Passthrough audio?

[meddaugh 7]

I use android TV app. I have a problem in the past (https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/84207-audio-issues/) , but was able to pick SPDIF as the audio out in the android audio settings.  I have since gotten a Nvidia Shield (2019).  They do not have any SPDIF audio out selection.  In order to even get audio working I had to get this:  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HXGJ3S Which is what Nvidia recommends for tos-link connection.  It works fine. Just not playing Emby TV.  I really like the interface for the Emby TV Android App.

I was able to get things to work by installing VLC, which allows for passthrough audio and that works nicely. (I miss the Emby app though) Is there any hidden option to enable any passthrough audio in the Android TV App.  I've tried all sorts of sections to get the Shield to try to play and it just does not seem to want to identify it correct to Emby, so I was hoping if I could force it to pick, vs. detecting.

 

Thanks.

[Gilgamesh_48 949]

3 minutes ago, meddaugh said:

I use android TV app. I have a problem in the past (https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/84207-audio-issues/) , but was able to pick SPDIF as the audio out in the android audio settings.  I have since gotten a Nvidia Shield (2019).  They do not have any SPDIF audio out selection.  In order to even get audio working I had to get this:  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HXGJ3S Which is what Nvidia recommends for tos-link connection.  It works fine. Just not playing Emby TV.  I really like the interface for the Emby TV Android App.

I was able to get things to work by installing VLC, which allows for passthrough audio and that works nicely. (I miss the Emby app though) Is there any hidden option to enable any passthrough audio in the Android TV App.  I've tried all sorts of sections to get the Shield to try to play and it just does not seem to want to identify it correct to Emby, so I was hoping if I could force it to pick, vs. detecting.

 

Thanks.

There appears to be audio deficiencies in the Emby app on Android devices. I have problems on my Shield. Because my issues are a borderline case it seems that Emby may not be able to reproduce the problem and therefore  it may not get fixed.

I found a workaround for my problem that allows me to use the Emby app for playback but that workaround may not work for you. What I have done is to attach a USB audio device to my Shield's USB port and, for my needs, configured the Shield's USB audio to stereo.

It is hard for Emby to fix every little bug because they cannot possible have every hardware/software configuration there is to test the edge cases like mine.

I have been told that other players, like VLC and MrMc, that work fine use ffmpeg rather than the player that Emby uses and that ffmpeg is more robust than Emby's player. It has been suggested that it might be a good idea for Emby to switch to ffmpeg but, so far, Emby has not responded to that idea.

I will say that my setup is pretty different from the normal setup and I do not really expect that Emby will drop everything just to fix my use case particularly since I have a viable workaround that works fine.

[meddaugh 7]

39 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

There appears to be audio deficiencies in the Emby app on Android devices. I have problems on my Shield. Because my issues are a borderline case it seems that Emby may not be able to reproduce the problem and therefore  it may not get fixed.

I found a workaround for my problem that allows me to use the Emby app for playback but that workaround may not work for you. What I have done is to attach a USB audio device to my Shield's USB port and, for my needs, configured the Shield's USB audio to stereo.

It is hard for Emby to fix every little bug because they cannot possible have every hardware/software configuration there is to test the edge cases like mine.

I have been told that other players, like VLC and MrMc, that work fine use ffmpeg rather than the player that Emby uses and that ffmpeg is more robust than Emby's player. It has been suggested that it might be a good idea for Emby to switch to ffmpeg but, so far, Emby has not responded to that idea.

I will say that my setup is pretty different from the normal setup and I do not really expect that Emby will drop everything just to fix my use case particularly since I have a viable workaround that works fine.

I do have the USB out and have that set to 5.1 surround.  I have not tried to stereo, while it might work, I have a receiver that works with the Shield and Emby (again, external player VLC) and can do 5.1 surround.  I know changing to USB Stereo requires a reboot each time.  While VLC works as an external player for Emby, the Emby player app is much nicer.  I like the ending time there, but I too have a work around.  I was just wondering if there was some way to force Emby Android TV App to send audio pass-through.

 

[Luke 37282]

Hi there, what audio settings have you configured in the app?

