It was the best bug ever because it got me to go buy one of those new Chromecasts with Google TV and I’m sold. Way better UI experience, and just overall better experience over a Roku.
It’s just funny because I originally had chromecasts and had to ditch them several years back for Roku because movies started freezing up inexplicably. Coming full circle back to Android/Chromecast.
Yep, I’m seeing transcodes from 5.1 AC3 or DTS to MP3 stereo as well. I’m pretty sure it used to transcode to AAC.
Can anyone confirm if the new server version 1.21.2.3939 still has this problem? I really want to take this for a spin, but not at the expense of terrible audio for all the clients that are getting MP3 audio for whatever dumb reason.
I can confirm that the problem is still there on version 1.21.2.3939.
This is annoying, I’m thinking of also rolling back to 1.21.0.3616.
As this is clearly a bug that user’s can not fix themselves… Are we ever going to hear from someone at Plex?
I just solved this issue on my Roku Streaming Stick+ without rolling back the server version. From the Roku main menu (NOT within the Plex app) I went to Settings > Audio > HDMI > then disabled the “Auto Detect” function (I chose Dolby Digital/DTS instead).
Now when I watch Live TV or DVR, the Plex dashboard shows Direct Stream AC3 5.1 and my receiver indicates it’s receiving Dolby Digital. No more audio transcoding!
Changing that Roku setting does not change anything for me. Any version newer than ‘1.21.0.3616’ will result in Plex transcoding audio to MP3 as per.
As a side note I’ve never seen my Roku (Streaming Stick+) direct stream audio from Live TV, only video.
Here’s the screenshot from my dashboard, showing Direct Stream for both video and audio.
But it looks like my inputs coming from Live TV (via HDHomeRun Quattro) are in different formats than yours. My Live TV comes in as MPEG2 video with AC3 5.1 audio. Yours shows H.264 video with AAC audio. I imagine that’s the difference.
Interesting, yeah I don’t have a HD Homerun, instead I have a VBox tuner… I’ll have a look in the settings to see if I have any control over the output but I’m guessing possibly not.
This will work only if your Roku is connected to compatible equipment and didn’t detect that compatibility using the auto detect setting originally. It’ll default to stereo and thus trigger the transcoding to stereo from Plex; if your audio equipment can manage AC3 5.1 then it won’t transcode to MP3 stereo - at which point on Roku you might end up with delayed audio from AC3 bug (depending on container) but turning off direct play will help in that situation.
Just wanted to clarify from my earlier post about this setting adjustment - the dual bug situation on Roku can be confusing and not everyone reads all the posts in the thread. 
Before (Roku & chromecast)
Now (Roku & chromecast)
Been happening to me for months. Is PLEX team aware this is actually an issue?
Probably? … but I wish there was a way to get more visibility besides just if a Plex employee commented yet. I think it also helps to avoid multiple threads when a Plex employee jumps on one - kinda makes that one the “official” thread.
It took awhile to get a response on the other AC3 Roku bug - which wasn’t a Plex bug - but did get one eventually…
So I tired the fix from Reddit last night. It didn’t work. I finally rolled back to the Mid-November update and now everything works 100% as it should.
We have released a Roku Preview version to transcode to AAC when necessary instead of MP3. This update will be in the next official update when approved.
Thank you very much, the problem on roku is fixed.
What are you going to do for the chromecast?
I imagine that an update of the server will be necessary?
You are most welcome!
I’ll ping the relevant team. I don’t anticipate a server update to be required. If the client doesn’t support MP3, then it can let the server know that, and the server will not convert into MP3.
OK perfect.
Now (Roku 6.7.9)
Play a movie with audio coding = AC3 5.1
TV does not support this type of audio coding (only stereo)
Plex transcode audio to AAC
Now Chromecast
Play a movie with audio coding = AC3 5.1
TV does not support this type of audio coding (only stereo)
Plex transcode audio to mp3 (Problem)
Thanks again 
Okay but clearly these devices do support AAC AND MP3 and something is causing a wrong decision to be made to transcode to a worse format when both are supported by the client.
All updated, looks to be fixed for my setup too. Thanks!
