Chromecast Audio group

[PamuCio]

I created a group with 2 Chromecast Audios. While they perform well individually, I can't get them to consistently play together in the group when playing m4a files. Flac files however play successfully all the time. I've used both Hi-Fi Cast and Oto Music to cast to the CCA group and they produced the same results for m4a:

Only CCA1 will play at the start. Clicking anywhere on the progress bar activates CCA2 until the song ends. When the next song in the playlist starts playing, CCA2 stops again and will only play when the progress bar is clicked on again.

Help please.

[Jeran]

Hey there PamuCio.

Welcome to the Chromecast Community Forum! This is a pretty strange issue, so I'd be happy to help you look into it. First thing, make sure that your Google Home app is up-to-date. Then, to isolate the issue, try casting those m4a files from different devices, such as a computer or tablet, to see if the problem persists across platforms. Finally, try other m4a files to see if the problem occurs with all m4a media type files.

I look forward to your response, and if you have any other questions or concerns for me, please let me know.

Best regards,
Jeran

[PamuCio]

Hi Jeran,

Thanks for your response and suggestions I've finally figured out what's wrong - the m4a files.

• These are files converted to m4a from CDs or FLAC files.
• I just tried mp3s and the problem didn't come out just as it did not with FLACs and Spotify.

I now need to figure out how to fix these m4a files so they don't produce the problem, or convert all of them to mp3, which is a gargantuan task.

[Jeran]

Good day, PamuCio.

Goodness, I'm glad to hear that you were able to isolate the issue with those file types. Have you tried casting those files from another device already to see if the problem persists? Or perhaps try casting them using a different media player if you are able to. That way, we can isolate the issue with the m4a files even more.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Best regards,

Jeran

[PamuCio]

Thanks for your interest in this, Jeran. Here's what I have so far:

MEDIA

• m4a files were converted from WAV (ripped from CDs) and FLAC using Audacity.
• Files are stored in my devices.

HARDWARE

• 2 Chromecast Audio in a group
• 3 Devices: Pixel 6a, Galaxy Tab A8, Asus ZenPad Z8 - all were tested with all the music players

MUSIC PLAYERS

• With on-screen volume control that works with Chromecast
  • Hi-Fi Cast
  • Oto Music
• Poweramp - with volume control that works with Chromecast but not on-screen
• PlayerPro - no volume control

OBSERVATIONS

• Hi-Fi Cast and Oto Music
  • Casting m4a files usually produces sound in one speaker only. Pressing anwhere on the progress bar will activate the other speaker.
  • The same thing happens when the next song in the playlist starts.
  • This does not happen with mp3 and FLAC files, or with Spotify.
• Poweramp does not exhibit this problem. Any of the volume buttons need to be pressed to make the volume control widget appear. 
• PlayerPro does not exhibit this problem but volume control only controls the device's audio and not the Chromecast's.

With these, I guess the most practical thing is for me to shift to Poweramp. I would like to discover a way to have volume control visible all the time while using the app though. It would also seem that the players with on-screen volume controls for Chromecast are those that have this problem. I like Hi-Fi Cast a lot and I hope they'd look into this.

Cheers,

PamuCio

[Jeran]

Hey there PamuCio,

I apologize for the late response on this, and I appreciate your patience! Were you able to successfully transfer those files to Poweramp and resolve this issue? Have you contacted Hi-Fi Cast to see if they are aware of any casting issues with m4a files?

Best regards,

Jeran

[PamuCio · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeran,

With some inputs from a Hi-Fi Cast forum I finally traced the root of the problem - Audacity. It's conversions were causing the problems with Hi-Fi Cast. I tried using fre:AC to do the conversions to m4a and everything went smoothly. I have informed the Hi-Fi Cast developer of this finding too. 

Anyway, I decided to shift to Poweramp since I didn't want to remux the thousands of files I have.

Thanks for your support.

Kudos!

PamuCIO

[Jeran]

Hiya PamuCio,

Awesome, I'm glad to hear you were able to get it figured out! It's definitely hard to know where the root issue is when there are so many factors involved. In that case, do you have any more questions that I can address? If not, I'll go ahead and lock this thread in 24 hours.

Thank you,
Jeran