When will Plex finally support HD audio on WebOS?

Plex Players Smart TVs
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Hello to all movie fans,

i am using Plex for many years and was very happy with it… Now i have built a system, which is capable to passthrough HD Audio from Source to AVR.

TV: LG OLED 65 E97 LA: It supports DTS, DD, DTS HD, True HD etc.
Receiver: VSX 527: Supports almost all HD formats and can handle also eARC with new eARC to hdmi extractor (Thank god i have not bought a new expensive AVR).

TV and AVR are connected with HDMI via eARC…

Test 1: I use two movie files. First one has DTS HD MA. The other one Dolby True HD. I am using PC / Windos with Media Player Classic (MPC HC) as player. In MPC all audio formats are on passthrough. The PC is connected to TV with HDMI (TV to AVR as discribed via HDMI/ eARC).
Result: My AVR plays and displays the correct audio format, DTS HD and Dolby True HD.

So the TV passthroughs the HD audio signal correctly.

Test 2: Playing the same two movie files directly with LG Plex App from TV.
Result: Unfortunately the DTS HD MA is playing only as DTS. The Dolby True HD only as Dolby Digital Plus.

If i am not wrong, it shows that the LG Plex ap is not supporting HD Audio (passthrough). I have looked at all settings, forums etc. but did not find any solutions. I know that the acutal LG TVs does not support even DTS, but my TV can, as shown in Test 1 (I have read, that new LG TVs in 2023 will support DTS and HD Audio again). Unfortunatley there are no other media player on Webos, like Kodi which supports HD Audio passthrough, as far as i know.

I hope that a Plex admin or developer read this and maybe they can work on an update? If there are legal restrictions with LG please let me know. And if someone else have an idea or if i am wrong at a certain point please let me also know.

Thanx to all and greeetings to all from europe.

Steeli

Server Version#: 1.31.3.6868
Player Version#:Plex for LG, Client: 5.57.2 / Plattform: 4.9.9
TV: webOS 4.5

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This is a TV manufacturer, not Plex, limitation.

No TV supports TrueHD passthrough from a TV based app. The audio will be transcoded by Plex Media Server to a supported format.

Your TV is old enough that it supports DTS, but not DTS-HD, audio from TV based apps. The TV passes the DTS 5.1 core audio, discarding the "-HD MA’ lossless portion. Current LG TVs do not support passthrough for any DTS audio formats from TV based apps.

The TV does support DTS-HD and TrueHD passthrough for devices attached to HDMI inputs (see LG E9 review at rtings.com).

If you want DTS-HD MA and TrueHD audio, you will need to acquire a Nvidia Shield Pro. It will passthrough both audio formats. Plex HTPC running on a PC may also meet your needs.

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Many thanks for your detailed answer. I really did not know that there is a differnce and that there es no possibility to passthrogh HD Audio from TV app - so at least i can be happy that DTS works, but still a pity.

Yes i can use Shield or Plex HTPC , but the reason why i wanted to use Plex app on TV, next to easy use with tv remote, is that there is a significant improvement of picture quality and an excelent motion smoothing when you play directly from TV. I testet this 2 years ago for weeks between PC, PS4 Bluray, LG Player App and Plex. Movie as digital file on TV app / Plex was better than Bluray - dont know how good shield is.

Thanks anyway. I just have to make compromises :slight_smile:

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