LG WebOS Plex App is, somewhat, broken

Plex Players Smart TVs
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Server Version#: 1.21.1.3876
Player Version#:5.7.1
WebOS Version: 5.2.0

So where do I begin.
I am running my Plex Media Server off of a docker within UnRaid, my newly finished Home Media Server, nothing new with that.
On every device in this house, the App works great, doesn’t matter if it’s the Plex App on my Windows PC, the one u have to download manually, the App on my Mac or the App on my Sony Smart TV. Everything works.
Except the WebOS App on my LG Smart TV. That is whole different story, one that honestly brought me to the point of saying “**** you” ver often in the last days of troubleshooting.

What’s the issue?
Direct Stream and Direct Play are both enabled, as it is standard with this app, also DTS is disabled because of the fact that LG TV’s do not support it these days.
When I play my movie rips, all are in mkv, the audio options work fine, its gets transcoded on the fly, no issues there.
When I try to play Cars 3 as an example, both the ac3 and eac3 audio tracks won’t work. Like, there’s no sound at all. Video works great, Audio doesn’t. DTS transcoded works, direct play eac3 does not. When I disable direct play, eac3 works. Only that it is out of sync with the video. Not good. On the Sony TV, the selected eac3 audio track works fine, no issues there.
On Harry Potter 1, it spits the ac3 track out with no issues, only that the the one I want to hear is not the language I want. Example: It is set to pick the German Audio track by setting, 'cause I’m from Germany and I want to hear the movie in German, but it is not German that you get to hear. In fact the German track is Spanish, while France is German and so on. And that’s on all the Harry Potter movies. Fun Fact: Same account, different TV, it picks the German Track as well and it is German, with no issues at all. So that’s that.
I do not know what is going on there but at this point, I’m just mad. Everything works on all other Platforms, only on the LG it does not. Not in a single way. Wrong Audio tracks, no sound at all, even incorrect information in the dashboard of Plex, this TV cannot play VC1 yet it direct plays to it like nothing’s wrong, different movie it transcodes it.

I can understand that not all things work but this? Is just a big, bad **** up, in a way that I am questioning if they even have Q&A testers.

Anyway if anyone has similar issues or different/same or has any idea, pls feel free to share them. It’s not like I have enough time for that;)

Cheers

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Could you please add your TV model as my LG does not exhibit any issue with ac3 or eac3. I have it enabled in my Plex client settings /Audio

Also the latest WebOS update 5.7.1 should have rectified your Language track

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LG49NANO867NA, is the TV model.

I’ve only seen this issue with the Plex app. So yeah.

It’s all up to date, and as said, everything is tested at least to my knowledge/imagination

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I know this is not what you want to hear and it is completely reasonable to expect more from these companies but - using the smart tv app on any platform is inviting headache. They are built for the lowest common denominator. If you want to stick to it I can respect that, otherwise any of the popular sticks/boxes will give you a better experience.

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I know this, thing is: I except that it, at least, works with the codec that’s on the box/supported. I mean, ac3/eac3 works natively on the TV but not with the App? Cmon.

But yeah, already looked for something I can plug in and use it as a Plex player. Even tho its not what I wanted, cause the App for the TV has a reason after all

1 Like
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Your TV should work with AC3 / Dolby Digital and EAC-3 / Dolby Digital plus.

I have a LG TV LG65 OLEDB8 that has the same processor, I would now have a look at your TV sound settings, whilst watching a title that does not work.

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I know that it should work.

Thing is: When Direct Play is on, ac3/eac3 does not work. If it’s off, it works with ac3/eac3.
I have tested every single sound setting, there’s no difference in any of them. There’s no sound coming out of the TV, there’s only coming one out of it if direct play is off. but that causes av sync issues.

Fun Fact btw: If I hook up a HDD to the TV, with the same movie on it, it plays the ac3/eac3 track without any issues. Thru Plex, there’s no sound.

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Try not checking Disabling Video Transcoding in your PMS Settings/Transcoder.

Then click on your Library’s Vertical Ellipsis ⋮ and select Manage Library / Analyse

@markus101 any ideas

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It was never checked.

does not make a difference. still no audio with direct play, without there’s audio

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Have you tried disabling E-AC3 in Plex’s audio settings? Does that make a difference in playback?
Have you tried selecting the AC3 audio track as well?
Are you using the TV’s internal speakers or a sound bar/home theater system?
If you leave the preview app (from the user menu) are you able to reproduce either or both of these issues?

