EAC3 converted to AAC playback error

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.22.1.4228
Player Version#: 4.53.0

As part of the process of adding movies/tv episodes to my Plex server, considering that EAC3 playback causes some issues with Android TV (I have an NVIDIA Shield), I have made it a point of converting all movies with EAC3 sound to AAC via the following ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:v -c:v copy -map 0:a -c:a aac -b:a 384k -strict -2 -map 0:s -c:s copy output.mkv

I’ve see that this process sometimes works (I converted a whole TV show like this with no issues), but some files wind up causing the following playback error:

Screenshot from 2021-03-27 10-35-46

Even the server seems to be attempt to transcode it:

Screenshot from 2021-03-27 10-43-32

Interestingly, the resulting movie file is able to be played by other programs (like VLC).

Any recommendations of what to modify in the ffmpeg command so that the file is able to processed by Plex appropriately?

I’m also attaching the log file (with debugging option enabled) when trying to play the movie and that it throws the playback error.

Thanks in advance.

log.txt (120.5 KB)

2

The Shield TV should play EAC3 just fine. Maybe your settings (from the shield tv not plex) are not right.

I’m guessing your file is in hevc? Chrome (or any other Browser than Safari) don’t support HEVC, that’s why the server is transcoding.

3

Where can I find this option in the Shield? Because you are right: the Plex server transcodes to AAC when audio is in EAC3 and I’m using the Shield to see the movie. The reason why I’m trying to convert to AAC from EAC3 with ffmpeg is that if I let Plex transcode on the fly, the result is that I can’t seek forward or backwards without playback freezing (this is a common issue, unfortunately).

No, my file is in H.264 originally (as you can see in the second image in my post) . I’ve tried re-transcoding to H.264 again with:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:v -c:v libx264 -map 0:a -c:a aac -b:a 384k -strict -2 -map 0:s -c:s copy output.mkv

but the result is the same.