I’ve fixed this problem for myself by going into my chromecast settings (using google home on my iphone) and changing the audio settings to always stereo. Either way the volume is still lower then any other app I have. There should be an option to force stereo transcoding at any quality within plex. Threads with this many posts should be a hint to plex developers to create a feature to solve this problem. I still don’t understand why my transcodes and stereo audio are so quiet compared to other apps. Please look to make high volume the default settings for all plex casts. I shouldn’t need to edit xml files to get reasonable volume. We can always turn it down…
I’ve tried to use Plex now on my parents’ AppleTV 4k, on my mom’s AppleTV 1080p and last night on the Roku at an AirBNB I was visiting.
In each case, I’ve had to give up because I couldn’t watch my content due to the low volume issue. It’s always a 5.1-only original file (with no pre-downmixed stereo fallback tracks) that I’m trying to play.
I don’t know how to pull logs from these players, but it’s really frustrating to want to watch a movie or TV show and just be flat-out unable to because I can’t hear dialogue, even with everything cranked up.
Please, Plex folks. I want to love this software, I bought the dang lifetime pass even. It’s just failing every time I want to actually use it for what it’s for.
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After reading this thread I’m going to try the switch to Jellyfin. I’ve paid for Plex Pass some years. I just bought Plex Android. This goes in an Android head unit in a convertible. At 100% volume with the top up, I can’t hear voices at highway speed. The radio and YouTube app work fine at 30% volume.
It makes sense that the developer wants logs to fix it. If I have to take the time to get logs off the Porsche in my garage, I’ll just fork the Android client and fix it myself. Or I’ll look for an open source alternative.
Plex seems to be stuck with a management / product problem on this one. They have a product issue. It’s obvious. Developers are punting by asking for more logs or to make a feature request. This is a good way to CYA and do what your agile team lead wants done. I do it at work too.
If I were a manager or product owner at Plex I would realize there is a larger “issue” that is a broader bug in stereo audio. You can’t let customers fix it by just adding buttons. Adding a button is the last thing you should do. You should just “make it work” like YouTube.
I’m not sure how. I don’t know DSP. But I’d prioritize general audio output issues when converting to stereo.
In any large and poorly funded company, this will get punted to the next epic or whatever. Depending on the day it might get voted on in 6 months to look at. Might make it past QA late 2021. Hope it does.
We will try JellyFin at my house this morning. Hope Plex can eventually fix their quality issue. Best of luck!
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@ChuckPa @sixones I’m running Roku devices through the home, including the Hisense Roku TV and yup, Audio on certain files is very quiet, even the normal stereo tracks on movies are quiet to.
It’s been a bug bear for a while now, one movement after an update of the player it’s great, but most updates it just, let’s say, not even an hearing aid will help.
All my Roku devices are running the latest preview and the server is a Ubuntu MATE powered one running the latest beta of the PMS. Video card is a Quadro P2200 and CPU is an i7-3770 with 16Gb RAM soon to be upgraded to 32Gb!
I’m not one for leaving a service because of what seems an issue that can be solved, especially being a Lifetime pass holder, I would rather help solve this issue once and for all, but after reading through this thread, I’m thinking that the Dev’s are not bothered?
Can we do the right thing and get what seems a regression fixed?
Dave
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Thought I was missing something when I couldn’t find the settings to boost the audio.
This needs to be addressed, as it is very annoying having to raise the volume in Windows to extreme levels just to hear the audio output from Plex.
Bump for fixing.
Video LAN Client seems to handle this much better by enabling the user to substantially boost audio levels. I’ve never had a problem with audio levels with VLC. So clearly Plex has a software issue that can and should be fixed.
Bump for following and can provide logs if someone tells me what they need.
Roku 4K streaming stick here hooked up to new, but inexpensive, LG 2-channel TV. Most of my files are AAC/5.1. Lots of them play with low volume.
Netflix/Prime/HBO/etc all work well around volume 10-15 on this TV.
