Why HTPC Support Should Remain Indefinitely

Plex Players Desktop Players
41

No. You will not be affected.

42

Ok, thanks.

43

Yeah, I guess that does suck. Will that not be possible ever? I would think people should be complaining about THAT aspect of the new client then, instead of simply that PMP is going away. It seems really odd that simply allowing the existing audio track to pass through the software and out the computer’s hdmi output wouldn’t be supported - if not now at least in the future.

1 Like
44

Hello JohnAlex,
Does Kodi support audio passthru?

45

Yes it does.

46

Am I correct to assume that Kodi 18.3 only allows passthru for DD 5.1 and not for DTS.
I was so happy with PMP supporting DTS to my receiver


47

Kodi support DTS, DTS HD, DTS MA, etc.

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48

Hello Ciris,

perhaps you can explain to me how to set it up.
My PMS runs on a latest Mac mini. Kodi 18.3 runs on another Mac mini in the living room.
In Kodi i set audio passtrhu on, and the device to built-in Output, Digital Out.
My pioneer receiver recognizes the dolby digital 5,1, but does recognize the DTS.
Is it not possible or am I doing something wrong.

Thanks for your reply

49

You should ask your question on the Kodi forums. This is not the place for a how-to in a Plex forum.

50

I’m fairly certain that’s a macOS limitation, to not send HD audio or DTS out via pass through, as PMP on Mac had the same limitation. You’d need to be running Windows or LibreELEC to get pass through of all codecs with KODI.

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51

Hello DaveBinM,

Perhaps passthrough isn’t the right word. With PMP on my mac I can play my media with several audiotypes and my receiver displays the current audiotype. When I tried this morning when I installed the new plex app, I couldn’t find anywhere any audiosettings and my receiver doesn’t display the audiotype.
After All I have been Reading About The new plex app I’m starting to believe it will no longer be possible to play my media The way I used to. Perhaps you can shed Some light on this.
Kind regards Blauwe Plex

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52

Passthrough is the correct term. :slight_smile: The new app does not passthrough the audio, but decodes in app, and passes PCM to your AVR. Although your AVR doesn’t present the audio codec, it should sound the same. If you have a look at https://support.plex.tv/articles/212072167-audio-configuration-guide-plex-media-player/ the new app is doing decoding in app, rather than passthrough. Just picking out a few things from that article:

PCM/Direct means that the audio decoding is done in software (e.g. Plex Media Player and Plex Home Theater does it) and then sent to the receiver that outputs the PCM streams (one stream per channel) to the speakers.

So in short; when using decoding the only drawbacks are the lack of the extended Atmos data bits, and that your receiver will not light up the TrueHD light. Don’t worry, though: even if the pretty light doesn’t go on, you’re still getting identical sound!

53

I might be wrong here, but isn’t the whole point of Atmos to make the receiver compute the proper volumes, delays and everything based on your actual room setup, scaling to infinite speaker setups and sizes? Something that Plex will never be able to do.

Could be wrong though as this is not a something I’m using.

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54

You’re correct, but the article does say

when using decoding the only drawbacks are the lack of the extended Atmos data bits, and that your receiver will not light up the TrueHD light.

So for standard TrueHD audio, it should be identical.

55

Yes but that also means that without passthrough, some formats can’t be used. Meaning that the new app is an inferior product compared to PMP. It needs passthrough.

2 Likes
56

It’s not designed as a HTPC app. In the case I was responding to, with a Mac Mini, that doesn’t pass through HD audio anyway, no matter what app you’re using.

57

Yeah, it might not be designed as an HTPC app, and that’s the whole point of this thread. You’re discontinuing a valid use-case (and the best quality use-case actually), without offering a good replacement solution. And @BlauwePlex above said he had no problem with passthrough on his Mac Mini with PMP.

So
?

2 Likes
58

They mentioned DD/AC3, and DTS (neither of which are HD, or support Atmos / DTS:X).

59

Oh well, too bad for the Mac Mini then

What about Windows and Linux/Raspbian though? Everything was supported there right? Now you can’t have any passthrough at all on those devices.

RIP

60

You can continue to use PMP, although it will stop receiving updates after January 2020, or use something else, such as Plex for Kodi, if you wish to continue using audio passthrough.