Before this app update, everything would play just fine on my phone - no messing around with options was ever needed. My server library consists of mp4’s, avi’s, mkvs with a mix of x264+AC3 or DTS or AAC audio, etc.) and haven’t had any problems until now.
Since the app update (to 5.1.1.199), certain episodes of shows would play the video portion, but no audio. After looking around in Settings, I had to enable AC3 and DTS audio. Same with my Android tablet (which I updated recently, but it is not the same ver # as phone app). I understand not auto-enabling these options (as it is probably hard to auto-detect every device’s capabilities) but it is not helpful to just play the video with no audio.
Forced to use Mobile layout instead of TV layout and it sucks. Example: I choose the TV Shows library on my server, and it shows me all of this “aired recently” and “recently added” nonsense but there is NOWHERE to just browse the list of TV shows that I’ve made available. Yes, I can search by typing in the title, but what if the user just wants to quickly scroll and tap through to what they want? Bring TV view back!! (please)
I haven’t ran into problem 1 myself and I haven’t enabled any additional audio codecs so I don’t have any guidance for you on that. I even double checked with a straight bluray rip with DTS-HD and the audio transcoded to AAC with no playback issues for me. To try and figure out what is happening we would need to see your server logs (at a minimum or server and device logs for best access) when trying to playback one of the items failing.
But for number 2 should be able to click the browse button on the bottom of the screen to switch to a library view that allows you to view all of the shows posters.
I have had nothing but issues since the last android update / Plex Media Server Update, But it seems to be an issue only on my Nexus player. Myself and a couple of friends all have nexus players and since the latest update. We are getting nothing but issues. For myself it seems like no DTS audio is getting transcoded which as been working for months now. My friend cant stream anything from my server. It shows my server online, he can click a movie or tv show and it downloads meta data from my server but as soon as he clicks play he gets told he cant connect to server. Nothing as been changed apart from recent update.
P.S Everything else seems fine, Xbox One, Ps4, Chromecasting.
@jmckee said:
I haven’t ran into problem 1 myself and I haven’t enabled any additional audio codecs so I don’t have any guidance for you on that. I even double checked with a straight bluray rip with DTS-HD and the audio transcoded to AAC with no playback issues for me. To try and figure out what is happening we would need to see your server logs (at a minimum or server and device logs for best access) when trying to playback one of the items failing.
jmckee,
For #2: Thank you. I didn’t notice the Browse button because it hides very quickly. Would still prefer to go straight to browsing by default, but that’s not as important as functionality.
For #1: The problem is solved for my phone & tablet (just had to make sure I went in to the settings for each device and tell it to enable AC3 and DTS audio). This makes me want to ask more questions related to AC3/DTS, if you’re up for it:
Does the app (for android) automatically assume that the device cannot play AC3/DTS? (hence why the AC3 check-box and DTS box were not checked for me on either of my devices?)
Does the Plex server transcode AC3 or DTS audio to something device-friendly?
I ask the above question because I also use an Ouya console. From what I’ve read, the Ouya doesn’t support AC3 audio (and the Plex app on Ouya is probably dated now?). When I attempt to play something that has AC3 audio, no audio is played. Looking at the details (as it plays), the video is being transcoded to my preferred bitrate, but the audio is “direct”. I tried disabling Direct Stream and Direct Play but that didn’t help - audio still streams as “direct”.
I downloaded the logs and the zip was quite large, so I grabbed the Plex Media Server log and kept the portion that contains my attempt to play an item from my library that contains AC3 audio. I hope you can have a look and provide any advice.
@LaZiOPLEX said:
For #2: Thank you. I didn’t notice the Browse button because it hides very quickly. Would still prefer to go straight to browsing by default, but that’s not as important as functionality.
On my phone it goes to the browse by default. Not sure if it was because it was the last thing I had open, but at first I wasn’t sure what you were talking about because all I saw was the tv show banners. But once I saw the discover button I realized you were seeing the discovery hubs instead of the browse libraries. As far as I know it should be opening the view based on what was last opened. I tried switch the views closing the app and reopening it and everytime I did I got the view I was using the previous time. So if that’s not the case there might be something going on your device preventing it. So I would need to try and see if one of the other ninja’s or employees can reproduce it with the same type of device so they can track it down.
For #1: The problem is solved for my phone & tablet (just had to make sure I went in to the settings for each device and tell it to enable AC3 and DTS audio). This makes me want to ask more questions related to AC3/DTS, if you’re up for it:
Does the app (for android) automatically assume that the device cannot play AC3/DTS? (hence why the AC3 check-box and DTS box were not checked for me on either of my devices?)
I always thought it defaulted to unsupported for (e)AC3/DTS for compatibility reasons. And that you had to enable it yourself because if you don’t have AC3 playback capability with those codecs enabled you will get no audio. When I checked on my phone I had AC3 already enabled, but that very well could have been something I did on a previous install as updating shouldn’t wipe out your settings.
Does the Plex server transcode AC3 or DTS audio to something device-friendly?
It definitely should be transcoding audio options that are not enabled from the system menu. It should be transcoding to AAC by default as that is one of the more robust codecs available on almost all devices.
I ask the above question because I also use an Ouya console. From what I’ve read, the Ouya doesn’t support AC3 audio (and the Plex app on Ouya is probably dated now?). When I attempt to play something that has AC3 audio, no audio is played. Looking at the details (as it plays), the video is being transcoded to my preferred bitrate, but the audio is “direct”. I tried disabling Direct Stream and Direct Play but that didn’t help - audio still streams as “direct”.
The log does show that the audio is being copied straight over. Normally, when this happens it means that the box in the settings for AC3 is checked. If you’re sure that box is unchecked, I would try checking the AC3 box, saving the settings, and then re-unchecking it just to make sure. And then check to make sure it is saving the setting (By closing the app and rechecking in the settings to make sure it is staying disabled)
@jmckee said:
The log does show that the audio is being copied straight over. Normally, when this happens it means that the box in the settings for AC3 is checked. If you’re sure that box is unchecked, I would try checking the AC3 box, saving the settings, and then re-unchecking it just to make sure. And then check to make sure it is saving the setting (By closing the app and rechecking in the settings to make sure it is staying disabled)
I couldnt find the AC3 checkbox on the Ouya. But after trying again, I found it (General->Device Media Profile). I can confirm that all 3 checkboxes are unchecked (ac3, dd+, dts). I tried checking them, exiting, restarting, and trying playback again, no audio (which may confirm what ive been reading about the ouya not supporting ac3 audio). _ update sorry, I forgot to mention that I also did what you suggested - un-checking, exiting, verifying the setting is un-checked, and trying playback again.)_ So i guess it comes down to: why is my server not transcoding the audio?
