Note : If you ever manually change the audio or subtitle track for an item in your Plex library (either during playback or on the preplay screen), that manual selection will always override any automatic selection (see below) that would have otherwise happened. Once you manually select something, it will never automatically change again.
On my Roku, simply selecting the movie once to view the long description for example will “lock in” the Audio Track used as though it was manually selected (Even though it wasn’t)
This is an issue; as I recently converted some 600+ movies to add a new primary audio track as default. (EAC3, TrueHD, DTS, etc to AC3 if found)
Sadly; even going to the Plex Media Server and selecting: “Analyze” for all the movies makes no difference back at the TV; if I have “viewed” (A.k.A Selected) the movie once before then it’s game over.
An example of this; if it’s a new movie I never once selected from the menu, fresh download; I do the convert and analyze on the server before clicking the movie everything shows up fine (As in AC3 will show up as the default audio track). But other movies selected before the conversion and analyze still show up as though they were manually “selected” on the old EAC track even though that isn’t the case and AC3 is now the first and default English Track.
I do consider it a bug, seeing the selection should always be automatic until I go into the sub-menus and actually select the Audio track, not just select the movie from the Library. But it would be nice at a bare minimum if Plex could document or share some steps as to how to reset this “selection” cache for all the Roku players in my house in the meantime to workaround this bug.
To start, press the Home button five times, then the Up button once, the Rewind button twice, and the Fast Forward button two times. Wait until your Roku turns off and starts back up.
Neither of them made a difference; I have not done a full reset to my TV yet, but let’s be honest to ourselves if we consider that a solution…
The selection of the track is saved on Plex Media Server, not the Roku app, so resetting that will not change anything.
This is an issue; as I recently converted some 600+ movies to add a new primary audio track as default. (EAC to AC3 if found)
There is no such thing as a primary audio track. The Roku app will pick the appropriate audio track based on support. The Roku supports both EAC3 and AC3. Depending on the specific Roku model you have, some only support multi-channel as passthrough.
Is your audio EAC3 5.1 and AC3 2.0? If that’s the case and you don’t have the Roku connected to a receiver the app will only support 2.0 audio.
@anon18523487 Replace EAC3 with TrueHD or DTS or any other unsupported codec; the reason why the transcode is happening is for compatibility reasons outside of Plex.
Even so there is absolutely such a thing as a primary audio track.
The audio track with the default flag and occupying the first audio stream is the primary audio track.
Plex should still recognize the primary audio track has changed; in the above screenshots that would mean it is now AC3 from TrueHD; but the client still sees the default as TrueHD. It’s not selecting based on combability clearly as you say; as my device does not support TrueHD and requires a transcode for such codecs.
As I already mentioned I tried from the server to do an “Analyze” of the library both through the GUI and the CLI commands using a --analyze-deeply and a metadata refresh; neither seemed to work.
So I tried what I could think from both the server and the client as you mentioned.
It should not “lock in” the Audio track just by selecting the movie; as per the documentation it should be automatic based on the preferred language rules. As all my audio tracks are labelled as English as seen in the above screenshot; then it should follow the primary audio track which is the one labelled as the default track in spot one.
Maybe I should repeat that it does correctly follow these rules if I do NOT select the movie at all before doing the conversion, but if the movie was played or even selected first; then it no longer updates automatically as per the documentation.
So it’s absolutely a bug and I am looking for suggestions on workarounds other than clearing the full server cache or setting the TV completely to factory defaults.
@anon18523487 If I am missing any information or you need anything more to clarify please let me know.
Otherwise if there is somewhere you can point me other than the forums to report an official bug I would appreciate it.
So any suggestions on working around the issue? Anyone know where this data of “locking in” an Audio track selection is stored and where it can be cleared?
Is that 32-bit AC3? Roku’s only support 16-bit. Some Roku’s do support Dolby TrueHD (not atmos, so you only get the base stereo or 5.1 channels depending on how it’s encoded).
Hmmm… AC-3 supports audio sample-rates up to 48 kHz; if I am transcoding from TrueHD to AC-3 it makes sense it would use all 48 kHz of the AC-3 codec; yes (edit: confirmed it’s 32-bit Audio)
I have 2 Rokus they both act the same way.
To answer your questions I have:
A Roku Streaming Stick+ connected to a
Samsung UN55MU6490 Curved 55-Inch 4K (The Samsung TV Plex App natively chooses the default audio track correctly)
And a (2019) 55" 4K UHD Roku Smart TV (55R6109)
Even it was based on support; it wouldn’t answer why they act differently if I view the movie before the transcode or not.
Both Rokus have the same app version and act the same way, the Roku Streaming Stick+ is connected to a Samsung which supports many codecs; but it still picks the same Audio track before and after the transcode.
As you can see by the name; the Transcoded audio track is still 32 Bit; still in spot one; still has the default flag enabled; this one was a Transcode without viewing the movie first; it displays AC-3 as the default track on the Roku TV correctly.
