Emby Theater No Longer Playing AAC Audio

[Maniac1982 3]

I am having an issue with the HTPC not playing some of my movies and tv shows with AAC audio, (these use to work fine FYI). So far I narrowed it down to only files with AAC audio, AC3, DTS, etc seem to be playing just fine. I have noticed that when an AAC audio track is playing, my stereo will switch to a "Straight" source instead of whatever I previously had it on... and it won't let me change it while the show is playing. For all other audio sources, it will remain on what I select. Not sure if this is a clue, but thought it was worth note.

 

I have done some research on the forums but haven't really found an answer to my issue. Although I will readily admit that Audio stuff is way over my head.

 

So here are some brief notes and please let know what else would be helpful, logs, etc.

 

Emby Server version -  Version 3.2.26.0

Emby Theather version - latest **I can get it if necessary.** Also, this is the stand alone Theater, not the Windows Store Theater

WASAPI is currently installed, however, I can no longer select that as an Audio Renderer. In fact, that selection has disappeared... so I presume it is always default.

And while researching the problem, I checked the log (under settings, "Nerd Info") and the Audio Bitrate was N/A.

 

If I can figure this out without having to convert these files from AAC to AC3, that would be great. Like I said, this used to work fine, say a few months ago, so I am not sure if there was a change in how the audio is handled or converted. But it for sure doesn't work now.

 

Thoughts?

[Guest asrequested]

 

 

my stereo will switch to a "Straight" source instead of whatever I previously had it on

 

Can you explain this, a bit more? Am I understanding that the audio plays, but not as you expected? And what were you expecting?

[Maniac1982 3]

 

Doofus, on 10 Sept 2017 - 3:11 PM, said:

 

 

Can you explain this, a bit more? Am I understanding that the audio plays, but not as you expected? And what were you expecting?

 

At the moment, no AAC video files play audio. So this was merly an observation of the

stereo's behavior when trying to play a file and something I was not expecting.

 

For example, I normally set my receiver (Yahmaha) to 7.1 audio as this gives me the

best sound for daily use. When I want a different sound I set it to something like

Movie Surround or Music Hall or something. When I go to play a movie that has 5.1, DTS

,TrueHD or AC3 the stereo plays the audio without issues. And the output 'type' doesn't

change from what I set it on, say 7.1 But when I go to play an AC3 file, the audio output 

changes automatically to 'Straight', and the stereo won't allow me to change it to any other output, say 7.1.

 

I can confirm these file's play audio just fine through tablets and PC's. So I can only conclude that

the receiver is getting the audio, the reason for the switch to 'Straight' mode, but it is not able to decode

the audio stream, thus no playback.

 

Note: screen shot of AAC video playing on my PC, with sound as expected.

 

 

 

Again, this used to work fine, probably before an update to either Emby Server or Emby Theater

(stand-alone), I lean more towards Emby Theater causing the issue, but I defer to smarter folks on that.

 

Side note, I presume Emby Theater still supports AAC LC Audio Codec, as I presume this is pretty basic.

Currently I do not have any Codec pack installed, could that cause an issue? I used to have Shark 007 codec's installed but

it was very out of date and I uninstalled it to test audio.

 

Is a codec pack required, or recommended? Would an installed codec "decode" the AAC audio for my receiver?

 

And curious, should Emby Server transcode AAC audio to AC3 if there is an issue playing it? At the moment

it is set to direct-play.

[Luke 42078]

For Emby Theater you don't need any codec packs. As far as the idea of automatically transcoding when a problem occurs with direct play - yes, we do have this, but only when it's a problem that we can detect. I have a feeling this is not one of those.

Given 2ch AAC i would expect your receiver to get PCM. I would check your windows sound settings.

[Guest asrequested]

When Direct-playing, the sever won't have any involvement. AAC is a very common codec and is supported. I used to have a Yamaha RX-V777 receiver. You shouldn't be changing your output, very much, if at all. This is what it says in the manual for my old receiver.

 

 

You may have misconfigured something. For 'straight', you have to choose that. 

 

If this doesn't help, can you share a sample for me to test?