I have managed to recreate this 3 year old issue (s3014/5/6) about 5.1 AAC on Plex Web (Chrome)

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version 1.25.3.5409:
Player Version Plex web Version 4.72.1:

The Error works exactly as detailed here:

although sometimes it does go back to error s3015 after it went to s3014.

I am running windows 10 21H2 and Google Chrome Version 97.0.4692.71.
It works fine in Firefox, and on Chromium for Raspberry Pi.
Any other plex player I’ve tried works too.

My server is running on said Raspberry Pi so i try to avoid needing to transcode anything in my media.

As far as i know I’ve followed the specs for mp4, chromium and plex web and built my media files as per Requirements. I have hundreds of video files prepared the exactly same way just without this issue.

I use ffmpeg for encoding and muxing media.

2

Maybe I should add that the 5.1 Stream was encoded from 24 bit 5.1 DTS-HD MA

3

this might work. It did for me for sometime, but its back again. It is only on Chrome. Mine only fails for AAC 5.1. All files work on a Chromecast, Roku , Firefox and my Pixel Phone. I don’t watch from the web app, so
it isn’t an issue for me, other than it is irritating. https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/5i1l9y/plex_web_app_no_ac3_playback/

4

Hmm, thank you for your solution but I’d rather just use the Desktop app as a temporary solution than downmixing everything to 2.0 (also, I’m using AAC because I want to avoid ANY transcoding).
I’ll just wait and hope Plex staff notices this issue and fixes it in a future version.

Ps: I’m not very familiar with the forum yet, do you think it would maybe be a good idea to tag the Developer that fixed the error in the original post?

5

Go ahead, though the developers seldom comment on things in the forum, so I am doubtful they will fix this soon. It only fails on Chrome, so there may be something inside chrome to fix this issue, but I have not found anything.

6

Thank you, I will try to tag him and maybe provide more detailed error and log information in the hope that he replies.

7

Hello @deactivated, I hope I’m not bothering you by tagging you directly.
But I think you could help me as you are the one that helped in the original post.
To assist you in your search I have provided a sample file that produces the same error, and the ffmpeg log of the conversion.
The most notable line in the conversion is:

[aac @ 00000197fc768f40] Using a PCE to encode channel layout “5.1(side)”

I believe that something about this is causing the issue.

Some more information I was able to gather is that when played in VLC the file is way louder on one earcup although it’s not consistent per conversion which earcup it is.
both ffplay and the built in Chrome video player do not demonstrate the same issue.
And yeah I’ve tried playing the file in chrome directly and there are no problems when doing so.

I really hope you can help me with this issue.
If there’s anything more you need to troubleshoot this please feel free to ask.
Thank you

8

Just to make sure I was clear, the changing from 6 channel to 2 channel is just to make it play. The original files are not altered in any way. You may have to edit the Web.xml file after an update. This solution was also in the forums, but I didn’t track that. In fact one of the developers made this known.

9

Yeah I understood, but I have a lot of 5.1 content in my libary and don’t want to not enjoy them in full glory just so that I can fix one minor issue with one show.
Thanks anyways

10

I never actually watch via the computer and everything works fine on all my clients, so no issue. This solution did work, but it is not working now on my setup now, so clearly something could have changed. I use an update script, so I always have the newest version of Plex, release version. I only use the computer to test and the occasional rematch of update. Now if I need to test things, I just use Firefox and it works perfectly without the fix.

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