# Transcoding Audio only **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296 "2020-10-26T16:17:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![strassbgb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/strassbgb/32/12906_2.png) [@strassbgb](https://forums.plex.tv/u/strassbgb)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/1 "2020-10-26T16:17:10Z")
I have the following environment: Plex Server on a HP proliant server, a Nvidia shield as client and 2k TV with Ac3 audio only. When I play a 2k film everything is ok, the server transcodes when needed. But if I play a 4k film the the following happens: 1.) If the the film contains AC3, DTS as audio everything is fine. The Nvidia itself handles the transcoding from H265 to H264 and to AC3 ,so no transcoding on server side is needed. 2.) If I play a 4k film with EAC3 audio, which the Nvidia cannot handle, then the server transcodes the audio to aac. But unfortunately the H265 is tanscoded to H264 as well, which ist not necessary. In the end , I cannot play the film, because the server is not able to transcode. A 4k TV would not solve the problem, It would mean that the TV should have **all** audio codes built in. My question, why does the server not transcode audio only ? ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/2 "2020-10-26T22:15:06Z")
1 - That is wrong. The Shield does not convert h265 to h264. The Shield supports h265 so it will play it. 2 - As mentioned in 1, h265 should play. Please playback a file causing this issue, then provide the logs from the app. [Android, Android TV, Fire TV Logs | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201573117-android-android-tv-fire-tv-logs/) ---
**Author:** ![pshanew](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/pshanew/32/160555_2.png) [@pshanew](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pshanew)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/3 "2020-10-27T17:11:27Z")
Another user recently experienced something similar, but in their case the audio codec was TrueHD. Any time they played the file with the TrueHD stream selected, Plex would transcode the HEVC stream to H.264 as well as transcoding TrueHD to E-AC3 (I believe). However, the same file also had an AC3 stream available; if it was selected, both the HEVC video and AC3 audio streams would direct play. The assumption was that this proved the client was capable of direct-playing the HEVC video, and that something about having to transcode the audio was forcing the video to transcode as well. Perhaps a profile/container/codec mis-match issue? I’m not sure if it will be useful, but here’s the other thread. There were some [server logs](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/) included there (I don’t think client logs were asked for or provided). The issue seems similar, but may be entirely unrelated. The client was Android-based, but not a Shield. > [@PMS will not transcode True HD for clients](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-will-not-transcode-true-hd-for-clients/644178): > > I’m using LSIO’s docker container on a Snyology DS1817+ NAS with the latest PMS installed (1.20.3.3437). I’m testing out playing a movie through my Samsung Galaxy S8+ mobile android device and all TrueHD audio (whether 5.1 or 7.1) streams fail with error “unable to play media” device. I have video transcoding disabled on PMS because the NAS does not support hardware transcoding support. The client can play 4K and 1080p streams so that shouldn’t be a problem. I also have subtitles disabled to mak… ---
**Author:** ![anon18523487](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@anon18523487](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anon18523487)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/4 "2020-10-27T17:47:33Z")
Depending on the device, some codecs cannot be direct streamed. It’s either direct play or transcode. This is why logs are important to understand the situation. ---
**Author:** ![velvet22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ce7236/32.png) [@velvet22](https://forums.plex.tv/u/velvet22)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/5 "2020-12-29T22:58:48Z")
Chromecast 2020 with google tv does not support e-ac3 but does support hevc however a file with e-ac3 still causes the full stream to be transcoded both video and audio. Disable video stream transcoding=checking this causes the whole file not to be playable anymore Disable transcoding of the video stream in transcoder operations. With this set, the transcoder may still transcode audio as well as remux video. i want only audio transcode since video&audio transcode is too heavy for the server. Howto do this? Forum is full of questions like this without proper solution. I’m a paying customer so would appreciate a solution ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoding-audio-only/647296/6 "2021-03-29T22:58:49Z")
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