Windows 10, no DTS audio

General Discussions
1

I posted this in the PMP section but no responses yet, so I will try here…

i have been using plex for quite a while locally on the server. i recently had a requirement (baby like bright button!) to move the server out of the Home Theater and into an Audio Rack (out of sight). when i did this i went out and bought a refurbished Lenovo M92 pc (super tiny and doesn’t use much power) and did a clean install of Windows 10 (don’t want bloat!).

Whenever i play a video that is DTS encoded through Plex Media Player i don’t get any audio without triggering the transcoding. Any other video file i play works without issue (direct play\stream). when i play the same problematic video through VLC or the Plex web client it plays the DTS audio no problem, so i dont think it is the DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI active converter i have inline to my Denon Receiver (supports DTS Audio , DTS-HD, True HD, Dolby Plus etc.).

I have updated every Intel chipset driver\firmware i can find and scoured the google for helpful results (the RealTek chipset is only used for the analog ports). cant find anything. any ideas?? this is obnoxious!

2

what version of Plex Media Server are you running?

Make sure you are on version 1.5.5 - available from https://plex.tv/downloads and that you are connected to the internet when you play the DTS audio file for the first time

3

See this announcement https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/268072/plex-media-server-1-5-1-and-plex-media-player-1-2-4-or-newer-are-mandatory-updates

4

The server is. 1.5.5.3634. I don’t know the PMP version but it is up to date as of a week or so ago. This has been a problem for weeks, not new.

Why is the Internet and latest versions required? Was there something I missed in the changelog? The PMP machine is on the same network as the server and has full access to the Internet.

5

@DustSt0rm said:
The server is. 1.5.5.3634. I don’t know the PMP version but it is up to date as of a week or so ago. This has been a problem for weeks, not new.

Why is the Internet and latest versions required? Was there something I missed in the changelog? The PMP machine is on the same network as the server and has full access to the Internet.

It may be a different issue. Cannot say without logs from PMP and PMS.

See the announcement I linked concerning the mandatory update

6

@marcisikoff said:
To be sure I have Server showing: 1.5.5.3634 as latest version (where you can check for newer).

I also have Window 10 as client with the Plex App from the Windows Store as well as the web front end of the server (on FreeNAS) which acts as the same as Plex App more or less.

I have continued to pound for answers but zero help.

Server winds up transcoding almost all content I have and stutters and complains. This is the case for MKV containers that have 5-channel DTS or 5-channel Dolby Digital.

This is a mess…there’s no good reason why transcoding is happening, and the current server version doesn’t even have an option to disallow transcoding. Direct Play options have no affect and Plex team seems apathetic on this issue.

I’ve had to resort to copying the files to my desktop and opening VLC to play them out with their native audio.

I don’t want to hear “blame Microsoft” because Microsoft allows DTS, DD, and almost all lower formats of audio to play and multiple programs and applications exist which play fine under those codecs without throttling the system for transcoding.

But Plex’s server or windows client applications don’t seem to play well which ruins the entire Plex experience.

I don’t think we ever had any logs / diagnostics to see why it is happening.

The previous post you had about this back in March (https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1408314/#Comment_1408314) was when there were issues on FreeBSD transcode temporary directory access which were the subject of the forum topic you posted in

Could I suggest you provide the following,
A test carried out with debug logging enabled on the server
capturing server and windows plex app logs
and getting the media info for the mkv
and details of your HDMI connection setup

and if you could also try the same with Plex Media Player and see if it is different

For logs
For the Plex for Windows Store App logging, go to Settings within the app and select Advanced and ensure Logging is ON before you do the test
For Plex Media Server logging, goto server general settings and ensure debug logging is enabled
See https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201643703-Reporting-issues-with-Plex-Media-Server

Then select a sample file that you do not believe should be transcoded and play that
Collect the logs,
For Server logs, See https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200250417-Plex-Media-Server-Log-Files
For the windows app log, go to settings within the app then Advanced and select option Email diagnostics which will show where the diagnostics.zip is. Either email it to yourself to attach here or copy it out from the path shown

And please get the media info for the test mkv file
See
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201998867-Investigate-Media-Information-and-Formats

Attach logs zips (server and app) plus the media info.

Could you also see if using Plex Media Player gives you what you want to achieve. Plex Media Player does its own encoding if needed and may Direct Play.
The download for Windows is available here https://plex.tv/downloads
Current version is 1.3.0

I am going to move your post and my reply to the windows app forum