Does gapless audio work in any Plex clients ?
I am using Plex Media Server for Linux. I have a folder of WMA files from a ripped CD. The original CD plays gaplessly on any CD player. The audio cuts off between two tracks in the middle of a single note, so any gap, however small, is easily audible.
In the Plex for Windows client, playing to the local audio device, there is a small but audible gap between tracks.
In the Plex for Android client, on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, again playing to the local audio device (phone speaker), there are significant gaps between tracks as as well.
Are there specific settings Iām missing on either the client or server side to get gapless playback to work ?
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Gapless is only working on the mobile clients (Android and iOS) and on Plexamp.
You might be able to activate it on Android TV in the client configuration.
For gapless to work in general, Plex server first has to analyze your music library for loudness.
Make sure it is not disabled under
Settings - Server - Library - āAnalyze audio tracks for loudnessā
If you activated this just now or your library is brand-new, it might take a few nights of analysis to generate the missing data.
Make sure your server is actually running during the scheduled āServer Maintenanceā period and has access to the media files. (āScheduled Tasksā)
Thanks. I did have this option disabled. I just re-enabled it. Indeed my music collection is very large, and even without the analysis, it took Plex most of last week to just process the meta-data. I wish I could just disable some libraries temporarily to test the gapless feature on one gapless album in a separate music library.
Does the audio file format matter at all as far as gapless is concerned ? My collection is currently stored in WMA lossless format, because thatās the only lossless format my car supports when using a USB stick.
Also, is there any way to disable fading when stopping the playback of an album ? It is really unnatural on harpsichord which is supposed to have nearly constant volume and just cannot do loud and quiet. Hearing it fade is quite abnormal.
Thanks.
Thanks. Thatās unfortunate.
Hi. Iām a fairly new Plex user. I have struggled a bit getting my music files setup and labeled the way I like. Plex has made changes during this time for the better - especially in the way file names are changed and saved.
Really, the only thing I am not satisfied with is that I have not been able to have gapless play.
I have my music files on a WD MyCloud, and have Plex setup on my iPhone as the player. I also have Plex setup on a laptop for easier control and manipulation.
My question is, is there a setting that has to be changed to enable gapless play?
An example is Dark Side Of The Moon. I have the āindividual files for each trackā that I load in a queue, and obviously want them to play with no gaps.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Geno
You are not using some kind of wireless speaker or a Chromecast device by chance?
OP here - even one week later after processing on the server side, I still canāt get gapless playback to work on my Android device.
I just recorded the result in a video showing the gapless playback failure on my Galaxy Note 20 ultra.
Here is how the same tracks actually sound with proper gapless playback in JRiver Media Center 25 on my PC.
Here is a ZIP with the two tracks in question :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ryglqwFuCk4OSOPaldTaAvYgrfkfqcK9/view?usp=sharing
They are the first two tracks from the following CD :
The first video shows an iTunes program window. This has nothing to do with Plex.
Did you provide the wrong link?
Please open the Plex media info of the first track. Does it show a numeric value for āGainā or āLoudnessā?
Sorry, I edited the post as both videos were the same of JRiver - no iTunes involved, though. The first video is now correctly Plex.
Here is the Plex Media info for the first track.
Sounds pretty gapless to me.
If you mean the short drop of sound near the end, this must be something else because it doesnāt happen exactly between the tracks but very shortly before the end of the first track. You can actually hear the sustain of the last note continue after the dropout.
Itād be interesting to repeat this experiment with two tracks in mp3 or flac format. Just to rule out that it has something to do with the wmalossless codec.
If this sounds gapless to you, then there is nothing to talk about, is there ?
It sure doesnāt sound gapless to me, and I doubt to anyone who plays the harpsichord (as I do). At least acknowledge that there is a bug, otherwise how can it ever be fixed ?
I agree with you that there may be something else going on. Playing the start of the first track also exhibits slight audio artifact.
My entire music collection is in WMA lossless format because thatās the only format my cars support through USB stick. I havenāt tried FLAC or MP3.
That what I meant with āsomething elseā. The short audible gap happens before the first track has ended. So it doesnāt occur at the boundary of the two tracks, but slightly before it.
But I stand by my assessment that the two tracks are in fact playing gapless. Do you rather expect them to overlap slightly?
I donāt expect any overlap. I just expect no gaps, hiccups or artifacts in the sound, just as it is when playing the physical CD in a physical CD player. Or with JRiver MC. Did you listen to what it sounds in the video I provided ? It sounds the same as when playing the physical CD, and thatās what I expect.
Understood, so do I.
However this hiccup is in my opinion not the absence of gapless playback, but a different bug. And it should be reported as such.
Possibly. Or there could be multiple bugs in play, also.
Anyway, I just converted those 2 tracks to FLAC and heard no gap on my Android device. So, the bug does seem to be specific to WMA lossless.
My music collection is >1TB and all in WMA lossless. I donāt want to convert it from WMA lossless to FLAC, since my car canāt play FLAC files natively at all.
I tried Plex in my car over Bluetooth a couple weeks ago, but there were plenty of problems when phone calls came in. But thatās for another day, as I havenāt written down the details of what happened exactly. It was unusable, unfortunately 
Thank you for verifying! Thatās a good data point.
Have you tried with Plexamp? It has made some good progress regarding the Bluetooth audio issue with incoming calls.
Oooops. I always leave out important details. Yes, I use a Cambridge Audio CXN music streamer and cast to it using chromecast.
Sorry madbrain. I did not intend to hijack your post. Sometimes it can be difficult to know where in a particular Forum to pose a question.
Regards,
Geno
FWIW, I also have 15+ Chromecast devices, mostly Chromecast audio, some video , some, Android TV. I have never found any app that played gaplessly on the Chromecast audio, not even Googleās own apps, unfortunately.
