TV app selects the wrong audio track during Direct Play

Plex Players
1

Hi everyone,
I have an issue with Plex on my TV.
If a TV show episode has multiple audio tracks, Plex always plays the wrong one during Direct Play.

The interface shows the correct language (for example “English” or “Croatian”), but it actually plays a different one (like Slovenian).
I checked everything in MKVToolNix — the metadata and default flags are all correct.

What’s strange is that on web, mobile, and desktop plex app everything works perfectly.
Also, if I disable Direct Play or force transcoding, the correct audio plays every time.

So this problem only happens on the TV app with Direct Play enabled.
Is Plex aware of this bug, and is there any fix planned for it?

2

How many audio and subtitle tracks are in total within this file?
If it’s more than 30, remove a few that you are never going to use.
Which smart TV brand?

3

LG Web OS And there are only 3 Audio tracks and 0 subtitles.

4

If you mean when you have multiple audio tracks - lets say ENG, GER, ITA and your Plex profile is set to select English - even though it might be ticked the wrong language plays? I have this issue on Shield also. Workaround for me is to select another language and then go back to English and then it works.

5

I have the same issue on the mobile app. Selecting another language and then going back to English does not work either.

6

I have the same issue, and this seems to have been an issue for almost a decade now, judging by other posts on this forum. I found a post from 2017.

I have an LG TV from 2019 with webOS. It is running the latest updates to the TV and the latest version of Plex as of writing.

Same issue: I have let’s say some show with English audio and Japanese audio. I select Japanese, and that track has a check mark in the UI and everything, yet still the English audio plays. Utterly frustrating. I’m guessing either that language is marked as the default in the media container (edit: yup, that was the case), or there is some issue with Plex’s settings or audio selection logic.

This only happens when Direct Play is enabled. With Direct Play disabled, the correct audio plays fine. But with big content like 4K HDR video, you get stuttering when it is forced to transcode on the fly. Not a great experience. Direct Stream also seems to cause stuttering, which Plex documentation implies shouldn’t happen because “Direct Streaming a file uses very little processing power”.

Can we get an update after almost 9 years of this issue, so we can actually watch our content?

For the record, Jellyfin handles this fine, which is free. I hate to have to recommend another system to my peers, but if this isn’t fixed, I will most likely do so and migrate myself as well. :frowning: It’s been years of this issue now, personally as well.

I’m also trying to watch movies in my own language with my kids, but it just won’t work unless I remux the media with only our own language left in the file. Selecting the correct audio just won’t play it. E.g. if I have a video with English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish, it will only play English. Selecting any other language only ever plays English. (No language is completely silent as some people have reported.)

Thank you for your attention to this matter. :saluting_face: Please, please, I beg for an update. :folded_hands:

7

I cannot reproduce this, as it happens/happened rarely and I did not think of taking a note, but I got this error too
For me, as most of my library is German/English “DL”, it happens with language set to english and then plays the germand track.

8

Same issue for me. On the road and using Direct Play to get a somewhat decent connection to my movies, and forcing it causes the commentary track to play instead of the standard audio. (The audio track is NOT set to the default track, but both are set as English so they’re both technically the “default language”). Changing the commentary to “Undetermined” fixed the issue, but still it’s a clear bug that the issue happens regardless.

9

Same issue on Samsung TV. When I enable direct play ot always shoses first (wrong) audio track despite I’ve chosen another in settings. Please fix, this is annoying :frowning:

10

For people who say they can’t reproduce this: good for you. This is one-hundred percent reproducible for me on my LG TV (model year 2019), and it’s very annoying. Jellyfin handles this perfectly fine, and the lack of feedback from official Plex people here on this forum after years of reporting this issue shows me that no one cares.

I will now happily move to Jellyfin. This was one of only two things keeping me from being a lifetime paying customer. 1) Incorrect audio being selected, and 2) god awful performance on my LG TV. Jellyfin outshines Plex on both points.

You lost a potential paying customer here. I will now move on with my life and I won’t look back and try again. Good bye. :waving_hand:

11

I have to admit, I’ve been eyeing Jellyfin for quite some time now too. Plex just isn’t what it used to be — in the past, issues and bugs were addressed and resolved fairly promptly or at least in an acceptable amount of time…
Now we have lots of half-ready functions or outdated TV-Apps…

12

I’ve had both running at the same time, and the more I use Jellyfin, the less I want to use Plex, because it works so poorly on my TV where I actually want to watch my shows and movies.

Do it, folks! Plex doesn’t check here for bugs obviously. Make the switch today. Jellyfin is free and better. :+1: Enjoy!

13

Last time i checked, the tv app can only play the first audio track. If you want another track, it has to be direct streamed to make it the first track.