Issues with subtitles and trueHD on samsung TV

Plex Players Smart TVs
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Heya Plex forums,

I recently bought a new home theater setup as follows:
Samsung 65Q95T TV
Sonos Arc

The Sonos is connected to the Samsung TV E-ARC port, and recently has the hotfix applied by Sonos, which disabled the eArc screen saver, in order to get the Sonos arc fully working with the Samsung TV (Apparently, its a samsung issue, but worked around by Sonos, but who knows, both blame eachother…)

So now that I’ve got that fully working, I can rule this out as the potential issue for the following two problems

The Samsung Q95T comes with installable Plex App, which I am using. I am also running Plex Media Server on my windows PC, with a 7900x CPU, which is more than sufficient to transcode any type of movie. For my test case, I have the following movie:

Aladdin.2019.UHD.HDR.BluRay.2160p.TrueHD.Atmos.7.1.HEVC
(4k HDR + TrueHD 7.1 Atmos)

The first issue I run into, is that when enabling subtitles through the plex app, the movie seems to fully switch to transcode. I’ve read on this helpful forum that Plex can only transcode up to H264, which essentially removes HDR, as HDR needs H265?

image image

My first question is: Is there any way to allow subtitles to be played while retaining the 4k HDR direct play.

The second issue I run into, is that trueHD 7.1 is transcoded to AAC. The movie contains two audio tracks. TrueHD 7.1 atmos, and AC5.1
image

image image

When selecting the TrueHD 7.1, the audio is transcoded to AAC. Selecting the AC5.1 audio track allows for direct streaming. However, I’d like to get TrueHD 7.1 audio working.

Many issues previously posted on this forum have users connecting their audio setup to the ARC port on their tv, and I am fully aware that TrueHD 7.1 (atmos) requires e-ARC, which I fortunately have in my setup. I should have the full bandwidth required for lossless atmos.

Is there any way to get this working with just the TV and Plex?

Lastly, many users on this forum suggest getting a nvidia shield pro 16gb (2019) in order to resolve these issues. My additional question would be, does the Nvidia shield pro allow for 4k hdr direct stream + trueHD 7.1 direct stream + subtitles selected within plex?

P.S. interestingly, selecting subtitles within the plex app even causes the audio AC5.1 to get transcoded. Is there a way to fix this, or does the nvidia shield fix this?

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Most TVs do not support HD audio even with e-arc. As for subtitles, it depends on what the TV supports. If the subtitle format is not supported then Plex has to transcode the video to burn in the subtitles.

As for the Shield, yes it supports direct streaming of the HD audio but I think you will still have issues with transcoding the video since that is a limitation of the TV. You could probably replace the PGS subs with SRT subs to avoid transcoding.

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See this thread: [INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

You are running into the limitations of the Plex SmartTV app on Samsung and LG (and maybe other) TVs.

  • Enabling PGS or VOBSUB subtitles results in a video transcode.
  • If the audio is transcoding, enabling SRT (text) subtitles results in a video transcode.

There are also limitations of the TV itself.

  • The TV does not support TrueHD or dts audio, so playing either via the Plex app results in a audio transcode.
  • When using TV apps, neither Samsung or LG support passing TrueHD audio over eARC, therefore, it will be transcoded.

To use the Plex app on the TV when watching HDR media:

  • Never use image based subtitles, PGS & VOBSUB.
  • To use text (SRT) subtitles, choose audio formats that do not transcode: AC3, EAC3, & AAC.

Regarding a 2019 Nvidia Shield Pro with the Plex Android TV app:

  • HDR10 media direct plays.
  • Dolby Vision media is a mixed bag, as only some DV formats are supported. Unsupported DV formats transcode.
  • The Plex AndroidTV app direct plays subtitles even if the audio is transcoding, so no video transcoding if you enable PGS/VOBSUB/SRT subtitles. Supported since v8.0.0.

With Shield → Samsung → Sonos

  • The Samsung should pass TrueHD + Atmos to the Sonos via HDMI-eARC (both devices must support eARC).
  • I do not know if it will pass dts audio formats (LG blocks dts passthrough in their current models for some reason).
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@Alucard1
Thanks for your suggestion of using SRT subtitles. This indeed allows for 4k HDR directplay.

image image

I was going to mention the fact that it is interesting that the video transcodes when the audio is unsupported or has to be transcoded, but it looks like @FordGuy61 already answered this for me, as he mentions this fact.

Seems unfortunate that a samsung tv of this price point has such issues, as mentioned by @FordGuy61 under his TV limitation section. The PlexSmartTV app is interesting, will these issues be resolved ‘eventually’ or probably never? Are these software limitations or TV App limitations?

Samsung TVs do not support Dolby Vision, so DV content is not relevant for me atleast.

So I guess at this point, I’d have to buy an Nvidia shield purely for the TrueHD 7.1 Atmos to not transcode? Seems like a damn shame for such an expensive tv.

Thank you both for the wonderful insights and information though!

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Yeah, I gave up on using the apps on the TV and got a shield, boy what a difference that made. My overall experience is so much better now. The shield is so much faster, audio is better and the AI Video upscaling is awesome. I just wish I would have made the switch earlier. I only use the TV apps in one of our rooms but it is just for basic viewing.

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Do not expect the limitations to change.

I’ve a LG B7 OLED, ~3 yrs old, and the current LG TVs have the same limits.

Yes. The Shield is the only streaming box that supports HDR video and passthrough for TrueHD audio. If you do buy one, get the Pro model. The non-Pro “tube” model has issues with high bit-rate media, such as movies with 4K HDR video & TrueHD audio (search the forum for “Shield tube” to see the posts).

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