Bug: HEVC + E-AC3 triggers unnecessary video transcode

Plex Players
1

I stream from PMS (running on Synology) to a variety of platforms including the nVidia Shield TV. The Shield TV has some issues supporting E-AC3 audio, so playing files with E-AC3 audio triggers an audio transcode. That’s good, no problem with that. However, unexpected behaviour occurs when the video is also HEVC.

H.264 + E-AC3 audio → Video direct streams, audio transcodes (expected)
HEVC + AAC audio → Video direct streams, audio direct streams (expected)
HEVC + E-AC3 audio → Video transcodes, audio transcodes (unexpected video transcode)

What I don’t understand is why in the third case, the video transcodes as well as the audio.

The issue I am reporting here seems to have been reported by another user a year ago:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-does-hevc-video-transcode-to-h264-when-audio-is-transcoding-eac3-aac-direct-stream-expected/618627

As with the above report, this happens with subtitles turned on or off and regardless of subtitle burn-in settings.

If I turn off video transcoding (which I don’t want to do, but just to test) then the file will refuse to play. Media playback info says the reason for transcoding is just E-AC3 audio is not supported; no comment on why the video is transcoding.

So, first, I wanted to report the bug. But also wanted to inquire if it was possible to tell Plex to play the video directly. Nothing about the video in this case requires transcoding. Any ideas?

2

Still waiting for an answer on this…It’s a shame because my old Roku never had a problem with this. The Shield is better in every way possible but this is a bummer. Hoping to buy a new TV soon that support E-AC3 natively and this issue will go away.

3

Sorry you couldn’t get help when you posted, but glad to know I didn’t miss anything obvious. Thanks for replying.

4

Any hdr? Or are all examples in the same color space?

5

I do believe they are mostly HDR files, but the strange thing is of course that the same files with AAC audio don’t transcode video; so I guess the thing that confuses me is why the video transcode is connected to the audio transcode.

(I was able to “solve” the problem by scanning all my hard drives for HEVC + E-AC3 files and transcoding to AAC manually, but of course this is not a very good solution at all)