Google Cast supports the following media facilities and types. Some of these require additional coding or the Cast Application Framework (CAF). See Basic CAF Receiver Applications for more information about developing your receiver application to support these media types.
All Google Cast receiver applications support the following.
Image formats
- BMP
- GIF
- JPEG
- PNG
- WEBP
Media container formats
- AAC
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- WebM
Video codecs
Chromecast 1st and 2nd Gen.
- H.264 High Profile up to level 4.1 (720p/60fps or 1080p/30fps)
- VP8 (720p/60fps or 1080p/30fps)
Chromecast 3rd Gen.
- H.264 High Profile up to level 4.2 (1080p/60fps)
- VP8 (720p/60fps or 1080p/30fps)
Chromecast Ultra
- H.264 High Profile up to level 5.2 (2160p/30fps max)
- VP8 (2160p/30fps)
- HEVC / H.265 Main and Main10 Profiles up to level 5.1 (2160p/60fps)
VP9 Profile 0 and Profile 2 up to level 5.1 (2160p/60fps)
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
- Dolby® Vision™
- HDR10
Dolby Vision is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Google Nest Hub
- H.264 High Profile up to level 4.1 (720p/60fps)
- VP9 up to level 4.0 (720p/60fps)
Audio codecs
- HE-AAC
- LC-AAC
- MP3
- Vorbis
- WAV (LPCM)
- FLAC (up to 96kHz/24-bit)
- Opus
Media type strings
MP4 video and audio
| Video codec | Video profile | Audio codec | Audio profile | Media type string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H.264 level 3.0 | baseline | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.6B" | ||||
| H.264 level 3.1 | baseline | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01F, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01F, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01F, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01F, mp4a.6B" | ||||
| H.264 level 3.1 | main | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401F, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401F, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401F, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401F, mp4a.6B" | ||||
| H.264 level 4.0 | main | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D4028, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D4028, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D4028, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D4028, mp4a.6B" | ||||
| H.264 level 4.0 | high | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640028, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640028, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640028, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640028, mp4a.6B" | ||||
| H.264 level 4.1 | high | AAC | aac_he | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640029, mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640029, mp4a.40.2" | |||
| MP3 | video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640029, mp4a.69" | |||
| video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640029, mp4a.6B" |
MP4 audio only
| Format | Audio codec | Audio profile | Media type string |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4A | AAC | aac_he | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.5" |
| aac_lc | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.2" | ||
| MP3 | MP3 | audio/mp3 | |
| MPA | MP3 | audio/mpeg | |
| MP3 | audio/mpeg; codecs="mp3" | ||
| MP4 | MP3 | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.69" | |
| MP3 | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.6B" |
MP4 non-compliant audio media types
| Format | Audio codec | Media type string |
|---|---|---|
| M4A | HE-AAC | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.05" |
| LC-AAC | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.02" |
WebM video and audio
| Format | Video codec | Audio codec | Media type string |
|---|---|---|---|
| WebM | VP8 | Vorbis | video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis" |
| WebM (audio only) | Vorbis | audio/webm; codecs="vorbis" | |
Audio passthrough
- AC-3 (Dolby® Digital™ audio technology)
- E-AC-3 (EC-3, Dolby® Digital Plus™ audio technology)
The Cast Application Framework (CAF)
supports AC-3 passthrough. If you're not using CAF, you can check the codec
support prior to creating the source buffer by using the
CastReceiverContext.canDisplayType()
method and passing mp4a.a5 for AC-3 or mp4a.a6 for E-AC-3.
Dolby, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Media type strings
| Format | Audio codec | Media type string |
|---|---|---|
| MP4 | AAC | audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.2" |
| AC-3 | audio/mp4; codecs="ac-3" | |
| audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.a5" | ||
| E-AC-3 | audio/mp4; codecs="ec-3" | |
| audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.a6" |
Delivery methods and adaptive streaming protocols
These are available through use of the Cast Application Framework (CAF).
MPEG-DASH
- DRM Support: PlayReady (SL 2000), Widevine (Level 1)
SmoothStreaming
- DRM Support: PlayReady (SL 2000)
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
- DRM Support: AES-128, SAMPLE-AES using Widevine (Level 1)
Progressive download without adaptive switching
With adaptive bitrate streaming protocols, you must implement CORS. To implement an encrypted protocol, including DRM, you should develop a Custom Receiver. See DRM support for more information.
Subtitles and closed captions
Your subtitle resources must implement CORS.