I have the server and client running on Nvidia Shield that is connected directly to my TV.
I play a video file with AC3 with VLC player on the Nvidia Shield and audio works fine, which proves the Shield itself supports AC3 passthrough.
When I play the file with the Roku Plex client accessing the Shield server, the audio works fine and the Now Playing info on the Shield server shows the file to be in "Direct Play" mode which means no transcoding. So, the Shield server is working okay.
When I play the same file with the Shield client, with Direct Play set to Auto, it transcodes the audio to AAC, which works. When I set the Direct Play to Forced, the audio doesn't work (and the server shows Direct Play mode, meaning no transcoding). Shield client settings:
- Passthrough=Auto
- DirectStream = On
- Local = Original
- Remote = Original
Plex, can you fix this bug? Below is the xml for a file with AC3 in it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows Recorded" librarySectionUUID="ea7065db-ef17-40e6-a6ab-6323beb7e1d3" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1467657671">
<Video ratingKey="15" key="/library/metadata/15" parentRatingKey="14" grandparentRatingKey="13" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://264537/13/0?lang=en" librarySectionID="1" type="episode" title="Episode 0" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/13" parentKey="/library/metadata/14" grandparentTitle="CBS News Sunday Morning" summary="" index="0" parentIndex="13" viewOffset="638987" lastViewedAt="1467799164" thumb="/library/metadata/15/thumb/1467639502" art="/library/metadata/13/art/1467639460" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/13/thumb/1467639460" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/13/art/1467639460" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/13/theme/1467639460" duration="5460973" addedAt="1467556231" updatedAt="1467639502" chapterSource="">
<Media videoResolution="1080" id="6" duration="5460973" bitrate="13299" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="ac3" videoCodec="mpeg2video" container="mpegts" videoFrameRate="NTSC" videoProfile="main">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="6" key="/library/parts/6/1467556231/file.mpg" duration="5460973" file="/storage/PARRISNAS/Recordings/HDHomeRunDVR/CBS News Sunday Morning/CBS News Sunday Morning 20160703 [20160703-1300].mpg" size="9077867496" container="mpegts" deepAnalysisVersion="1" packetLength="188" requiredBandwidths="14679,14300,13649,13433,13381,13330,13053,12955" videoProfile="main">
<Stream id="15" streamType="1" codec="mpeg2video" index="0" bitrate="12060" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codecID="2" colorRange="tv" duration="5460088" frameRate="29.970" height="1080" level="4" pixelFormat="yuv420p" profile="main" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="14102,13722,13071,12855,12803,12753,12475,12398" scanType="interlaced" streamIdentifier="49" width="1920" />
<Stream id="16" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="ac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="384" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" bitDepth="16" bitrateMode="cbr" codecID="129" dialogNorm="-24" duration="5460640" requiredBandwidths="378,375,375,375,375,375,375,375" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="52" />
<Stream id="17" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="192" language="Español" languageCode="spa" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="16" bitrateMode="cbr" codecID="129" dialogNorm="-24" duration="5460672" requiredBandwidths="188,188,188,188,188,188,188,188" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="53" />
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0">
</Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>