Samsung TV (2019): Audio Dropping Randomly

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Server Version#: 1.20.4.3517
Player Version#: Client Version 5.4.1, Platform Version 5

I have an issue with files dropping audio. As an example, here is what the TV is playing at:

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When playing via web, I can get through the whole episode without issues:

image

Here is the XML of the media file I’m testing with:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionTitle="Kids TV" librarySectionUUID="ef1942a0-2a63-489c-a29f-d86d6d5c56cd" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1603922053">
<Video ratingKey="64747" key="/library/metadata/64747" parentRatingKey="64746" grandparentRatingKey="48307" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://361065/3/1?lang=en" parentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://361065/3?lang=en" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://361065?lang=en" type="episode" title="The Phantom, The Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!" titleSort="Phantom, The Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/48307" parentKey="/library/metadata/64746" librarySectionTitle="Kids TV" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/10" grandparentTitle="Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?" parentTitle="Season 3" contentRating="TV-PG" summary="The gang heads to Nashville, Tennessee to meet up with none other than country music legend Kacey Musgraves! Can our gang of mystery solvers help save her show from the shadowy PHANTOM? Or, will it be the “final curtain” for all of them?!" index="1" parentIndex="3" viewOffset="504000" lastViewedAt="1605075146" year="2020" thumb="/library/metadata/64747/thumb/1604376135" art="/library/metadata/48307/art/1604376136" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/48307/thumb/1604376136" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/48307/art/1604376136" duration="1344853" originallyAvailableAt="2020-10-01" addedAt="1604372211" updatedAt="1604376135">
<Media id="77523" duration="1344853" bitrate="4028" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mp4" videoFrameRate="24p" optimizedForStreaming="0" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="79138" key="/library/parts/79138/1604372151/file.mp4" duration="1344853" file="/media/Storage/01 - TV Shows/Kids/Scooby-Doo and Guess Who!/Season 03/Scooby-Doo and Guess Who! - S03E01 - The Phantom, The Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!.mp4" size="678152981" audioProfile="lc" container="mp4" deepAnalysisVersion="4" has64bitOffsets="0" optimizedForStreaming="0" requiredBandwidths="5551,4756,4756,4756,4756,4756,4756,4756" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="170957" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="3715" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="5140,4555,4555,4555,4555,4555,4555,4555" streamIdentifier="1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p (H.264)"/>
<Stream id="170958" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="313" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="314,314,314,314,314,314,314,314" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Marker type="intro" startTimeOffset="70070" endTimeOffset="91454"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>

What’s interesting is that both files are on direct stream but the TV drop then it will return audio randomly every few minutes (2-5) for a few seconds before dropping again. If I change the video quality, audio returns then drops again and repeats the same behavior. I have a 1 Gbps CAT6 network cable running from the TV to my home network. The computer I’m using is on Wifi.

I believe this may be an issue with how the TV is processing the file. Any thoughts on what I can try to solve this?

Thanks!

2

I can confirm this is happening on my TV also.

This seems to be related to the AAC audio when direct playing or direct streaming.

If the audio is transcoded, the issue goes away. Disabling “direct play” and “direct stream”, which forces transcoding solves the issue, but puts all of the work on the server. This increases resource use, and slows down things like skipping ahead and/or backward.

If using a different audio codec like Opus or TRUEHD, the audio is automatically transcoded and does not disable randomly as above.

If logs are required, please let me know!

3

Sounds like a player issue, so logs won’t really help much here. A sample file would be better to help debug.

1 Like
4

I’ll try and replicate the issue and get back to you with a sample. The issue is that it’s random, and seems to be related to the codec. It happens consistently, but not always in the same place per video. I’ll try and catch it with my mobile phone so you can see it in action as well.

5

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