DTS passthrough support

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

After reading so many posts here regarding DTS passthrough I can’t believe it still hasn’t been resolved. I used to have a Sony Bravia TV before and thought maybe it was a Sony issue but now that I’ve bought a TCL miniLED C825 TV I can confirm that the issue is still there.

It is most definitely a plex app issue and not an OS/TV issue. The reason is that I have no issues getting other apps to passthrough DTS to my sound system via HDMI eARC. For example when I use the app Network Browser to access the shared folders on my NAS and play the movie file from there the audio works without any issue and my sound system correctly displays it as DTS. Whereas when I play the same file inside Plex, plex shows the audio as being transcoded from DTS to AC3, not direct play.

1 Like
2

Plex Media Server version?
Plex Android TV app version?
See Authorized Devices for both.

What do you have for a sound system - soundbar, receiver, etc? Make & model?

What are the settings in the Plex Android TV app for passthrough? It should most likely be set to HDMI.

When using the Plex app, do AC3 and EAC3 direct play and passthrough to your audio equipment?

3

Thanks for your response and sorry my post had no technical details.

Plex Media Server Version:
1.24.4.5081-e362dc1ee
Plex Media Server
Drobo 5N2
Linux 4.2.2-13.45.114559

Plex Android TV app version:
8.24.1.28493
Plex for Android (TV)
Smart TV Pro

Sony Blu-ray Home Theater System BDV-E4100 connected as ARC/CEC to TV’s HDMI 2.1 eARC port.

Audio Passthrough set to HDMI in the Plex Android TV app.

I just checked both again and yes AC3 and EAC3 directplay and passthrough correctly. I do not have any content with Atmos for testing. DTS on the other hand is not playing back without transcoding.

4

Thanks for the information.

Not sure why dts is not passing through to your sound system.

  • The TV & sound system both support dts and are connected via HDMI-ARC, which also passes dts audio.
  • The Plex Android TV app is set for HDMI passthrough, is passing Dolby Digital & Dolby Digital Plus, and passes dts on other Android TV devices.
  • I looked through the TV & sound system manuals. I did not see any obvious settings that would keep dts passthrough from working.

Let’s see if the log files show anything. Pull server & client log files when you get a chance. Hopefully they will show what is happening.

  1. Make sure your Plex server is set for debug, not verbose, logs (reference)
  2. Enable logging in the Plex Android TV app (in Settings → Advanced) (reference)
  3. With no other server activity, play a movie/show with dts 5.1 audio for ~30 seconds.
  4. Stop playback, wait 1 minute for server to capture everything.
  5. Pull server logs (Settings → Troubleshooting). Attach entire zip file to the thread.
  6. Pull Android TV app log file (see above reference), and attach to thread. FYI, leave Android app running to pull logs. If you switch to another app you won’t be able to access the log file. FYI2, URL to access log is http://[tv_ip_address]:32500/logging. Note that it uses http, not https. The TV’s IP address is displayed in the lower right corner when in the Plex app settings screen.
5

Please find the requested logs attached. FYI - I restarted the server and the Android TV before reproducing the error and downloading the logs. Also, the TV log file was rather long so I only copied the lines from today’s date.

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-10-25_23-21-07.zip (1.6 MB)

Android TV log.txt (165.5 KB)

6

I have the same issue! I am following this :slight_smile:

7

Same issue here also, Sony Bravia A90J. Eagerly await a fix.

1 Like
8

I guess it would be helpful if you guys could share logs as well?

9

Is there any update to this issue? Same problem on TCL Plex app for Android TV. Honestly if you guys just add the same optical checkboxes for codec support to HDMI pass through it might work lol

10

Not a solution here. Just pointing out that this is not rocket science. I have a FireStick Lite (2020) attached to my receiver. The stick has settings that deal with passthrough of the dolby formats but not DTS, Nevertheless, if I set the DTS passthrough option in the Jellyfin for AndroidTV app, I get DTS passthrough to my receiver just fine (over HDMI).

So if you finally get sick and tired of waiting for Plex, Jellyfin might be worth investigating. Basically, it just works – which I know has become a foreign concept for many Plex users over the past couple of years.

11

Is there any way I can further help with this? Perhaps open an issue ticket somewhere like GitHub?

12

I have a newly released Panasonic JZ1500 and a Marantz SR8012 AV Receiver. How do I enable passthrough of all audio formats in the Panasonic TV app?

13

It seems like this is an Android issue that all apps downloaded from the Play Store face. Only preloaded apps like the TV’s built-in media player are able to work around it.

Good news is that they have fixed it in Android 12 (second feature listed under Media), so just gotta patiently wait for your TV manufacturer to issue a firmware update:

14

Hello,

I also face the same issue that my DTS is only played back as PCM.

The interesting part: with the “old” player (like 1-2 years ago) it worked! Unfortunately the old player was removed from the app.

I hope plex is going to fix this issue.

Best regards,

Michael

15

I can confirm that it is now working fine on my setup since yesterday’s update (version 8.29.0.30433, dated Jan 24, 2022). Hopefully it’s fixed for everyone.

16

Oh great. The previous hack that allowed DTS to be converted to AC3 surround (Optical passthrough, uncheck DTS) on a Chromecast with Google TV no longer works with this version. Now all DTS plays as stereo no matter what the settings are.

17

Does this update also apply for the Amazon Fire TV Stick Max platform?

18

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