(Sorry for the duplicate post, but the other thread is incorrectly marked as “answered,” and I don’t want my question to go unnoticed.)
Summary
While watching an ABC Live TV football through my Roku device last night, the game was broadcasting in Spanish.
Discussion
I currently use an HDHomeRun connected to an Xfinity account. I was watching the traditional ABC network channel last night and the show was broadcasting in Spanish when viewing via my Roku device. The audio was in English when viewing through my Windows Media Center setup, so I know it is not an issue with the HDHomeRun or Xfinity service. It is almost as if Plex is automatically enabling the SAP button, but I’m not sure how to change it back to English.
Setup and Situation
Cable: Xfinity cable card
Equipment: HDHomeRun with Roku Ultra
Channel: ABC
Date/Time: 11/18/2017 @ 10pm (USC vs Cal football game)
Observed Behavior: The game was broadcasting in Spanish, but the commercials were English
Attempted Troubleshooting Steps
Confirmed “Prefer audio tracks” is set to English in Plex Media Server > Settings > Server > Languages
Also selected “Automatically select audio and subtitle tracks” in Plex Media Server > Settings > Server > Languages
On the Plex Ultra device, and while watching the game, I opened up the Options menu (by pressing "*’ on the remote) and looked at the “Audio Track” option. There was only one option and that was “Default.”
Same issue. We need to figure out how to troubleshoot this.
Comcast
HDHomerun Prime
Channel - Freeform 881
11/19, but really the last few days.
I have tested this on AppleTV and the web Browser, but simply can’t find a way to set SAP on or off.
With other live TV methods (like Windows Media Center or just a smart TV) this is an SAP setting. Most standard broadcasts come with two audio tracks (English and Spanish) and thus the commercials will be in English. So what we need is to figure out why the SAP flag is being set for some channels/shows and not others.
@dbbowser said:
Most standard broadcasts come with two audio tracks (English and Spanish) and thus the commercials will be in English. So what we need is to figure out why the SAP flag is being set for some channels/shows and not others.
That was the first thing I thought of, so I attempted to access the audio stream option via the Roku menu, but it only has the option of “Default,” and I couldn’t change. I’m going to test out on my Android TV to see if it has the same behavior.
Sounds like you had the issue via web and AppleTV, and I had it with Roku.
@caddyskack said:
Just jumping in here (I made a previous thread about this).
Running an hdhomerun prime and as I type CBS NFL football is in Spanish on my Roku ultra
Edit. Just verified the same channel plays fine on my Nvidia shield through the live channels app
CBS NFL football is in Spanish for me as well. I tried it on three devices and all were in Spanish: Roku Ultra, Android TV, and via the Plex web player (Chrome) - all of these served by Plex. The CBS channel is fine when using Windows Media Center
I can also confirm this: With Comcast cable, in a market where they have converted their channels to h264, some h264 channels play on Roku Live TV with only the Spanish track. Hilariously, in at least one case, it means no audio at all, because the second audio track is blank. (There is seemingly no option to choose your audio track, unlike when you’re playing a regular media file).
When playing the same broadcast on Plex Web, it plays English audio.
I can’t test with my other available devices because (sigh) Plex does not offer Live TV for Plex Media Player.
But so far, this seems specific to the Roku implementation, for whatever reason. Very weird. And unfortunately makes Live TV somewhat useless. This would seem to be a high-priority bug, in theory.
But so far, this seems specific to the Roku implementation, for whatever reason. Very weird. And unfortunately makes Live TV somewhat useless. This would seem to be a high-priority bug, in theory.
So how does one get Plex moderators to respond to these threads and address bugs? I’m fairly new to these forums and I have yet to see a reply to any of my posts. Is there a trick? Who do I need to kiss up to?
Same issue for me, using HDHomeRun Prime tuner playing thru Plex app running on NVIDIA Shield. I’ve only experienced the issue while watching football games, but it has occurred on both CBS and NBC broadcasts. If I switch out of Plex to Live Channels app, or use the HDHomeRun app on a PC, I hear the English broadcast. Sometimes, I can get Plex to reset and play the English audio, but it eventually, switches back to Spanish coming out of a commercial break.
Driving me crazy, too. Happens on the Roku, and LG apps, and PMP for me right now. It has basically made Live TV completely useless. Also occurs in the HDHR Viewer channel. Seems to be a problem on a Plex-wide level. I’m surprised the devs haven’t had to deal with it along the way.
+1 for me as well. I suspect this may actually be something flawed in Roku fetching the stream because I was having this issue using other ways of streaming the HD Homerun Prime on Roku (HDHRFling and older 3rd party Plex channels).
This happens to me when I check Automatically Select audio and subtitle tracks. This is under Settings - Server - Languages. If you Check the Auto Select it seems to select the named English Track, which is actually broadcast in spanish, this is not something that Plex needs to fix, but the broadcasters need to repair this, they are calling the audio feed Espanol 5.1, and in fact the track is in English, and then they call the english track English 2.0 and in fact it is Spanish. I had to uncheck the auto selection and my problem went away, however my shows that I record on these channels, the audio track says it is Spanish, when it is indeed not.
On a side note, if you want to fix the track and keep the recording for extended amounts of time, mkvtools can make this change for you, and rename the track. The broadcasters are the problem here however I believe, this information is pulled from the stream, and not named per Plex. I could be wrong however, I have noticed that the HD Homerun Windows 10 App, names these tracks properly. I am not sure why Plex does this, or where it gets that info from.
@Havok115 said:
this is not something that Plex needs to fix, but the broadcasters need to repair this, they are calling the audio feed Espanol 5.1, and in fact the track is in English, and then they call the english track English 2.0 and in fact it is Spanish.
You’re not wrong that it’s the broadcaster’s problem. However…
Let’s be honest. There’s no way we’ll get the broadcaster to fix it.
Everything else I use, like Windows Media Center, HDHomeRun’s Android app, and NextPVR, are able to figure out the correct English track by default and play it. If they can do it, it’s a reasonable request for Plex as well.
I couldn’t agree more, even the android app is able to get the correct audio track. At the very least the roku version should give you a audio channel selection option for the live stream.
Had a similar issue with the Olympics Open Ceremony. NBC on Xfinity (Using HDHR Prime) was transmitting 2 AC3 channels, one in stereo and the other in 5.1. Both were English. The stereo channel had the SAP for the sight impaired on, so I was getting the extra descriptions of what was going on. Since I was watching it while it was recording, the option to select the audio channel never appeared. Since Plex was transcoding it to the Roku, the Roku only saw one channel as well. I don’t know what the best solution here is? Transmit all channels to the client so the client can switch or, when watching live, Plex needs to ask before starting the stream. Even so, what if I wanted to switch? The client should have a way to tell the server to switch as.
As a side note, once it was finished and added to the library, I was able to select the 5.1 channel before playing it. So, this is just a live playing issue.
I’m also seeing this on NFL games only. It’s driving me crazy.
I have an HDhomerun and Plex. It works fine in English from the Plex apps on my phone and PS4, but both PC’s only play the games in Spanish from Plex web browser app. When I switch it to English, it won’t play at all. Also the HDhomerun app won’t play the games at all either. The PS4 is a good workaround for my one room, but I’m still looking for a workaround for Windows.
