I have an Android TV and have the latest version of Plex for Android installed. However, the only audio signal that is available when I play a show is 2 channel PCM even though the file contains 5.1 DD surround sound. How can I get surround Plex to passthrough the surround sound channel to my AV receiver?
Yeah, the Android TV application will try to play any multi-channel audio as 5.1 AAC. Android will then decide whether to play back 5.1 or downmix to 2.0, based upon what it “thinks” it’s connected too. It sounds like Android is under the impression whatever is connected via HDMI can’t handle more than 2 channels.
@IanDBird said:
Yeah, the Android TV application will try to play any multi-channel audio as 5.1 AAC. Android will then decide whether to play back 5.1 or downmix to 2.0, based upon what it “thinks” it’s connected too. It sounds like Android is under the impression whatever is connected via HDMI can’t handle more than 2 channels.
First, to clarify my setup, I have a Sony Android TV and Plex is installed on the TV. This TV is then connected to my AV receiver via HDMI using the ARC channel on both the TV and AV receiver.
The problem appears to be something related to the Android version of Plex since the implementation of Android TV in my setup knows that the HDMI/ARC connection can handle 5.1 DD surround sound. I know this to be a fact since, if I play the exact same video using the Android TV version of Kodi, instead of Plex, all else remaining equal, Android TV recognizes the 5.1 DD surround sound in the file and transmits it over the HDMI connection to my AV receiver. In contrast, Plex only transmits a 2 channel stereo signal…
@JerryB01 - Thanks for the additional information. I actually have a Sony Android TV and can easily reproduce the issue you’re reporting. Unfortunately, this is a Sony bug where they aren’t handling 5.1 content from native Android applications properly. We’ve actually been in talks with them and they’re actively looking into it. I’m sorry, I can’t give any advice on how long this might take to resolve, they haven’t told us.
Ian
I have searched and search and can only find this post in reference to the issue. You guys say this is a known bug but is there anything publicly acknowledging this or only internal communications between plex and sony?
I can only share with you what they’ve shared with me… Which is that they know it’s an issue, and they’re looking into it. I would also point out that the same issue affects a lot of video applications running on Sony’s Android TV, including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Play Movies.
Ian
@chenks said:
the sony android tv part was the crucial piece of information you didn’t mention in the original post.
sony’s version of android tv has a bug where 5.1 audio doesn’t work natively.
kodi doesn’t have the problem as that uses its own player whereas plex uses the stock android tv player.this is a known issue (and has been since sony launched the tv) and sony are apparently working on it.
I’ve been doing some investigation into the various media players. I’m not sure the above is correct, in fact. It’s not only Kodi that AC3 and DTS movies work. They also play correctly in the basic Android “Video” app, over DLNA (e.g. from minidlna). The 5.1 audio is bitstreamed to my AVR via optical just fine. Plex on the other hand…
So I set about trying to see what the Plex server is doing and try to force it to direct play the files. This is where Plex gets really complicated. I am really confused as to how the Plex client app interacts with the server. Do connections from the android app make use of DLNA profiles at all? The debug log says it uses “augmented Android profile”. It seems logical that this means the Android.xml profile, augmented by the parameters sent in the header (e.g. max H264 profile, AAC 6 channels - which is ironic by the way). So I looked at the default Android profile, which will transcode lots of things that the TV can play including all AC3, DTS or >2 channel AAC content. Yet I can’t seem to create a new one (with relevant Identification criteria) that the server will use. The DLNA log indicates my DeviceDescription strings are correct as the TV’s DLNA renderer is found on startup and assigned to my custom profile, but this seems not to be used when a file is actually played (either selected from the TV client app, or cast to the TV from the web app). Is there some special detection for Android clients that is not in the DLNA XML? I tried:
This matches what is reported in the logs, but it doesn't seem to work either. Instead it causes a "key error" to pop up when casting from the server to the TV.@chenks said:
as already stated, this is not an issue just with plex.
the sony android TV’s have the same issue with netflix etc as well.
You said the TV has a bug and the native player has this issue. Are you saying that the in-built “Video” app does not use the native player?
Just bought a KD55X8509C.
Receiver is Pioneer SC-LX58. Optical does not work at all. ARC is 2.0, I have not tried Kodi yet, but netflix is 2.0.
That’s quite bad, especially when it plays 2160p beautifully !
Plex works well without transcoding too, I wish it had a working 5.1 output.
I am not sure if I should return the TV or not…
Any update on getting audio from a Sony Android TV to my receiver in 5.1 vs stereo?
It depends on where you live. The last Sony update in the United States finally enabled 5.1 DD surround sound in both Plex and Netflix on my TV. However, some people report that they still have problems with 5.1 surround sound after the update and, from what I read, this update has not yet been released in Europe.
The UK update will inevitably be suffering from the “we’re panicking to get YouView finished” effect. A bunch of missing features have had their due dates pushed back, like USB recording which was due August and is now “this year”. To be honest I think I’d rather they fix some of the other bugs first before this one, like the lip sync problem (sound is delayed) and crashing processes (yes, on a TV!)
And this is why I’d rather have a “dumb” TV and a streambox(es) plugged in.
@KarlDag said:
And this is why I’d rather have a “dumb” TV and a streambox(es) plugged in.
You can buy one of those? Aren’t all TVs with decent picture quality, motion handling etc “smart” now?
@bogwoppit said:
You can buy one of those? Aren’t all TVs with decent picture quality, motion handling etc “smart” now?
Don’t know, bought my last one in 2013 and am not in the market right now… But whether or not it’s possible doesn’t change my preference 
@KarlDag said:
Don’t know, bought my last one in 2013 and am not in the market right now… But whether or not it’s possible doesn’t change my preference
I had the same preference, alas
So we finally got the 5.1.1 update here in Europe.
But there’s still problems, DTS passthrough does still not seem to work?
@IanDBird can you comment on this?
@bogwoppit said:
This matches what is reported in the logs, but it doesn’t seem to work either. Instead it causes a “key error” to pop up when casting from the server to the TV.
Would you mind sharing said profile?
It probably needs tweaking, I really can’t remember what state it was in.
`<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
Interesting. The profile seems to work (I can see PMS attempting to transcode DTS to AC3) but I still get the stuttering. Have yet to diagnose why PMS is not transcoding DTS properly since it there’s no load on the server (dedicated i5 with RAIDed disks)
