Plex is awesome at many things. Two of those are transcoding and direct play (not transcoding). It appears with the amazing new Plex Music app (that made me cancel my Spotify subscription) that we are limited to transcoding only.
It would be wonderful if we could get direct play and 24 bit (HD Audio) sync option for Plex. This should play on android / ios and any device that could be connected to a stereo perhaps through a usb DAC.
In my case this would enable CD quality or 24 bit quality music (both higher than the default 320kbps compressed audio sync that exists today. I believe Plex / and KODI code base supports up to 24bit playback for Movies, why not add to audio?
Iâd particularly like to Sync 24 bit music to my phone, which being a Sony, supports 24 bit right through the kernel and ecosystem. Others are doing this too now.
yes please, the iPhone natively support alac.
Plex should be able to play./sync alas on an iPhone.
If you are really serious about the music aspect of plex, you canât skip lossless sync/playback.
@Nicode70 said:
yes please, the iPhone natively support alac.
Plex should be able to play./sync alas on an iPhone.
If you are really serious about the music aspect of plex, you canât skip lossless sync/playback.
@Nicode70 said:
yes please, the iPhone natively support alac.
Plex should be able to play./sync alas on an iPhone.
If you are really serious about the music aspect of plex, you canât skip lossless sync/playback.
nope. plex for iOS doesnât support alac.
He said the iPhone does, not the Plex iOS app!
My HD Music collection is growing and growing and even my Smartphone can handle such media (up to 192 Kbps). Something like Plex should support it from scratch.
@Nicode70 said:
yes please, the iPhone natively support alac.
Plex should be able to play./sync alas on an iPhone.
If you are really serious about the music aspect of plex, you canât skip lossless sync/playback.
nope. plex for iOS doesnât support alac.
He said the iPhone does, not the Plex iOS app!
My HD Music collection is growing and growing and even my Smartphone can handle such media (up to 192 Kbps). Something like Plex should support it from scratch.
He also said âPlex should be able to play./sync alac on an iPhone.â So my post stands.
Thanks everyone, hopefully we get enough votes to be noticed. Without getting too much into the audiophile arena which the Plex team could while away months for perceived audio differences, this should not really be too hard. All the codecâs exist already, 24 bit and such should already be supported for movies.
Of course, the hardware (Kernel) HAS to support the appropriate playback bit depth (e.g. 16 or 24 bit, most of the Sony Smartphones do for example - I have one it sounds fantastic), HOWEVER to be clear, this is not ONLY about 24 bit playback. Standard 16 bit CD quality playback will be supported by all devices already which makes LOSLESS on these devices a HUGE advantage if you have the media. I have tons of lossless ripped CDâs that sound really great when playing through my stereo through my Apple TV.
However, they do not sound great through Plex on PlayStation for example (both Optical connections), which is disappointing.
At first I read that as 128kb lol. Care to elaborate what you mean here? Clearly Plex does not support this for Music Audio Sync. Any direct play capability for Audio is at best undocumented. But Iâd like to know what you know!
Maybe I am missing something in your request, but I am using the Plex Media Server for two primary purposes: video library to a couple of TVâs; and music streaming to a couple of rooms in our house. For video, we are using either TV apps (LG TVâs) or a chromecast. For audio, I am using RasPlex running on the Raspberry Piâs. Rasplex is a small linux distribution that is a Plex client to stream both music and video. It is run headless (ie no monitor) and is controlled by your mobile device.
For music, I have ripped all our CDâs into the FLAC codec and it is 44.1/16 quality. I have also been buying music from either 7digital.com or prostudiomasters.com. These are higher quality files 192/24 or 96/24. PMS easily manages these files in the library.
For playing these files, I have an add-on board on the Raspberry Piâs which provides a digital audio out connection (hifiberry Digi+) that with a coax connection to an external DAC plays these files beautifully. The DAC display confirms that the high resolution files are being passed directly to the DAC.
Direct play is an option in the Android app. And as far as I can tell, itâs the only sort of music streaming that works. I keep most of my music on my server in FLAC, and I tried to sync music in a lower bitrate but it stored it on my phone in FLAC anyway.
I have a Sony Xperia Z2 and at least one 24/96 album, but I havenât tested streaming it. Honestly, I donât know if Iâd be able to tell 16/44.1 from 24/96 anyway, but thatâs a whole other debate. :))
The request is in two parts in essence. Part 1, Plex make official statement about direct play (LOSSLESS) for audio. It doesnât say what itâs doing, especially given part b, which is that syncing local offers the highest quality of 320kbps compressed audio. I think we should have a âdirect syncâ option added.
When playing Video, these options are obvious and you can change between the various transcoded options or direct. With Audio it does not offer explanation other than offering a direct sync maximum of 320.
Also, regarding jacrinderâs comment, the point I think youâre missing is that there does exist hardware that supports Native 24/96 playback such as the Z3. I donât wish to carry around a separate DAC on my phone. It is good to know that your Raspberry Pi supports an add on interface, Iâll look into that. However, for other devices such as PS3/4 or whathaveyou (again remember Sony is pushing High Res Music), it would be great to be able to use the native device.
Most phones for example will play 24 bit, but only AFTER it has converted it to what the kernel supports, which is usually 16 bit 44.1. Another words it decreases the quality.
The point is, different devices do different things, and it would be great to have the flexibility to choose the original lossless file or a transcoded / compressed version as I decide. I really donât want to stream lossless files, thatâs a lot of bandwidth.
If you have direct play enabled in the app, start playing a track, then go to the Plex web panel, choose âsettingsâ and ânow playing,â and then click on the info icon on the displayed track, it will say âdirect play.â I donât know how you can tell that synced files are saved at 320 kbps.
I agree that Plex is opaque as hell when it comes to music handling, though. It would be great to have the same kind of fine tuning thatâs available with video.
For music, there is no âdirect play enabled in the appâ like there is for video. It just isnât there, at least not on my android version. There is a Video section in the settings that includes an Audio component which does not have this. Then there is a Player section in Advanced Audio which says it has direct play âoptionâ for audio and video streams (ambiguous as to if this means audio streams of a video file or not). The difference is, for Video these settings are visible, obvious and able to be set while direct streaming in the client as well as when you sync. In Audio it is not an option that I can see, while playing Audio. When you click the Sync arrow on android for audio you are forced to choose a quality setting, which has a maximum of 320kbps. I assume you donât sync your audio as you would have seen this. Unless there is something super obvious Iâm missing here - which is always possible!
However, direct play does not mean 24 bit playback if the original file is 24 bit. So the original post still stands that it would be great to have 24bit direct playback / sync options for Audio.
Thanks for the method to verify the direct play of your content though, that is a good trick!
I would love the ability to sync flac onto my phone. Then plex could truly be a 100% one stop shop. But, I still have to plug in my phone and copy the albums Iâd like with me
