So i’m considering getting either a samsung Q75r or a Q80r 55 - 65inch. Now i’ve done some googling and it looks like both series does indeed have the plex app. My concern is that, is the audio passthrough using the plex app on samsung TVs any good?
At the moment I have a receiver capable of dolby truehd and dts-HD master audio and have it plugged into a windows pc via hdmi. The problem is the pc isn’t that great for HDR content as it only has a gtx1050 in it.
So if i were to buy a Q75r or Q80r and install the plex app, will it be possible to have it working with dolby truehd, dts-hdma and HDR10(hdr10+ if possible)?
No. You will want to purchase a Nvidia Shield Pro (2019) and connect it to your receiver via HDMI: Shield <–HDMI–> Receiver <–HDMI–> TV
Notes:
The Shield Pro supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. HDR10+ is not listed on the spec sheet.
There are multiple threads reporting problems with the Shield non-Pro/tube model. Suggest you avoid the non-Pro model for now. Search for “Shield tube” to see the threads.
The pre-2019 Shields support HDR10, but not Dolby Vision. You may be able to find one on eBay or similar sites.
Reasoning:
Samsung TVs do not support TrueHD or dts/dts-HD MA audio. Playing either of those using the TV’s Plex app will result in an audio transcode.
HDMI-ARC does not have the bandwidth to pass lossless audio streams such as TrueHD and dts-HD MA.
HDMI-eARC does have the bandwidth to pass lossless audio. However, a) both TV and receiver must support eARC; and b) TV apps seem to be restricted and unable to pass lossless audio. There are no reports of TV apps with the ability to pass lossless audio. That capability seems restricted to external devices attached to the TV’s HDMI ports.
Subtitles also come into play. Enabling subtitles may force a video transcode, which kills HDR playback in Plex. The Shield has less limitations than the SmartTV apps.
The Plex Smart TV apps do not support PGS or VOBSUB (image based) subtitles. Enabling either during playback results in a video transcode.
SRT subtitles will direct play in the SmartTV app. However, if the audio is transcoding, enabling SRT subtitles results in a video transcode.
The Plex AndroidTV app on the Shield will direct play PGS, VOBSUB, and SRT subtitles.
However, if the audio is transcoding, enabling SRT subtitles forces a video transcode.
Yes, since your receiver supports TrueHD and dts-HD MA.
Details:
If the audio is direct playing or direct streaming, then the Shield will play PGS, VOBSUB, and SRT subtitles directly, without forcing a video transcode.
If the audio is transcoding, and you enable subtitles of any type, it forces a video transcode by the Plex Media Server. Plex does this to keep the video, audio, and subtitles in sync.
ASS subtitles: ASS subtitles are text based, and may contain position, font, size, color, etc information. To the best of my knowledge, the Plex client on the Shield treats ASS subtitles the same as PGS and VOBSUB subtitles. Translation: I’m 90% sure that is true based on other threads I’ve read. However, I’ve no ASS subtitles in my own libraries, so cannot personally verify.
