I have a Plex lifetime subscription. I am looking for ways to seamlessly play my multichannel FLAC Files stored on an external hard drive. I own a laptop, NUC, OPPO, LG smart TV and Anthem processor.
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With “seamless” you mean “gapless playback”, right?
I know only of one way with Plex:
Use a Windows computer, attach a multi-channel sound interface, configure the speaker setup to “5.1 (side)” in the “Speaker” control panel of Windows, install Plexamp.
Start Playback (i.e. the play queue) with a 5.1 file, otherwise Plexamp won’t activate 5.1 playback.
Plexamp won’t play DTS, AC3 or other proprietarily encoded surround sound. (in 5.1, but it will play these in stereo)
If you can live with a short gap inbetween tracks, you can also use
“Plex for Windows/Mac” or “Plex HTPC.”
Set up the audio connection as “5.1” in the preferences of the Plex app.
If you have a device based on Android TV with a multichannel AVR connected per HDMI (no, optical won’t do), you should be able to use this to play 5.1 flac files as well (but I have never tested this).
Set up the Audio connection as “HDMI” and “5.1” in the preferences of the Android TV Plex app.
What I meant my seamless was the ability to playback the files multichannel.
2 issues on the first option: I assume I need to connect my computer to my AVR, right and i don’t see the 5.1 speaker setting on windows 10. By multichannel interface you mean my external hard drive?
Yes. A HDMI connection could be used, AFAIK.
Once this is selected as your primary sound output, the 5.1 configuration should become available. Otherwise you need to install an audio driver software for the HDMI port.
(apparently, it doesn’t work for uncompressed surround audio)
No, I mean a sound interface, or a “DAC” which is connected to the computer (or built into it) and then connected to the AVR either with 6 phono (cinch) cables or some other method which supports 6-channel uncompressed audio.
Which means it has to be not just a stereo sound interface, but a “multi-channel” sound interface – i.e. at least 6 channels.
I thought it would be as simple as connecting my hard drive to my computer, set the audio output on Plexamp to 5.1 and connect the computer to my AVR. I guess that it is too easy a solution.
If it were that easy, surround music would be much more prevalent than it is currently.
Here is a test:
Download and install the “Plex for Windows” client software.
Once you have it open and connected to your Plex account, go into its settings.
Under Player, select your HDMI port as the sound interface.
Set the “Audio device kind” to HDMI.
Set “Audio Channels” to “5.1”
(Optional: Tick all of the checkboxes of the audio codecs below, which your AVR can decode on its own)
Play some of your files and listen to your surround speakers.
Thanks for all your advise. I set everything up but it is still glitchy. I could be the age of my computer. I will try again using a different laptop.
I did everything possible. Plex player settings even recognized my AVR. I set multichannel to 5.1. I played several MCH FLAC files and they all went to 2.0. I think Plex hates MCH audio files.
I don’t think so. But it’s still a niche application, so that most developers don’t even have the setup to test it.
I can only tell you that it does indeed work if you connect a sound interface to your computer. That’s how I listen to my small collection of surround sound music.
I found a fix. I use my laptop as the server. I plug the external hard drive in the laptop. Then I use my OPPO to connect to the PLEX server. My audio files play in MCH. So far, so good.
I found an even better fix. I use my laptop as the music server and my OLED LG Plex app is my player. The GUI is a little wonky but my files play in MCH.
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