Plex Audio Super Quiet Until I Rewind / Fast-forward Show (TCL Roku Smart TV)

[Mitchewr]

Server Version#: 4.51.3
Player Version#: 6.7.18.6920

I recently purchased a new TV, the TCL 6 series 55" 4k 55R635. The “smart TV” software is Roku. I also purchased a new sound bar, the Vizio V-Series 5.1 system, model V51-H6.

I have set the audio setting on the TV itself to “S/PDIF and eARC (auto-passthrough)”. I have the audio routing from the TV to the sound bar via the HDMI(eARC) port on the TV/Sound Bar.

When watching shows/movies/sports streaming from the Hulu app, the audio sounds great. When watching shows/movies streaming from the Netflix app, the audio sounds great. When listening to music via the Spotify app, the audio sounds great.

However, almost any movie or tv show that I have on my Plex server that runs any kind of AC3 audio, the sound is VERY quiet when the show/movie first starts. It’s clearly not using all the speakers of the sound bar system, nor is it utilizing the subwoofer. However, once I either rewind the playback of the Plex tv show/movie OR if I fast-forward the playback (just 10 seconds either direction is enough) THEN the audio comes through the sound bar full blast and I can hear all the speakers and the subwoofer clearly being utilized. Simply waiting and letting the content play for several minutes does not automatically “fix” the audio. Only rewinding / fast-forwarding “fixes” the problem.

Just to be clear, I’m using the Plex app for the TCL Roku smart TV. I am not casting anything from a phone / tablet to the TV.

I’ve never experienced this issue with Plex before, but then again I’ve never ran Plex on this specific TV / Sound Bar setup before either. BUT, since I’m experiencing ZERO audio issues with any other media source, and ONLY with Plex, it’s leading me to think that there’s something up with Plex. Also, I found a movie or two where the sound isn’t AC3 but rather something else, and those seem to play the audio fine right from the beginning without having to either rewind the program or fast-forward.

I am not having any sort of audio stuttering issues, nor is the audio out of sync with the video…it’s just crazy quiet until I rewind / fast-forward. And this only affects Plex.

Has anyone else experienced this problem before? Any ideas on what the cause might be and or how to fix it? I can easily just rewind / fast-forward whatever I’m watching and “fix” the audio that way, but it’s sort of annoying and I shouldn’t have to do that every time.

[Insomnic_1]

What happens if you turn off Direct Play in the Plex app?

On the TCL Roku TVs there’s still an odd audio bug related to AC3\EAC3 and flipping that off is the current work around while we wait for the TCL Roku update to fix it (no quality change, just subtitles might be funny sometimes but I haven’t noticed anything myself). Shouldn’t be an issue since you’re using passthrough but worth a shot. Also worth picking the specific supported codecs on the Soundbar as well - sometimes the “auto” option doesn’t detect right.

[Mitchewr]

I tried turning off Direct Play in the Plex app and then re-starting the episode, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. The audio was still super quiet until I fast-forwarded or rewound the playback.