Audio stream default selection for player to either minize transcoding or select the highest quality

[FCNR]

It would be nice to be able to have Plex select he soundtrack based on user preference in the player (either a flag or a list provided by the user)
I have 2 nvidia shield TVs. The first one is hooked to a receiver so it would be nice for Plex to play the best soundtrack available (in my case TrueHD, then DTS-HD, DTS, AC3). The second is hooked to a TV so I’d like Plex to select the highest quality that will not be transcoded (DTS, AC3 or PCM). Plex should also be able to detect a commentary track (if tagged correctly) so it is not the default.

[shark2k]

I’ve actually thought about putting a feature request in for something very similar to this, though in my case the process behind it was not to minimize transcoding but so that my users would be using the best audio for their setup (I included subtitles as well). However, I feel like what I was thinking and what you are thinking could be combined so I’m just going to paste what I jotted down of my thoughts (without any additional editing cause I’m feeling lazy

• Per device audio/subtitle settings
  • Allow the option to have the audio/subtitles be set per device and store this info in the database of the server for that content
  • Give the option/make it automatic so that if only one entry is in the table for the audio/subtitle selection, all devices will use that, but if there is more than 1 entry in the table any device that is not listed in the table will either:
    • Use the audio track set as default (if it agrees with the audio selection options under Account settings) and the same with subtitle
    • Use the settings for the first entry of that media item for that user account

That’s my addition to what you already suggested.
Like I said, I think it can be combined with you because you could have a hierarchy of codecs that you prefer along with a hierarchy of number of channels for example:

Codec priority (1 being highest, the last number being lowest)

1. TrueHD
2. DTS-HD MA
3. DTS
4. AC3
5. AAC
6. MP3

Channel priority

1. 7.1
2. 5.1
3. 2.0
4. 1.0

Or channel could even just be something like surround, stereo or mono to keep it simpler.
This would also help with the fact Plex has decided that if there is a mono track included, that will never get auto set, instead Plex will take any other track.

An example of that is A Christmas Story. The main track for the movie is actually a mono track but the Blu-ray had a commentary track which was stereo. I added the movie with both tracks and because the main track was mono, the commentary track was actually auto set for all users which caused confusion initially until I was able to figure out what was going on.

Edit: Just realized, you should see if @OttoKerner or another mod can move this to the Feature Suggestions section as that will allow people to add votes to it (not that that will necessarily mean much but it makes seeing interest in a feature suggestion easier).

-Shark2k