Force Audio Passthrough?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

As far as I can see the only options for audio passthrough are Off and Auto. Is there a way I can make this forced?

Whenever I play something with TrueHD audio the Shield Plex client transcodes it even when set to Auto, so it obviously thinks the output source can’t receive TrueHD.

However, when the audio gets transcoded on a HDR item (even though the video is being played via Direct Play) it breaks the video stream and causes green artifacts. I don’t quite understand why but me understanding why isn’t super important.

I realize that there seems to be no simple in-app setting to force audio passthrough, however I was hoping maybe someone knows a trick or xml setting or whatever to make this happen.

I do believe it’s true that my soundbar will not properly play TrueHD, however I think it will convert it so that Plex doesn’t have to – or at the very least I’d like to try that by forcing it. If it plays no audio, or is distorted or whatever, then I guess I will know for sure. I don’t seem to have any issue playing something with TrueHD via Kodi with passthrough enabled, though.

Thanks in advance!

2

I do realize that the “right” solution is that transcoding the audio not break the hdr video stream, but was hoping someone had a solution in the interim.

3

In my experience----Plex Client determines what is supported and what isn’t. If the sound system does not support TrueHD then Plex Client will Direct Stream or Transcode no matter what. Direct Stream doesn’t take a whole lot of resources. Your only option is to upgrade the AV System or Receiver.