Plex clients (Android and Apple) will not direct play any EAC3 w/Atmos audio files

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: Android Mobile 10.7.0.5386
Server Logs: There are absolutely no server errors/warnings at the time of testing the playback on these devices.

Recently, I’ve been getting reports (and have subsequently reproduced the issue myself over and over) of files receiving the attached playback error. My troubleshooting led me to isolate the issue to being only with files that have EAC3 that are trying to direct play. I can direct play any EAC3 audio file on the same devices if they don’t have Atmos and I can transcode any EAC3 Atmos file by either disabling EAC3 audio support in the app or by forcing a transcode with a low quality setting.

I thought this could be the inotify bug popping back but based on the following I don’t think that’s the case.

~# cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
1048576
~# docker exec -it plex /bin/bash
/# cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
1048576

Example file info with the issue:

Audio #1
ID/String                        : 2
Format/String                    : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                      : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Format_Commercial_IfAny          : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
CodecID                          : A_EAC3

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2

My testing pretty much proves this is a bug with the Plex Android app on Pixel devices. Plex thinks the Pixel can direct play EAC3 audio with Atmos but it only supports EAC3 without Atmos. If you try to direct play EAC3 with Atmos the stream will fail unless you uncheck EAC3 support in Advanced Player settings in the Plex app.

3

Can you post a sample that has this issue? I don’t believe I am having any issues with EAC3 Atmos files.

4

I will show this:

The Shield is on the TV shown playing in Dolby Atmos. It’s using HDMI passthrough.

The Fire Stick 4K Max is connected to an old 2009-model Samsung TV/Monitor hybrid, and does not support 4K, HDR, or Atmos. The movie with EAC3/Atmos sound is direct playing on both though.

5

The issue only exists on Google Pixel devices in my testing as I alluded to on my previous post.

6

I should have asked before; which Pixel do you have/which have you tried?

7

I have a Pixel 7 but have had users with Pixel 6 and 8s see the same issue.

1 Like
8

I have 8 Pro, but I also have an old Pixel 5 - I’ll dig that out and check on that - I wonder if it’s an issue with Tensor advertising it can handle Atmos but really it can’t (from Plex at least)

9

Okay, so this isn’t really an issue impacting Android TV and Apple TV, as you tagged your post with. This is also direct playing on my Android fine, but I’m not on a Pixel.

Have you looked into Google’s documentation as to if the Pixel supports Atmos?

10

FYI my Pixel 5 has EAC3 marked ‘unavailable’ and is disabled, greyed out/unable to enable it. I didn’t even bother trying to test any content.

11

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