Was about to suggest this just now but figured it would be best to see if it had been suggested. :)

This is badly needed ^^ Current workaround is to delete all the videos above the current before stopping the connection, which is rather crude..

Sounds like a problem with the chromecast extention, friend of mine had the same problem with youtube not streaming the vide through the app but rather just showing the whole tab. Note; showing the tab requires your computer to render the page/video or something like that - noticed that showing youtube through the tab use 20%~ cpu while loading it from the chromecast app (like it should, normally) hardly use any cpu (because it doesn't require to be rendered).

You could try clearing cache/cookies/re-installing the chromecast extention - the usual jazz.
Hope you get it fixed :)

@tron4 That's weird, it worked for me at least with those settings. Pre conversion my computer had to transcode it, which caused it to use a lot of processing power (cpu was running at 40-70% constantly) and thus it buffered. After conversion it did not need to transcode and it ran at a steady ~1-2% cpu usage and no buffering.

:/ Sucks that it didn't work for you :( Did you remember to set the correct h264 level? Chromecast only supports h264 high 4.1 and 5 I believe - it's on the chromecast supported formats website.

@tron4 I had a problem with anime buffering. Figured out it was due to it being encoded with a bit depth of 10 (instead of the 'normal' 8bit in other shows).

Unfortunately the Chromecast doesn't support playing h264 with a bit depth of 10, so what I did was convert the videos from 10 to 8 bit.

To do this I just used a free tool called HandBrake. I had some problems with video needing transcoding (which causes buffering, and also a lot of strain on your computer), even after converting it to 8bit - but after a few trials and errors I found out which settings to use. I'll post some screenshots on how to set it up to do a rather simple 10>8 conversion with little quality loss.

Note; any re-encode or transcoding will reduce quality - similar to encoding lossy music over and over.

Now, here are my settings in handbrake that did the trick for me.

Preferences
Under "tools" open options, here you can make ajustments as you like but noteworthy options are under "Output Files" > Default Path - I set this to a folder on my desktop named Videostream for simplicity. Also check automatically name output files.
Also remember to tick this to automatically pull the subtitles into the new file. The rest of the preferences are optional.

Output settings
These are in the main editor, I would highly recommend you import a file (click source > file/folder then import a video) then set up the output settings and save as a preset. (bottom right; click add).

Picture - default settings work fine.

Filter - default settings work fine.

Video - the most important ones are H.264 profile settings, apart from the speed preset (set at medium for me)
The h.264 preset slider basically means how fast it will encode versus compression. (faster = bigger file size, slower = smaller file size) for anime medium works fine, I end up with files averaging 3-400mb which play very nice and look super fine on my tv (this size also depends on your Constant Quality sider. 20 is the default but for HD videos you can put it at 24 to get a smaller file size (at the slight loss of quality).

Audio - AAC ffmpeg 128kbs works fine for me.

Subtitles - they should import automatically (due to the checkbox in the preferences) if not click add and pick "english" (or what other language you want). (Note; sometimes it says "unknown" or otherwise, and (SSA/ASS) in parentheses - those are usually the ones you want.)

Leave Chapters and Advanced as is if you don't know what you're doing.

Now; click add to queue (if you have 1 file) or click the arrow next to it and add the whole batch if you have multiple. Followed by clicking start to start encoding. For me each file takes about 15minutes in the cooker like this and work with zero effort on the computer playing it on the chromecast and no buffering at all.

Hope this works, good luck and enjoy!

Ok, I managed to - after several failed encodes that were 8bit (after I re-encoded them) - fix it after doing several failed trials in handbrake. (pulled the text from another post)

To do this I just used a free tool called HandBrake. I had some problems with video needing transcoding (which causes buffering, and also a lot of strain on your computer), even after converting it to 8bit - but after a few trials and errors I found out which settings to use. I'll post some screenshots on how to set it up to do a rather simple 10>8 conversion with little quality loss.

Note; any re-encode or transcoding will reduce quality - similar to encoding lossy music over and over.

Now, here are my settings in handbrake that did the trick for me.

Preferences
Under "tools" open options, here you can make ajustments as you like but noteworthy options are under "Output Files" > Default Path - I set this to a folder on my desktop named Videostream for simplicity. Also check automatically name output files.
Also remember to tick this to automatically pull the subtitles into the new file. The rest of the preferences are optional.

Output settings
These are in the main editor, I would highly recommend you import a file (click source > file/folder then import a video) then set up the output settings and save as a preset. (bottom right; click add).

Picture - default settings work fine.

Filter - default settings work fine.

Video - the most important ones are H.264 profile settings, apart from the speed preset (set at medium for me)
The h.264 preset slider basically means how fast it will encode versus compression. (faster = bigger file size, slower = smaller file size) for anime medium works fine, I end up with files averaging 3-400mb which play very nice and look super fine on my tv (this size also depends on your Constant Quality sider. 20 is the default but for HD videos you can put it at 24 to get a smaller file size (at the slight loss of quality).

Audio - AAC ffmpeg 128kbs works fine for me.

Subtitles - they should import automatically (due to the checkbox in the preferences) if not click add and pick "english" (or what other language you want). (Note; sometimes it says "unknown" or otherwise, and (SSA/ASS) in parentheses - those are usually the ones you want.)

Leave Chapters and Advanced as is if you don't know what you're doing.

Now; click add to queue (if you have 1 file) or click the arrow next to it and add the whole batch if you have multiple. Followed by clicking start to start encoding. For me each file takes about 15minutes in the cooker like this and work with zero effort on the computer playing it on the chromecast and no buffering at all.

Hope this works, good luck and enjoy!

Could you guys point me in the direction of the best preset, or at least one that works? Or options that are crucial?

As the title says I want to convert some videos to a better supported format that doesn't need transcoding :)

Update on 10bit vs 8bit test
Looked around a little and compared various 10bit and 8bit video files and indeed, it seems to be the cause. Very high strain on the computer transcoding it - it works, just not well and it will require a lot of buffering. I do not know exactly how the transcoding work, but for me pausing a little and let it cache/buffer (?*) made it bearable with only slight buffering sometimes.

So guys, if the issue is buffering when watching anime then check if it is 10bit and get an 8bit version instead to do without transcoding (this is; if the new file is compatible with the chromecast and doesn't need to be transcoded).

10bit in anime info link

no I'm not a dev I just want it to work flawlessly :)

@isaacchristie Yes, I understood that. I was saying that it probably can't play higher than 1080p. But it shouldn't make 1080p > 720p unless you specify.

picture 1
picture 2
It should keep 1080p. However I don't think it can play 4k video and such /shrugs
You can however pick 720p if you want.

You could try something else though, google it and see what you can find. But yes, Videostream only streams to Chromecast ;)