Plexconnect and AC3 5.1 audio on Apple TV

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1

Hi,

I’m using plexconnect to play media on TV using “Trailers” app of ATV. All works fine but I can’t play AC3 5.1 audio. I searched a lot over the Internet tried all the solutions like Setting Dolby Digital to “ON” on ATV, Enabling “Dolby Digital Apple TV” setting on PMS, Changed “transcoderaction = Transcode” in plexconnect’s ATVSettings.cfg file but none works and my audio still doesn’t work.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2

The Settings are in the Server Settings under “Transcoder”, look for “Enable Dolby Digital on Apple TV”- Click that and hit “save” - Don’t mess with your PlexConnect settings, set them back to default, as this is a Plex issue and not a client issue, and PlexConnect is a client of sorts. Also, in Plex Settings, always use “Advanced” to make sure you can see all available fields.

There is another setting for this under the 'Web" settings at the bottom under “Player” - Look for all entries that have to do with Direct Play, turn them all on and then choose “Allow Direct Play of AC3”, and if you have “Prefer AAC Audio” checked, uncheck it. Then your Plex client will choose whatever available AC3 streams there are. You should see that there is AC3 content available while using any Plex client including Plexconnect.

Also, if you are running Windows 10, it’s case for deleting the hell out of your main PC and reinstalling Windows 7, As Windows 10 does not natively have DirectPlay anymore. It can be turned on, I was lucky enough to stumble upon it while I was setting it up the first time. But I can’t for the life of me remember exactly where it was. It may have included downloading something. If anyone can refresh my memory, that would be great. But I have it running on 10 and Plex uses it for those AC3 streams.

You might want to reboot your Plex Server machine after checking those items and then go in after it comes back up and make sure the setting stays clicked.

3

Hi,

Thanks for the response. yes, I did the Dolby Digital settings on the server and only after that didn’t work I changed in cfg file of flex connect.

I’ll change the plexconnect setting to default again and try once more with the settings you suggested on PMS.

The thing I don’t understand is, when I look at the information of this particular video on ATV, it shows that it has two audio formats and both are AC3, I pick either of those and there’s no audio when playing. So, I assume apple TV knows that it has AC3 audio format but couldn’t play?

I’m running this on RasberryPi (Linux 32 bit).

4

Is this what you did?

  1. Right click Start
  2. Click Programs and Features
  3. Click Turn Windows features on or off
  4. Make sure there is a check in Legacy Components
  5. Click the + to expand
  6. Check the box for DirectPlay
5

@charlieny100 : I don’t have PMS on windows. It’s on Linux.

Thanks

6

What device are you using for sound ? I have a Denon 1604 a/v receiver conected to the ATV3 with toslink cable and I can play AC3 5.1 (because this Denon supports it, the ATV simply pass-thru the sound to the Denon). I am not using transcoding at all, my PMS is installed in a machine that cannot transcode (like your PI), therefore the only parameter that matters is the ATV setting Dolby=On.