I’m having a slightly annoying issue with playback inside the Plex app on the PS3. The app outputs 5.1 sound at all times, even when playing a file with only stereo audio. This means that the audio is just being output to the front left and front right channels of my 5.1 system, instead of being sent to the receiver as stereo (for my receiver to decode using Dolby Pro Logic II). This doesn’t happen when playing the file using DLNA functionality, only when playing files using the Plex app. Is there any way to make the app send stereo audio files to my receiver as stereo?
I’m using HDMI and have my PS3 output set to output PCM stereo, DTS (5.1), or Dolby Digital (5.1). I’ve disabled multichannel PCM output because Hulu does this same thing, except over 5.1 channel PCM, but switches to 2-channel PCM if multichannel PCM is disabled.
I’m glad I’m not the first one to notice it, but I couldn’t find the other two posts using a Google search, so thank you.
Between this issue and the incorrect mapping of 5.1 audio sources, the Plex app is pretty much useless on the PS3.
Using DLNA (with Plex and other DLNA servers), the PS3 handles 5.1 sources correctly, but the PS3 built-in player is not playing video files with 2-channel AAC as stereo. It’s outputting them as mono for some unknown reason. I used to swear by the PS3 for playing media, but I’ve been using my XBOX360 a lot more over the last few days. It may not output true 5.1, but at least I can run Pro Logic on all sources and get surround sound that way.
