Now I tend to avoid transcoding like it is the plague, but I was hoping to leverage it for HD audio usage without quality loss. I may be wrong there, but I'm pretty sure when audio is transcoded it is converted to DD or MP3. Could we have an option to just decode to the audio to PCM (which has to be done first) and then send to PCM stream to the device if it supports it?
This would allow HD audio formats to be used without quality loss and have less strain on the transcoder since all it has to do is decode, which it already is doing, and not re-encode.
The way I see my devices (current and in the process of acquiring) use my media would be:
TrueHD => PCM
DD+ => direct play or PCM (depending on the device)
DD => direct play
DTS-HD MA => PCM
DTS-HD => PCM
DTS => direct play or PCM (depending on the device)
PCM => direct play
MakeMKV (on all platforms) allows users to convert their HD audio to flac format whether it be DTS-HD MA or TrueHD. I'd rather just leave the original track untouched (especially since I've already ripped my 240+ movies and shows).
I'm in the same boat here... on a related note at least... I've been using Plex since April 2012 and up till just recently was using it mostly for video.
I recently upgraded my primary TV to ah LED TV with a digital out and upgraded my Roku 2 to a Roku 3. The Roku 2 had an analog out, but the Roku 3 only has the HDMI. Now, I'd had a little DAC that I was using previously for an HTPC set up prior to the Roku 2 and hadn't been using it for a while, but then it dawned on me... Why not route my audio out of the Roku 3 via HDMI, through the LED TV via the optical out and into the DAC. The TV out has the option of "bitstream" or "PCM". I'm using Bitstream now. I've got some mp3's, but I ripped my CD collection to Flac a long time ago and have purchased some hi-rez files more recently to play around with as well (24/96). The DAC is fed to an Accuphase C-200/P-300 combo and then to a pair of upgraded '77 Klipschorns ( I had some vintage audio GAS about 10 years ago ). The combination sounds terrific.
My understanding is that PMS is transcoding my flac files to MP3 256 right now (I believe). But as drhill has requested above, it would be great to have the option to force transcoding to bitstream or pcm. Bandwidth certainly shouldn't be an issue on a LAN.
I think as more and more users come on to the platform and discover what a great solution it is, they'll find that there are many uses for the solution... including as an Audio server.
