Force 5.1

[bastardsheep 0]

I'm getting this issue on my AppleTV too, and I am NOT re-encoding all my media. Too much of it. Surely there's a setting in Emby on the server or the AppleTV client I can change so it defaults to the highest quality audio my equipment and the file both support? 

Emby supports and plays both the 2.0 AAC track and the 5.1 EAC3 track, but defaults to the 2.0 AAC track on all media I've tried that has both. On plex it'd default to the 5.1 or 7.1 tracks. 

Edited August 15, 2025 by bastardsheep

[brothom 177]

4 hours ago, bastardsheep said:

I'm getting this issue on my AppleTV too, and I am NOT re-encoding all my media. Too much of it. Surely there's a setting in Emby on the server or the AppleTV client I can change so it defaults to the highest quality audio my equipment and the file both support? 

Emby supports and plays both the 2.0 AAC track and the 5.1 EAC3 track, but defaults to the 2.0 AAC track on all media I've tried that has both. On plex it'd default to the 5.1 or 7.1 tracks. 

Looking at the comments above, it has to do with the audio tracks within the file you're trying to play. Within your file, the audio tracks are probably ordered as 2.0 first, 5.1 second.

Maybe a user-specific setting within Emby to "autoselect" 5.1 would be nice. If that's something you like, you could add a Feature Request for that.

[Neminem 1518]

TBH I use Tdarr automation to do this, it's simple remux of the media file, done in 1 min or less.

If that not good enough, then take a close look at the 1 encoding your media.

[Luke 42077]

9 hours ago, bastardsheep said:

I'm getting this issue on my AppleTV too, and I am NOT re-encoding all my media. Too much of it. Surely there's a setting in Emby on the server or the AppleTV client I can change so it defaults to the highest quality audio my equipment and the file both support? 

Emby supports and plays both the 2.0 AAC track and the 5.1 EAC3 track, but defaults to the 2.0 AAC track on all media I've tried that has both. On plex it'd default to the 5.1 or 7.1 tracks. 

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!