Plex Media Player 3 (Windows 7) does not play/decode EAC3 5.1 or TrueHD 7.1

Plex Players Desktop Players
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Server Version#: 1.18.3.2156
Player Version#: PlexMediaPlayer-3.0.0.24
Windows 7 Pro

After my earlier installation of PlexMediaPlayer-2.39.0.1005 stopped working (It would display a window with “Could not create EAE working directory.” and never open the application) I tried upgrading to PlexMediaPlayer3 - which solved the not-starting issue, but now movies which I could play with sound before, no longer have sound. I’m wondering if this is connected to the EAE issue?

My Server and Player are installed, and running, on the same system - a Windows7 computer - so the video/audio files are played directly - not transcoded or streamed elsewhere.

Movies that have AC3, AAC5.1 and DTS/DTS-HD still play fine.

I have tried various settings in the Audio panel of Plex Player like switching from “Basic” to “HDMI” and enabling passthrough - to no avail.

And I missing something - or is something broken? These movies used to play with sound just fine.

Edit: Attached a PlexMediaPlayer log file - that report errors in codecs, and the same issue with not being able to write to an EAE folder.

Any tips on how to fix this? My Windows user account is an admin - and all plex applications are installed with admin privileges.

PlexMediaPlayer.txt (295.0 KB)

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No one else having this issue - or a guess to what may be wrong?

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Is Plex still supported on earlier Windows versions?

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https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-app

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Here it says Win7 or later:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-media-player-3-0-windows-and-mac-forum-preview/

And Plex “works” - just not with the aforementioned audio codecs. But if this is indeed a Win7 issue, then that would be great to know.

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Yes, I just saw that after I posted my entry. This seems to contradict what’s on the website. I’m confused! Maybe someone more knowledgeable can clarify this for us.

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Make sure that Windows Media Player is installed and not disabled (there is a “enable/disable Windows features” link somewhere around the ‘Software’ item in the Windows 7 control panel)

Try if it makes any difference if the newest release of Lavfilters is installed (get rid of other “codec packs” you might have installed)

side note: you can consider Windows 7 as end-of-life now.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057281/windows-7-support-will-end-on-january-14-2020

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Just checked for this now - WMPlayer was not disabled but I tried running it and setting it up (as per first time running the player). No change in Plex Player behavior. I noticed that WMCenter was disabled though, but I believe it has been disabled on this machine for way longer than the problem has been there.

Just tried installing this pack (I have no other codec packs installed. All media is played either through Plex or VLC directly) - and rebooted into plex. Still no audio with the problematic codecs.

Win7 EOL: Noted. I’ll just have to upgrade I guess. But I worry that the problem is elsewhere as this was not a problem with earlier Player versions, until it wasn’t. And rolling back the player versions - by quite a lot - has not fixed it either. I have however not tried rolling back the Plex Server version.

In any case - thanks for your suggestions.

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I have only tested on win10… Dont know why win7 would not work.

One thing to check is your sound output applet. In windows and see how it is set up. On mine it list the compatible types… 5.1, 7.1, etc

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Well - it used to work… :slight_smile:

DTS 5.1 and 7.1 works (downmix) just fine. Everything is output to HDMI through the TV and then from there to the amp by way of optical. I have tested with enabling passthrough in Plex but that didn’t work either. And VLC can play everything just fine with no tweaks.

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If you are using an optical cable between tv and amp/soundbar, you have to tell Plex Media Player that.
In TV mode, go into the Settings - Audio
and set the output type to ‘Optical’.
Then leave this page, wait 3 seconds and enter it again.
You can now tick the checkboxes for ‘passthrough’ of DTS and/or AC3.

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The setup is Computer -> HDMI -> TV -> Optical -> Amp. So I don’t see why setting it to Optical in Plex would make sense. Nonetheless, I have tried, and it doesn’t make a difference.

When looking at the log file (attached in original post), it looks like the issue is with software/codecs not properly installed in Plex. But removing the player and reinstalling it has not helped either.

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Ok. Your limiting factor may be the ARC on the tv.

Can you go computer–>reciver–>hdmi?

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The receiver does not have HDMI, so unfortunately that’s not an option.
But again, it works perfectly in VLC. And it has worked before in Plex - with no hardware changes since that time.
Maybe a complete reinstall of everything by a switch to Windows 10 will be helpful after all.

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I installed a fresh Windows 10 Pro on the machine, and installed Plex Server + Plex Desktop Player from scratch - and now EAC3 5.1 works perfectly. I think it has less to do with Windows 10 and more with a fresh install of Server/Player, but alas - now it works.

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Thank you. I had the same issue as in this thread, with my thread here: The new PMP v3 preview tries to send EAC3 through optical connection?

and your suggestion of enabling WMP and installing the LAV filters from your link seems to have fixed things (this is on win 7). Can you please inform the Plex devs about this, as it seems to be a key to this problem?

Edit: EasyAudioEncoder still can’t be downloaded on PMP 3, but it can on PMP 2 and the LAV filters solves the other codec issues on PMP 2.

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