SOLVED: Migrating from Plex. Android TV app seems to be transcoding audio where Plex does not

[TheHappyOnederer]

On my Chromecast with Google TV (Android TV), when playing a video file on Plex it's able to play it completely natively.

The output below is from Tautulli for the HEVC/AC3 MKV file.

Code:

Stream: Direct Play
Container: Direct Play (MKV)
Video: Direct Play (HEVC 1080p)
Audio: Direct Play (English - AC3 Stereo)
Subtitle: Direct Play (English - SRT)

However, when playing the very same file in Jellyfin, I see the following message on the dashboard.

The video stream is compatible with the device, but has an incompatible audio format (DTS, Dolby TrueHD, etc) or number of audio channels. The video stream will be repackaged losslessly on the fly before being sent to the device. Only the audio stream will be transcoded.

And if I check my running processes I see this, which seems to be converting the audio stream to AAC.

Code:

/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg -analyzeduration 200M -fflags +genpts -f matroska,webm -i file:/mnt/media/obfuscated.mkv -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 copy -tag:v:0 hvc1 -bsf:v hevc_mp4toannexb -start_at_zero -codec:a:0 aac -ac 2 -ab 256000 -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 6 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename /var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes/32dd1902b607c5789a39f6478113c59d%d.ts -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y /var/lib/jellyfin/transcodes/32dd1902b607c5789a39f6478113c59d.m3u8

Is there any reason why it might be doing this?

I'm sure I can't tell the difference and the electricity cost is completely negligible, but I would like to play video/audio streams natively if my device/TV is seemingly capable of it.

Thanks for any advice 🙂

[tmsrxzar]

do you have "downmix to stereo" enabled in the androidtv app settings? (not on the server)

compare behavior to libvlc instead of exoplayer?

[TheHappyOnederer]

do you have "downmix to stereo" enabled in the androidtv app settings? (not on the server)

That fixed it! Thanks