Being trying for 2 days to get 5.1 playing. Every other player does it

Old Coke, New Coke, New Old Coke.

Looks like you are running Plex for Windows (from the download page) and not Plex Media Player which was deprioritized to the Announcement page. Download link is here: Plex Media Player

PMP is what you need to pass 5.1 and match the support pages you found.