Dolby Atmos badge keeps reappearing (eARC) + disable option request

Plex Players
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Hi Plex team,

I’ve encountered an issue with the Plex TV client where the Dolby Atmos badge repeatedly pops up during playback, particularly during scenes with high dynamic range (e.g. explosions or gunfire).

Setup

  • Player: Nvidia Shield Pro (2019)

  • TV: TCL C845 (eARC enabled, passthrough)

  • Soundbar: JBL Bar 1000

  • HDMI cables: Certified HDMI 2.1 (Ultra High Speed), Lindy, 1.5m (both runs)

  • Connection path (problematic):
    Shield → TV → eARC → Soundbar

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Behaviour

  • The Dolby Atmos badge appears correctly at the start of playback.

  • During intense scenes, the badge reappears intermittently, as if the audio stream is being re-detected.

  • Audio playback itself remains stable (no dropouts or distortion).

Additional observation

  • If I change the connection to:
    Shield → Soundbar → TV
    the issue completely disappears.

  • I have also tested with HDMI-CEC disabled on all devices (TV, Shield, and soundbar).
    Whether CEC is ON or OFF, the issue still persists, so it does not appear to be CEC-related.

  • The issue is consistently reproducible with:
    “Saving Private Ryan” (Blu-ray, Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track) — particularly during intense battle scenes.

This suggests the behaviour may be related to eARC passthrough renegotiation or stream reinitialisation, particularly with high-bitrate formats like Dolby TrueHD and Atmos.

Additional context / use case

I plan to add another audio device alongside my soundbar and switch between them conveniently using an HDMI eARC switcher, since my TV only has a single eARC port.

This means multiple devices will need to share the same HDMI eARC connection, so stable passthrough behaviour and minimal UI interruptions (such as repeated badges) are especially important in this setup.

Feature request

Regardless of the root cause, it would be extremely helpful to have:

An option to disable playback badges (Dolby Vision / Dolby TrueHD / Dolby Atmos / DTS, etc.) in the TV client

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Reason:

  • The repeated pop-ups are visually distracting, especially during action scenes

  • Many users with more complex setups (e.g. eARC switchers, multiple audio devices) may experience similar behaviour

  • A cleaner viewing experience would be preferable even when playback is technically correct

Suggested implementation

  • Toggle in settings:

    • “Show playback format badges” → On / Off

  • Or:

    • Show only once at playback start

Thanks for your work on Plex — it’s an excellent platform.
This small UX improvement would make a noticeable difference for home theatre users.

Best regards

Felix

2

Those badges are from the TV itself, not the Plex Android TV client.

HDMI-CEC is for control - volume/power/input switching/etc. - it is not involved in detecting Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision, etc.

The Plex client and the Shield have no knowledge of HDMI-eARC.

HDMI-eARC is for passing audio from the TV to the soundbar.

Question: What happens if you disconnect the soundbar and use the TV speakers (taking HDMI-eARC out of the loop)?