Hi I have a question and probably I should know this but could not find a clear answer and would just like to know if I can solve this issue or not.
I have the latest version of plex media server on a synology DS1812+ and the latest version of the plex player on my xbox one. the xbox has a wired connection to the NAS.
I am streaming a 1080P MKV to the xbox and the settings on the XBOX when I select the video file are to stream the original content.
When I stream this with the AC3 audio channel (French) the MKV plays without stutters (however don’t understand most of the movie)
When I select the English audio channel (DTS 5.1) the video stutters…
It seems as if the DTS forces the server to transcode the audio… is there a setting I need to change for this on the server side without upsetting playback of all my other MKV files or is this just a known issue with the XBOX and DTS audio?
Would I solve this by upgrading the hardware on server side (really not looking forward to that but was intrigued by this new netgear router with the plex server installed on it)
again apologies if this is a known issue that I just found out about.
What that’s telling you is the XBox one isn’t allowing DTS 5.1 and PMS has no choice but to transcode the audio down to something it can play.
I have a Samsung TV which does not support the new 'Atmos" and 'true_hd" formats. I must down-convert these prior to giving them to PMS because at 35+ Mbps, there is no way the Synology can keep up with the transcoding and the data traffic (DS1815+).
Not owning an xbox , i can’t tell you what the settings might allow you to do. The samsung app allows me to increase buffer sizes. This does make up for those occasional cases where the wifi blinks or audio does need transcoding (it gives the synology more time to transcode before dumping the full buffer). I can only suggest you look for that or convert the 5.1 track to AC3, keeping the existing AC3. HandBrake and ffmpeg both do really well at this.
@ChuckPa said:
In the future, if you are willing to use ffmpeg from the command line, it can save you time by copying the video and subtitles instead of re-encoding.
This example uses AC-3 at 512Kb/sec with 2 audio channels (stereo). Please feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.
I find the conversion time of 3-5 minutes preferable to 3-5 hours for HandBrake
Ok here I need something of a tutorial. should I google ffmpeg? no idea what that is and how this would work but of course 3-5 minutes sounds great. I have started using makemkv to make mkv’s from iso or other formats… always works super fast and reliable and therefore had not used handbrake for a while… this sounds like the right alternative for audio changes.
let me know where I can find more info and otherwise I will use my friend google
There isn’t much of a tutorial other than the ffmpeg docs and the wealth of examples on google. It is such a powerful tool it can do just about anything video related. It’s at the heart of HandBrake video encoding as well as the heart of the Plex transcoder.
To show you what it can do; install ffmpeg on your system, open a terminal window, and type ffmpeg -codecs. Be prepared for an overwhelming list. What you will see is the native capabilities. At any point in time, you can add additional codecs to it by simply adding the codec libraries.
@wesman said:
OUCH, turning 5.1 to Stereo? painful…
Honestly I agree but unless you have a solution that stops my xbox one player (and probably others) from stuttering when I have DTS audio I guess a stuttering video is even more painful…
@wesman said:
OUCH, turning 5.1 to Stereo? painful…
@asaweli said:
Honestly I agree but unless you have a solution that stops my xbox one player (and probably others) from stuttering when I have DTS audio I guess a stuttering video is even more painful…
If the xbox and your TV/audio receiver are capable of direct playing surround sound with AC3, you could convert the audio to 5.1 AC3 with a similar ffmpeg command.:
(I changed the uppercase “K” to lowercase “k” in the bitrate - I get an error every time if not. Maybe just my system, though)
I convert all of my rips to 5.1 AC3 for my DTS-less users. I also usually add a stereo AAC track as the first audio track, for my surround-sound–less friends. Hardly ever see any transcoding, even to the single Xbox in my user list. The ffmpeg commands can be intimidating and lengthy, but Google got me through it, and a simple audio conversion only takes a few minutes once you get ffmpeg figured out.
@wesman said:
OUCH, turning 5.1 to Stereo? painful…
@asaweli said:
Honestly I agree but unless you have a solution that stops my xbox one player (and probably others) from stuttering when I have DTS audio I guess a stuttering video is even more painful…
If the xbox and your TV/audio receiver are capable of direct playing surround sound with AC3, you could convert the audio to 5.1 AC3 with a similar ffmpeg command.:
(I changed the uppercase “K” to lowercase “k” in the bitrate - I get an error every time if not. Maybe just my system, though)
I convert all of my rips to 5.1 AC3 for my DTS-less users. I also usually add a stereo AAC track as the first audio track, for my surround-sound–less friends. Hardly ever see any transcoding, even to the single Xbox in my user list. The ffmpeg commands can be intimidating and lengthy, but Google got me through it, and a simple audio conversion only takes a few minutes once you get ffmpeg figured out.
wow I really need to get into ffmpeg… Will google and get to understand this …thanks!
Just an FYI the xbox one should easily handle DTS direct play, i do it all the time… is it Atmos or TrueHD or something like that?
Also, i would go with AAC over AC3. AAC is a more advanced lossy audio format comparing with AC3. It will produce better audio quality than AC3 with the same bitrate, especially on low bitrates. The main advantage of using AC3 is for backward compatibility on older Dolby Digital equipments.
its the same command just replace the ac3 with aac.
Although, I am curious as to why it would stutter converting just the Audio, it shouldn’t, Audio conversion is pretty easy for even the weakest servers. did you attach a log file? are you sure it’s just Audio that is being converted?
hmmm. I already got rid of the original file. can always find it again. I just assumed it was the audio as the movie goes along fine if I selected the other audio channel in the same file which was not a DTS audio track.
Remind me where do I find the log files again to share here… have not done that for years. once I know where it is can I upload it as an attachment to a post or should I just paste it in a message?