While it may have the same processor it’s possible they’ve disabled or limited functionality in it.

Does that app let you select the specific audio track?

Please create a sample file from that video, confirm it reproduces the issue and then upload it/link it here so we can investigate this issue further.

I understand you’re frustrated, but this attitude/commentary is not needed, helpful or appreciated. There are way too many variables to test every single combination, different webOS versions, different models having different functionality, different video files; we test a lot of those combinations, but can’t test every combination including the unknowns.

1 Like
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First of all: I know it’s not your fault, I just had very bad mood after 3 days of troubleshooting after a lot of other bad days, so sorry for that.

On to the Topic, in order:
Have I tried disabling E-AC3 in the settings? Yes. made a difference? No, still no audio.
Have I tried selecting the AC3 audio as well? Yes. Did not work either.
Internal speakers.
Both on the early access and on the old version of the app, there’s no sound with AC3/E-AC3. Unless, as said before, I disable Direct Play then there’s sound but with the draw back of A/V Sync issues.

The built in media player of the LG TV let’s me only select the Dolby tracks, which makes sense. It is letting me select both the AC3 and E-AC3 tracks and they work. The same tracks thru Plex won’t work.

The issue with Harry Potter is not really an audio issue, more like an issue that Plex on the LG TV doesn’t plays what it says when it comes to audio with this specific Movie. But it also appeared on the first 3 Harry Potters so don’t know.

What makes me a bit confused it the fact that with Direct Play disabled, it plays those audio tracks. If I go to the informations page, Plex tells me that it is changing from MKV to MPEGTS. With Direct Play enabled, it direct plays MKV with no sound. So maybe there’s an issue, idk.

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Is there an updated app for LG? The latest one offered by the LG app store…disabled home screen customizations.

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I have, when it comes to my TV, the latest App

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Maybe this is something that can help you trying to figure out what’s the issue: MKV Direct Play on this TV does not work with AC3/E-AC3. When I disable Direct Play, it changes the Container from MKV to MPEGTS, which is suppose to be that way if you know Plex. Then it works with playing back AC3/E-AC3 but only E-AC3 is in sync, AC3 is not, but it’s also not very responsive too. Like Pause/Playing causes it to be out of sync and loading itself to death, a simple skipping back 10 secs fixes it, just to tell. I was just wondering if maybe MKV playback issues on WebOS may cause this issue with the latest Plex app?

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There is an issue with the audio track selection, a sample will help us troubleshoot what that issue is (we’ve made changes to this behaviour based on how sample files are operating).

Does this happen with all files with AC3 and/or E-AC3?
Could you create a sample of this file as well?
In generally we’ve seen the same behaviour between the webOS build in video player and Plex, but there could be differences.

It doesn’t sound like this particular issue is related to the version of the Plex app as it also affects the old app.

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  1. Well that’s good to know. What kind of sample to you need? A 5 min clip from the movie, so u can try it out on your end?

  2. On the build in LG Media player, ALL files work. With Plex, only a couple in my case. Ocean’s 12 for example does work, it is ac3 audio track that works. every other does not.
    Again, what kind of sample should I provide?
    To my side, there is a difference^^

  3. Well yeah I know this, since both the new and the old app does not work here with ac3/e-ac3. But I was just guessing that it could may be the container and therefore it is a container-direct play-WebOS issue? Who knows, was just thinking about it

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2-5 minutes is great, we have a support article on how to create them:

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While I was figuring out how to the sample clips, I noticed something:

I have recorded multiple movies from TV, and when I checked their Audio track, it is ac3, so Dolby Digital. The Container is a .ts, so it direct plays with the TV without any issue.

Could it be the case, that for some odd reason, MKV with AC3/E-AC3 does not work with LG TV’s for some reason?
cause TS does, without any issues, mkv does not.

Quick question? How do I upload them here?

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It could be, though TS files are generally more problematic from what I’ve seen recently. Could be a version specific issue or an issue with certain files.

Cloud storage (gdrive, dropbox, etc), link them here or DM me links to grab them.

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Could be the case, could be not the case. From what I’ve seen here, with this LG TV, TS files are no issues at all.

It’s uploading, I will send you the link when it’s done.
And btw, i tested the Sample I made with Plex, also, and they have the same issues. On Harry Potter the German audio track is not the German audio track and on Cars 3, there’s no audio at all thru Plex, with VLC on my MacBook there’s audio. Just to clarify