As far as I can tell, Plex only will play out 2 channel stereo. Is it in the plans to make it a more robust offering suitable surround sound for home theatre?
I have tried, with no success, various source media formats with 5.1 audio using plex on multiple platforms (XBox One, XBox 360, Windows) and in multiple home theatre configurations (one with 5.1 receiver direct, one with 7.2 receiver, one direct to TV and output from tv (digital audio out) to the receiver.
I have seen a few select scenarios comments that something is being worked on, but that seems specific to not playing directly through a receiver.
I am new to plex, so hopefully I am just missing some information; but would be a shame to have such a fantastic product go unused for home theatre scenarios.
Also works fine for me as well, I have a full 5.1 setup and I tested the channels about a year ago through plex and all channels are accurately representing movies. Your digital files however have to be encoded properly. If they are only encoded in 2 channel, that is all you are going to get.
Most of the set top box options will output either dd, ddplus or dts (or a mixture of those)…if you want pure bitstreaming you need to use pmp or kodi addon (can also do open plex home theater)
The only thing you lose (and at this point i don’t think of it as a loss anymore) from something like full on xbmc/kodi is choice in how the interface works. There are no issues with using it as a hometheater solution though
@beameup50 said:
As far as I can tell, Plex only will play out 2 channel stereo.
This all depends on the used Plex client.
I have tried, … (XBox One, XBox 360, Windows)
Your best bet for the optimum video and audio quality are PMP and OpenPHT.
(caution: PMP is not ‘Plex for Windows’ in the Microsoft App Store).
Both are running on Windows.
Both are supporting ‘bit streaming’ surround sound formats over HDMI to AVR.
As long as your HDMI output supports the required bandwidth and your AVR or TV supports decoding the surround sound format.
Side effect: Transcoding on the server will virtually not happen at all, since both client apps support the widest range of video and audio formats.
This ensures a low cpu load on the server and the best audiovisual quality because the file will be played unchanged.
I am not seeing those audio options on the Plex player for Xbox One or Xbox 360.
Of course, that page is referring to Plex Media Player. Probably the issue is in the Xbox client, since you mentioned Windows I suggest you try with PMP and see if it works for you
@chris0101 said:
Have you enabled 5.1 in the audio settings? Plex has done multi channel audio for years, works fine here.
What device(s) do you have working? What containers / formats / audios are working.
I am starting to think it must just be a limitation on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 media players.
can you show come pictures that show where you are seeing it not work…there are issues with the xbox one app but I use it all the time and definitely has surround sound
Thx for all the input, and for mcrommert confirming that it worked on Xbox One as it lead me recheck my scenarios. I had the Xbox One connected to the TV and digital audio out from the TV to the receiver which didn’t work. But if I go direct to the receiver from the Xbox One, then I do indeed get 5.1 audio. I had the Xbox 360 connected directly in another scenario and it didn’t work because 5.1 audio apparently isn’t supported on xbox 360.