My Rokus do not support TrueHD or DTS and transcode for both.
The only difference is for 10 Cloverfield I had viewed it before transcoding manually; while Ace Ventura was a Transcode without selection before the manual transcode.
Again; this does not point to a compatibility based issue; it’s a bug and I was hoping for some type of workaround… No ideas I am assuming on where this is cached? PM me if needed…
Your use of the term transcode is incorrect, so it took me a bit to figure out what you r trying to say. Transcode is what PMS does when converting audio/video on the fly. What you are doing is just re-encoding the audio.
Keep in mind that TrueHD can have an underlying compatibility track (EAC3). The Roku has chosen this to use that track.
In the second file, DTS-HD MA isn’t supported so it chooses the AC3 track. It has to pick something, so it’s picking the most likely compatible track. This may still force Plex Media Server to transcode the audio, but it has to start somewhere.
I’m checking to see if it’s possible to turn off this selection mechanism and just go with track 1.
Note that this selection is only within the Roku app. This is not actually selecting the track to prevent the auto selection for other Plex clients.
Your use of the term transcode is incorrect, so it took me a bit to figure out what you r trying to say. Transcode is what PMS does when converting audio/video on the fly. What you are doing is just re-encoding the audio.
Sorry I use the word transcode and convert interchangeably and it’s probably not ideal for reports such as this. (But you will notice the first 3 posts I use the word convert in my defence)
I’m checking to see if it’s possible to turn off this selection mechanism and just go with track 1.
Note that this selection is only within the Roku app. This is not actually selecting the track to prevent the auto selection for other Plex clients.
Thank you, whatever can be done to help isolate this; I did notice it was only with the Rokus so it doesn’t surprise me one bit you say it’s only for Rokus.
Just found out that it is not possible to turn off the ability to pick the audio track. This is actually something done automatically by Roku. The app just shows what the device has chosen.
The Roku does have some audio output settings. Maybe changing this might force the Roku to pick the tracks you are expecting.
The confusion probably comes from the fact that I was reporting a bug; AND asking for a workaround.
@anon18523487 was trying to explain/justify how this was not a bug. (Which is fine!) There is some value to knowing why Plex (or in this case; Roku) was selecting the Audio track it was selecting.
Although, even if it’s not a bug; I still needed a workaround to the original request which was if I selected an audio track once; how can I reset that cached value somewhere?
That’s were you come in my friend; @Volts
I just tried as you suggested and it worked perfectly.
Give me a Paypal email via PM and I’ll send you a beer.
I was able to get the Roku Streaming Strick+ to correctly display the first/default audio track from the list being AC3 instead of TrueHD.
Roku Streaming Stick+: Setting → Audio → Audio Mode → Change from “Auto” to "Stereo"
However; on my Hisense Smart TV with Roku built-in. I couldn’t get it to change no matter what I did…
2019 55" 4K UHD Roku Smart TV:
Sound Settings → Sounds Mode… Nothing
DTS TruSurround (Enabled or Disabled)… Nothing
DTS TruVolume (Enabled or Disabled)… Nothing
Setting the Audio output for the TV to: TV output only or Custom… As you can guess… Did nothing
Makes me wonder why the Plex App on Roku must be so dependent on the compatibility check to select an audio track… As I’ve said before my Samsung didn’t have any of these issues and now I have 2 Roku devices with different user experiences with Plex.
I can’t get my Hisense to ever make AC-3 the default audio track without manual selection; or get TrueHD to play without transcoding. (EVEN THOUGH there an AC-3 track available and in the spot one with the default flag) Absolutely mind blowing…
It should check the audio tracks for compatibility in the order they are in; if compatible - GREAT! Otherwise; then move on to the second track to check if it’s compatible, etc.
Not just look for the general “most compatible” track always and ignore the track order completely. This makes it wrong for my Hisense all the time for TrueHD.
TrueHD is not supported on my Hisense; it will always Transcode. Yet because there “might” be an embedded compatible EAC3 track with the TrueHD it picks that one over a surely compatible AC-3 track. (Again; in spot one with the default flag…)
Does your TV have the option to turn of surround sound (i.e. stereo only) like on the stick? Or to use Dolby Digital (not Plus).
The other alternative would be to do the opposite of your original request and instead of clearing the automatic selection in Plex (even though this wasn’t previous set), set them all to the first audio track. Plex will use the manually selected track when this is set instead of letting the Roku choose. That will prevent the automatic selection from other clients, but if your main use is Roku, this might be a better option.
I don’t have the same options on my Hisense Roku as on the Roku StreamStick+ for Audio.
Any of the options I did have and changed, did not influence the Plex app like it did on the Roku Stick… It leaves me in a weird spot where I have 2 different Rokus which act differently on how they select the primary audio track…
