Hi everyone,
I’m really tired fighting with Plex so often and I start looking around for alternatives 
Things that worked super well years ago are either not possible to achieve or annoyingly hidden now.
But the problem for today - how to completely disable audio transcoding? I do not need it and it breaks things. I got a new Samsung TV and a new soundbar. I also updated the Plex Server. The problem I have is videos containing EAC3 audio codec do not play on this TV with error mentioning that the server is not powerful enough to transcode. I had to dig into logs to find out that it’s related to audio and then EAC3. The problem is my TV and soundbar can play EAC3 and convert multi-channel audio on the fly just fine, I don’t need Plex to force AAC i this case and transcode (why would I?). The workaround I found is to set audio output to optical (my guess is Plex is unable to “detect” supported formats and passes the original audio) start Plex Player and then change audio output back to TV+soundbar (Plex most likely “does not notice” that) and the audio plays fine (it’s not trascoded and my TV handles it just fine). Using web client on my PC has the same problem (with all video files no matter audio codec, which it had not before) and I did not find a workaround there yet.
How do I regain the control over media I’m playing without being forced to use certain solutions I don’t want and I don’t need? This should be simple.
I’m close to throw out my Plex Pass…
there is no setting to disable audio transcoding.
you might either, search the forums for your tv/soundbar model number and see if anyone else has had the same problem and found a solution, or post your specific model numbers involved, client log and server log files captured that show the problem, and perhaps even a sample of a file that reliably causes an issue.
While yes, I can post logs, a sample, numbers, etc, my rant is mostly about what would this change? I want an option to disable transcoding, not having to come here every time something does not work because I cannot disable or change something else. I see an ability to disable transcoding as a basic function and I mostly want to make the Plex Staff see this and re-consider. I’m not the only one asking about the ability to disable audio transcoding and having a control over what and when gets transcoded.
The list does not end here as well - for example I no longer can set the GUI elements the way I was able to some time ago.
In my eyes Plex is taking Apple route and I would rather want to be able to set things the way I want and not the way someone else things I should have it set.
if you want to request a feature, then instead of a ‘rant’ as you say, I would suggest you open a thread in the feature request section and hope enough of the others who would like such an option would vote and plex team take it into consideration.
If PMS & the player are saying the host isn’t powerful enough, I AM going ask what the server is running on AND if your videos contain PGS, VOBSUB, or DVDRIP subtitles.
When I hear “everything has worked for years … and now it doesn’t” is, in most cases, because the media is more complex (2160p/4K vs 1080p) or has subtitles in it where the previous did not AND the server can’t keep up with demand anymore.
If you would like, looking at your server logs (DEBUG logging enabled, VERBOSE logging disabled) , which capture a failed playback attempt, I will definitively be able to see why that playback failed.
Willing to give it a shot?
@TeknoJunky Indeed. You are 100% right. The thing is I’m spending my time fighting with Plex again and this time I had enough. This feature is also being requested, I’m not the first to ask about it. I also think it’s a core feature and I’m not sure why is it not there.
@ChuckPa Like I said, I did check the logs and I figured out it’s EAC3 audio (all other videos are playing back - either the audio does not need to be transcoded or it is transcoded without issues, I’d have to check again which one). And I provided my workaround to make it playing on this TV (set audio output to optical to trick the Plex player (my guess is it cannot detect supported codecs since this output does not provide any feedback), start the Plex player and change the audio output back to TV+soundbar - no encoding occurs and the video plays). I found the cause in the logs. It’s not related to subtitles (subtitles are off). With audio workaround nothing gets transcoded (nothing attempts to be transcoded) and the video plays smoothly and as expected.
My server is a Core i7-3740QM (4 cores, 8 threads) laptop with 32 GB of RAM (temporarily, before I put it on some mode powerful hardware on the rack). Previously, when everything has been working, I’ve been using some super old Core Duo laptop with 4GB of RAM (it has been serving 4K content as well). Basically, nothing ever had to be transcoded (the video transcoding was off, and I highly doubt audio was ever transcoded since this old laptop would not keep up with audio transcoding).
