Server Version#: 1.22.2.4264
Player Version#: 6.7.18
Player: Roku Premier 3920x
Stereo: Bose Lifestyle 28 - Digital Audio connection from HDMI splitter
PMS Running on Synology
Since the update on march 30th nearly all audio in Plex is completely mangled (sounds like someone put a machine gun in a blender). Show themes when I’m on the show selection screen work fine, but once I get into a show or movie the audio is garbage. This is all media from my personal library. it all worked before the update. I changed nothing else. I have tried forcing Plex to transcode, or not, by changing every combination of direct play and direct stream. The following Audio formats come out completely garbled: AC3 Stereo, AC3 5.1, DTS 5.1, DTS MA 5.1. I found that a really old show that only has an AAC Stereo audio track does work.
All other apps that I’ve tried on the Roku work just fine. Plex works fine on all other devices I’ve tried: iOS, ATV3 (via plex connect), ATV4K, PlexWeb.
I also tried connecting a very old Roku2 - 2720x to the same setup, using all the same cables, in place of the 3920x. Updated the Roku2 to the same Plex channel version and audio works with that device. This issue seems specific to the 3920x device.
I have tried power cycling the device multiple times. I’ve also uninstalled, rebooted, and re-installed the Plex channel. It seems to remember my settings as I don’t have to reconnect to my Plex account. Not sure if there’s some way to delete settings as maybe there’s an issue there.
i wonder if they did something with the profile on the PMS…
looking at my files Roku 1 Redirects to 7.xxx profiles
roku 5 has its own profile and roku 6 redirects to 5…
but roku 3.1 has its own as well but it looks extremely different than all the other profiles…
you can replace the profiles in your PMS and just change it to what the original roku profile says which it redirect to profile 7…and see if that fixes your issue…
just make a copy of the original profile 3.1 to put back incase it doesn’t fix your issue.
on windows the profiles are in \plex\pms\resources\profiles
I doubt it’s anything on the PMS side. The issue started when the Roku updated itself. I hadn’t touched PMS in some time. When I saw that the Plex channel on Roku had been updated, I updated the PMS just in case there was a version mismatch issue. There wasn’t.
I’ve seen reference to profiles in a number of threads, but the version on Synology doesn’t seem to have them, or I haven’t found any pointers on how to find them as they’re not in the normal place if they exist.
I have since discovered that this issue also affects the HDHomerun channel. In addition, I have found that by telling the Roku that my sound system can only handle stereo, that I at least get correct, albeit stereo only, sound.
I did finally find a thread on the Roku forms that seems to describe this issue. It appears to be a long running issue with Roku devices across many generations and SW updates. It also seems that it may start on one channel and slowly spread to others in some cases. Multiple temporary fixes are recommended involving changing the night mode setting, turning off menu beeps, or adjusting the audio leveling setting. None of those work for me. Hitting the unit (old school) is also reported to work for many. I haven’t tried that one yet. The only consistent fix is to force stereo, which is not a fix. It seems that once a Roku starts exhibiting this behavior, you can’t resolve it permanently. That combined with the fact that hitting it sometimes works points to a hardware problem. The only thing that’s unclear is why the hardware problem always seems to manifest when a new software update is released. Failed flash memory region maybe? Or the new update requires more power and the power supply is marginal to start with, leading to constant flash corruption.
Regardless, this will be my last Roku product. I’ve had many of them since their original internet audio streaming device. All but one have failed after very short useful lives. I was hoping that with their current popularity that they had gotten their quality situation under control, but that seems not to be the case. Too bad, because the products are cool. Guess I’m in the market for a new ATV.
