I just got a new LG 4k tv tonight and am experimenting with the sound options. I have a Bose sound bar plugged into the optical port on the TV.
When I select the external speaker and watch a Bluray movie, I get no sound. DVD’s work fine. When I select internal speaker + external I get sound on the Bluray films.
Is this normal? Is there another setting I should be using to get sound just through the soundbar??
You’re using the Plex app on the LG, correct?
What audio formats are supported by the soundbar?
In the Plex app on the LG, go into the audio settings. You’ll see choices for AC3, EAC3, & DTS. Select only the ones that are compatible with your soundbar. If you do not know what formats are supported by the soundbar, then try selecting only AC3.
Plex should direct play (passthrough) the selected audio formats. Unsupported formats should be transcoded by PMS to a supported format.
NB, avoid transcoding audio for 4k content if at all possible as it will likely cause your playback to buffer and you’ll lose any HDR component to your video. Read this 4k FAQ to learn more.
tl;dr stick with AC3, EAC3, DTS or DTS-HD MA as they’ll play without transcoding. You’ll probably have a better experience connecting the soundbar to your TV’s ARC capable HDMI port, too (so long as your soundbar supports HDMI).
Apparently it does Dolby Digital. I can’t find a lot of info on what formats it supports. I have the Bose Solo 5 soundbar.
When I’m in the Plex app on the LG, I don’t see the app settings. On the Samsung there was a clear option to get to the app settings. Am I missing it somewhere?
Ah, quick search online suggests it’s a 2.0 stereo soundbar with co-ax and optical input. It’ll decode Dolby Digital (and, I would guess, PCM) but has no support for DTS or better.
With an HDMI connected soundbar you’ll get a handshake between the TV set and the sound bar so they both know what channels and formats are supported, and this information can be passed on to the Plex client. There’s none of this with co-ax/optical so you have to configure it all manually. Good luck!
Go into the Plex app settings and ensure you don’t have DTS or EAC3 enabled.
If I may be so bold, running this soundbar with a new 4k TV is kinda like sticking skateboard wheels on a Lamborghini. Your TV deserves better 
And what soundbar would YOU recommend? 
On my B7 OLED: click on user icon / avatar in upper right corner, choose settings, then audio.
I’m biased by the kit I own and use regularly, but I love the Sony HT-RT5 kit. Good (not amazing) sound bar and (importantly for me) wireless surrounds and sub (I have hardwood floors and no easy way to route speaker cables around the rooms). I moved to them from a “proper” AV receiver and a set of Kef Egg speakers. The difference in sound quality was noticeable but a worthwhile trade off for the ease of instalallation and setup.
Bear in mind that, unless you have a very new LG TV with eARC (as opposed to ARC), you won’t get better than DTS output to your sound at from the Plex client on your TV due to hardware limitations. So don’t plan on using and fancy sound bars that support DTS-HD MA, TrueHD or Atmos soundtracks (which most 4K Blurays have). For proper HD audio you’ll need to look at a separate box for running Plex on such as an Nvidia Shield or a HTPC.
I actually got a LG ThinQ 55" UHD…I’ll have to see what the specs are on the HDMI ports…
AFAIK it’s the most recent 2019 models that have eARC.
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