Plex, 4KTV and soundbar dolby Atmos

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Hi everybody!
I have a Plex server with 4k video / dolby True HD files on it.
My setup:

  • Plex server on PC
  • Plex Player app on smart TV (UA65RU71)
  • SmartTV connected to local network via RJ45
  • Soundbar, dolby Atmos compatible, connected to smart TV using eArc.

I am aware that my 4KTV cannot decode natively Dolby TrueHD codec but the TV is connected to a soundbar who can decode the bitstream.
My TV is able to passthrough the audio to the soundbar, but Plex doesn’t detect it and consider my TV not compatible. This leads to make Plex transcode the audio.

My question is the following: Can I make Plex send a DolbyTrueHD track to my TV (Which is not compatible) without transcoding it? And tell Plex that the receiver is a passthrough

Thank you very much for your help.
Alex

2

No.

No TV supports passthrough for TrueHD audio from a TV based app to a HDMI-eARC attached soundbar/receiver. It is a TV manufacturer restriction.

According to rtings.com, your TV does not support HDMI-eARC. Therefore, it cannot pass lossless audio such as TrueHD or DTS-HD MA to attached audio equipment. See Samsung RU7100 review, search for “passthrough”.

If you want TrueHD + Atmos audio:

  1. Verify your soundbar supports TrueHD + Atmos audio. Many say they support “Atmos,” but support only Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos, the type used by streaming services such as Netflix.

  2. Verify your soundbar has an HDMI input.

  3. Acquire a Nvidia Shield Pro and connect it to the HDMI input of the soundbar.

3

Hi !
Thanks for your answer, this is exactly what I needed to know.
Hum I’m quite confused about the eARC compatibility. I’m 100% sure that the OS of the TV is mentioning “eARC” on the settings. Anyway, I just check at the datasheet and it seem that you are right. :confused:
OK so my only solution is to acquire a player.
I’ve read on other forum that the Nvidia Shield Pro was the best on the market. Can you confirm this shield can handle 4k video + dolby trueHD easily?

Again, thank you very much.
Alex

4

My setup:

Nvidia Shield Pro (2015 model) <–HDMI–> Denon AVR-X4300H <–HDMI-ARC–> LG B7

The Shield bitstreams all Dolby and DTS audio formats, including TrueHD + Atmos and DTS:X. AAC is sent as PCM, since the Denon does not support AAC bitstreams. The conversion to PCM is lossless, so there is no audio quality problems.

4K HDR10 is not a problem. The current Shield, released in 2019, also supports Dolby Vision (FYI, Samsung TVs do not support Dolby Vision).

5

Thank you very much :slight_smile:

6

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