maybe DMS THINK there are two, or starts two streams? what do I know?
but Griga you wrote 4?? I don't have that many pc's haha

 

 

I don't know exactly what to try right now.. .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2017 by krasno

[Griga]

5 hours ago, Griga said:

Krasno should check in the task manager if his server PC ist fast enough for it.

 

What do you see? CPU load?

[krasno]

10 hours ago, Griga said:

192.168.0.151 Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.1.1; ONEPLUS A3003 Build/NMF26F) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.83 Mobile Safari/537.36

 

192.168.0.121 Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux armv7l) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.0 Safari/537.36 CrKey/1.24.88007

 

!92.168.0.151 is the Phone

192.168.0.121 is the Chromecast.

 

I was just writing when you asked...

 

I'm recording  HD program right now that gives a CPU usage between 10 and 20%
 

When I start a stream to a chromecast on the phone the CPU usage goes up to a short peak around 75-80% % and then drops to around 60-65%, where it stays until it gives up or I cancel the stream, then it drops to the before mentioned 10 and 20%.

memory is not affected, it's hanging on 2.59Gb.

 

[Derrick]

Install BubbleUPnP on your android smart phone and stream from DMS to Chromecast.

[krasno]

13 hours ago, Derrick said:

Install BubbleUPnP on your android smart phone and stream from DMS to Chromecast.

I already have BubbleUPnP installed...., why I don't remember..    I think I once tried to use it, also MXplayer or something like that, I have not used the app for a long time, how should it help? ... 
I mean I have tried to stream from DMS all the time...??

I

[Derrick]

I don't understand why you have 2 connections simultaneously. With Bubbles the smartphone is only a control point. Chromecast dongles only have a limited number of codecs. H.264 has to be transcoded which is performed by the Bubbles server on the PC. DMS is not involved in transcoding.

 

MXplayer is only used if you use the smartphone as client.

[krasno]

I only have bubble upnp on the phone!

Not on my PC !

Do I don't have two simultaneous systems running..

 

Don't ask me why I have it on the phone..has never been used..

If you ask me why I use Chromcast, the answer is: nobody but me can find out to turn on a TV just to watch news in this house.. the whole setup is in betamode year 22 ,?.. and if it goes on I'll not survive ,hehe

I have never tried bubble server, but have tried Upnp ..and that was like driving formel 1 on a tractor... with no wheels and a Honda motor...?

 

That's the reason I use Chromcast...

 

[Griga]

Let's summarize:

 

In "it works with the previous but not with the current version" scenarios the first approach is to look for differences: What has been changed?

 

The default WebM audo format has been changed, but there is no evidence that this causes the playback problems with Chromecast.

 

The handling of identical requests from the same client (the smartphone) is different. It is much more efficient now, particularly in cases where a (mobile) browser finds a HTML5 video URL on a page, has a short look at the content (particularly the HTTP header) and then passes it on to a player instance. The new method avoids transcoded streaming to be started, uselessly stopped and started again.

 

However, in this case the svcdebug.log suggests that  the new handling causes a second transcoded stream to be started when Chromecast drops ihn because the smartphone does not close its connection. This possibly does not happen with an old Recording Service version, as stated here (not yet proved, just an assumption).

 

But this should be no issue if neither the server CPU is overstrained by double transcoding nor the network connection by two streams, each with approx. 1 MBit/s. The svcdebug.log shows no problems on the server side. Both transcoded streams are startet correctly and there are no FFmpeg errors letting the process terminate. The server delivers both streams until it is stopped.

 

Sorry, I have no idea how this could be fixed or what else could be checked, particularly due to a lack of knowledge about the smartphone <-> Chromecast interactions and dependencies. The log only shows what is going on from the server's point of view. It doesn't show why playback doesn't work anymore and why the smartphone continues to receive the stream though playback has been delegated - doesn't make sense to me.

[krasno]

Well it also doesn't make sense to me..

 

Something tells me it might have something to do with Chrome, Google has incorporated a chromecast bottom. Before you had to install it yourself.

That happened recently. but..that is only in Chrome for Windows, not Chrome for Android.

 

I tried to install the Bubble server but.. well it looks generally like UpnP looks on my TV if I use it, and it could not run smoothly on the phone, I did not succeed in sending a stream to the TV. I have no idea why.  I gave up after an hour or so..

 

My opinion was, delete it again, and fight one problem at the time. My experiences with dealing with several errors at the same time is ..well to speak out one hell of a mess, and you never know what causes what.

so no change for Bubble-wasser  at least not for now..

 

The problem is the stream, somewhere.WebM maybe?  I'm only guessing guessing..

and I know, without guessing, that streams work flawlessly with Plex, but that ain't live tv... and live TV is not that easy to deal with.. I have been told a million times.. 

