Nvidia Shield Dolby TrueHD playback is borked

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.25.6.5577
Player Version#: 8.31.0.31102

I note that the most recent player update for the Nvidia Shield supposedly improved payback of Dolby TrueHD, however the complete opposite is what you have achieved.

Any MKV with TrueHD, whether playing the TrueHD track or the embedded AC3 track, results in stuttering of the sound and video after a period of time. It is as if buffering is occuring. Both video and audio are direct play so there is no transcoding happening. It has happened on 4K UHD MKVs and 1080p BDs. I am bitstreaming the audio to the attached processor.

Please fix this ASAP. This is a major stuff up by Plex.

17 Likes
2

This is also happening on DVD rips with just AC3 so it is a general Dolby sound format issue not just TrueHD.

3

Mine works fine. Shield Pro 2019 over wired network, and it goes to my receiver. No issues at all.

4

Player version 8.30 works fine, version 8.31 does not. Which version are you using?

5

You should tag this as android-tv-beta since 8.31 is beta only right now

2 Likes
6

Done. Thanks for the tip.

7

I watched the rest of Mission Impossible II tonight using version 8.30 and there were no sound issues at all. 8.31 beta definitely seems to have a problem with Dolby audio.

8

Thanks for this, I’ve been messing about after getting a Dolby Atmos capable sound system recently. Didn’t think the issue was that wide-ranging, at least so far in my case only seems to be coming up with 4K Dolby Vision movies when I switch to the TrueHD Atmos soundtrack. AC3 seems fine. The error I was seeing were small pauses in the video, sometimes imperceptible, but that would then cause the audio to go out of sync. I will see if I can downgrade my Plex app and compare.

9

For me, it would start as a very minor pause in the audio and video but it gradually degrades and gets worse. It’s akin to a memory leak in software.

It would be nice if someone from Plex acknowledged the issue!

1 Like
10

New beta was just released, if anyone has time to test it. Don’t think the fix for this issue made it in, though.

11

Nothing in the release notes relates to Dolby audio bugs being fixed so I’m staying on the release channel for now.

12

Tested again last night with the latest beta - same issue.

13

Thanks for confirming.

15

Thanks for reporting this. I discovered the same issue last night and it was driving me crazy. I was checking all my hardware, rebooting, re-installing Plex, etc with no change. I’ll check what version I’m on tonight but I’m guessing it’s the same beta you are on as symptoms are identical. How do you revert to the non-beta?

16

Same issue here. Guess I will be going back to STABLE again since they can’t seem to stop completely breaking features they shouldn’t even be messing with.

3 Likes
17

Did you ever get around to downgrading.
I went down the same path as you before I saw this thread.

Reinstalled Plex on the Shield, reset the Shield etc…

It’s Plex though. It will either be acknowledged here on the forums in a few more weeks or will never be acknowledged but a fix will roll out at some point.
Usually the latter. Plex do like to have us reinstall stuff for no reason.

18

You need to go the Google Play Store (I used my phone) and remove yourself from the beta channel. Wait a while and then when you go to reinstall Plex on the Shield, you should be offered the release channel.

19

Most likely this. I have never come across a more arrogant company, to be honest!

1 Like
20

It’s honestly why I have sacrificed Atmos.

I’m in the fortunate situation of also owning an ATV4K. I tend to just use Infuse on that nowadays.

It was a rare event firing up the Shield to be honest.
One Plex reinstall and one Shield reset later and I’m straight back to Infuse.

But the lack of acknowledgments from Plex all the time is astonishing.

1 Like
21

I did downgrade, yes. I am a habitual beta tester on the Google Play store and had never had issues with Plex before. Downgraded and the issues I was seeing went away.

1 Like