Nvidia Shield what sound format for direct playback?

[LeetDonkey 1]

Hello

 

I'm having some issues with direct playback on my new Nvidia Shield.

In the past I've used Emby Theater for windows and that would simply fix whatever was wrong locally.

Nvidia Shield is slightly more picky about the formats used and I'm having some issues with playback of MKVs containing HEVC with Atmos soundtracks.

Reading up on the forums it seems the issue is with the sound format used.

I have two shields, one hooked up directly to a TV, and one hooked up to a surround receiver.

I was wondering if I should reencode the audio to some form of stereo format to get it to work on my TV?

I'd like to keep the surround track in the MKV file as well to use when direct streaming to my surround receiver.

 

To sum it up:

What audio format should I use if I want to direct play to my TV?

Opus 2.0? FLAC? Aften AC3 2.0? Other?

I'm guessing I would need to make it the default sound track to make sure it will play back nicely everywhere?

Thanks

 

[CBers 7450]

It depends on what your device at the the end of the connection chain supports.

 

I have an Atmos soundbar that my Shield is connected to and I get direct play without any issue, with full Atmos audio.

 

I also have a Shield connected to a Samsung TV and any DTS or better audio is remuxed to DD.

 

What do you have the audio setting in the ATV app in the Shield set to.

 

Mine is set to AUTO on both.

[LeetDonkey 1]

The surroundmode setting on the shield is set to 'automatic' and the audio output in Emby is set to 'direct'

[CBers 7450]

You could possibly try the beta version of the app, as the DIRECT option is now labelled as AUTO.

 

It might work better.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24350-android-open-beta-testing

[LeetDonkey 1]

Hello

 

I'm probably on the wrong track here.

It seems to be an issue with every HEVC file I have no matter the audio codec used.

I try to play any MKV containing HEVC video track, emby pauses for a few seconds and throws a 'playback error' where I can select yes if I encounter problems.

if I answer yes I can see in the web interface that it starts transcoding the source, it will stutter badly since my server isn't powerful enough to transcode HEVC.

h.264 works fine though.

I also tried the beta it's pretty much the same.

 

 

If it's of any value all my files are directly remuxed from the source blu-ray, no encoding has taken place.

[CBers 7450]

Might be worth following the How to Report a Problem post and also post the mediainfo for problem content.

 

I have HEVC 4K with Atmos and it still direct plays.

 

What OS are you running your Emby server on ??

[LeetDonkey 1]

Alright I did some more troubleshooting.

 

 

Hooking the 1st Shield up to passthrough through my Surround receiver to my LG 4K TV = works flawlessly

Hooking the 1st Shield up directly to my LG 4K TV = Emby wants to transcode and stuff breaks

Hooking the 2nd shield up directly to a Full HD Samsung TV = Emby wants to transcode and stuff breaks

 

So it is probably the soundtrack that isn't compatible with my Samsung TV and Emby wants to fix it for me.

I'm not sure how to fix it and still preserve the sound track for use with my receiver.

[FrostByte 5392]

If you want HD audio I think you are going to want to setup like

 

Receiver < Shield > TV  (should send HD audio to receiver with no transcoding)

OR Shield > Receiver > TV (should work also)

 

If you are setup to passthrough HD audio to the ARC or optical port of the TV like below then the app will try to transcode because ARC and optical links can't passthrough HD audio.   

 

Shield > TV (ARC or optical) > Receiver (will cause transcode because TV can't passthrough HD audio)

 

ARC can usually only passthrough AC3 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1 and PCM 2.1  Here is some info on that from Rtings including results on all their test sets for passthrough

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/5-1-surround-audio-passthrough

Edited April 5, 2018 by FrostByte

[LeetDonkey 1]

Well I wanted both the HD audio (To use when I was watching on the shield hooked up to the receiver) As well as an option to use when I was watching on the shield hooked up to the Samsung TV in another room without a receiver.

 

I sorta fixed it:

 

Instead of setting the default track to the Atmos audio track, I now default to the AC3 audio track.

On the shield hooked up to the receiver I manually select the Atmos track when playback has started.

This seems to work fine, and will give me the option of  using the 'better' audio track when I have a receiver that supports it.

 

I don't know if there's a better way since I need to make sure the default audio track is correct when I create the MKV file.

[FrostByte 5392]

Sounds like a plan. 

 

BTW: You do know you can switch the default audio track by changing the headers in mkvtoolnix right?  That way you don't have to remux and it only takes about 5 secs.