I’m playing DTS, DTSHD-MA, AC3 along with movies, video music etc via my Nvidia Shield. No issue at all. Passthrough is flawless and I can enjoy high-res multichannel.
I have a library with CD’s all recorded specifically for DTS capable equipment (all CD’s are traditionally not larger than about 680 Mb). I have grouped them in a seperate folder and also in a seperate library “Music Multichannel” in Plex. Normally, when you play this music at an incapable player, you will hear a lot of random noise. When played on a receiver that is capable for DTS you will hear 5.1 sound. When playing these .wav files in Plex on my Nvidia Shield, the stream is automatically downsampled to stereo 2.0.
I cannot get it played originally in 5.1, while my movies are being played correctly in multichannel. Conclusion, somehow Plex recognises the 5.1 format in my .wav files and automatically converts them into 2.0 sound. On Nvidea, but also iPhone the music is played in stereo!
I have tried to change settings at Plex on my Nvidea, by changing Passthrough at HDMI (normally disabled), but then my movies with DTSHD-MA are not playing anymore…
If I try to conclude according to those posts, the library type “Films” or “Other video” are handled differently from “Music”. Also the “Scanner” options are differently.
However when “Films” or “Other video” the multichannel pass-through is working perfectly, when “Music” is selected, it’s only playing the left and right channel and ignoring the other channels (not even down mixing!). Surprisingly…
The good thing still is, it’s capable streaming 192 kHz/24 bits resolution without touching it…
It’s unclear nowadays, if Apple TV would process DTS music CD’s. There has been written in the past, that Android TV is the issue but I think it’s a general Plex player thing for the library type “Music”. Can anybody confirm this? Otherwise, I’m thinking about replacing my NVIDIA Shield.
On Android TV devices, Plex uses Exoplayer, which is part of Android. As mentioned in the posts, Exoplayer handles music differently than how it handles audio that is part of a movie/tv show.
For audio as part of a movie/tv show, Apple does not permit passthrough for DTS or TrueHD audio. Both will be passed as PCM. The conversion should be lossless. However, any Atmos or DTS:X info will be lost in the process.
I do not know how an AppleTV handles multi-channel music, but the restrictions on passthrough for DTS & TrueHD will remain, as those are Apple, not Plex, restrictions.
If you want TrueHD + Atmos and DTS-HD MA/DTS:X audio passthrough for you movie/TV shows, keep the Nvidia Shield. It is the only off the shelf device that will passthrough both formats while supporting HDR10 and Dolby Vision video.
I use an Apple TV 4K, and can confirm the same problem when playing DTS .wav files (i.e., they play as Stereo PCM). I was just coming to this forum to ask for help with this, and saw this post. Anyway, it’s odd because I’m able to play multi-channel FLAC files (e.g., 5.1, 7.1) just fine. Also, a DTS 5.1 audio track on a video clip plays just fine (the ATV4K converts it to Multichannel PCM 5.1). In the DTS music (.wav file) case, the Plex Server shows that it’s Direct Play’ing DTS (5.1), so it appears that the client is squashing it. It’s too bad, because it seems that all the pieces are there (given that multichannel works for DTS video). If anyone know how to fix or workaround that would be appreciated. (I suppose one way would be to convert the music .wav files to some video format? Not sure the best way to do that, or if there are any compromises in sound quality going that route?)
When reading more about this topic, I found the following on GitHub from hmbqzidixiwc
He writes:
Exoplayer is compiled and shipped by the firmware, in your case NVidia
jellyfin-androidtv is fully capable of providing the streams to exoplayer but does not perform the actual playback so issues with playback are a result of device firmware not jellyfin
the jellyfin androidtv app is fully capable of playing DTS on a Rocktek G2 as well as a FireTV Cube Gen3
on the FireTV, however, the FireTV has a firmware issue that causes freezing - not an issue with jellyfin either
as you state libvlc works it further points to exoplayer which can only be fixed by NVidia
3rd party observations only, I do not claim to be part of the Jellyfin project
This is clearly stating where the root cause of the problem is. The problem is melted into the firmware of Nvidia.
For now indeed @gdasm, converting the file into a video is one way to go forward. However, I don’t like to convert an empty black video screen and adding the audio track to it (by keeping it original). Alternatively, you could use Kodi. Kodi plays my DTS wav’s perfectly. Somehow, Kodi is not using the Exoplayer and skipping this part with a real pass-through…
Also, buying an Apple TV because I have many i-devices, is also not recommended… just stay with Shield and I will advice it to my friends as well.
Update: OK, it gets stranger. After playing several tracks (both audio and video), it started working! Meaning, the DTS 5.1 .wav file started playing as Multichannel PCM 5.1 (according to my receiver). I had no idea why. I tried it for a while, going back and forth between various music and videos and all was good. Then I reset my Apple TV, and it was back to the “bad behavior” (i.e., the DTS 5.1 .wav file playing as Stereo PCM). It stayed that way until I played a video w/a DTS 5.1 audio track. Then it was “good” again! So it seems there is some kind of “state bug” going on, where a DTS 5.1 music/audio file only works correctly (i.e., plays multi-channel) after a video w/a DTS 5.1 audio track is played. No idea if this behavior is the same on a Shield, but might be worth a shot to see if it’s a common init/state issue.
