Just what the title says. My wife asked why her Roku 4 was always buffering lately. So I looked into it and said its because you tv does not support DTS so its transcoding to AC3 but it should not be since I have an AAC track also just for that reason. It used to select AAC since she does not support DTS but now for some reason it has started to decide transcoding to AC3 if better. I have showed her manual changing audio track get rid of the problem. But she barely know how to hit play.
Is the AAC track in the first or second audio-slot in your file?
AAC is the 1st and DTS is 2nd. I have noticed it used to label stuff just DTS and I think the ones she has trouble are now labeled DTS-ES 6.1, but in the case of no direct play it should choose AAC or so I thought that was the way it worked. Its funny my old tv did not direct play AC3 and had the same trouble but a setting or an update fixed it.
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 6.23 GiB
Duration : 1 h 46 min
Overall bit rate : 8 366 kb/s
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.8
Writing library : libmkv 0.6.5
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1 h 46 min
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 120
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 1 h 46 min
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : ES Discrete / Core
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 1 h 46 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s) : 7 channels / 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: C, LFE / Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.12 GiB (18%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
They are old encodes I do x265 now.
Ok…what is the main audio setting on the Roku? Not in the plex app…but out in the Roku’s main settings. If it’s set to accept Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital+, it’s going to transcode the DTS track in order to try maintain a 5.1 soundtrack. In order to have it auto-select the stereo AAC track, the main Roku audio settings need to be set to stereo only.
Thanks I knew it was something stupid. I had checked and it was on auto. And was set to Dolby Digital but not DTS. Dolby Digital is AC3 right? I thought it used to passthru AC3 if it had that and DTS used to switch it to AAC track. But I can change hers to manual stereo she will never know the difference.
Correct, AC3 is Dolby Digital. From my understanding, if the Roku is set to anything other stereo, it will play the first 5.1 track available. It won’t bypass a 5.1 track to direct-play a stereo track. This makes sense in some cases, as a lot of secondary stereo tracks are things like director’s-commentary. You wouldn’t want it to auto-select stereo tracks in that case.
Yeah that is understandable.
Well, I give up. I told her I will recode files she has trouble with. Now it says Trancoding x264 to x264 and Transcoding AAC to AAC on the server side. I have all streams to unlimited so should not be that.
