Is there away (or maybe this is a feature request) to set server side preferences ad a per user or global level for preferred audio track?
ex. set global preferred audio to ac3 over truehd to reduce transcoding
ex. User who has compatible hardware, force truehd over ac3
I know Plex remembers these changes on an individual movie basis, even if there was away to manipulate the database to specify that setting I would be happy with it.
Hopefully this is already a feature or someone knows of a plugin that can do this.
Hi SE56, from what I can tell that only does language defaults and not audio formats defaults. I could select english as the default but that does force AC3/TrueHD for example as the could be both english
This just seems to be a obvious necessity. Right now, I think there are only two apps/devices that will automatically select the “best” audio track, based on the audio/video equipment it is connected to. The Plex Media Player (PMP) and the Roku. All other apps require that you manually select an audio track.
It would seem to me, if the lowly Roku is capable of making the selection based on the equipment it connected to, the other devices should be more than capable. To put it simply, the other devices are probably just “smarter” to begin with, and they all use an HDMI connection that is supposed to allow communication between the devices to determine the capabilities each has.
My major annoyance, is that once you select an audio track, Plex remembers that forever and a day, and from that point forward, you will be required to select the proper audio track for the equipment you are using. Worse, that policy forces the “smart” apps to become dumb, and they insist on using the track that was selected by another device, which results in no audio or transcoding.
I usually use the Roku, and never select an audio track. It works seamlessly between the video/audio equipment each one is connected to, choosing the proper track automatically. Until I use one of the “dumb” devices that require me to choose an audio track, and plex enforces that decision to all devices.
Unrelated, but stripping the unwanted audio tracks with Handbrake is probably the hardest and most time consuming way of eliminating unwanted audio tracks. I don’t think handbrake can simple copy the existing video track, it has to re-encode it. I would use MKV-Toolnix or the good old fashioned ffmpeg command prompt to remove the unwanted audio tracks, and have the job done in a few seconds. That;s just me though.
So yes stripping away the unwanted audio track would solve the issue, just not an option I have. removing all down stream components which are ultimately responsible for the experience due to comparability. I’ve notice a big difference in players and how they handle media. I’ve been testing a Roku Ultra, 2015 Samsung Plex app, 2016 Samsung Plex app (newer player, allot of issue in other forms in interested) and the new AMFT 4K stick. I’ve chosen to go with the 4k stick as the only failed test I’ve run into was actually at a performance limitation of my server. to resolve that issue I either need to upgrade my server to handle more transcoding power or set audio to AC3. after thinking about it, my biggest issue is with clients
@BigWheel@sixones can we please get support for setting a default audio format on Android? I always have to quality’s for each language (as do many folks, I believe). In my case I have a stereo aac track and a 5.1 ac3 track so that I can direct play on as many clients as possible including: phones, shield TV, apple TV, etc.
It would be great to be able to do like PMP and Roku and tell the device to always default to whatever quality is right for the device…
Thanks! Also, the whole subs displaying as chapters issue for English…
This isn’t the first request for this, just the most recent.
In another thread, (and I’m not looking for it, the search feature lacks some times).I was told the Roku and PMP can do it because you select the codecs the device is capable of decoding or pass-through, so it’s impossible to do it on other devices.
My Roku, server, and Android are all connected by HDMI to the same A/V receiver. All of the devices have pass-through enabled. All audio formats on all devices direct play perfectly, but the Android is the only device I have to specifically and manually select an audio track.
So, continuing the off-topic comments from the other thread, if the the new Android app is going to implement some sort of codec selection, then automatic selection of audio track seems the obvious next step.
I think the features are close but not exact. my intention of this request is so at a user level you can set your preferred or default audio format. The other request leans a bit more to “best” based on device (which is subjective). just winging it…, if this was iterative I would say the user-level would come first as it ends up being a global (user) flag set, then device based as the user can have multiple devices so that would require some device tracking.
PLEASE add a setting to Plex which allows us to set a default audio codec/quality for movies/shows based on both user-level as well as, the client-level.
It would be good to have an option under User Settings > Audio & Subtitle Settings or on a per library basis to set a default audio format if that format exists for a movie or show. i.e. DTS, or AC3, or AAC, etc. Or preferably a list like is seen in the Agents menu where we could reorder the various formats.
Have the option in each client’s settings to set a default audio codec. As mentioned above, if that codec doesn’t exist in the file, default either to the first track, or have a list which can be reordered as mentioned above. This per device option should only be used if the user-level is set to “Use Client Settings” , or something like that.
In my specific case, I add both 2 channel AAC and 5.1 channel AC3 to all my movie files. It would be amazing to be able to tell my Android TV to always default to the 5.1 audio, and my phone to AAC. As it stands, since I have the AAC channel first, every time I watch a show or movie on my TV I have to select the 5.1 audio… it would be AMAZING to have it default.
Thanks!
Does that work? Please suggest any edits you might have. =) I went ahead and updated my original post and title to more closely include what you said… I hope that’s ok…
I understand that this discussion belongs to @jantjo and @marcjt, and your decision on wording or merging has to be respected. My 2 cents…
Currently, the Roku and PMP seem to always pick the best track in line with the equipment the device is connected to, no user preferences required, and no client preferences required. If I remember correctly, it does require that you select passthrough, and that you select the audio formats that your equipment is able to use. I would be concerned that selecting a “user” preference, would force all devices to use that preference. That might not be a desired effect for everyone, and for sure not in my case.
I’m also not sure why we would want to choose on a “per Library” basis. I think I would want that global, across all libraries and servers if multiple tracks were available.
In truth, I think the request really requires that the devs actually add whatever code the Roku and PMP use to make that determination on audio track. It surely can’t be that the Roku is “smarter” than an Android device or PS4, it just has some logic in the underlying code that makes an intelligent decision.
Anyways, carry on gentlemen. Any discussion bumps this thread up so that maybe someone pays attention
stripping away the unwanted audio track would solve the issue, just not an option I have. removing all down stream components which are ultimately responsible for the experience due to comparability. I’ve notice a big difference in players and how they handle media. I’ve been testing a Roku Ultra, 2015 Samsung Plex app, 2016 Samsung Plex app (newer player, allot of issue in other forms in interested) and the new AMFT 4K stick. I’ve chosen to go with the 4k stick as the only failed test I’ve run into was actually at a performance limitation of my server. to resolve that issue I either need to upgrade my server to handle more transcoding power or set audio to AC3. after thinking about it, my biggest issue is with clients
