Amazon Echo Studio & FLAC streaming

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Server Version#: 1.21.0.3711

I read past threads saying the Echo client does not support FLAC. I have an Echo Studio, which is reported to support AAC, FLAC, MP3, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Opus & Vorbis.

Is it possible for the Plex server to support FLAC to Echo Studio w/o MP3 transcoding?

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What is the Echo Studio connected to? Or are you streaming to it using Alexa? If so, Alexa does not support FLAC.

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Streaming using Alexa. So the hardware supports FLAC, but the Alexa service does not?

What’s the highest fidelity way to play music from Plex server to Echo Studio? My options are:

  1. Alexa service
  2. Bluetooth from PC to Echo
  3. Aux In

#3 is out because you lose Echo voice control except for volume as I understand.
#2 seems a more compromised option than #1 .
What is the maximum MP3 bitrate Alexa will take? Can I configure Plex for it?

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Here is the documentation for Alexa, https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/alexa-voice-service/recommended-media-support.html.

AFAIK, you can only get hi-fi audio through the 1st party streaming services available for Alexa.

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Thank you for the link. Interesting. Not updated since 2017. I hope Amazon’s venture into higher fidelity with the Studio cause more exposed capability.

The relevant section is “Audio Streaming Formats,” and not Audio Codecs. Right? If that is so, is there a way to stream AAC instead of MP3? How can I configure the max bitrate for AAC or MP3?

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If your file is already aac, I believe you can stream it automatically. However, if it is anything else, PMS will only transcode to MP3.

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I take it there is no way to tell Plex to transcode to AAC instead of MP3 or to set max bitrate for MP3 or AAC when streaming to an Echo.

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No. It could be changed in the skill but that would also result in MP3’s being converted to AAC. It basically sets the destination codec for all streams.

Plex should be using the highest setting of 256 kbps, unless your original has a lower bitrate. Plex does not increase the bitrate.

1 Like
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I just finished setting the Echo Studio to find out that is transcoding Flac files into MP3 320 kbps based on Plex Dash.

So how to avoid the transcoding and getting original sound?

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Alexa streaming formats do not allow it.

Thanks for the info streaming MP3. Good to know it’s a high value.

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