Timeline for fixing the Roku lipsync issues

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Please can you provide a timeline for fixing the ROKU lipsync issues. I,m using Pleax Windows server version 1.21.2.3943 and ROKU version 9.4. Currently I have a paid up subscription for a service which is unusable for me and its been this way since December

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You might check out the other threads about audio delays… there are two known bugs and one or both can hit you.

  1. AC3 audio delay - if you are playing back AC3 audio in an MKV file and notice audio is out of sync then you are hit by a Roku 9.4 bug (not Plex). Please report it to Roku to get attention on it as it occurs in their Roku Media Player app as well. The workaround for this is to turn off Direct Play in the Plex settings. This will have very minimal impact on playback; you might notice some hiccups with subtitles but audio/video will still stream at original quality.

  2. MP3 Stereo Transcoding - if you are playing back multichannel audio and it is transcoding to MP3 stereo and you notice audio drifting (goes out of sync over time and resets after FF/RW) then you are hit by a Plex bug. The Roku app is getting an update to address it (currently in Preview Channel). You can also downgrade your server version or if your Roku incorrectly identified audio format support via the “auto” setting you can manually select the appropriate DD/DD+/DTS support and it won’t transcode to stereo anymore, but at which point you might get hit with bug #1.

There are a few different threads for these two bugs with additional details but that’s the gist.

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Thank you. This is a very helpful post. Ive posed the question to Roku who have so far been very evasive and unhelpful.

Using the preview Plex app and turning direct stream off has helped immensely. I have one EAC3 4k movie which still has major audio issues but the rest seem to be much better (possibly perfect). Can you think of a reason why certain EAC3 files would be affect whilst others are fine?

I note i how have an Mpeg4 SD tv series which Plex now tries (and fails) to transcode to h264 which worked fine before but now fails. Would this be a related issue?

Thanks

JAmes

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The EAC3 4K movie might have 7.1 audio on it which is still bugged out for MP3 transcoding - 5.1 is being fixed but 7.1 was a little different - and being worked on by Plex (according to the other threads).

I would suggest starting a new thread with specific details about those SD TV series files. I think that gets the best attention on it when the problem is a specific file set - particularly since it’s video transcoding issue vs audio so it’s a different topic.

When just a few files don’t seem to work it helps to troubleshoot them directly and there are log files you can post to help see where transcoding is failing. Here are some instructions for that: Reporting issues with Plex Media Server | Plex Support

Be sure to include things like server version, client version, file details as well as some info about your playback setup (TV, audio equipment etc).

Sometimes files just don’t play nicely and you have to do some adjustments to get playback working smoothly (run through Handbrake or MKV tools) and sometimes it’s a bug that Plex or Roku may need to fix.

Hopefully that helps!

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