# Plex firestick 4k max issues EAC3 **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Players\ **Tags:** fire-tv\ **Created:** [May 18, 2022, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318 "2022-05-18T17:06:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/1 "2022-05-18T17:06:21Z")
Server Version#: QNAP 453D, 2xM.2 2TB 2x16GB RAM Player Version#: firestick 4k max There is an issue with playing video with EAC3 format with firestick plex app. Tried all settings and during testing it looks like audio isn’t supported and is always converted to aac. Playing original quality without transcoding is giving loading hickups. playing with transcoding is no issue. Is there someone who can and will take a look at this (i switched to google tv 4k for now). Playing from the same server on google tv, android or webbrowser isn’t an issue. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/2 "2022-05-19T20:39:13Z")
Does the TV the Fire stick is connected to also support EAC3? ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/3 "2022-05-19T20:44:30Z")
I have no issues playing the same movies on the tv from google tv or another chromecast. Transcoding is done on the server, also tried all settings on the firestick. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/4 "2022-05-19T20:47:10Z")
I’m confused. I thought the problem was playing EAC3 audio directly. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/5 "2022-05-19T20:48:10Z")
I play normally without transcoding. Issue is indeed without transcoding, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/6 "2022-05-19T20:51:13Z")
I also tried to play the movies with the stick directly in my receiver denon avr-x2500h. It doesn’t matter same issue. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/7 "2022-05-19T20:56:23Z")
Again, it depends on if your TV supports EAC3 or not. If it doesn’t, this will just keep failing. On the Fire TV’s main settings go to: Display & Sound \ Surround Sound There are 3 settings. PCM, Dolby Digital Plus (EAC3), and Dolby Digital (AC3) Make sure it’s set to whatever your TV can handle. The Fire TV only supports these as outputs. Then in the Plex app, have the passthrough audio setting enabled. If your TV doesn’t support any of those settings, then set this passthrough to disabled and PMS will transcode to AAC stereo which almost anything should support. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 8:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/8 "2022-05-19T20:56:53Z")
If that doesn’t work, I’ll need to see logs from the start of the app to the start of playback to see what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/9 "2022-05-19T21:00:53Z")
My tv doesn’t support the passthrough, and i doesn’t want to use the transcoding as this will use a lot of extra drive capacity. As the google tv plex app is supporting the eac3 this shouldn’t be an issue for the firestick. It looks like a codec issue to me. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/10 "2022-05-19T21:06:46Z")
The issue is easy to duplicate. Upload a EAC3 movie available in plex server. Play from a firestick 4k max with original quality no passthrough. Make sure the bandwith supports the original quality to avoid other buffering issues. I tried this on 2 sticks and 2 tv’s with same results. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/11 "2022-05-19T21:29:52Z")
> [@petermurk](#): > > My tv doesn’t support the passthrough, and i doesn’t want to use the transcoding as this will use a lot of extra drive capacity. What do you mean it doesn’t support passthrough? It’s not passing anything, it is receiving the audio from the Fire TV device. It just needs to support what it is given. I don’t get the last part of your statement. Transcoding doesn’t take up disk space. These are temporary files and get removed once the stream is done. > As the google tv plex app is supporting the eac3 this shouldn’t be an issue for the firestick. I’m not sure what you are trying to say here, but different devices support different things. It’s the device’s hardware that controls it, not the Plex app. AFAIK, the Google TV with Chromecast device does not support outputting EAC3 so it is internally converting it to something else and sending that to the TV, maybe AAC stereo. That is the same thing the Fire TV does. You just need to figure out what the Google TV is outputting and set the Fire TV to the same, if possible. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/12 "2022-05-19T21:32:27Z")
Google tv is supporting EAC3, so the firestick maybe doesn’t support the EAC3 codec or the plex spp on the firestick isn’t using it. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/13 "2022-05-19T21:37:21Z")
Both devices support EAC3 as an input. That’s not the issue. The problem is what the device outputs to the TV. If your TV doesn’t support EAC3, the device needs to automatically convert the EAC3 it received into something else before sending it to the TV. This is done based on settings for the device and the hardware the device has. The Fire TV Max only has a few options as I mentioned above. I’m not sure what the Google TV device has. What these 2 devices sends to your TV is likely different and why you get different results. The Fire TV giving errors indicates it isn’t able to produce an output that the TV likes. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/14 "2022-05-19T21:44:19Z")
Checked the settings, it,s both the same. Video transcoding = off Streaming = max Passthrough = off ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/15 "2022-05-19T21:46:54Z")
I’m really not sure what you are trying to say. Please provide me the [android log](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201573117-android-android-tv-fire-tv-logs/) from the app. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/16 "2022-05-19T21:52:56Z")
I just found out google tv’s setting surround sound is enabling the support of EAC3. Does the firestick 4k max support EAC3 codec? If not then the iaaue is with the firestick. If it is supporting EAC3 then the plex app on the firestick isn’t using the codec and try to convert the audio. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/17 "2022-05-19T21:54:03Z")
Yes, the Fire TV 4K Max supports EAC3 audio. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/18 "2022-05-19T21:55:12Z")
Then i’m pretty sure the plex app from the amazon store doesn’t use the codec. ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/19 "2022-05-19T21:56:28Z")
Yes it does. It does it at a hardware level. Please see my previous comments. It’s best if you get me the logs so I can see what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![petermurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@petermurk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/petermurk)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318/20 "2022-05-19T21:58:45Z")
I can’t do that now, need to do it later, hope sunday. [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-firestick-4k-max-issues-eac3/793318.md?page=2)