Plex + ATV 4K 2022 Dolby Atmos (DD+) not working at all

Plex Players Streaming Devices
,
1

TvOS#: 17.2 (21K5348f)
Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 8.28 (7384)

LG G2 Audio Passtrought / eArc / Bitstream
LG Soundbar Atmos with eArc
The Apple TV is plugged on the eARC hdmi on the TV

My issue : DD+ Atmos content is not recognized on the ATV’s plex app. To be very clear, I don’t try to play DTS-X or DolbyTrueHD Atmos, I know perfectly that can’t work except in Infuse App.

Here a sample with a random Atmos movie :

  • Codec EAC3
  • Chaînes 6
  • Bitrate 768 kbps
  • Langue Anglais
  • Language Tag en
  • Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
  • Titre ENG VO : DDP 5.1 Atmos
  • Display Title Anglais (EAC3 5.1)
  • Extended Display Title ENG VO : DDP 5.1 Atmos (Anglais EAC3)

And a photo with player debug on plex

image
image957×677 50.7 KB

<Media id="3416" duration="6088000" bitrate="8231" width="3840" height="2076" aspectRatio="1.85" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="hevc" videoResolution="4k" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="main 10">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="4024" key="/library/parts/4024/1699810883/file.mkv" duration="6088000" file="/movies/Elemental (2023) [imdb-tt15789038]/Elemental (2023) [Bluray-2160p].mkv" size="6263652894" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="13532,12806,11047,9533,9150,9036,9008,9008" videoProfile="main 10">
<Stream id="11535" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="8231" DOVIBLCompatID="1" DOVIBLPresent="1" DOVIELPresent="0" DOVILevel="6" DOVIPresent="1" DOVIProfile="8" DOVIRPUPresent="1" DOVIVersion="1.0" bitDepth="10" chromaLocation="topleft" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="2080" codedWidth="3840" colorPrimaries="bt2020" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt2020nc" colorTrc="smpte2084" frameRate="23.976" height="2076" level="153" profile="main 10" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="11919,11194,9443,7926,7515,7414,7414,7414" width="3840" displayTitle="4K DoVi/HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)" extendedDisplayTitle="4K DoVi/HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11536" streamType="2" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="768" language="Français" languageTag="fr" languageCode="fra" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="768,768,768,768,768,768,768,768" samplingRate="48000" title="FR VFF : DDP 7.1" displayTitle="Français (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="FR VFF : DDP 7.1 (EAC3 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11537" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="eac3" index="2" channels="6" bitrate="768" language="Anglais" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="768,768,768,768,768,768,768,768" samplingRate="48000" title="ENG VO : DDP 5.1 Atmos" displayTitle="Anglais (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="ENG VO : DDP 5.1 Atmos (Anglais EAC3)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11538" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" index="3" bitrate="0" language="Français" languageTag="fr" languageCode="fra" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="FR Full : SRT" displayTitle="Français (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="FR Full : SRT"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11539" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="4" bitrate="0" language="Français" languageTag="fr" languageCode="fra" hearingImpaired="1" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="FR Full SDH : SRT" displayTitle="Français SME (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="FR Full SDH : SRT"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11540" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="5" bitrate="0" language="Anglais" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="ENG Full : SRT" displayTitle="Anglais (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="ENG Full : SRT (Anglais)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11541" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="6" bitrate="31" language="Français" languageTag="fr" languageCode="fra" headerCompression="1" requiredBandwidths="62,62,62,62,62,62,62,62" title="FR Full : PGS" displayTitle="Français (PGS)" extendedDisplayTitle="FR Full : PGS"> </Stream>
<Stream id="11542" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="7" bitrate="51" language="Anglais" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" headerCompression="1" hearingImpaired="1" requiredBandwidths="61,61,61,61,61,61,61,61" title="ENG Full SDH : PGS" displayTitle="Anglais SME (PGS)" extendedDisplayTitle="ENG Full SDH : PGS (Anglais)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>

Some additionnal informations :

  • direct play from local network
  • old video player : off (i tried on/off, nothing change)
  • old audio player : off (i tried on/off, nothing change)
  • i use SRT, no PGS, so there is no transcoding in anyway, absolute direct play

The same movie triggers Atmos on my Soundbar when i play with Infuse, all working properly here.

Do you have any ideas ?

