Server Version#: 1.32.5.7349-8f4248874
Player Version#: 8.23.1 (6601)
Howdy:
I think this is the place to start; I suppose any single point could be the point of failure (although I doubt it’s the ATV or the receiver)…
I have some 5.1 Blu-ray audio discs (XTC, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, blah blah etc.). The Blu-rays play as expected. While playing, my Onkyo shows the input as Dolby Digital DTS, and plays in Surround. Great!
After ripping a Blue-ray using MakeMKV, I add it to my Plex Media Server. When I play one of these ripped MKVs in Plex on my AppleTV, they show as 1080p 5.1, which is, obviously, great. But, they do not play in 5.1. I can play them in stereo, or Dolby Surround (which is really not surround. It’s like the “All Channel Stereo” setting on my Onkyo; phony surround).
I’ve gone through the Plex settings, and the settings in MakeMKV, and everything looks good. But, I don’t know everything there is to know about everything. I could easily be missing something easy. Or hard.
Anyone have any experience with this setup or similar? This should work, right?
Which Apple TV do you have. What are your Apple TV audio settings set to? Afaik the new ones decode everything to output PCM/LPCM or Dolby Digital 5.1 or Stereo.
I have not had an Onkyo for a long time but I believe you need to have it on Direct to make sure it just outputs what is given. Most receivers I have used have some sort of setting like this. My current Yamaha it is called “straight”
As per BigWheel‘s response…
On an Apple TV 4K check out the actual system settings: Settings > Audio and Video > Audio Format
It’ll also matter how your Apple TV is connected to the TV/audio system. If the audio is passed through the TV to the sound system , not all TVs support passing through the decoded PCM stream (e.g. dilute to bitrate restrictions). In that Case you might need to connect the Apple TV through the audio system to your TV or go with the option to let the Apple TV change/transcode the audio format to Dolby Digital 5.1
Thanks Bigwheel and tom80H…I’ll look into those. I actually ripped a LPCM version that I’m going to try. I’ll also try Dircet Mode in my Onkyo (I was trying to replicate how the Blu-rays were behaving. Maybe there’s another way). Also, no, my TV is not part of the equation: HDMI goes straight from the ATV to the Onkyo.
I wish the changelogs were organized better. I am 99% certain at this point, that a recent change to Plex Server broke my 5.1 playback. Why didn’t I say that to begin with? I was going with my default position: assuming that I messed something up.
I’ve listened to these rips before, and I know they were playing correctly. I just thought maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention before, maybe…?
I’m going to submit as a bug and see if they can suss this out for me.
That blunt claim made me re-read the thread from the beginning. I seem to have missed a keyword in the OP… this is about audio files, not videos, is it?
I haven’t re-tested this in some time but I don’t think Plex supports audio playback beyond stereo (5.1 music being either downmixed or limited to the front left/right channels).
So… you might have a point while still being wrong that this is a change of the Plex app behavior.
Maybe @BigWheel can confirm if multi-channel music should be working.
Beyond that it might still be helpful if you could answer some of the questions regarding your Apple TV / tvOS audio settings (as pointed out by BigWheel above).
Attached are pics of my ATV 4K audio settings. The one that says Change Format Off is the default, and the one I normally use. I swear that used to work! The one that says Change Format On Dolby Digital 5.1 is what I just tried, based on what Bigwheel said. No change.
Maybe - maybe - I’m wrong about knowing for sure that this has always played for me in 5.1. I don’t think so, though. I would not have kept ripping them (and all my Blu-rays and DVDs) if I was only getting stereo.
