We have a range of SD and HD movies encoded with the following audio channels:
AAC Dolby Pro Logic II downmix channel for use of stereo devices (SD / HD)
AC3 5.1 Dolby Digital for use with older AMPs (SD / HD)
DTS HD for use with new amps (HD only) - I know DTS is not supported on Fire TV (if there for future updates)
Setup is HDMI cable to TV and Toslink to amp, a setup with we have used for many year successfully with our Media Centre PC which played 5.1 no issue via either Windows Media Centre, Kodi or Plex Home Theatre. However things have moved on and I decided to swap to a lower power Amazon Fire 4K box to replace aforementioned PC and here is where I am getting the problem. Note, we’re on a wired GigLAN network which the PC used without issue.
Any time we play a movie in plex (SD or HD) and use the AC3 5.1 track we get audio skipping, it can be a minute of 2 between skips and then the lights on the amp show the signal is lost for a spit second, sound cuts out for a spit second before everything picks back and carries on and then repeats; the downmix AAC stereo plays fine and 5.1 plays fine from any of the Amazon Prime content!
I have tried every setting I can think of to sort this but nothing seems to have any effect; I have ensured all our films are direct play compatible where possible as the plex server is only running on a NAS.
Is this being looked at? Does someone know how to fix it? It’s driving me nuts…
I don’t really want to send the Fire TV back as I am a prime member so a solution would be great!
Side note - tried clearly the Cache files (didn’t work) / Uninstalled the App several times and the audio skipping as soon as it’s reinstalled!
I have my Fire TV 4K connected by HDMI to the amp & then HDMI from amp to the TV & have no problems with DD 5.1 surround sound. Maybe the problem is the optical cable or the amplifier itself?
I have tried two Toslink cables, the cheap one I used for years with I have had the pc hooked up and it had not issue with 5.1 And used that with media centre, kodi and plex theatre. Purchased a new one which is a better brand and still the issue within in plex.
5.1 ac3 from with Amazons own content plays fine…no skips or jumps.
Stereo with in plex also plays fine.
Only one which is giving me an issue is ac3 5.1 within plex.
The Amp is pretty old - must admit, but to-date is has never failed to work with a 5.1 signal coming from any application on my the old PC or before that the DVD player.
Like I mentioned before, same cable in the same setup happily outputs 5.1 from Amazon Prime content; open and stream from within plex and content I know plays fine i.e. full 5.1 and the sound track cut-out for a brief second every 1 to 2 minutes and sometimes its dropping out so often it is impossible to watch the film.
Therefore it leads me to think there is an issue with Plex app and its handling of 5.1 via hdmi to toslink.
Don’t really want to have to go and spend £300 on a new amp when then one we have isn’t broken - seems just a waste of money and planetary resources!
App setting: Latest version updated on the 30th June
Synology NAS: Running latest Plex software
Audio - left as default
Video - direct play on / direct stream on (everything else left as default)
Fire TV Setting:
Audio - again left as default
Video - automatic
TV - SONY46HX75x
Audio - Set to external device (Pass-through via Toslink which supports 5.1 and has worked with other devices without an issue and works with none plex 5.1 playback i.e. amazon)
**AMP - SONY Old but functional **
Support DTS and Dolby Digital
(not of the HD versions but all movies are recoded to include a stand AC3 5.1 track)
I have messed around with a million settings and nothing has made any difference so returned them all back to default.
I have been told I need to leave some kind of log file by the plex guys on twitter but as of yet I am unsure which one to attach!
If I understand the description of your cabling you connect the Fire TV to TV with HDMI then use optical cable from TV to amplifier with TV set to audio passthrough. The Fire TV has an optical out so why not try connecting that direct to the amp?
The generation 1 has a optical out, however the generation 2 4k no longer has that option - hence HDMI to TV and optional from TV to AMP.
Our SONY TV does do 5.1 pass-through and works happily with stereo channels from plex and 5.1 from amazon content but keeps cutting out when trying to play 5.1 in plex no matter if it’s a SD or HD movie.
So I have done some more testing today and I have noticed that the skipping seems to only happen on HD content - 5.1 on SD films seems to play without issue. Could this therefore be a bandwidth issue on optical? It’s a standard 5.1 Dolbi Digital AC3 track though.
Scrape the last post - the sound is skipping also on SD sound tracks also! Pro Logic II stereo plays without issue, however swap the track to 5.1 AC3 and skipping takes place.
