Problems playing MKA files

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Are you manually tagging your MKA files in Plex? Picard won’t tag them. I think I may have used mp3tag, but they were not read by plex.

Mp3tagged, MKA files, are certainly read by Plex. I have never used Picard for any extended period of time.
 
This PKC setup is getting the best of me. I have it set and it plays videos fine, but any audio, even a simple mp3 won’t play. I select the track and time stays at 0 nothing plays.

Not sure if direct path is required for music?
 
This PKC setup is getting the best of me. I have it set and it plays videos fine, but any audio, even a simple mp3 won’t play. I select the track and time stays at 0 nothing plays.

Not sure if direct path is required for music?

No, direct path is not required for music.
So the mp3 plays on the Plex web app but not in Kodi PKC add-on?
Audio and video working for movies/tv shows?
 
No, direct path is not required for music.
So the mp3 plays on the Plex web app but not in Kodi PKC add-on?
Audio and video working for movies/tv shows?

Thanks for the help. After some more review and to keep as much in Plex as possible I am going to stick to MKV files so I can include multiple audio tracks (Atmos, PCM, DTS-HD MA) and also have the associated video content. While the video is not much in some cases (see Beatles: Let It Be)…. I set the chapters as the song titles and it is gapless.

I just need to use my Sony X700 to play multichannel flac (dvd-audio). It connects to my plex server and plays them fine. There may be a way to connect on the shield in a way to play the multichannel flac. Something simple like VLC?

edit: VLC connects but outputs 48kHz on 96kHz files. My X700 outputs the correct 96kHz.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the help. After some more review and to keep as much in Plex as possible I am going to stick to MKV files so I can include multiple audio tracks (Atmos, PCM, DTS-HD MA) and also have the associated video content. While the video is not much in some cases (see Beatles: Let It Be)…. I set the chapters as the song titles and it is gapless.

I just need to use my Sony X700 to play multichannel flac (dvd-audio). It connects to my plex server and plays them fine. There may be a way to connect on the shield in a way to play the multichannel flac. Something simple like VLC?

edit: VLC connects but outputs 48kHz on 96kHz files. My X700 outputs the correct 96kHz.

I keep both a MKV (when there is background video), that goes in my Plex video library, and MKA files that go in my audio library. Much of the Atmos stuff lately that I have been converting, have no video associated with the original files.

One of my favorite things about Kodi is you have all the media in one pretty package. All my movies, tv shows, music, and even my dvr for tv channels. You might want to figure out why you aren't getting audio working with Kodi and PlexKodiConnect so you don't need to use the Sony. I can't imagine the interface is as good as Kodi.
 
I keep both a MKV (when there is background video), that goes in my Plex video library, and MKA files that go in my audio library. Much of the Atmos stuff lately that I have been converting, have no video associated with the original files.

One of my favorite things about Kodi is you have all the media in one pretty package. All my movies, tv shows, music, and even my dvr for tv channels. You might want to figure out why you aren't getting audio working with Kodi and PlexKodiConnect so you don't need to use the Sony. I can't imagine the interface is as good as Kodi.

I gave it another try and got it to work, mostly. My atmos tracks are playing the core 7.1 audio and not atmos. Any settings I need to change? I have it set to 7.1 in number of channels in Kodi settings. Also set to “allow pass through audio”. Output device need to be changed? See attached.
 

Attachments

  • 36D67A50-DE0A-4E2B-8EA9-EFF4B1D0AF17.jpeg
    36D67A50-DE0A-4E2B-8EA9-EFF4B1D0AF17.jpeg
    122.4 KB · Views: 90
Bottom left it says Standard, click on it until it says Exprert. That shows more options.

At bottom of option list there will be settings for AVR decoder support, check TrueHD and DTS-HD.
 
Bottom left it says Standard, click on it until it says Exprert. That shows more options.

At bottom of option list there will be settings for AVR decoder support, check TrueHD and DTS-HD.
Bingo! Ahh I had it set to expert in another screen and I didn’t see it was not still set. All is working now! Thanks all!
 
@himey @HomerJAU
I did some testing with MKA and M4A atmos files neither are playing gapless in Kodi 19.3. They both have a half second gap. I tested between The Beatles Polythene Pam and She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, an obvious gapless situation.

For the MKA: I used MAKEMKV to generate the MKV from the disc, then MKVToolNix to split by chapter.
For the M4A: I used Music Media Helper to split the MKV by chapter to M4A.

As far as tagging you can tag MKA files in mp3 tag using the Musicbrainz source. And obviously M4A modules can be tagged in Picard directly.

I assume gapless for MKA should be working. Any settings to change to get it to work or properties of the file to look at?

thanks!
 
Last edited:
@himey @HomerJAU
I did some testing with MKA and M4A atmos files neither are playing gapless in Kodi 19.3. They both have a half second gap. I tested between The Beatles Polythene Pam and She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, an obvious gapless situation.

For the MKA: I used MAKEMKV to generate the MKV from the disc, then MKVToolNix to split by chapter.
For the M4A: I used Music Media Helper to split the MKV by chapter to M4A.

As far as tagging you can tag MKA files in mp3 tag using the Musicbrainz source. And obviously M4A modules can be tagged in Picard directly.

I assume gapless for MKA should be working. Any settings to change to get it to work or properties of the file to look at?

thanks!

How did you create the MKA? I use MMH...

edit...just tested Abbey Road and it was certainly gapless. Kodi 19.3/PlexKodiConnect add-on.
 
How did you create the MKA? I use MMH...

edit...just tested Abbey Road and it was certainly gapless. Kodi 19.3/PlexKodiConnect add-on.

I used MKVToolNix. I will try out MMH again. When I used it the first time it was giving me MKV files from my MKV source file even through I selected an output as MKA.

Thanks for testing!
 
@HomerJAU

MMH is messing with me or maybe user error.. :)

I am loading my MKV (MKV File MediaInfo attached) and selecting the "split MKV/MKA into chapters and create audio files" (settings per attached screenshot - I have Output as MKA selected) and the files are split into MKV files... Not sure why..

Resulting MKV file Mediainfo is attached. Not sure why, but it contains 2 chapters in it, but there is no video in it.

Edit: Also, I may not be getting gapless becasue I am on the Nvidia Shield. Not sure what you are using for a client @himey .

Edit: Resolved in version 5.0.27
 

Attachments

  • MKV File.txt
    4.7 KB · Views: 100
  • MMH.png
    MMH.png
    24.1 KB · Views: 69
  • Resulting MKV file.txt
    2.3 KB · Views: 76
Last edited:
Fixed in new 5.0.27 release just uploaded now.

Just tested. The problem has indeed been resolved. Thanks for the quick response!

@HomerJAU Edit: Chapters still reside in the file, so I had to remove those with MKVTOOLNIX. So one of your tools clear chapters from files? Or maybe the MKA could be output with chapters stripped?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top