# Tablet audio and transcoding

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598 "2018-05-24T22:06:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Raife1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@Raife1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Raife1)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598/1 "2018-05-24T22:06:53Z")

</div>

Evening all. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (SM-T820) and use it as a way to load up on recorded OTA shows (through HDHomeRun to my server) and watch them through Plex on my tablet when I travel. However, even though I am choosing “Original” for the video quality, the server is transcoding the file anyway. I tracked it down to converting the audio file to stereo from AC3 or DTS 5.1.

My question: Is there a way to add the capability of the Tab 3 to play the audio files natively or to force Plex to just copy over the file without transcoding it? The transcoding takes forever!!

Thank you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598/2 "2018-05-24T22:30:59Z")

</div>

from Samsung’s product spec:

| Video | Codec: MPEG4, H.264, H.263, WMV, DivX(1080p Full HD @30fps) Playback: 1080p@30fps Recording: 720p@30fps |
| Audio | Codec: MP3, OGG, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, E-AC3, WMA, FLAC Sound Alive and Dolby Surround |

are you sure Plex supports your specific AC3? E-AC3 is a special flavor which doesn’t necessarily mean the tablet supports regular AC3 as well. Even “Dolby Surround” can refer to full fledged AC3 5.1 or simply Dolby Digital Stereo…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Raife1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@Raife1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Raife1)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 1:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598/3 "2018-05-25T01:58:49Z")

</div>

Interesting. Not sure I know the specific AC3. It is from an over the air broadcast so I would assume it would be the most common type.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598/4 "2018-05-25T22:50:22Z")

</div>

Are you talking about syncing files? If so, sync does not allow anything other than h264 video and aac stereo. It is something we are looking to improve in the future, but for now, this is a limitation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/tablet-audio-and-transcoding/236598/5 "2020-01-08T01:05:11Z")

</div>