There’s also this web browser player issue I mentioned (not important to me, though).
And yes, I am wiling to check things and give things a shot. I’m just mad that I even have to when the solution (for me) is super simple - …disable the feature I do not need. Can you, please, add an option to disable audio transcoding? I want my hardware to handle this task, not the server, so I always need the original audio stream.
While you may have checked the logs. I would like to see them.
( I’ve had this conversation many times before so please trust me )
The i7-3740qm is, forgive me, old as hell launched Q3 2012.
I used to have one of these so I know what it can and cannot do.
You state serving 4K content. How ? Ivy Bridge CPUs do not possess 4K HW capability. 4K SDR was introduced the SkyLake -6xxx and 4K HDR was introduced with KabyLake -7xxx CPUs
Deducing what you might have been seeing:
- 4K content which will DirectPlay the video tracks (essentially HDR-passthrough)
- Audio could be transcoded if needed for the player but that’s not happening here.
You would like audio transcoding disabled. — I get that.
PMS already has the ability to disable video transcoding.
Given most soundbars natively handle EAC3 and most TVs do not.
( Ref: https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2022-tv-video-specifications.html )
Which soundbar do you have and how are things wired up?
(Silly question but important - Is audio, in the Plex App, set to pass through the TV to the soundbar ?)
You’re asking for a feature but not giving me enough evidence (specifics) to write up the request with justification based on current market products which I need.
Which kind of CPU you have that can’t handle audio transcoding? Are you 100% sure you are not transcoding video as well?
While you may have checked the logs. I would like to see them.
( I’ve had this conversation many times before so please trust me )
I trust you. I’m providing tech support for people, I really understand. I’ll try to generate and grab logs again (I removed the several times during my tests).
The i7-3740qm is, forgive me, old as hell launched Q3 2012.
I used to have one of these so I know what it can and cannot do.
I know it’s old and obsolete but not useless.
You state serving 4K content. How ? Ivy Bridge CPUs do not possess 4K HW capability. 4K SDR was introduced the SkyLake -6xxx and 4K HDR was introduced with KabyLake -7xxx CPUs
It’s simple - I do not use transcoding. When I was dealing with this issue, I took my super super old laptop with older PMS version. The Core Duo + 4 GB of RAM I mentioned earlier. It did show the same error, but with the workaround (when audio is not being transcoded) it served this 4K HDR with multichannel EAC3 audio well. You do not need much for this and I do not need any transcoding.
You would like audio transcoding disabled. — I get that.
Thank you for acknowledging.
PMS already has the ability to disable video transcoding.
And I’m using it all the time. I ask for the same thing for audio. This is all I need.
Which soundbar do you have and how are things wired up?
The soundbar is Samsung HW-Q930C (the TV is Samsung Q95C). I’m using eARC to pass audio from tv to the soundbar. This shows the transcoding error. The workaround I found was to use S/PDIF (Toslink) - i connected TV with teh soundar with it and set the TV to use it instead of eARC. Now, when I start the Plex app and switch back to eARC, the audio plays fine without transcoding. The same applies when I switch to eARC + TV as the center channel, but in this case I’m not sure if the TV handles conversion or the soundbar (and send the center channel back to the TV). What I can check, if necessary is to disconnect eARC (HDMI), use S/PDIF workaround and switch back to TV’s speakers (no eARC means that if the audio plays, it’s being processed in the TV in this case).
(Silly question but important - Is audio, in the Plex App, set to pass through the TV to the soundbar ?)
The question is not silly. I’ve been searching for this option after seeing it’s there for some apps. Not there in my case (Samsung TV).
You’re asking for a feature but not giving me enough evidence (specifics) to write up the request with justification based on current market products which I need.
Probably because I don’t know what you need. I’ll be more than happy to answer all the questions you have.
The CPU is Core i7-3740QM. I am positive I’m not transcoding the video. If I trick the audio part, it plays fine.
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