Mr. Big “Lean Into It” - Dolby Atmos mix now available as a lossless download!

[triple_vee]

Which device do you use for playback? The options for Atmos support are pretty limited.

I've had success with Plex app running on Nvidia Shield TV and movies with TrueHD/Atmos audio track. Going to test it out now with these MKVs and report back.

edit: success!

 

[triple_vee]

The only hiccup is that the Plex server doesn't recognize MKV's as music files for their "Music" type library. I had to add it to "TV Shows" as MKVs in Mr. Big->Lean Into It folder.

But I would definitely prefer to have the album in my Plex Music library where my other multichannel surround files (FLACs and DSFs) are located. I have to believe there’s a way to make this work properly in Plex. Anyway, happy that I got a lossless Dolby Atmos track to play properly.

 

[himey]

I would definitely prefer to have the album in my Plex Music library

Convert the MKV's to M4A files, using Music Media Helper.

 

[triple_vee]

Convert the MKV's to M4A files, using Music Media Helper.

Egads, this forum delivers!

 

[triple_vee]

Convert the MKV's to M4A files, using Music Media Helper.

Not sure if this is a limitation in Plex, but multichannel M4A doesn't work. Although I got MMH to extract the audio track as both WAV and M4A... *and* both files contain 7.1 channels, what comes out of Shield/Plex (as far as the Denon is concerned) is stereo.

 

[himey]

Not sure if this is a limitation in Plex, but multichannel M4A doesn't work. Although I got MMH to extract the audio track as both WAV and M4A... *and* both files contain 7.1 channels, what comes out of Shield/Plex (as far as the Denon is concerned) is stereo.View attachment 89758View attachment 89757

Sorry. You could try MKA. I know it will output more than only stereo. I use Kodi and PlexKodiConnect. I am not sure how it handles Atmos passthrough, but it certainly will output the 7.1 bed. With MKA, you just need to be careful not to have any special characters in the file names, especially dashes. It screws up Plex, and they will be treated as separate albums, because of MKA's limited tagging capabilities.

 

[James_in_VA]

I was always a bigger fan of the first album, but Green-Tinted Sixties Mind was (to me) one of their best songs.

Strongly agree!

 

[himey]

Obviously, you'll need to decide for yourself whether or not spending $400 is worth for you

This might be a better option for some people.

 

[triple_vee]

Sorry. You could try MKA. I know it will output more than only stereo. I use Kodi and PlexKodiConnect. I am not sure how it handles Atmos passthrough, but it certainly will output the 7.1 bed. With MKA, you just need to be careful not to have any special characters in the file names, especially dashes. It screws up Plex, and they will be treated as separate albums, because of MKA's limited tagging capabilities.

So, neither MP4, M4A, MKA formats in the Plex Music Library ended up outputting anything but stereo. I can almost tell you with certainty that it is an issue with the Plex Music Library and its inability to support multichannel content. E.g., Plexamp is their dedicated music player...it is widely known that it does not do multichannel on any device. I'm guessing the Plex Music Library and Plexamp share a lot of DNA in terms of code, and ergo they share the same limitations. Of course multichannel content in their TV and Movies libraries play back as intended on Nvidia Shield...passing through the TrueHD/Atmos to the AVR and providing an optimal quality of surround sound reproduction.

I'm going to try Kodi on Shield. My wife and kids are adept at using Plex for Movies and TV so it stays for video playback, but I'm not married to Plex's management of my Music library. Nice music library management and optimal multichannel surround playback through my AVR is my goal. It would be nice if there were also an iPhone app that did HRTF/binaural when listening through headphones.

 

[himey]

I can almost tell you with certainty that it is an issue with the Plex Music Library

It works with PKC which is why I think the issue lies with the Plex player, or a setting in the Shield. I listen to multichannel using the PLEX MUSIC LIBRARY all the time with both audio and video files.

 

[triple_vee]

It works with PKC which is why I think the issue lies with the Plex player, or a setting in the Shield. I listen to multichannel using the PLEX MUSIC LIBRARY all the time with both audio and video files.

OK, I should qualify that my issues with Plex are solely with the player on Shield. I can't get multichannel audio to output anything other than stereo to my AVR. But I remember (and re-confirmed) that multichannel FLACs and DSDs were able to be served up by Plex server and played back correctly on Plex player on Apple TV. The only "issue" was that Plex server was transcoding DSD to PCM before sending the stream to the player, but that's a minor nit.

Once I found out about Immersive and downloadable TrueHD/Atmos, I already knew that my only device option was going to be Shield as that was the only way I could play TrueHD/Atmos tracks from blu-ray rips (as ATV has known limitations). I confirmed that Immersive's MKV served up in TV Show library outputs TrueHD/Atmos to AVR...like it would any blu-ray rip with a TrueHD/Atmos track. I just haven't been able to do it with the Plex/Shield app navigating a Plex Music Library. Furthermore, it's not a multichannel support issue with the Plex app (like it appears to be a generic issue with PlexAmp) because it works on ATV. Like you are suggesting, it seems to be an issue with the Plex player on Shield.

I will try Kodi and PKC.

 

[triple_vee]

Ha, I don't know why I didn't just go to the Plex forums before. All the shortcomings that I've learned over the past few weeks with regards to Plex player in general and Plex player on Shield are pretty well known over there. There are vocal forum members over there aren't particularly happy with the state of affairs of the Plex player.

While Plex/Shield seems to be THE righteous combination for playing back blu-ray rips with TrueHD/Atmos or DTS:X track via their Movies and TV Shows library functionality (this exceeded my expectations), it just doesn't work well for mutlichannel audio served up via their Music library. I've documented my issues here:

https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-playe...server-music-library-is-broken-for-mch/835381
What I would like to get a hold of, and maybe I'll wait 6 months before going down this rabbit hole again, is a Music library manager that has the proper Shield and/or ATV clients to correctly play back multichannel content sitting on my network...whether it's served up by Plex or DLNA or whatever. And as a secondary feature, I would like that app developer to produce an iOS client that allows me to download these rips and play back the multichannel with HRTF when I have my headphones on.