Android TV: Cannot play any video, only audio is being played

Plex Players Streaming Devices
42

I thought the problem was with the new player?

43

The problem was with any player.

There has been an update in this space of time, so I would apply that, check for anything different, re-evaluate and grab some new logs after identifying bugginess, if any.

44

The new player doesn’t play anything. The old player only can’t play EAC3 audio files. I’am fine with using the old player as long as it works.

45

You should have gotten an update in the last week or so.

Have you tried the new player in the last few days?

46

The new player can’t either. EAC3 can only be used with passthrough.

47

I have, about a week a go. Will test again tomorrow just to be sure.

48

But even with passthrough it doesnt work. I have tried both Optical and Hdmi settings for audio passthrough.

49

I don’t see anything in your log that indicates it was trying to use passthrough. The device still needs to support EAC3. Unfortunately, that info is not in your log either. Can you try playing back and getting a new log from a fresh start of the app?

50

So basically if the device does not support EAC3 audio. It will be unable to play it and plex will not be able to transcode it?

Then why does it play the audio, but not the video?

Log contains the following playbacks, for the same file:

  1. Old player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Off
  2. Old player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Optical
  3. Old player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Hdmi
  4. New player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Off
  5. New player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Optical
  6. New player, h.264 = 4.1, audi opassthrough = Hdmi

plex_client_logs_031220_1347.txt (320.5 KB)

51

People do seem to be having trouble communicating the fact that a Direct Stream - Transcode the stream that won’t work and Direct Play the other one - Doesn’t Happen.

Seems like that is a core component that has made Plex famous (or infamous).

1 Like
52

Plex will transcode if not supported. However, if your device says it supports EAC3, then the Plex app will believe that and send it the EAC3 audio. What the device does with it is not in Plex’s control.

03-12 13:41:36.728 i: [ExoPlayer][EventLogger] decoderInitialized [2.16, 0.00, window=0, audio, OMX.MTK.AUDIO.DECODER.DSPAC3]

That is the decoder that is shown in your logs. That is not the default Android EAC3 decoder, it appears to be a proprietary one provided by the manufacturer.

As mentioned, check your TV’s main audio settings and see if there is an option to disable support of EAC3 there. That could relay the info back to Plex and it won’t allow use of EAC3 and transcode to an appropriate codec.

Edit - Also check the main Android audio settings to see if passthrough is enabled there. I see where you are changing it in the Plex app, but I’m not seeing it get used.

53

Yes it can. The app can definitely do that. But it does depend on the specific codecs involved.

54

Do the logs show EAC3 being Direct Played, or Transcoded - in the stream where the video is missing, but the audio plays - and why the missing video?

I’m naturally curious.

55

Ah, I found the issue.

03-12 13:33:26.607 i: [MediaCodecCaps] Support detected: (audio/eac3, Max: 1)

So your device reports that it supports EAC3, but only 1 channel, which is most likely wrong. Plex identifies the 5.1 channel EAC3 audio in the file and says it’s not supported since that many channels is not supported. Since the reported channel support is likely wrong, Plex will still send the EAC3 audio to the device and let it handle what to do with it.

It’s very likely that the device still can’t handle 5.1 EAC3 correctly. In cases where the audio isn’t totally supported, the results may vary, including affecting the video.

56

I don’t have any trouble believing that.

So if the audio doesn’t get changed to a compatible format by manual intervention it’s Bummer City?
or
is it that we just haven’t found the right combination of switches?

57

This al seems very plausible, but not the answer I was hoping for, since it sounds either I need to re-encode all my audio or it’s just not going to play.

Tomorrow I will try what @anon18523487 suggested earlier and hope I can somehow completely disable EAC3 support on the tv which might tell Plex that it needs to transcode.

I am also going to make a suggestion here, which is adding blacklisted audio/video formats to certain devices. In my case I could then just say to plex: “Hey my TV doesn’t support EAC3, so please always transcode it”. It might not be high on the priority list since it’s not a common issue, but the impact this issue has is significant. This seems like an easy to implement feature. (I’m not a random 15 year old, I am studying IT :wink: )

I will report back tomorrow.

58

This ended up solving the problem. I was able to go into my TV’s audio settings and change the Audio Output from Stereo (Uncompressed) to Multi-Channel.

I am now able to play all my media using the old player. The only thing that isn’t fully functional yet are the subtitles, they cannot always be displayed. Might try and look into that later, but at the moment I’m really not bothered by that.

The new player however, still is not able to play any content, but I don’t mind as long as the old player is working.

Many thanks to everyone who assisted!

59

This is made even more confusing when the audio settings in the DEVICE also play a part - and for MOST users it’s 100% Trial and Error. <—get about a dozen setting combinations in over three devices/clients and then try to remember where you are and what hasn’t worked so far.

61

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