Implementing client-side audio downmixing is very tricky, mostly because the only way we could downmix audio is to have access to the audio decoder’s so we can filter the audio and rebuild them with the new speaker configuration. As of now we have no plans for audio downmixing on Android, but it might be something we can look into a later date!
@Lugdum said:
Plex uses ExoPlayer on Android which makes you dependent on what ExoPlayer can or cannot do. But if I understand correctly, ExoPlayer V2.0, recently released, has implemented an ffmpeg wrapper which could be used to downmix audio.
ExoPlayer v2 wouldn’t help the issue you are describing, mostly because the audio codecs you would want to downmix require a license fee to be used. This is something that Android device manufacturers pay for and include.
@Lugdum said:
I saw many comments on different forums about that. I guess there are some license issues. Though, I don’t get how it could be okay to decode DD/DTS on some platforms (this audio downmix option exists on many plex clients) but illegal on others - except if the OS bring those licenses. But then how is it possible for a standalone app such as PMP to decode them…
The OS does indeed bring the decoders for other platforms, except for PMP. Since PMP is open sourced and released under the GPL, we can include more codecs without requiring licensing. For instance, there is a GPL version of the AC3 decoder, so we can include this in PMP without worrying about licensing.
