Sorry I should have been more clear TrueHD 7.1 but this was for the 2015 model I think! For the more recent model and 4k included that might be true. In any case another test on a setup with an nvidia Shield that does support it, there’s not playback issues 
In any case hopefully the logs will help
Ya, all TRUEHD 7.1 plays fine on Firestick 4K with kodi w/plex add-on, it does not play in the native plex app though, it wants my server to transcode.
this is with TRUEHD 7.1 with Subtitles on. logging (2).txt (1.0 MB)
below is TRUEHD 7.1 with Subtitles off…
logging3.txt (1.2 MB)
it seems that with subtitles on and truehd 7.1 selected, it wants to transcode BOTH video and audio. however with TRUEHD 7.1 selected and subtitles OFF it only wants to transcode the TRUEHD 7.1 audio and copy the Video
BUT:
with only using AC3 5.1 audio, with subtitles enabled or not it direct plays both just fine.
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@mikec_pt Yes, disabling the new player seems to solve all noticeable issues. So, the common denominator is the new player, and how it doesn’t process surround sound audio correctly. My setup is a Sony X950G 4K TV with latest Android TV operating system, using Plex beta software 7.30.0.16218, using the built in smart tv’s Plex Player. Only the new player gave me error messages. I’m not using an external device like Roku or FireStick.
To summarize, here’s the general formula for my issue:
New Player+surround sound (except AC3)+Passthrough HDMI= error message (so unable to play media)
Old Player= no error message, everything works fine including all audio formants, including surround sound
Indication is: new player is the problem and the common denominator.
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Plex for Android requires the device to support TrueHD, only the SHIELD has a licensed decoder for passing through TrueHD to a soundbar / AVR.
When the audio is being transcoded and subtitles are enabled currently we have a limitation that requires us to burn the subtitles into the video in order to maintain a correct audio and video sync. With AC3 as we can direct play that on your device (via our software decoder) then we have no need to burn in the subtitles.
Kodi is using a software decoder for TrueHD, this is not something Plex for Android can do due to licensing issues.
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Would you be able to disable the new player, and play the same video that failed in the new player and then grab the logs for me?
Checking through your logs and it’s unable to connect to your server which shouldn’t be an issue caused by the new player. 
Here
logging.txt (1.1 MB)
Same Video. With new (fails) and Old Player (Works)
@sixones
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@mikec_pt Here’s the log file. logging 2.txt (1.1 MB) I started the movie at timestamp 03-18 08:46:05.430 , which played without issue. I used the old player, as requested.
Edit: Perhaps Plex is transcoding formats outside of AC3 and stereo? So maybe issue is Audio + Transcoder related in New Player??
Im having this issue with both my android phone and in-laws roku, but with different files. I found that when attempting to play on my phone it either errors out immediately, or keeps buffering. If I let it buffer for about 2 minutes, it will start playing black video with no sound. Ive looked through logs and it seems to just say that the device closed the connection. Here are logs from my phone: plex-log-LrrrAc.zip (351.2 KB)
Excellent response, very informative, thank you for taking the time to write this. I’ll just keep switching the audio tracks to 5.1 since i have no real need for 7.1 anyway, thank you again.
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Hi, I have been lurking without posting for 2 weeks, hoping a fix would pop up here. My situation is identical to the one described by user Chris8ella 4 days ago. Playback is fine through laptop browser and on Android smartphone, but Fire Stick cannot play many videos, including ones it played fine a few weeks before. Turning off the New Player allows these videos to play, but at basically unwatchable quality. Turning off the maximum HEVC cap also did nothing to help.
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There is only an H264 cap. But you can try to sideload the latest beta, for now it seems to be working just fine for me.
I’m not seeing an option to disable the new player on the normal Android version of Plex (7.29.2.16071). Anyone know where that option is? If I change streaming quality on the app to 720p, it works fine. If I switch it to 1080p, server errors out with:
Failed to stream media, client probably disconnected after 23576576 bytes: 104 - Connection reset by peer
It’s usually under settings>advanced>enable new video player . At least on Android TV client.
Disabling the new player works but it plays in horrible quality even thought direct play is selected.
The best solution as others have stated above is to set “H264 maximum level” to “Disabled” in settings->advanced.
Now everything is playing as usual.
Quality is worse, your fix doesn’t work for me on Android Smart TV Plex client. It’s unique to your setup, not a universal fix.
I’ve been running an Amazon Fire Stick for a while now and after the delivery of a new Amazon Fire Stick 4K today, a new installation of the app onto the stick resulted in pretty much nothing playing.
I had good success in playing most videos by turning off the new player but the quality was horrendous. The best success I’ve now had is to use the new player, but ensure that H.264 maximum version was set to disabled (as it had defaulted to 1.0).
Thanks to the contributors of this thread for getting me up and running. Pretty crap out of box experience though and as a PP member I’d expect a better response from the guys at Plex.
M.
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I understand. I’m trying to get this bug fixed by working with the team. I’m providing log files. Search the thread for username JJAYGUY23 to see my efforts.
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I’ve been troubleshooting this issue with a friend who has been getting this error for a month hopefully the new player setting change works. Thanks.
Testing New 16311 Version atm. Seems to work now with new Video Player.
Where did you get the new version? Latest version I have is 16071.
EDIT: I joined the beta and got the update. Yep, fixes the problem.
