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tvOS software version
Apple TV Model: A2169 (64 GB)
tvOS Version: 18.3 [22K557] -
Plex app version: 8.5 (2986)
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Brief description of the issue or bug
Since the latest tvOS update, Plex audio is severely malfunctioning. It seems that anything with more than 2 channels of audio either:
- Almost entirely loses vocal track audio; to describe the effect, it sounds like only the vocal track is either nearly muted or turned to inaudible mud.
- Shifts all vocal audio to the far right of the sound stage; other audio seems to be placed correctly but vocal audio comes only from the front right speakers.
All other audio channels seem unaffected. It doesn’t seem to be any particular codec; any source with > 2 channels has vocal audio ruined. I can’t predict what will cause the vocal audio to turn to muted mud versus be shifted to the right; even the same file played multiple times will have inconsistent results.
I can sometimes temporarily alleviate the issue by rebooting the Apple TV. Other times, I have to force-terminate the Plex app even after a reboot. In all cases, this only works for a single file. Once the next episode of a series begins to auto-play, I lose vocal audio again.
That said, I did find a suboptimal but working solution: Revert to the old player (Plex home > Settings > Advanced > Use Old Video Player: On). That does fix the audio issue at the cost of resurrecting some old, different issues.
For context, I’ve been using Plex on the same Apple TV and audio setup – Denon AVR X-6800H, 7.2.4 Klipsch RP/Pro+SVS discrete channel speakers – for at least a couple of years, mostly without issue (notwithstanding being forced to use my physical media in order to actually enjoy Dolby Atmos audio but that is a separate and unrelated complaint). Before yesterday – when I installed the latest tvOS update – everything was working just fine (notwithstanding missing Dolby Atmos support).
- Steps to reproduce (these will make it easier for development to track down)
Using the same Apple TV model with the indicated tvOS, just attempt to Direct play any video source which utilizes >2 audio channels. If it works at first, let the show play through and then auto-play the next episode.
- When the issue has to do with information from your Plex Media Server (such as streaming content, accessing item details, creating playlists, etc.), you should gather the “Plex Media Server.log” file covering the issue being reproduced and - attach that to your post.
I believe this issue is with the player (the Plex software running on the Apple TV). My Plex Media Server – a dedicated Linux PC – isn’t exhibiting any issues. Other Plex players do not exhibit this audio issue. That said, it is running PMS Version 1.41.3.9314 on the bare, albeit overpowered, dedicated server. I did update PMS last night along with updating tvOS. I cannot say for certain that the PMS update had nothing to do with this issue other than to state that other Plex players aren’t showing this issue; I’ve tested with various video game consoles – connected to the same AVR – which have Plex installed.
