Hello, going to try posting this here because I am now fairly sure that my problem is not with the server but with the client or device.
My setup is that I have an Nvidia Shield TV and an Xbox One connected to an HDMI audio splitter (via HDMI). The splitter then connects to my TV via HDMI, and to my sound bar via optical (my TV doesn’t have ARC). My sound bar only supports AC3 audio and PCM 2.0, and so I have both my Xbox One and Shield TV set to output AC3 only. This setup (while granted not the best it could be, but it’s what I’ve got) works fine for all streaming apps/games/etc. Except for Plex on the Shield TV.
I have some files with non-AC3 audio formats that I play with Plex (the Plex server is the Shield TV). Unfortunately, on the Shield TV when I play these files with the Plex client there are audio channels missing. The most obvious way I know this is that nearly all dialogue will be completely absent.
My initial thought was that Plex was directly outputting the non-AC3 format without transcoding, but on second thought that didn’t make sense as if (for example) AAC audio was being sent to my speakers then I shouldn’t be getting any sound at all, right? But that isn’t what happening. My current best guess - though I am far from an expert on audio formats - is that somehow the non-AC3 audio is being converted to 5.1 PCM. Since my setup can only handle 2.0 PCM, it would make sense that I get some sound but that the extra channels would be missing.
The reason why I don’t think the problem is with the Plex server on my Shield TV is that I have also installed the Plex client on my Xbox One. On the Xbox, if I play the exact same files I get the full audio output. Everything works perfectly. While I could continue to do this, playing files over my network is an inferior solution to the local playback on my Shield TV, and I would prefer to figure out what’s causing the audio output problems on the Shield.
I have tried changing around all audio settings that I can think of, both in Plex on the Shield and also in the Shield’s audio settings. I have the surround sound settings manually set to AC3 only, and I have the “convert stereo audio to 5.1 PCM” option turned off.
I am at a loss for why Plex on the Xbox works perfectly but not on the Shield. Both devices are set to output AC3 audio, so I would expect that non-AC3 formats would either be transcoded to AC3 or at worst converted to stereo. Whichever it is, that is happening on the Xbox but not on the Shield.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
