What version are you running of Kodi?
On my Shield and PMS it is not showing that it is transcoding so they may have swapped one problem for another. Either way the problem is still not solved on Quad or Surround (5.1 or greater) FLAC files.
I Attempted to play the same files I tried from the Shield TV trough the Plex App on my iOS device (and with choosing the Shield TV as the player) and got the following error
"Something went wrong - Error code: S9009 (Manifest)
I played a MKV file with a 7.1 multi-channel FLAC audio track that I converted from DTS-HD MA using MakeMKV in both the Plex app and the Plex plugin for the Kodi app on my new Shield that is completely updated. For both of them my Yamaha receiver shows 7.1 channels of sound. Is that not an accurate test?
Is there a reference clip that I can download that isnāt working for some people that I could test in my setup?
I can send you one of the files in question. But every multichannel FLAC file I own acts the same. They are from multiple sources. What program did you use to convert to FLAC with? I have many movies I could test with etc.
FYI after testing the same files that donāt play correctly in Plex, I tested EMBY and it is able to play these files just fine.
The files I am using were generated with Foobar
foobar2000 1.3 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
Analyzed: Donald Fagen / The Nightfly (2011 Japan Hybrid SACD)
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
DR17 -0.67 dB -21.44 dB 6:05 01-I.G.Y.
DR16 -0.01 dB -21.86 dB 3:50 02-Green Flower Street
DR16 -0.26 dB -21.69 dB 5:39 03-Ruby Raby
DR14 -0.60 dB -20.81 dB 3:50 04-Maxine
DR15 -0.35 dB -21.66 dB 6:22 05-New Frontier
DR16 -0.56 dB -20.82 dB 5:46 06-The Nightfly
DR17 -0.14 dB -22.87 dB 4:51 07-The Goodbye Look
DR16 -0.09 dB -22.11 dB 2:41 08-Walk Between Raindrops
Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR16
Samplerate: 88200 Hz
Channels: 6
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 7233 kbps
Codec: FLAC
Any way on the shield to see what it is outputting? My Yamaha says 7.1 channels but not much more than that.
I can confirm that 5.1 FLAC files are still not outputted properly, despite working just fine in Emby and PlexForKodi. In regular plex they still show 2.0 output.
Plex for Android on shield has an option to show info for what is actively playing. Thats about the best until plex includes a real info option that shows all of the detail.
I made a file with a FLAC trac that speaks through each of the channels, played it on my Shield through the Plex app (not Kodi) and heard it through each of the speakers, including the sub. It is 15s of a movie with the DTS-HD MA transcoded to 7.1 FLAC and a second audio track with the 7.1 FLAC spoken tracks I described above: 7.1_flac_test.mkv
try doing it in FLAC format instead of MKV
Ah, I misunderstood your problem. Sorry about that. But I can confirm the original issue in this thread is now working in the official Plex app for Shield. Edit: original issue not fixed, other issues brought up in thread are confirmed working (audio FLAC tracks in video files)
when you say āthe original issue is now workingāā¦ i just want to make it clear that the original issue is not fixed. Multichannel FLAC (files) are still outputted as 2.0, despite working fine in Emby and PlexForKodi
Sorry, there was a lot of talk in this thread about FLAC tracks in video files. That is what I mean. That I can confirm it is working when there is multi-channel FLAC audio tracks in audio/video files (at least MKVs).
This has been driving me nutsāglad I am not the only one. What I wanted to do was to set up the Nvidia Shield as the full-time server (instead of my computer). I also have an AppleTV. On the Nvidia Shield, the FLAC multichannel files only play in stereo, on the AppleTV it plays as 5.1 audio files. I would be okay with the AppleTV being the main point of playing media on my TV/Stereo, but the ripped videos (in MKV format) lose quality on the AppleTV, where as one the Shield they look like an exact match in both video and audio.
I canāt seem to get a solution that works for both audio and video on a single platform. Uggghhh.
They actually are worse than just playing in Stereo. Downmixing to stereo would at least be graceful. What is actually happening is that Plex is recognizing that the files are indeed greater than 2 channels, but instead of playing the 4 or 6 channel FLAC, either the Plex server end or the Plex client on the Shield TV is only playing the left and right tracks. Everything else is discarded but NOT downmixed. Perfect example of this is The Pink Floyd track āMoneyā on Dark Side of the moon which is a 6 track FLAC rip from my SACD. On Emby it plays the track perfectly but on PLEX for the Shield TV its super obvious that only the Cash Register sounds from the left and right channel. Obviously the rest of the song is played incorrectly as well but that opening cash register makes it very painfully clear what is happening.
HEY PLEX!!! CARE TO RESPOND AT ALL? THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER A YEAR NOW!!!
AND TO BE CRYSTAL CLEAR THIS WORKS ON EMBY AND THE KODI CLIENTS FOR AT LEAST 6 MONTHS OR A YEAR IN THE CASE OF EMBY!!! IF THEY CAN GET IT WORKING WHY CANT YOU???
No matter how confusing the thread may be. It has been going on Since August 2016. Any intelligent (not referring to you natethelen) person who slowly reads what people have posted here and takes time to confirm what is going on with those of us who are willing to work with them would easily get to the bottom of the problem (or at the very least be able to recreate what we are referring to). But obviously nobody at Plex even pays attention to these posts or maybe the entire forum since when I first experienced this problem in January I did a simple search and found at least three other threads about the same issue.
it is completely pathetic that this problem has been going on this long unaddressed. Both Kodi and Emby play these files as they are expected too. I am a life time rubber and I regret doing so after seeing that they spend timer and money on ad time on podcasts but apparently zero on scanning the forums or coming up with a better plan for support.
To anybody who even cares at this point. The Apple TV version of Plex does not have this problem. So maybe whoever is responsible for fixing issues may want to look into that.
Before the last update, my ATV4K played multichannel FLACs just fine but now has same problems as you describe with Shield. Confirmed itās a Plex issue since I can still stream multichannel/Atmos from Netflix and also 6 channel Flac using MrMC via SMB share.
Just to confirm, from what I understand
5.1 FLAC audio-only on PLEX with no add-ons will convert to 2-channel AAC on the Shield and thereās nothing I can do about it if Iām unwilling to add on new hardware or software except wait for PLEX to fix it? Or is it nVidia?
TIA for keeping it simple.
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The problem is on Plexās side, since it seems to work perfectly fine in Emby and Kodi
