I really get the sense the exoplayer dev assigned to look at this, either does not care, or does not want to deal with it or does not know what to do to fix it like other players have. Just like other issues in the past with atmos audio the guy who does lav filters has even shared the fix…
I dont know what plex stance on this is considering how many movies it cant playback properly now due to this issue @sixones ?
That’s interesting, ghostm. Thanks for posting that about lav filters. I just posted the following on the exoplayer ticket:
Yet another player modified their code because it couldn’t correctly playback TrueHD/Atmos on seamlessly branching discs. Honestly, it seems like just about any player you stumble across has something like this in its change log. That is, except exoplayer.
“Fixed: Resolved an issue with glitching TrueHD bitstreaming on seamless-branching titles”
@icbaker, please reconsider.
Given all the software players and hardware (disc) players that have had to modify their code to playback TrueHD/Atmos from seamlessly branching discs, it seems more and more evident that most (if not all) media players needed to adapt to changing/advancing technology (in this case, atmos combined with seamless branching) in order to provide their users with a satisfactory experience.
There is no evidence that there is anything wrong with the discs, or the MKV files being extracted from them. But there is ever-mounting evidence that media players needed to be tweaked a while back to properly handle TrueHD/Atmos and seamless branching. . . and exoplayer never implemented those tweaks.
Please, reconsider and put the experience of exoplayer users ahead of whatever principle is precluding the exoplayer team from taking this seriously and fully investigating.
(hat tip to ghostm over on plex forums for pointing out the LAV Filter change)
From my investigations the problem is on the hardware level for the NVIDIA SHIELD, the TrueHD passthrough codec runs at 1.001x speed and this conflicts with ExoPlayers time tracking code. I’ve yet to find a solution that works correctly without the underlying problem being fixed - which I have reported to NVIDIA but haven’t yet heard back.
Will have a dig into what LAVFilters does, and see if its possible for us to do something similar - though from a brief look with the underlying problem on the SHIELD I’m not sure that would solve the problem.
I wonder, if it’s a hardware-level issue, why it only manifests with seamlessly-branching discs?
Great. Thanks for looking into it. We might be getting somewhere at last!
Interesting.
By the by, is it time we make a dedicated thread for TrueHD titles that Shield does not play correctly? Or has someone already done that?
For what I can gather (it’s extremely difficult to debug mind), the branching cuts seem to make the timings go off too much and ExoPlayer can’t correct itself. It can happen with a standard TrueHD rip as well after seeking but it’s quite rare for the issue to occur.
Feel free to make a thread, my copy of the Martian is usually what I use to replicate the problem with (its a blu-ray rip with a few branch cuts in).
Thank you for continuing to look into this! This really is the only remaining flaw in my home theater setup. Could Plex possibly use its own TrueHD passthrough code? I think I remember reading that Plex once did that before switching to the one built into exoplayer.
We’ve always used the Android platform for passthrough, and unfortunately due to licensing requirements its not possible for us to do passthrough ourselves.
Oh! I must be misunderstanding . . I was referencing this which I thought mentioned a Plex in-house TrueHD passthrough. Quoting it below for easy reference:
It’s worth noting that in Plex, we actually still use our own implementation of True HD passthrough, since official support was added only last month. We’ll likely drop our version to adopt the one recently added. However, it does appear that we use a smaller buffer. . .
Perhaps that was instead referring to one built into Android while the “recently added” one is by exoplayer? I read it as a Plex employee saying there was an in-house Plex one. . . 
Either way though, might that not indicate there’s an option/alternative available to try?
Edit: Or maybe Plex was doing its own thing prior to TrueHD being “official”. . . which I guess might have been okay license-wise. 
Hi sixones,
Would it be worth investigating which two TrueHD passthrough options are being discussed here?
Best,
–H
So new to the thread and new to building a 4K high resolution audio media library from my own personally owned content.
I’ve read heaps and heaps and I’m using using the most recent makemkv and my understanding is that the only player that will output TrueHD (+Atmos) and DTS HD MA (+DTS:X) is a Nvidia shield?
If I’m correct with the point above is it also correct that makemkv will produce a file that Nvidia shield tv pro dislikes when the disc it came from used seamless branching?
Thanks, my Apple TV and Plex app on a Sony TV do a great job of the video but down mixes the audio. ideally like so many others I want to buy a player that passes on all audio data to the app or soundbar.
Should I buy a Nvidia shield TV pro?
“only player that will output TrueHD (+Atmos) and DTS HD MA (+DTS:X) is a Nvidia shield”
“makemkv will produce a file that Nvidia shield tv pro dislikes when the disc it came from used seamless branching”
“Should I buy a Nvidia shield TV pro?”
If you want Dolby Vision and uncompressed TrueHD, it’s the only show in town.
It is just crazy to me that the ExoPlayer devs don’t agree this is a THEM problem when this issue can happen, even rarely, after seeking.
They (disingenuously) seize upon it being an MKV as a reason to say “not our problem.”
It’s maddening. I’ve given up posting over there on my ticket. It’s a brick wall. Our only hope is that Plex team reaches out to them or finds a way to work around it themselves.
I have a feeling that Plex has abandoned ExoPlayer. The last update we received was back in January, and there have been seven minor and one major ExoPlayer release since then.
Issue is still not resolved unfortunately
Do you mean you think Plex is planning a move to a new player other than ExoPlayer, or are you saying Plex has abandoned working on it? If you meant the latter then I have to say I don’t believe ExoPlayer devs have anything to do with Plex.
