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Emby incorrectly transcoding 5.1 FLAC to Stereo


Sancus

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I have a lot of 5.1 FLAC music that previously played just fine, using an Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 connected via HDMI to a Denon X4500H. On 1.8.24 it looks like it's being forcibly transcoded to stereo. Transcoding log here.

That seems to be the cause of the issue. If I uncheck "Allow audio playback that requires transcoding" then Emby does not transcode and the file is played back correctly as multi-channel.

Edited by Sancus
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4 minutes ago, cayars said:

Hello @Sancus any chance we could get you to try the latest beta to see if this improves things for you?

I did join the beta program on Google Play(It says "* Beta" under the listing now), but haven't been able to get it to update on the Shield yet. Uninstall/reinstall didn't work either, just reinstalled 1.8.24g. Not sure if there was some other step I'm missing.

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You can side load the latest/greatest if you follow this thread (for Google TV):

Hope this helps!

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MateyTate

I’m too having this issue. Sat down to listen to a bit of Dark Side of the Moon which is FLAC 5.1 and used to work, and today it’s stereo only. I’m not really clear from reading the above thread where the issue lays? Is it the Emby app on my shield, or the Emby server on my Synology?

Is there a fix?

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4 minutes ago, MateyTate said:

I’m too having this issue. Sat down to listen to a bit of Dark Side of the Moon which is FLAC 5.1 and used to work, and today it’s stereo only. I’m not really clear from reading the above thread where the issue lays? Is it the Emby app on my shield, or the Emby server on my Synology?

Is there a fix?

The app.  Can you please try the beta version?

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MateyTate
6 minutes ago, ebr said:

The app.  Can you please try the beta version?

Quick question... do I remove the installed Emby app first, or does the beta overwrite it... or sit alongside it? I’ve never installed an Emby Beta before?

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2 minutes ago, MateyTate said:

Quick question... do I remove the installed Emby app first, or does the beta overwrite it... or sit alongside it? I’ve never installed an Emby Beta before?

Hi.  It will overwrite your current version.  When side-loading, you may get a warning about this.

Thanks.

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Sideloading to Android TV is tedious, but I can confirm that beta 1.8.28 resolves this issue, I was able to re-enable transcoding and it's correctly playing 5.1 FLAC files as multi-channel without transcoding now.

Thanks :)

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MateyTate
15 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  It will overwrite your current version.  When side-loading, you may get a warning about this.

Thanks.

That fixed it! As always, thanks for the amazing support! 
 

On another note, I was getting constant Volley errors and the Home Screen was taking ages to load up. I followed the guide for vacuuming the database (took me a while to get there using SSH on my my Synology) but since running that no more problems at all. It’s so quick like it used to be. I see lots of people with the same volley errors so it’s definitely worth recommending they do that!

Edited by MateyTate
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MateyTate

@ebr I spoke too soon, well, kind of. It seems the beta fixes the playback of 5.1 FLAC files, however I have a number of quadrophonic albums in FLAC (i.e a channel layout 2F2R) and the rear channels do not play at all. The web app plays them fine (as does VLC) so I know the files are good, it’s just the Shield app.

Not the end of the world, just annoying.

Edited by MateyTate
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I see in the changelog for 1.8.28g August 19th production release it says "Fix FLAC playback" but it doesn't appear to be fixed. FLAC still gets detected as "unsupported audio" and transcoded.

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2 hours ago, Xorp said:

I see in the changelog for 1.8.28g August 19th production release it says "Fix FLAC playback" but it doesn't appear to be fixed. FLAC still gets detected as "unsupported audio" and transcoded.

It fixed some FLAC that was attempting to direct play and was not working by transcoding it.

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On 9/2/2020 at 9:55 PM, ebr said:

It fixed some FLAC that was attempting to direct play and was not working by transcoding it.

Well the end goal is still to direct play FLAC. I reported it over 2 years ago: 

 

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On 8/27/2020 at 1:32 PM, MateyTate said:

@ebr I spoke too soon, well, kind of. It seems the beta fixes the playback of 5.1 FLAC files, however I have a number of quadrophonic albums in FLAC (i.e a channel layout 2F2R) and the rear channels do not play at all. The web app plays them fine (as does VLC) so I know the files are good, it’s just the Shield app.

Not the end of the world, just annoying.

As a test, can you try this app on the same device and see how it compares?

Thanks.

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MateyTate

Hi @Luke, unfortunately (for me) that didn't work either. 

On the Shield, neither Emby app will play the rear channels of these 4.0 quadraphonic FLACS - nor will X-Plore if I try and play it directly from my NAS. The LG Emby app will not play them either, but strangely the Emby web app on my Mac will. I only have 3 or 4 albums in this format so its no big deal (I may even be able to up mix them to 5.1). I'll more than happily send you a 20s clip of one of the files if you wanted to play around with it... I've also attached the media info just in case you can spot something obvious? But to be clear, its the rear channels that will not play.

Thanks for the help :)

949304925_4.0Flac.JPG.4f086281b7cbe22c9e29b480248eb232.JPG

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MateyTate

Quick update. I added a couple of blank channels in Audacity for the centre and LFE and exported as a 6ch FLAC and all is good so I’ll do that for the 30 or so songs I have :)

I’m no expert, but maybe FLAC 4.0 isn’t even a valid channel map?

Edited by MateyTate
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/6/2020 at 3:54 PM, Luke said:

It sounds like the native audio player on the device just doesn't support it.

I thought Emby for Android used it's own embedded copy of ExoPlayer? So Emby for Android now relies on the OS's media decoders? Kodi's embedded decoders do not have issues with FLAC audio tracks.

If audio decoding was moved from an internal decoder to a OS decoder library, maybe it would explain why these FLAC track used to play fine in Emby for Android, as I reported on  February 17, 2018 in my link.

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Quote

I thought Emby for Android used it's own embedded copy of ExoPlayer?

It does. Exoplayer uses the system media decoders.

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7 minutes ago, Xorp said:

I thought Emby for Android used it's own embedded copy of ExoPlayer? So Emby for Android now relies on the OS's media decoders? Kodi's embedded decoders do not have issues with FLAC audio tracks.

If audio decoding was moved from an internal decoder to a OS decoder library, maybe it would explain why these FLAC track used to play fine in Emby for Android, as I reported on  February 17, 2018 in my link.

Can we please look at an example? Thanks.

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On 9/14/2020 at 5:20 PM, Luke said:

Can we please look at an example? Thanks.

Here you go, FLAC 1.0, 2.0, 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 samples: https://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/ud7pndUOyISE3xFCgqAuWGK45%2BHyEM%2FotYHPOqGyS%2Bc

1.0 and 2.0 get transcoded to AAC and 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 get transcoded to DD 5.1. I swear on my mother's grave that the Emby for Android builds circa 2017 would properly decode all these FLAC arrangements to PCM.

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