Thank you, @FordGuy61, useful as always! It is sad that passthrough requires decoder support (I don’t think DTS will be back on the TVs it got removed from). It is a constant (goose?) chase, maybe exacerbated by HDMI 2.1 entering the scene (Fury looks interesting, but no 2.1). I wonder if Plex is not at a disadvantage slightly in this fluctuating hardware moment, because of it’s design of relying on hardware support. In a more stable world, it would be a strength, currently… maybe not so much.
Anyway, I’m very new to all this, only because I bought a newly released (sic!) 5.1 kiddie soundbar and it turned out not even an extra hardware buy (Chromecast wGTV) gets me into a situation of being able to listen to 5.1 all the time. Even transcoded 5.1!
One would have naively thought TV internal app should be enough. Now it looks even Shield + funky gizmo might not give a full peace of mind. Maybe AV receivers should run Android apps? Even planning what to buy is hard
Let me get this straight: let’s assume I have something like the LG CX OLED TV, which does not play and does not passthrough DTS and I have it connected to something like the Sonos Arc (doesn’t support DTS either and has 1 eARC HDMI input only).
Please verify the following statements:
If I use the LG WebOS Plex app and disable DTS and have something like a bluray rip, with DTS-HD soundtrack, Plex will transcode to Dolby Digital and I will have the same (or very similar) sound experience as with a TV and soundbar, which support DTS? True or false?
If I use the Nvidia Shield and a sound set-up, which supports DTS (let’s say an AVR with speakers) I theoretically should be able to split the signal with something like the HDFury Integral 2 and enjoy the DTS soundtrack as if nothing happened, correct?
Also a slightly off-topic question: does the Plex app in the Shiled support Dolby Vision?
Yes, I have exactly the same problem with DTS-HD MA 7.1 stream directplay into a lower end LG 4k display. Transcode fixes this but shouldn’t have to do that in the house.
Do you have any similar files but with Dolby TrueHD? I thought both of these formats have a core audio stream underneath the HD/lossless stream.
Hey guys, the thread is awesome and all of you are very helpful! Let me describe my situation. Following your suggestions on the thread i bought an Nvidia Shiled Pro (2019) to be able to send True HD / DTS MA HD audio to my receiver from my blue ray rips on Plex. I also replaxed my TV, just a weak ago, with an LG OLED65 GX. So, my setup is Plex server running on my desktop PC to NVIDIA Shield Pro connected via HDMI with my AVR (Pioneer VSX 923) which is connected to the LG TV via HDMI. The system works flawlessly and the picture on the TV is stunning! Yesterday i tried to play through my setup a 4K rip of LOTR but the problem was that the file was transcoded from Plex server, both audio and video. As a result i had constant buffering and no 4k video to my tv. Do u have any ideas what might be wrong with the setup and what i should change in order to make it play with transcoding?
I’d actually recommend starting a new thread about this specific file transcoding issue and using some of the file\logging information to get good advice - might be useful to post in the Nvidia Shield specific category. Some of the logs will tell you specifically what is causing the transcoding. This is very useful for providing those details: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201643703-reporting-issues-with-plex-media-server/
I have this same exact issue and for the life of me I am unable to understand what’s causing the issue. If I uncheck the DTS setting option on my LG GX+Plex app, I am able to play 4k HDR titles with DTS HD MA 7.1, otherwise there’s no sound. (I use the internal TV speakers)
But if my media has DTS HD MA 5.1 and I do the samething, some movies are fine, but for other movies there is sound but the picture gets corrupted, it’s unwatchable. I played with all the settings, but I can’t figure out what’s causing this issue. (The picture is fine if DTS is checked, but no audio)
I haven’t used Emby, but can I use it and will it work?
This usually points to a problem with the media, since some movies play OK.
Do you have subtitles enabled? If so, try playing the movie with subtitles turned off. On LGs that do not support dts audio, subtitles + dts audio results in a Plex transcoding the video.
If you’ve the movie disc, re-rip it with MakeMKV and load the new rip into Plex. If you do not have access to the disc, see if you can acquire a different version than the one you are currently using. Use a “Other Videos” library for the new version(s). Plex will not try to combine the movies, download metadata, etc., so it is easier to test with multiple versions.
If the problem persists, perform the following steps, open a new thread and include the gathered information.
Verify you have opted into the Public Preview version of the LG Plex app. In the Plex app, select your username. You will see the option to enter/leave early access in the menu.
In the Plex app settings, deselect the DTS audio boxes if they are shown.
In the Plex app settings, configure the TV to log to your server at the debug level.
In the Plex app settings, verify the version of the Plex app on your TV. It should be 5.10.0.
Configure your Plex Media Server to gather logs at the debug level. Do not enable verbose logging. See Reporting issues with Plex Media Server for instructions.
With no other users streaming, play, without subtitles, one of the troublesome movies for ~30 seconds.
Stop playback. Wait at least one minute. Pull the server logs and attach the entire zip file to the thread.
Gather the XML information for the same movie and attach it to the thread. Save the file as .txt or zip it. The forum does not support .xml attachments. See Investigate Media Information and Formats for instructions on gathering the information.
If you have a look at my post here you can see that the issue is just on the LG and covers lossless 7.1 and some 5.1 audio. I can give your suggested steps a go this evening to log the errors on the movies I have in my post.
@GoodSpaceman Have you tried with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Lossless audio track? It appears it isnt just DTS that plex struggles with. If you look at the dashboard when playing you will see that if you are using the plex app on the lg tv, plex will transcode all lossless audio to AAC or EAC3. I have a hunch that the tv cant passthrough lossless audio. Unfortunatly I dont have an eARC compatible reciver to test passthrough over eARC
