I have some multichannel music that I am wanting to add to my music collection, but I am wondering what the best way to go about it is.
Can Plex handle multichannel FLAC files or is there better format to use?
Will all players support it?
I have a Music Card that appears to have video files (MT2S) with the audio tracks (DTS-MA). Some of the Blu-Rays I have also have the scores included in surround as separate files. I have been working on ripping the Alein score to multichannel FLAC.
So, I started the Apple TV thread and I can only speak to that and to what I’ve been told over the years. Yes you heard that right, “years”. Multi-channel music for ATV broke around May of 2019. My understanding was that Plex wants to build one engine to support all of the devices out there. It will be 3 years in May that it has been on their to-do list. I have been assured that it is still on the list, but there is no ETA as to when it will be available. We all stopped holding our breath some time ago. The only option, besides using another software vendor, is to convert your music into MKV files (video files) and playing the music like it is a movie. There are no other options; at least for the Apple TV. Good luck.
On the positive side, Plex is pretty capable when it comes to understanding multi-channel formats. I have 5.1 FLAC files and even 5.1 DTS encoded files. Plex will play those, but I found most Plex clients will just output stereo instead of playing multi-channel (i.e. a downmix from 5.1 to 2 channels).
The one client that works for me is the Windows desktop client: I have a media PC hooked up to my AV receiver via HDMI. And it will pass the 5.1 FLAC files to the receiver as PCM at the full resolution, and it will even pass the 5.1 DTS files directly to the receiver which is then decoding it.
On the other hand, the Plex client on an Amazon fire tv cube (connected to the same receiver) won’t do that.
I am currently working on my theater and my plan is to have my plex server connected directly to the receiver, so I will be using the desktop client. I am also using AppleTVs for the rest of the TVs in the house so having them work would be nice, but I imagine my primary listening will be in the theater.
Markus, when you say “Plex is pretty capable when it comes to understanding multi-channel formats” - does this also apply to the music library? Is this where you have yours? I wasn’t sure if there was some limitation based on the collection type.
Yes, I’m keeping my multi-channel albums in the music library with everything else. I have created a collection inside the music library, which has all the multi-channel albums in it. That way I can easily get to them.
I have now also been able to try out multichannel music playback on the Xbox Plex client. This is an Xbox series X connected to a 5.1.4 channel soundbar via hdmi:
my 5.1 FLAC files play without problem. Though the 5.1 DTS files come out as white noise.
I guess this confirms that 5.1 FLAC is a decent choice for multichannel music with Plex. There is more than one Plex client able to play this format correctly (at the minimum Windows and Xbox), though it won’t work on all clients (e.g. Amazon fire tv).
