Yes, but DTS is one that can go over optical. Others as you say such as TrueHD can’t and therefore are correctly transcoded by the server as per the capabilities reported.
DTS is the problem here. (As is EAC3 which also remains silent oddly even though it should know that it can’t be passed over optical)
There are so many posts not only on here, but on the Sonos boards, Reddit and other forums about this issue.
Codec selection solves it permanently.
(Passthrough is set to auto on the shield. I’ll play some files tomorrow with DTS and EAC3 and upload the logs)
EDIT:
Seems that EAC at lower bitrates can be passed over optical, so maybe the shield reports blindly that EAC3 is supported when it depends on the actual bitrate. I guess logs will clear this up.
Totally agree. I’ve long advocated for user device settings like this for audio AND also to be able to rank the codecs for use. So you could have a file with both a 2 channel stereo track set as the default and a DTS track and most clients will use the 2 channel. But if you could order the preference of use AND DTS (in this case) is supported on the device then DTS would be used.
I am on similar situation as yours, nvidia shield TV, audio-video receiver, and Sony 4k TV.
I had a lot of miss detection for audio capability from PLEX, speaking to nvidia tech-support, the best and safest way to correctly get the right result is to connect your nvidia shield TV to AVR first, then AVR to TV. That’s what I did and all my problems are solved.
I must use the correct version of HDMI cable for both, and turn off SRS surround audio capability on the TV side, that feature confused PLEX to think I have more audio capability than what I actually have.
But I agree, @elan must provide us with UI that is capable of manually selecting audio codec when in playback mode, which they have now, but doesn’t always work. I think it is because PLEX tries to find any codec than they think they can play and blindly passthrough the first one they find. It needs a way for human override.
With so many complexity around passing through, different way of connection, different optic and HDMI version, the most viable way for company like PLEX to support is to give users manual selection feature the works.
On the same topic, PLEX needs to let user correctly select which version of movie/audio/subtitle they want to play when the user have multiple movies with the same name but with different AV codec,bitrate etc. Which they have now, but doesn’t work in Android and android TV. In android TV, PLEX forces user to play the first copy of the media registered in the PLEX database ,or the first copy plex find despite that will result in unnecessary transcoding.
This is a big problem because I have one android TV box that connect to 1080p TV, and I usually have 3 copies of my media, 4k, 1080p high bit rate, 720p low bit rate for mobile viewing. All these copies I transcoded myself with handbrake with different encoding settings. In Android TV and android Mobile, PLEX will ignore my selection and will force me to play the first copy they find, which unfortunately the 4k version of the media. and that will result in unnecessary transcoding for the clients that support low bit rate or less than 4k.
Learn to add the 1080p version first. After a successful library scan add the other versions. This will make the 1080p version the “original” and will be the default displayed as well as the version used for transcoding if needed (super important).
Sorry but that’s a ridiculous thing to ask users to do. If it’s true that plex prioritise only the first copy registered in the PLEX database or that PLEX prioritize the first copy they find then it is an obviously bug .
I have been a collector for more than 25 years.
I have over 9000 movies with copies with different resolution and bitrates. What you suggests is simply impossible and sounds stupid.
No argument from me on it being ridiculous. But if you want things to work better NOW, then that is the solution, like it or not.
I’ve got about 250,000 videos and have been collecting video since the beginning of digital storage when the first capture cards were introduced. So I totally understand your feelings as I too feel the same.
I just learned a long time ago, you can ■■■■■, gripe and complain while waiting for a fix or feature to be added or you can take the bull by the horns and “handle” it yourself.
This solution isn’t pretty, but it works and many of use with mixed libraries do exactly this process.
The easier method is to create separate libraries for 3D, 4K etc so there is no confusion what-so-ever.
@elan as requested, here is both the server log and the shield log from starting playback of a DTS encoded file using a shield, connected to Sony TV by HDMI connected to Sonos Playbar via optical.
If DTS compatibility is listed in the EDID of the Sony TV and it can output DTS over it’s optical output then that is the problem. You would need to change the audio output on the Sony TV to PCM.
I know, this is what the whole conversation is about, the tv is reporting that it accepts it and the android tv client doesn’t have a codec selection screen like some of the clients do, it would seem that @elan wasn’t even aware of this as he is used to seeing the codec selection options.
Adding this to every client instead of selected one fixes it for everybody who has this issue, and there’s a lot of people with it.
In this case I need the server to do a direct stream, direct play of the video and transcode of audio from dts to ac3, after all the client will just play what the server sends it, but the misreporting of comparability is what’s killing me here. It’s a combination of the TV and sound bar that are the cause of this problem, but it would be so easy for the client to solve this!
I have no idea about Kodi, I don’t use it, I Think from reading about this issue a lot that there is an option to disable dts, but I can’t be 100% on that, I don’t really tend to read anything about Kodi. (I personally cannot stand it)
edit:
I’ve also seen this issue on the Roku client, my daughters hitachi tv would remain silent if the audio option on Plex was set to passthrough auto, I had to select passthrough disabled before audio would work on her tv, and this was using the TVs built in speakers. So the issue isn’t just limited o this client or combination of AV hardware.
My understanding is that Plex tries to cleverly pick whatever version of a video is most compatible with the client you’re using. So if I have an HD blu-ray movie with an “optimized version” for mobile, it will pick that second one if I stream from my phone, vs. picking the HD version if I stream from PMP or my Roku. I haven’t double-checked lately, but I don’t remember having problems with that… if it doesn’t work for you then I would make a specific thread as a bug report.
It does not do that. Well Roku client used to be able to do it sort of but that functionality is gone (from what I see) in the new UI but was in what is now the Retro App.
I’m not the biggest fan of the new Roku app, but with the testing I did with it in a couple of preview releases It properly selected the proper version every time. I think the Roku actually requires two parameters to make that decision:, bitrate and resolution. So if either is greater than what you have selected in the quality (remote or local), it will bump down until it finds one that fits into both.
As a bonus, it also automatically selects the best audio track (surround or stereo) to match the equipment it is connected to. That one is important to me, and it succeeded every time in my tests.
Now, I’m not sure I tested the release version for the quality part, but it still does select the proper audio track every time for me without ever touching the audio track options. I can even move from Roku to Roku, and hit continue watching, and it will pick the audio track automatically that’s for the system it’s connected to.
You might have to go in the Roku app settings and bump the quality settings away from “Original”. Worst case, instead of playing with the default play button, you go in the options ("*" button I think?) and choose “Play Version” to select one specifically, but yeah, I don’t have to do that, it just works for me AFAICT.
Edit: I meant bump the quality settings away from “Original” (fixed above). I tested it and when it’s set to “Original” it disregards whatever alternately encoded versions you have and always plays the main one… which in most cases will result in choppy transcoding (if your server isn’t beefy enough). I guess that’s why they say it’s “Not Recommended” in the UI…
That’s changing things. If on Original and a local network connected to a 4K TV I’d want it to play the 4K version. If connected to a 1080p TV then select the 1080p version.
Here’s the biggie. Regardless if transcoding is needed the 1080p (not 4K) version is used. This is the biggest issue I presently see regarding this type of thing with 1080p/4K as it presently used the original/first file added as the “base” file to use for all transcoding.
You mean to use the 1080p version and not the 4K version if a transcode happens?
Yes absolutely. Might not even need to transcode as the 1080p version might work itself.
