Haha age might lead to the opposite opinion as well. Not many of us regret ripping audio into lossless formats as the sizes are now trivial 
we learned that the pain is less significant over time, while the benefit remains the same.
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Just do it! 
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Hi,
anybody can provide a qualified answer, what core component has changed in Plex Client beginning from version 6.12? I have a couple of 4K movies in my collection which I’m running on 4K Sony Android TV and latest Plex Server running on Synology DS716+. As soon as I update Plex Client 6.12 on my TV to the latest version, these a couple of movies start to stutter. I’ve tried a few Plex Client versions newer than 6.12, but when I start playing these movies, they start stuttering on the same place. I took a look at this FAQ and all the conversations, but everybody are more concentrated on server site and it’s hardware, instead of looking at the stuttering issues caused by Plex Client side. Maybe I’m only one who is facing with video stuttering issues after upgrading client to newer version than 6.12?
I don’t know, but it sounds like you need a separate thread and to post logs from client/server, otherwise there is nothing but anyone’s guess.
“If you don’t have the storage space for a copy of both 4k and 1080/720, then perhaps you should not even be collecting 4k.”
“but if you are collecting 4k content then you should not be worried about storage space, should you?”
What a stupid opinion. As if the home user can afford unlimited space. I don’t know who you are, but finally they’re working on tone mapping. Don’t bother transcoding? Why not? For my use case, the only people needing to transcode are guests, and they really don’t notice the weird colors.
Your opinions of HD audio seem to neglect the fact that you can just transcode them to FLAC in the first place.
The very point.
For years now, with no results in sight.
If you transcode and convert them to something compatible with your client, they are no longer HD. Else your client should play the HD audio directly.
Thanks for your feedback.
For years now? Not that I was aware of. I was aware of it only being a few months, with them working on a new transcoding engine.
What clients are FLAC not compatible with? It’s just PCM. Bandwidth requirements, a moot point. Remote viewing isn’t going to necessitate lossless audio.
The only client I am aware of that does not support true hd but can accept truehd > flac is Apple TV 4K.
No smart TVs support truehd native or flac, and so would be transcoded to Dolby digital/ac3/aac as applicable.
I never said anything about TrueHD, so I don’t see where you’re trying to take this conversation. FLAC has no royalties. Anything can decode it. The TV doesn’t need to support FLAC directly because it can be decoded by software in a Plex client. It hardly takes any processing power to do so. I don’t even know what your first sentence means. I am talking about transcoding the audio before the files are even put in the library.
I think (at the risk of speaking for tekno) what he means is that a file converted from truehd to flac can only be handled (correctly) by Apple TV 4K… While I am not that well versed in it… I can say the few rips I have done where I set the audio to Flac 5.1 worked everywhere, but the Flac 7.1’s don’t get routed properly and I end up with a phased out center channel somehow, so I end up hearing really loud background music and nearly no voices or sound effects (you can hear them they’re just super weak)
Edit: Judging by the rest of the exchange, that may not be what he’s talking about…
@TeknoJunky my Sony Smart TV plays FLAC Audio up to 5.1 without issue, so does my Amazon FireStick 4K If I recall correctly… (I changed out the Flac Audios to their TrueHD counterparts for other reasons so I can’t test again).
Ram was who brought up hd audio to flac. That means true hd.
Dts generally does not need to be converted to flac since there is a lossy compatibly core built in to the dts hd lossless.
In any case there are few examples where Plex will transcode any hd audio to flac.
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I have a setup that can play 4k barely and most of the time it feels like luck! So i would like to have some suggestions if i can somehow upgrade some things to get more reliable playback! It feels like its mostly the audio that gets transcoded or the subtitles. Will the new Nvidia shield solve all my problems? I am also open to buying a new reciever and soundbar as long as i get a setup which i can completely migrate to 4k material with.
I am thinking of upgradering my setup
Samsung 65" ks8000
Plex Client: Nvidia shield 2015 connected to tv via hdmi and gbit connection to plex server
Soundbar: Heos homecinema HS1 (old version) connected to TV via arc
Plex is running on a dedicated ryzen 1800x server with full 1000/1000 network both inhouse and to the internet
First you need to KNOW, not guess, whether you are transcoding, and why it is transcoding.
Then you can determine on what you can do to avoid that transcoding.
The top 2 problems are HD audio and subtitles.
- disable subtitles
- make sure are you choosing a compatible audio track (dolby digital/dts 5.1 or stereo).
Otherwise if you want help, open a new thread with all your current system details and plex versions, screenshot of your server dashboard status, and logs where your server is transcoding.
If you have a shield already, then you should not be transcoding much of anything, however you do need a 4k compatible receiver that the shield can plug in to.
All of this explained in the very first post.
Yes
I am not guessing i know when its transcoding or not since its very visible on performance.
And yes its most often the audio so im guessing i need a receiver!
My question is more what should the receiver be capable of and in what order should it be connected? Should it be like Nvidia shield to receiver to tv? or nvidia shield and receiver both to tv separately and then the soundbar to the receiver?
I dont plan on getting any additional speakers will it be possible to continue using my Heos homecinema HS1 bar together with the receiver?
best regards
HD audio to FLAC doesn’t mean True HD. Maybe some program like Plex does something like encode it to FLAC. I have no clue. I don’t screw around with that kind of crap (those codecs). I transcode EVERYTHING (TrueHD, DTS-HD Master, LPCM) that’s not lossy to FLAC.
I have another question
would it work to get a soundbar that can handle dolby atmos builtin?
Is it the same as getting a receiver with atmos compatibilty?
there is 2 kinds of atmos.
- dolby digital + atmos = streaming atmos (netflix/etc)
- truehd + atmos = 4k/bluray atmos (from disk)
if a soundbar supports TRUEHD, perhaps.
BUT, it takes more than just a soundbar if you are just trying to use a tv.
Most (all?) tvs do NOT support TRUEHD+atmos passthrough.
Even with the new E-ARC, there has been no confirmed combination of TV+soundbar that will direct play TRUEHD+atmos, through plex.
so, the possibles are
- SHIELD + truehd/atmos receiver + 4k tv
- shield + truehd/atmos soundbar (maybe) + 4k tv
Before I bother buy the new nvidia shield, I’d like to sort out the following:
I have a 4k/amtos receiver but only a common 4k tv without hdr. Will this setting be able to play my 4k HEVC od 4k HDR content on my Plex server with direct play?
TV: LG 65UB950
AVR: Denon AVR-X4500H
Thank you in advance!
Unlikely.
Hdr content would either be transcoded, or even if direct played it be washed colors because a non hdr screen cannot interpret the color mode correctly.
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I have a similar setup in terms of an HP Omen 180-130 that has the 8700K and a GTX1080ti. I use Nvidia shields as the client so NO TRANSCODING! Zero!