Plex more often not have to ratchet up to 40, 50 or even 60+
Yup. Same issue over multiple devices and platforms. I figured, I love this app and it’s free but I’m near heart attack levels when I get an email notification that’s 3x louder than the volume on Plex. Because on this low volume, I need to CRANK the dial and constantly fiddle with it during quiet/loud moments when viewing. Love the app, kinda hate the sound.
Bump for new Shield owner. I didn’t notice low volume before on the TV and my Roku, maybe I had to turn it up but not a lot. But now that I’m using my Shield and using BT earbuds/phones at times, I have to turn the BT volume to like 80,85%.
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So yeah, I’ve been using Plex ever since it forked from XBMC. And it has been an issue since XBMC. It is the ONLY thing that people have discussed over and over and over and none of the devs are fixing this. It has even become worse over the years as well. Devs, we urge you to take this issue seriously and give it a high priority status and go out and fix it!!
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I don’t know why it hasn’t been mentioned before, but I just found the boost option in the app… not the server. Go to settings then scroll down to “audio boost”. It used to be on the server, but now appears to be controlled via the app.
I’ve got this issue on an Android-based projector. Every other app sounds great, but even with a beefy external speaker I end up struggling to hear dialogue, or anything really, even with “huge” audio boost.
My “solution” has been to either watch in another app, which isn’t really a solution, or to quickly run inside after we’ve chosen a movie and literally use a script I found to downmix 5.1 to stereo and add a second track to the video file.
The easiest solution to this, and I think it would take nearly zero dev time, would be to allow an option to force downmix audio to stereo when converting.
Thanks for the suggestion wegentryjr. Unfortunately, the problem that I think most of us are having is more complicated than just boosting the volume across the board. For a lot of us, the issue is that the Plex AC3 (Dolby) software decoder is not downmixing to stereo even when connected to some stereo devices (for example, directly to a stereo tv). So Plex ends up sending 5.1 PCM to a stereo television. The TV can only play the left and right channels (usually containing sound effects and background music) when the main dialog is almost entirely on the center channel which is not being heard. Boosting the volume by a huge amount might allow the dialog to be heard slightly on the left and right channels but will result in cracks in our walls when the sound effects kick in. There seems to be something like this mentioned in the latest beta version. So maybe there is hope that this will finally be addressed.
The software AC3 decoder can downmix to stereo fine as I have one Android TV Box that works fine but another TV Box where Plex always sends 5.1 PCM to the same TV no matter what I do. The most likely reason is either that the box’s firmware is not returning the correct audio capabilities or Plex is not querying the audio capabilities correctly (perhaps there is more than one api for doing this and Plex is using a newer one that is not supported by boxes running older versions of Android).
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the boost option is only available on select devices and also is mostly junk
Bumping for a fix. I’m using Chrome with a 2.1 speakers. 5.1 source audio is low.
What I do not understand is if I play using the plex app on my tv all of the audio between shows and movies seems to have a similar and normal level. If I play the exact same things via my web browser on my tv (pc is hooked to my main tv.) I have certain shows that are super quiet and I have to crank the tv up for 30 when most shows on plex and regular tv are in the 12 to 18 range.
So clearly this is not something having to do with the file itself if it was the audio would be low for a specific episode on both ways of viewing.
Ditto if I direct play a file it is fine. As soon as a transcode is involved the audio volume drops to about 1/4th. I transcode because some TV’s in the house are not 4k and my QNAP can do it via hardware. I believe this needs to be fixed server level.
I came here after searching why Plex is so much quieter than anything else on my Fire Stick. I just have it plugged into my TV and I need to crank the volume right up just for Plex. And I really need to remember to lower it before running any other app or going back to the TV otherwise I get blasted over the back of my sofa. What can I do to make Plex louder? I’ll send logs or whatever but how do I get them and where do I send them? I’m just a dumb user.
*Bump
Android TV and Windows PC remote players both have very quiet audio issues. Tried unticking “normalize multi-channel audio” but this hasn’t fixed the issue.
There needs to be an option to boost it or something. There is hardly any Audio settings I can change in relation to this issue.
Has Plex decided to look at this issue yet?
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