 

In the next days I'll try to use the old PC, be course we know it works, and try to think ( that is maybe the worst problem we have..) 

 

Anyway a million thanx for trying, one day in the future it maybe will be easy to watch TV...

like this:

turn on TV ( from your phone or tablet maybe?)

choose TV

choose channel

and you watch the channel you wanted to watch

I'm sorry I mention Plex, but it's is incredible easy to set up,- and use-  I almost got a chock, I installed it on the PC as server , downloaded the app from Google Play, turned on the Chromecast menu and to my big surprise I pressed a button and I could see all the movies I have, scroll down, choose one and pressed play and it worked!! and then I prese cast, and that also worked...  all I did was to type in the password for my w-lan.and tell plex where the movies where stored.. I had expected weeks of messing around in codecs, missing subtitles, wrong sound..and so on..

That is also the reason Chromecast is in use here, it is simple..cheap, and it works.. i'm sorry, but it does.
unless you try to stream Live TV from DMS at the moment I know... I know..

 

Have a nice..week.. weekend is over.. damn

 

 

 

[krasno]

It' not a joke... webM streaming to Chromecast is now working, I have no Idea why, I have done absolutely nothing
.. I can only guess, that an update from Google ( properly Chrome) solved the problems...or maybe it was a chromecast update? or?... who knows?
 

[karhukuoma]

I did setup a Chromecast streaming with help of a web-server and this https://github.com/googlecast/CastHelloVideo-chrome

If more than one person is interested, I could share the setup and/or help setup your own. I use transcoded streams with 

/flashstream/stream.webm?preset=WebM%20HD%203600%20kbit&ffpreset=ultrafast&vcodec=vp8&acodec=opus&delay=3000&keepres=hv&chid=

 

One could also use https://github.com/googlecast/CastHelloVideoPlayer but seems more complicated.

[krasno]

On 6/9/2017 at 7:32 PM, krasno said:

It' not a joke... webM streaming to Chromecast is now working, I have no Idea why, I have done absolutely nothing
.. I can only guess, that an update from Google ( properly Chrome) solved the problems...or maybe it was a chromecast update? or?... who knows?
 

this is also not a joke, for the last couple of months it has not been working and I still have not changed anything. .. 

 

 

[krasno]

Hi again again

 

Tried to test a few things, after a looong period where I gave up ,,,:
Cast work from a chrome browser on on a windows PC. Program start immediately..., channel change also works.

 

Cast doesn't work from an Android phone. From android phone all you get on the TV is a grey screen. + program name and a searching line..that finds nothing

If, after a cast -send from a PC- has started, and you try to change channel on the android, the grey screen returns. but channel txt in buttom of screen change to the new channel.
PC also now it's a new channel, but you have to press play on the PC to start the cast.

 

In other words all devices ( always carry your PC in a backpack at any time...that was a joke..)...In other words, all devices know what is going on, even sound can be adjusted from the phone if the cast was started from PC.!!

"Only" problem is: phone can not start a cast...  
The program can be seen on the phone in the browser without any problems at all. but start a cast ? no way..!!

The above only for information, if someone out there know how..
 

 

have a nice day :)) 

[krasno]

Orla

 

I know this thread is quite old, BUT..  hence I am referring to it, I thought it would be best to post here. If not..then it can be moved

you could call it an update.. re-request for help :)) or: if I ask once a year, then ...maybe one day...
 

The problem still persist, and despite a new PC. 

The new PC: Amd Ryzen 7-2700X processor, 16 Gb ram.  

summarization:

On the new (or old) PC -where DVBViewer and Mediaserver is/was installed- live TV can be watched in Chrome Browser. (transcoding to ultrafast and WebM HD 3600 kb/s)

 

it is possible to cast from PC to Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra, and everything works. 

Lower settings is not a problem of course..

 

If I instead start the stream from my Android phone, chrome browser,  the stream start on the phone no matter I use highest settings also here. 

So live TV can also be seen on the phone.

 

BUT if I then choose to cast to TV , no matter it is chromecast or Chromecast HD, I'm are back to the grey screen, see attached picture. (+ picture disappear, as it should, on the phone)

Cast can be stopped from the PC. So the PC know it is casting..

If I turn off the phone the grey screen is still there. (just to be sure the cast goes from PC and not via the phone, remember I was told I had  two started streams.

 

It still looks like something happens to the format? or what? if you start the cast from android instead of PC, but what goes wrong ?

anyone that has got a good idea since I asked last time?

Anyone else here that uses Chromecast? for Live TV from DVBViewer and Media Server?

 

Only solution I see right now is a 30 meter Hdmi cable, and a 30 meter robot arm to change channels on the PC.. ..? hahaha