I just replaced my Apple TV with an Nvidia Shield.
My setup is that all my devices feed into my Vizio E420i TV, which then outputs via optical to my Sonos Playbar. The Playbar does not support DTS, but the TV supports passing AC3 over optical.
With the Apple TV, Plex would transcode DTS to AC3 5.1, send it to the TV, TV passed it to the Playbar, the Playbar received 5.1 and all was right with the world.
With the Shield, DTS is being transcoded to stereo before being sent to the Playbar.
I am able to get correct behavior using Kodi with the Plex plugin under its advanced audio configuration menu, but I’d prefer to get this working in the native Plex client as well. I’m comfortable editing XML files for profiles if I have to.
Thanks so much. I spend a whole day trying to figure out how to make this work and finally gave up and then I saw your post. It works!
I’m curious what we’re the settings you used in Plex for Kodi to make it work also? I was also trying that today but everything direct plays and dts files just play as stereo for me. So I’m curious what you checked in kodi advanced audio settings to make it work correctly?
In Kodi, go to settings > system audio. Switch to expert view. Set the following:
“Number of channels” to 2.0
“Output configuration” to optimized
“Enable Passthrough” on
“AC3 capable receiver” on
" - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding" on
“DTS capable receiver” off
This will carry through to Plex for Kodi. You should get AC3 5.1 from DTS 5.1/7.1 sources, despite the “2.0” setting.
Gave this a go. Kodi instructions work perfectly. Interestingly the server still sends the original audio stream and the transcoding to AC3 is done by the client.
Tried editing Android.xml and this seems to only work when I tell the client to transcode. I’d rather not transcode the video if I don’t have to. Have you worked out if it is possible to force the server to only transcode the audio stream to ac3 while direct playing video when possible.
It would be nice if Plex enabled a server or client side option to force encoding the audio to AC3 as I’d rather not transcode video, or have these settings apply to all my android clients
Thank you so much! This worked for me some weeks ago.
Until… the Shield updated to 5.0.2.
Does it still work for you? I use the same settings in Kodi and it worked before the Shield update.
I noticed there are some new audio options in the Shield settings (Go to Settings > Video & Audio > Advanced settings). Any idea what the optimal settings might be?
@bram_ said:
Thank you so much! This worked for me some weeks ago.
Until… the Shield updated to 5.0.2.
Does it still work for you? I use the same settings in Kodi and it worked before the Shield update.
I noticed there are some new audio options in the Shield settings (Go to Settings > Video & Audio > Advanced settings). Any idea what the optimal settings might be?
FWIW I was only able to get PCM out of Shield using Plex but was able to get AC-3/DTS using Kodi. After the 5.0.2 update using the advanced settings referenced above, I’m now able to get direct play with AC-3/DTS audio via Plex by changing the surround sound setting to always.
I am also having problems with DTS passthrough not working on Shield TV 5.1. DTS audio seems to work fine using Kodi but not with the Plex app. It always says “DTS audio is not supported by this device”. I am running the Plex Media Server on my PC, not using the server on the Shield.
I’m having the exact same problem. The reason is, that the Android.xml profile limits the aac channels to 2 and doesn’t list ac3 as a supported codec (which might be true for a lot of android devices but not for the shield). So dts / ac3 is transcoded to 2 channel aac.
I’ve not found a good solution for this problem. I’d tried modifing the Android.xml, but even though the shield behaved as I wanted it to, other Android devices had no sound at all.
So I’m also running plex on top of kodi which works very well at the moment.
Same here. I don’t have a sound system so audio goes to my tv but the problem is the same.
Dts always transcodes. Only works and very well with kodi and Plex addon.
I think the Plex devs should take a serious look at this since my xiaomi mi box has the same behavior so it’s a Plex app problem.
I have a similar setup: Nvidia Shield TV – HDMI – TV – Optical – Sonos Playbar.
“With the Shield, DTS is being transcoded to stereo before being sent to the Playbar.”
How can you tell this is happening? With the Shield’s Plex app, I sometimes get no sound with DTS 5.1 movies, but I sometimes get sound with other DTS 5.1 movies. When the latter happens, my rear speakers (2x Sonos Play 1) also work. Is this stereo somehow converted back to 5.1 by the Playbar? In sume, how does one tell which audio format the Playbar is receiving?
How do you get to the XML file? I’ve got access to the shield via SMB user/pass and I don’t see any of these paths and typing them in has gotten me no where.
You should be able to pull up something on your TV that says what format it’s receiving. The Sonos can also tell you in the desktop app under “About My Sonos System”. Last, AAC does not support surround over optical, only AC3 does, and the Android TV profile defaults to AAC.
@kentemplin said:
How do you get to the XML file? I’ve got access to the shield via SMB user/pass and I don’t see any of these paths and typing them in has gotten me no where.
I’ve never replaced the file on the Nvidia Shield itself because I don’t use the Shield as a server.
You should be able to pull up something on your TV that says what format it’s receiving. The Sonos can also tell you in the desktop app under “About My Sonos System”. Last, AAC does not support surround over optical, only AC3 does, and the Android TV profile defaults to AAC.
@kentemplin said:
How do you get to the XML file? I’ve got access to the shield via SMB user/pass and I don’t see any of these paths and typing them in has gotten me no where.
I’ve never replaced the file on the Nvidia Shield itself because I don’t use the Shield as a server.
Well that would explain why I’ve never been able to figure this out. I thought this category was for media servers on Nvidia Shield.
Thanks @radiocolin. I verify that works, both for the desktop app and the iOS app. So using this monitoring tool, I observe: when I play DTS surround audio
With LG 55OLED6C Plex native app: sometimes I get Dolby Digital 5.1, sometimes I get no audio
With the nVidia Shield TV Plex app: sometimes I get Dolby Digital 5.1, sometimes I get no audio
With an iOS Plex app cast to the Shield: I get Dolby Digital 5.1
With the PS4 Pro Plex app: sometimes I get Dolby Digital 5.1, sometimes I get stereo
Ideally, I would to use the TV’s native app for it is connected by wire to my LAN and it produces the best video quality. Does anyone know why Plex can transcode certain DTS audio tracks but not others? And is there a software-based to fix all the above anomalies?