I did notice something odd - when I setup the streaming quality within the app to the following:
Local - Original / Remote - 720p 2Mb / Online - 720p 2Mb
Then went to test a HD film, the app selected the 720p version to play rather than the original - therefore is the plex server thinking the Fire TV box is a remote device? Odd
Have the exact same issue! I also noticed that the Fire TV is recognized as an online device even though it’s hardwired to the same network as the server. I have found two work arounds and both are crap! 1-Disable Dolby in Plex. That forces a transcode which still gives 5.1 audio and no cut out or 2 - Use Kodi with plexmbc which has full Dolby 5.1 sound and no audio dropouts. That interface is wonky and not what I paid for a lifetime membership to Plex Pass for…
Can one of the developers please chime in here (@ManuelPG) perhaps? My workarounds sort of prove this is a Plex issue. I don’t have this problem with any other app either…
I was beginning to think it was just me with these issues with the Fire TV app and was considering buying a new app which is just wasteful in my eyes as the one we have works fine.
I shouldn’t need the server to transcode an audio signal the both the fire box and amp can handle fine with other sources and I really don’t want to use Kodi for plex!
Currently the only way I can watch a plex movie is to play the prologic II track and have the amp work out a 5.1 sound track from that which works, but the sound it soft! It’s lucky I encode all our movies with prologic track otherwise we wouldn’t have any 5.1…grrrrr
Come on plex people - at least say you’re looking into this!
Just got the new Fire TV 4K and am having the same issue. Fortunately, I kept my 1st Gen Fire TV, and AC3 is working fine on that one.
Update Aug 6, 2016: Installed MrMC on Fire TV 4K. That app handled 5.1 just fine. So there does seem to be an incompatibility with the new Fire TV and the Plex app. By the way, Netflix had an incompatibility related to video for the second generation Fire TV under the original OS version. Updating to the latest OS fixed that. I only mention that to suggest that there are likely real underlying differences that would allow for Plex to work on first generation Fire TVs but not on second generation.
Doesn’t seem to be any skipping on SD resolution film however still skipping on HD content. Only way I can watch HD content is to play the dolby prologic 2 track and have amp convert it back 5.1…works but sound is soft!
I too just purchased the Fire TV 4K thinking it would be better than the Roku that I have. I spent 3 hours trying to figure out why my audio dropped out on Dolby 5.1 and could not figure it out. I am glad I searched and found this discussion. If Plex is unwilling to fix this issue, I just have to find another alternative to watch my movies.
I have this issue, but not just with Fire TV, I have a NVIDIA Sheild too. BOTH the Fire TV and SHEILD can play 5.1 via Plex using the ac3 codec if the content is acutally endcoded using that codec . Anything else i.e. DTS just comes out in stereo on both Devices.
I have the same setup, everything goes to the TV via HDMI and the audio out is carried on the Optical Cable. My Sony TV allows 5.1 passthrough too (HDMI>Opt)
If I use the Plex App from the Sony TV direct, 5.1 works flawlessly regardless of the type of audio codec used on the orginal video file.
This is a Plex issue on the App. I think becasue both these devices are android base it will likely be the same bug/issue. A few people have commented on this in the past too. It might be a limitation of the platform as I can’t see why Plex would ommit this from a popular device like the Fire TV and include it on the App avaible direct from Sony’s Smart TV store.
@4Meadway - I noticed the log you provided previously was for version 1.0.0. A lot has changed on both the server and client sides since then. Please let me know if you are still having this issue with the latest versions of PMS and the Android App. If so, please provide me new logs.
@mtjedi - You have a different issue. Neither the Fire TV or Shield support pass through of DTS audio. PMS can convert the DTS audio to another format, but unfortunately in order to do so, it needs to communicate with the receiving device in order to know what to convert it to. Since you are using pass-through on the TV to optical (TosLink), the app never gets the information on what to convert to.
@MovieFan.Plex - Thank you for picking up the thread and fingers crossed you guys and work out where the handling bug is!
I have just nipped down and checked and the skipping is still present, happens on both SD and HD with the HD content being most noticeable - it also gets worst if you switch on subtitles! I have enable logging on the device and set a HD film running, I have also switch the subtitles on and off so you should be able to see that also! I will leave it running for an hour or so to giving you plenty to look at.
The skipping is only present on the 5.1 AC3 track, ACC stereo plays fine and it doesn’t mater if the TV or the Amp is handling the sound, there is still the skipping. Sometime it can go 5mins before a skip and then others it’s so bad that it make it impossible to watch in 5.1.
I will download the PMS logs also at the end - will send then over shortly.
If you need me to do anything else, please let me know and I will sort my end.
