Server Version#: 1.20.3.3437
Player Version#: 8.7.2.20952
Hi Everyone,
I’m running PMS off a QNAP NAS into an Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 (as client only). I direct play most of my content which is 4k into a LG CX tv. The Shield is hooked into a Yamaha AVR (TSR-700) which is 4k capable. The Yamaha AVR is hooked into the eArc HDMI on the LG CX tv. All connections are made with the zeskit 8k HDMI 2.1 cables.
Yesterday I was watching one of my favorite movies, Black Hawk Down in 4k, and noticed that the audio would drop out at a specific time when using TrueHD 7.1 Atmos audio. I was able to reproduce the audio drop out every time at the specific time stamp 14:36 (where the boars are running through the water). This audio drop out desyncs the audio from the video throughout the movie. A 10 second rewind after will fix it. I noticed other audio drops in the movie as well. The movie played fine on Kodi (plex addon). This does ruin in immersion as I have to constantly monitor for audio dropouts and then do a manual rewind to resync.
I also read through an older thread earlier in the year on audio drop outs which was apparently fixed by Nvidia firmware updates. I don’t have issues on other movies that I’ve yet noticed. Was wondering if anyone else has this problem or can replicate for this particular movie?
It’s because Black Hawk Down is a 2 in 1 disc with seamless branching, 14:36 is a branch point. It is a Plex player related issue though as it doesn’t happen with all players. My workaround is to use the Plex add on for Kodi then configure the playercorefactory.xml file to make Plex use VLC as it’s default player. There are no drop outs or sync issues with VLC and it supports HDR and TrueHD Atmos.
You will also experience this issue with Resident Evil Apocalypse extended cut and Apocalypse Now on both the theatrical and redux versions, they are also 2 in 1 discs.
I can’t get ANY 4K Atmos MKV files to play without audio dropouts. None. And that’s with hard wired 100mbps ethernet. I thought it was a Shield issue but are we saying this is Plex only? Sigh. I really hate to drop Plex and switch to something else but this is really not acceptable.
You should only be experiencing dropouts at the branch points of 2 in 1 titles. If you are experiencing dropouts on every title then it points to a problem with your setup. Have you tried playing the same titles with VLC?
I think I solved my problem last night – I had thought my Shield was directly wired into my Sonos Arc, but it’s actually served via E-Arc through my Samsung TV. Apparently the Samsung (although supposed to be “smart”) wasn’t all that smart – a setting to either massage the audio or not was set for “Auto” and needed to be set to “pass-through”. That has solved nearly all my problems (I still get three or four VERY tiny dropouts - less than 1/4 second - in two hours, but that’s livable).
