New Sony TV’s CAN pass DTS in the bitstream, however DTS-MA or DTS 7.1 is too much bandwidht for ARC or Optical to pass, so it stutters. Please allow a checkbox to either select 7.1 or 5.1 for audio. Then only pass DTS Core through the audio bitstream. This is a feature in the PC Media Player.
example. If you play DTS 5.1 on a new Sony X950G, it plays just fine in the bitstream. If you play DTS 7.1 since it passes it through, it stutters due to the bandwidth limitations on HDMI ARC or Optical. If there is a checkbox to select 5.1 for audio, vs 7.1, then you can either send the DTS core, or the full DTS-HD over arc/earc based on what the user selects. Or Simply follow what the PC version does, Allow check boxes for your receiver capability ie. DD, DD+, DTS, DTS-MA, D-EAC etc. Then if someone doesn’t have DTS-MA checked it just passes the DTS core along. This will probably fix many smart TV’s not just Sony
Right now it just passes any DTS bitstream through. standard arc will never support DTS-HD, so a simple toggle would solve everything. Alternatively it could be also done at the server level. Allow a 5.1/7.1 or eArc/ARC checkbox, and have the server shoot only the DTS core through the bitstream accordingly. for smart tv’s.
I think any of these fixes will work across Sony, LG and maybe samsung. Please fix this in android-tv plex.
Thanks for the recommendation, but the point was actually for the application to automatically ‘downgrade’ DTS-HD to DTS core, similar to what the Plex Media Player is doing. I have PMP on a mac mini that is connected to my Sony OLED AF8 (which is then connected via ARC to an amp) and when i am watching a MKV with DTS-HD, Plex PMP automatically passes DTS 5.1 and everything plays fine. Same file on the Android TV app is not playing, it has the shuttering case described above. The option recommended by @Jindesan is fair, to give us the option to add in the Android Plex app settings our audio system setup (5.1/7.1 or capability on decoding certain formats) so the app will do the necessary downscaling from DTS-HD -> DTS core.
Would really like to hear if other Android TVs have the same playback issue when they try to watch a DTS HD movie via ARC.
I installed today Kodi in my Sony Android TV + Plex add on, and tried the case above and everything played fine… the app downgraded automatically the DTS HD to DTS core and the file played just fine.
I don’t get how on earth the Plex add-on can do it, the PMP app can do it, and the Plex Android TV app can’t.
The problem is not with the Sony TV, as audio/video is working fine with PMS on my mac mini and Kodi with Plex add-on in the TV… it’s definitely with the Android app and potentially with the handshake with the TV.
Just chiming in that I’m having the same problem on my Sony XBR-65X900E TV. If I manually select a non DTS-HD stream (i.e. AC3 or plain DTS) it will play perfectly. However attempting any DTS-HD or TrueHD will cause the application to throw a generic error message requesting to restart the app/server. My 1-year older Samsung 4K TV handles the down-conversion without issue, granted it’s not Android-based.
Confirmed TV/app/server are on latest versions, no amount of fiddling with TV/app audio settings works (besides manually downgrading the audio stream on every movie).
I understand Android is a broad ecosystem, but OP’s suggestion of a toggle (or better a drop-down/select box on max-audio-level) would fix this very pesky issue.
Thanks for the feedback.
Apparently the problem is the TV and not Plex or any other 3rd party app that uses the ENCODING_DTS_HD API.
Sony cannot properly down convert the DTS HD to DTS Core via HDMI - ARC passthrough
Kodi works, because in the settings we put that DTS HD isn’t supported so it converts the audio.
Back to a point highlighted before that there should be an option in the settings to be able to put the audio setup (5.1 or 7.1) and the supported codecs, so the necessary conversions can take place… similar to PMS settings.