[meddaugh 7]

I have it set to auto. Even setting to downmix stereo it seems to have no effect. I know the server can handle it as the external player setting using VLC it plays full surroundb sound.

21 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, what audio settings have you configured in the app?

 

[ebr 14962]

Hi. Your audio equipment only has an optical input?

[meddaugh 7]

33 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi. Your audio equipment only has an optical input?

I got it 2/11/2008. It was a Yamaha RXN 600. It works great... But yes.. That's The only way to get any surround sound into it. It has the standard RCA plugs too. A link below for pictures of the back of it.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-7kccw1vgDQ9/p_022RXN600/Yamaha-RX-N600.html

I also have a optical input wireless headset which I use to watch later at night not to make loud nose with the TV. 

Can anything be done?

[Gilgamesh_48 949]

8 hours ago, meddaugh said:

I got it 2/11/2008. It was a Yamaha RXN 600. It works great... But yes.. That's The only way to get any surround sound into it. It has the standard RCA plugs too. A link below for pictures of the back of it.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-7kccw1vgDQ9/p_022RXN600/Yamaha-RX-N600.html

I also have a optical input wireless headset which I use to watch later at night not to make loud nose with the TV. 

Can anything be done?

Wow. Someone actually has a receiver as old as the one I use. Your Yamaha has a lot more inputs but, just like mine, only RCA or optical inputs.

BTW optical is not the only way to get surround into that receiver as the RCA plugs support Dolby 2.1 and that is surround and, for me, all the other "more advanced" formats do not add enough to justify the added complexity. In fact when I sit in my main viewing chair I have two speakers less that two feet from my ears and I find that simple stereo produces quite a immersive experience.

[rbjtech 4347]

I think this thread is related to your problem :-

 

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/385967/plex-audio-issues-missing-channels-transcoding-i/

In short - unless the audio stream is EAC3 (not AC3), then the Dolby features of the Shield do not covert to 5.1 properly.  Nvidia need to add this functionality - so there may be some hope to getting this resolved - but it appears to be a Shield issue rather than an Exo Player issue ?

[FrostByte 5063]

Thanks, that may also explain our problems with the EAC3 test a couple betas back where we tried to passthrough EAC3 and let the Shield's Dolby decoder do the work which the Shield then converted to stereo for some reason so ebr pulled it.

 

Do you have a 2019 SHIELD? If so, the Dolby Processing feature today is only whitelisted for the streaming apps so EAC3 - AC3 conversion only happens in streaming apps. If you play eac3 content in Plex, SHIELD will not transcode it today.
We are considering adding a user option in the future to allow you to add apps to the whitelist so you could tell Plex to use the Dolby stack which would let you play eac3 content in plex and have it transocded to ac3 but you cannot do that today.

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by FrostByte

[meddaugh 7]

I do know if I use External player in Emby and pick Mplayer (hardware decoding), or VLC, both in pass-through mode, audio works great, either on my wireless headset or the receiver, and receiver sees it DTS and surround. (I tested a 5.1 surround file to ensure and could hear each individual speaker being played).  MrMC works fine as well and that has a login to Emby, which has passthrough as well, however it occasionally seems like the video is not the full frame-rate the entire time (most of it). It see the Nvidia shield hardware can pass-through the audio, if the app can be put in that mode, it's just Emby does not seem to have that option.  VLC as external player and even in the Emby app video works fine, no choppiness (just no audio for Emby app).

[meddaugh 7]

2 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

Wow. Someone actually has a receiver as old as the one I use. Your Yamaha has a lot more inputs but, just like mine, only RCA or optical inputs.

BTW optical is not the only way to get surround into that receiver as the RCA plugs support Dolby 2.1 and that is surround and, for me, all the other "more advanced" formats do not add enough to justify the added complexity. In fact when I sit in my main viewing chair I have two speakers less that two feet from my ears and I find that simple stereo produces quite a immersive experience.

Most of the time my headset would be adequate for that.  I do however like to watch sometimes through the receiver and have 2 rear surround speakers, 2 front and the center as well, all placed at proper distances where I view it, it really sounds great .... when it works.