2 Likes
2

Yeah, it‘s just not working. It‘s not your or your setups fault, it is the Apple TV Plex client. See also this thread => EAC3 Atmos on Apple TV 4K does not appear to be passing through Atmos

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thank you for the answer, this is very frustrating :frowning:

4

This is really old news. If you want Atmos sound it would have been best to get an Nvidia Shield or even a Fire TV. Atmos kind of works with the infuse app that requires another subscription.

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I’m pretty sure the op didn’t ask about True-HD Atmos.
The lack of lossy Atmos doesn’t require a Shield it just requires Plex to actually hire competent devs to implement something that comes “out of the box” on the device instead. (The Ad is still up on the “careers” section of Plex and it’s interesting to see a qualification requires knowledge of Androids Exo player will make the grade)

As for the extra subscription to Infuse… he already mentioned he uses Infuse.

Reading may help you see that however ■■■■■■■ ■■■■ the Plex app is on Apple devices it won’t be “old news” to someone who (looking at his profile) started using Plex less than 2 days ago. I’m sure he appreciates your hindsight that you made the switch to the Shield and its ads.
It only apparently took you 10 years rather than 2 days.

He may have been under the illusion that a supposed “market leader” in media serving offers something that actually leads the market rather than stagnates several years behind the three guys at Infuse that do it as a paid hobby.

More (or less) sarcastically Plex on the Apple TV have now offered 2 updates to fix issues with a users avatar and nothing else. So progress is clearly being made in actually no longer stuttering video, audio sync issues, Spatial Audio issues and complete audio dropouts for those who dare to think AirPlay isn’t something that’s happening in the next decade and not that happened in the last one.

This may seem but isn’t intended as a personal attack (because again I have also read YOUR post history and have seen your frustration with Plex and Apple devices) but the issue isn’t the devices that can and can’t do certain things. It’s the whole total mindset of Plex and what will and will not generate income.

TL;DR
Telling a two day user he should have bought a Shield to do something he didn’t ask for is a joke.
Plex like to ban people for stating facts so my post and myself will probably be gone by the morning.

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Brother in the fight :facepunch:t5:

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7

Well for me, ODI World Championship has soften my disappointment with Plex. Da.e you will be still here come Monday, no Ban for you at least not till 2099 like my old mate Juice.

Sorry I have not replied, been busy setting up my new Server.

Gazz

8

The Apple TV does not support atmos in truehd therefore it is impossible to get that working in infuse or any app. It does support it in EAC3 but just not in Plex. There wouldn’t be any issues if Apple supported pass through audio like the Nvidia Shield. From what I read, they did support it at one point but removed it after an TVos update. Typical Apple…

9

total agree with you bro !

1 Like
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@OttoKerner @ChuckPa @Atomatth @BigWheel @drzoidberg33
Hi mates, sorry to bring this topic to your attention this way but i think the community deserve some kind of help for this very painful issue.
We are all very happy to pay for the plexpass, but also very disappointed to pay an Infuse bill…

Can you please bring this to the dev team attention and prioritize this subject in the roadmap, I know how things work, we always have some bandwith we can allocate to bugs or quickwin to satisfy the most valuable things for the business : the customers !

Please, answer to us :wink:

ps: i hope trying to help the community and fixing your software won’t get me ban :hot_face:

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As said by someone else, If only anyone had even asked about True-HD Atmos? At least beyond the ops mis-conception about Infuse capabilities.

But, his post is nothing whatsoever to do with True-HD Atmos so it’s surprising you add the typical Apple footnote.
It’s clearly more a case of typical Plex isn’t it?

I do get it though. Someone buys an Apple TV and expects Plex to partially work on that device and you offer that he would be have been better off buying an ad riddled device because the Android Plex devs do seemingly have a clue what they’re doing and that device will allow him to do something he didn’t ask for. Great spot!

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@OttoKerner @ChuckPa @Atomatth @BigWheel @drzoidberg33
:roll_eyes:

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@OttoKerner @ChuckPa @Atomatth @BigWheel @drzoidberg33

:slight_smile:

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@alexis_689 ALL:

If you’ll accept me speaking here as a fellow AppleTV 4K owner , and NOT representing Plex, then OK.

I am on the Server / System side of the house (Linux specility)

If everyone is OK with that, then I’ll share my thoughts about Apple as there is NOTHING OFFICIAL which I can say/promise.

