@Istria what’s the TV?
If you share media info xml please do it for both a working and not-working file.
Thanks for all the responses and discussions!
About the HDR, 10-bit and/or Main10 thing. I don’t think that could be it, since the same video stream direct plays fine if I select the AAC audio track instead of the EAC3 track. Also, some other 4K 10bit Main10 HDR video’s (like ‘Titanic’ below) work fine.
The “TV” is a Casio projector connected by HDMI.
Here are some mediainfo files.
- Goodfellas - 1080p x265 EAC3 (the video file from the OP and logs. When AAC track is selected, both video and audio direct play).
- The Great Escape - 1080p x265 EAC3 (has the exact same issue as Goodfellas).
- Star Trek Discovery - 1080p x264 EAC3 (works fine, copies video and transcodes audio).
- Titanic - 2160p Main10 HDR10 x265 DTS-HDMA (works fine, direct play both video and audio)
Zip with the xml files: mediainfoexports.zip (16.2 KB)
If needed or useful, I could make some short sample clips and upload them aswell.
Just a small bump, since it was so active here before. Thanks in advance!
I have been trying to figure out a completely different problem I’ve been having. And that brought me right back to the issue from this topic.
I noticed that when I’d play videos with a AAC5.1 track, the audio would drop out or stutter every 5-10s. Video would remain nice and smooth.
After a lot of searching and testing, I concluded its the optical connection between my android box and soundbar that can’t handle AAC5.1.
Now,l to solve that, I tried to find a way to force plex to transcode the AAC5.1 to something that does work. Like AC3. Following some guides and forum posts, I got it to work by enabling audio passthrough in Plex settings and checking both AC3 AND DTS. Now, when I play the video, the AAC5.1 gets transcoded to AC3(5.1) by the Plex Server.
BUT! It transcodes the video as well! Again x265=>x264. While it could direct play the x265 video just fine when the audio was not being transcoded (without passthrough setting it would direct stream both the x265 video and the AAC5.1 audio).
I sincerely hope someone can point me into the right direction on this one. My Plex server can’t handle video transcoding anything more than SD video. And even then it almost maxes out its cpu.
Thanks again!
Sorry for giving this another final bump. The HEVC/EAC3 combination is still bugging me. Thank you for deciphering the log for me and clearing up what the transcoding reasons are. But they don’t make complete sense to me:
1. Player is not HDR-capable (MAIN 10). It’s only SDR (Main)
But how come the exact same file does direct play when I select an AAC track instead of EAC3? Also, the HEVC/EAC3 combo does work in Kodi with the Plex addon. If the player is not capable of it, it should not work at all, right? Not when selecting an AAC audio track, and also not in Kodi. Correct?
-
The player does not support EAC3.
I assume so. And because of that, it should transcode the EAC3 to OPUS, while leaving the video stream untouched, right? -
The client app is asserting a bandwidth utilization limit.
That is weird. I have 80-100Mbit (speedtested on the android box itself) and the video’s we’re talking about are all below 10Mbit. Some even below 2Mbit. I have streamed up to 40Mbit video’s without a problem. As long as they dont have the HEVC/EAC3 combination. HEVC is fine. EAC3 is fine (transcoded to OPUS. But the combination doesn’t play.
Thanks in advance. Still hoping for a hint towards a fix.
That’s a very reasonable question.
LOL sorry, I meant what’s the player box (Android something) that’s running Plex?
Yeah. I don’t think there are any AVRs or soundbars that will receive AAC on either Optical or HDMI ARC.
There are various scenarios where transcoding audio will also force video transcoding. That’s gotten better over the years.
Are you using subtitles?
I assume Allow Direct Stream is enabled?
You might share another log sample.
The android box is a “Transpeed 6K Ultra HD” with a H616 chip running Android 10 “Go” edition.
The Plex app is installed from the Google Play Store.
I have tried with and without subtitles. Same result.
I have not seen any “enable direct stream” options. Only the bandwidth limit on the client/player side, which I set to maximum. And the “disable video transcoding” option on the server side. Isn’t this a deprecated feature that is now “always on” in the current versions? Or am I not seeing it?
Anyway, I assume it must be turned on. Because when I have a H264/EAC3 combination, it direct streams the video and transcodes the audio. Like I’d expect it to.
I will make some more logs with different video files. And also share a sample clip here. But my eyes are heavy, need sleep. Will update tomorrow/tonight.
P.S. The AAC5.1 stuttering with optical thing still is a mystery to be. Because since then I’ve come across more videos which had AAC5.1 as audio. And they (direct)played fine with no stuttering. It was only this Planet Earth II series that had the stuttering.
Thanks for the response!
I don’t have an Android player in front of me. I know that the option used to exist, and was adjacent to the Direct Play setting. Perhaps it is deprecated now.
And that makes sense, I agree.
For what it’s worth, Direct Play/Direct Stream is just called Maximum now.
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