I have a really weird problem with my subtitles and surround sound. All of my movies are ripped into the MKV format and watching them at home on my smartTV. When I play the movies, I want to play it with subtitles and 5.1 surround sound. The issue is I can’t have both at the same time. I can only either have one or the other. So for example, if I want subtitles (English PGS), I don’t get the full 5.1 surround sound. I only get stereo I guess because the sound only comes out from the two front speakers. However, when I change subtitles to none, I get the 5.1 surround sound. What is going on here? Is there a fix for this?
Also, I am do not get any sound when I choose Englisn (DCA 8) Surround 7.1. But I do get sound when I choose English (DCA 6) Surround 5.1. Do you know what’s going on here?
My audio track selections are:
English (DCA 8) Surround 7.1
English (DCA 6) Surround 5.1
English (AC3 2) Stereo
Francais (AC 3 6) Surround 5.1
Espanol (AC 3 6) Surround 5.1
Portugese (AC 3 6) Surround 5.1
English (AC 3 2) Stereo
I tried to do a screenshot on my pc but wouldn’t do it somehow. But here’s the pertinent info on the screen:
Converting
Video Transcoding H264 to H264
Audio Transcoding DCA to AC3
What Sound Mode is selected on your receiver? Suggest using Direct, at least while testing. This will make sure the receiver does not modify the signal.
HDMI-ARC does not support lossless audio codecs, such as TrueHD and dts-HD. Choosing either should result in transcoded audio. Not sure why you do not hear any audio (The first audio track in Avengers is dts-HD MA 7.1).
It looks like something wrong is happening when dts is transcoding to AC3.
Let’s check to see if AC3 audio works OK by itself.
Using Avengers Infinity War, play the movie, no subtitles, and select the French (AC3 5.1) audio track.
a) What does Plex Now Playing show for both video & audio - direct play / direct stream / transcode?
b) Do you hear surround sound or just stereo?
c) Does your receiver give any indication of what audio it is receiving - AC3 5.1, AC3 2.0, etc.? Open the door & look at the sub-display (pic below).
The above should direct play for both video and audio and you should hear surround sound. If you do not, then check the audio settings in both the Plex app and the Samsung TV.
Ultimately, you’ll still need to pull & post the log files like Trumpy81 requested.
I’m just wondering if straight AC3 5.1 playback works OK before trying to figure out why audio transcoded to AC3 does not work OK.
I’m not sure what Sound Mode is selected on my receiver. I attached a photo of my receiver below.
Is HDMI-ARC not a good connection type? Should I use optical cables instead?
Using Avengers Infinity War, no subtitles and French (AC3 5.1) audio track.
a) Plex shows Direct Play
b) I hear surround sound
c) attached is a photo of my receiver
Playing Avengers Infinity War, no subtitles and ENGLISH (AC3 5.1) audio track.
a) Plex shows Direct Play
b) I get surround sound
c) attached is a photo of my receiver
ARC ports are very hit or miss. Some get stereo while some get no sound at all.
Speaking to the point of subtitle processing resulting in stereo-only output, I need to see the DEBUG logs with subtitles enabled. This should definitively tell us what PMS is doing because if audio is being converted to stereo, it will list it. In this case, it is a possible profile error. We won’t know until see exactly what it’s doing.
Jan 04, 2019 13:01:00.963 [9264] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.14.1.5488-cc260c476 - Microsoft PC x64 - build: windows-i386 english - GMT -08:00
Jan 04, 2019 13:01:00.963 [9264] INFO - Windows version: 10.0 (Build 17134), language en-US
Problem solved. I installed the Plex Player on the Nuc and I do get sub and 5.1. But it’s not a great solution because I can’t conveniently control it with the TV remote. But guess what? The 4K AppleTV Plex app does the job. It’s a much more elegant solution. It plays both sub and 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound and I can control it with the appletv remote which I am happy about! So one problem down onto the next! Thanks guys!
Thanks guys!