All good?

EDIT: Look here. This tells me how important it is to solve this. Yes?

https://www.plex.tv/careers/open-jobs/

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@ChuckPa
May I ask (knowing that Apple devices aren’t particularly your forte, but far more knowledgeable than myself) are we probably looking at a rewrite using Metal API to fix most of the issues? (and clearly there’s a lot of them.)

Obviously I’m only asking as one Apple device user to another.

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Well that was a quick turn around… Lol :wink:

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Hi @ChuckPa , thank you for your answer, the open job opportunity is indeed a good thing !

18

I’ve been a hardware & software engineer for 40+ years. I can and do still write code for my personal use.

Knowing the younger engineers are ‘current’ with the new tech,
it’s on this foundation, speaking as “Chuck”, with a dusting of my work knowledge injected, my thoughts & observations -

  1. I know we’re all frustrated so first thing I’ll ask is we curb our sarcasm. I see it in the forum all the time. It’s not productive.

  2. Knowing there was the staff reduction 2 months ago, the posting for a new senior development position is profound. This tells me the company is serious about fixing this and fixing it the right way. I had a conversation about Apple a week ago which independently confirms this.

    • Anyone know a Metal engineer who’s looking for a job? :slight_smile:

  3. Problems I see with the app

    • Audio handling needs major update to decode or pass through correctly in light of Apple now handling Dolby codecs (more than 5.1 core). No more forced LPCM decoding.

    • Video handling needs a rewrite. Remove the OpenGL based decoder and replace with Metal.
      – To me, Metal is the “HW transcoding” equivalent of the server & desperately needed.
      – I do not know how easily the existing playback code can be replaced. If it’s modular enough then this should be a relatively easy task for someone with Metal skills.

    • Downloads/Sync, is a full rewrite. The current mechanism should not be background-only.
      – My 2017 iPad Pro sustains 500+ Mb/s so 20-30 Mb/s does not cut it.
      – If I have the app open and hit ‘download’ then I want it NOW (as fast as the server can give it).
      – If the app goes into the background then it would be OK to let downloading also be background speed too.

  4. “Nice to have”

    • “Airplane mode” in the app. If it’s there in iOS/ipadOS, I can’t make it work. :frowning:
      I want to be FULLY OFFLINE (no wifi / cellular) and play the content I downloaded from my server. What good is having a 256+ GB phone/tablet with HDMI dongle at the cabin (no LTE service) only to get stopped because I can’t authenticate.
      (( iOS/ipadOS/tvOS will work for a limited time without internet. The player should ALSO WORK without it. It’s already unlocked so licensing shouldn’t be an issue ))

    • ( I do NOT know much about licensing – which can change EVERYTHING )
      Would like to see everything coming from my server as DirectPlay be at least as good as content I stream from Apple/Netflix (Dolby audio + video).
      – I know there are licensing issues blocking the transcoder from some things already so won’t consider those.

  5. Managing our expectations

    • We know what the Plex app costs. We know what Infuse costs.
    • I don’t think it’s at all fair to expect the Plex player app to perform like Infuse.
    • Should the Plex app get better? Yes.
    • Hiring another Apple-skilled Engineer will do a lot.
    • How soon can we expect results? No clue but I’m sure I’ll hear about things as they start happening.

Here you have it,

My thoughts about what’s broken, two cents about a path forward, and optimistic but curbed expectations of how soon change will happen.

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Thank you for your very detailed answer @ChuckPa

Anyone know a Metal engineer who’s looking for a job? :slight_smile:
→ no sadly :frowning:

I totally agree about a clean rewrite of the video handling core, Metal support will probably solve many issues (and bring others).

The download part is also very poor, i have some friends using it on my server, and they struggle to take content for offline usage… And yes, if you are in Wi-Fi… on the local network, you expect to have almost instant sync…
Plane mode is another issue as you need an online login…

So, feel free to bring some updates to us as soon as your hear things :wink:

See ya !

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Supplemental:

I asserted “Metal engineer” here inappropriately.

Re-reading what I wrote, I’m making assumptions about Apple which I’m not qualified to make.

I don’t know what the opening is for . I ASSumed :rofl: it was for Metal.
( we all know how well I :man_facepalming: arround here LOL )

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