Server Version#: 1.19.5.3112
Player Version#: 8.5.1.19778
Plex used to direct play AC3 content just fine, but now it says it’s transcoding because AC-3 is not supported by the device. But in Audio and Video it would say Copy (AC3) and Copy(H.264) respectavely. So first off does that mean nothing is being transcoded after all? Or is something being transcoded for no reason?
The transcoding messages are not always clear. It’s possible it’s actually “AC3 with X channels is not supported in this specific container”. If you can provide the logs from the app after recreating, we can see what’s going on. Doing it from a fresh start of the app would also help.
Logs.zip (79.2 KB)
This is the first time I uploaded logs so hopefully I did it correctly lol. I made sure to turn off the server and on and force closed the app.
It also appears VC-1 Playback is broken in the new 8.2 release. I have reported it on the Nvidia forums hopefully there will be a patch soon to fix these player issues.
Update: After playing around a bit I got my VC1 direct playing by disabling passthrough in Plex and setting the audio settings on the shield to auto.
Wrong logs. I need the client logs. Android, Android TV, Fire TV Logs | Plex Support
I did see something in the log you did provide. It was suggested to me that you may have disabled the new player. Please double check.
logs.txt (62.6 KB)
Also I am using the new video player.
That does say AC3 is not supported without further details. I don’t see the audio detection info in your log. Can you force close the Plex client, restart it, and play the file again? Get ma a new log.
new logs.txt (66.8 KB)
Forgot to mention that playback info says it’s transcoding, but plex dashboard says both audio and video are direct stream.
I’m still not seeing the detection being logged. Did you force stop the app?
Can you try again? Don’t play anything. Just load the app and let it sit on the home page for about 2 minutes, then grab the log.
new logs.txt (39.2 KB)
I did force stop and restarted the Shield. Maybe it’ll show it now?
Ok. Worked this time.
08-27 11:38:40.933 i: [MediaCodecCaps] Not support: audio/ac3
Strange. It does indicate AC3 is not supported, yet it was able to play after remuxing the file, which makes no sense. I’ll need to check more deeply into your logs to see what’s going on. I’ll have to get back to you.
Ok thank you for your time and help!
Can confirm this bug too… AC3 and DTS completely busted when Audio Pass-though is set to disabled…
Cannot even use Plex on now on one of my Shields till this is fixed 
Using
Plex Media Server 1.20.1.3252
Plex for Android 8.5.1
So one thing I noticed—on my TV sound settings----I switched from PCM to BITSTREAM and the audio passthrough works…Not sure what changed with PCM and the new 8.2 upgrade but it’s a workaround here.
I can confirm this bug with the new nvidia 8.2 update. Audio passthrough is completely broken. I’m running the following:
Server version#: 1.20.1.3252
Player version#: 8.6.0.20028-beta
Hopefully this gets fixed soon as I no longer have surround sound with my sonos setup.
Any fixes in the works? Can’t really downgrade a firmware 
I noticed the same problem last night. Since Shield Experience update 8.2, AC3 and DTS 5.1 audio formats are no longer played directly.
PLEX displays a message to me that these formats are not supported by the Nvidia Shield TV. Before this update, these audio formats were played directly without problems.
My shield 2017 server is still 1.19… Have they pulled the 1.20 server release?
It doesn’t appear to be a plex issue but an nvidia one with the shield experience 8.2 update. If you haven’t updated your shield to that i’d wait until this is fixed.
