Can't play multichannel FLAC files using PLEX anymore!

[rvferro]

I have a TVS-671 and PLEX Media Server 1.28.0 Since QNAP ended support for Codex Pack I decided to move to CAYIN MediaSign using the Basic license. So, I uninstalled Codex Pack and I didn't know it at the time but this action broke the ability of PLEX to find my Music files and Movie files. I have an extensive collection of multichannel music (5.1) in FLAC file format.

Surfing the WEB I found that the path to the libraries was now broken since the Codex Pack folder had been previously in the path. I have edited now the path and incorporated the MediaSignPlayer in the path but, the sound I'm now getting is in Stereo only. I have lost the ability to listen to my music in Surround Sound. Is the MediaSignPlayer that is currently in the path used for transcoding and somehow does not support multichannel FLAC files?

Am I doing something wrong here? Do I need to get the Codex Pack re-installed somehow to continue to enjoy my music in surround sound? Where can I find the Codex Pack now that QNAP is not supporting it?

[dolbyman]

Plex does not need codex pack .. as it has it's own codecs (even QNAP's crippled FFMPEG, that made Caynin needed, is not necessary)

I have to admit that I do not have any multichannel flac files that I could test (will see if there is any test files I can pull), but normally the Plex client that requests a file, is stating capabilities to the server and the server either direct streams the files or transcodes it.

I could picture these scenarios:

The Plex Server does not know what to do with these files -> playback error
The Plex Server direct streams the files -> The player passes the decoded flac files out via HDMI/etc (probably in PCM)
The client requests transcoding -> Streams get converted to whatever the player requests (MchPCM/StPCM/DD/etc)

[scolumbo]

I have a TVS-671 and PLEX Media Server 1.28.0 Since QNAP ended support for Codex Pack I decided to move to CAYIN MediaSign using the Basic license. So, I uninstalled Codex Pack and I didn't know it at the time but this action broke the ability of PLEX to find my Music files and Movie files. I have an extensive collection of multichannel music (5.1) in FLAC file format.

Surfing the WEB I found that the path to the libraries was now broken since the Codex Pack folder had been previously in the path. I have edited now the path and incorporated the MediaSignPlayer in the path but, the sound I'm now getting is in Stereo only. I have lost the ability to listen to my music in Surround Sound. Is the MediaSignPlayer that is currently in the path used for transcoding and somehow does not support multichannel FLAC files?

Am I doing something wrong here? Do I need to get the Codex Pack re-installed somehow to continue to enjoy my music in surround sound? Where can I find the Codex Pack now that QNAP is not supporting it?

In all the years I have used Plex, it has never played any of my multichannel flac files, and I have many hundreds of them. I have always had to use Kodi, which plays multichannel flac files just fine. I run Kodi on a couple of Shields that point to my library of flac files on my QNAP. I basically use Kodi as my music player and Plex for movies.

In my previous research trying to use Plex to play multichannel flac files, it was a common belief in the Plex community that it was not possible, so you are the first I've heard that managed to make it work somehow. I check periodically to see if a Plex update has added this capability, but it seems it's not a priority of the Plex developers.

[dolbyman]

just tried..

downloaded some multichannel flac test files

roku tv player : plex server direct play, sound output was front right and left surround channel played (all others were dropped)
nvidia shield : plex server direct play , sound output was left and right channel only (all others were dropped)

So I think Plex is (currently) not the best option to play multichannel surround audio files