For compatibility reasons, I extract the audio and downmix the audio tracks on all my movie files to Stereo (2.0) AAC files, then remux the file with the Stereo track included. Plex will not default to choosing the stereo track on playback without me manually choosing it for each file. It will remember the choice (for that file) once chosen, but I want to make it recognize the default audio track.
I have tried:
Flagging the stereo track as ‘Default’ in MKVtoolnix (no luck)
Also tried changing all other audio tracks to ‘No’ on the ‘Default’ flag
Added the Stereo track to MKVtoolnix first, then the original video + audio after. That way, the Stereo track has the first audio track number.
I have read this in other topics:
Plex defaults to the first audio track in the file. If the stereo track is first, then Plex uses it by default. Plex does remember your audio choice, so if you manually choose a 5.1 track, Plex will remember it the next time you watch the movie.
But now, the Stereo track is the first audio track in the file. Still, the first time I open the file, it chooses the audio track that was first in the original file (typically a surround sound track).
The Stereo track is even listed first when I go into stream settings to change it. Is there another program I should be using to manually re-number the tracks? Is there some metadata or xml tags I should edit?
Thanks for the help!
Server Version#: 1.32.5.7349
Player Version#: varies
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
Also I’m aware of PASTA; I’ve used it for my local Plex player client, but that does not affect the default audio / subtitle tracks for the remote clients accessing my server, correct?
Update: I’ve set the track order correctly using Mkvtoolnix - Plex still defaults to the “highest quality” audio stream that matches the default language.
Example:
I put a movie on my server.
The movie file includes two audio tracks: a 5.1 AC-3 track and 7.1 TrueHD Atmos track.
I use FFMPEG to downmix the 5.1 track into a 2.0 Stereo AAC track with metadata tags marking it as the default track.
In mkvtoolnix, I add the new Stereo track and set the track order to have the new 2.0 AAC track as the first audio track, with the “Default” flag set to Yes.
I include the 5.1 and 7.1 tracks as the 2nd and 3rd audio tracks, and set their default flags to No.
On playback, the Plex client automatically selects the 7.1 TrueHD track, causing Transcoding, unless the user manually selects the first audio track, which is the Stereo AAC track.
This seems to fly counter to Plex’s guidance that the client player will select the first audio track (in track order) that matches the user’s default language; the client is defaulting to the third audio track in this case.
There is no way to change this default. It is very frustrating. Please help.
After inserting the AAC stereo track, please perform a full Plex Dance with the movie.
And please don’t make this experiment with a movie, of which you have several versions on your server.
I think it could be .nfo files generated by media manager programs.
Looking through text, it’s full of tags, including the default audio track being TrueHD.
So that seems like the culprit; my media manager is creating .nfo files that are causing Plex to choose the wrong files.
Plex does not obey the standard flag. It goes simply after the first track.
Unless the audio stream selector of that particular title has already been changed manually by the user. Then it does store the last-selected track permanently. This is the condition the Plex Dance is clearing.
