SOLVED: Reinstalling Plex solved my problem. Note for next time, try reinstalling first haha.

Hi, I posted this in nvidiashield as well but I wanted to check with you guys too. I can’t seem to get DTS and TrueHD passthrough working on my current setup and I’m not sure what the problem might be.

The setup is as follows:

PC running Plex Media Server on the network

Plex Player on the Nvidia shield pro (2019) ——HDMI in——> Denon receiver ——HDMI out——> Sony TV.

What happens:

When I play any DTS or TrueHD encoded file over Plex, the receiver says it’s receiving a multi channel PCM signal. When I play AC3 encoded files, it shows up properly as Dolby Digital xx. Now I know this isn’t necessarily the worst thing since I am getting the 5.1 PCM signal but I would ideally like to get the receiver seeing the DTS and TrueHD signal for my OCD at the very least.

What I expect to happen:

When playing DTS and TrueHD files, the receiver should show that it’s receiving a DTS or TrueHD signal.

What I’ve tried: 0. Shouldn’t need to be said but searching for a solution on Google and Plex/Shield subreddits.

1. Ensuring that Plex on the shield has HDMI passthrough set.

2. Toggling the surround encoding on the shield and toggling the codecs from auto to manual and back again.

3. Restarting the shield.

4. Switching out the HDMI cables. (Verified the switched out cable worked on a separate setup i.e. the other setup showed DTS on the receiver)

5. Adding the media file to a USB and playing it via VLC on the shield. The VLC option to enable audio passthrough works and the receiver shows a proper DTS signal.

Extra information:

I just upgraded the shield from a regular one bought in 2018 to the pro in 2020. All of this worked on the regular shield prior to the update. I know that the receiver has the capability to decode DTS and TrueHD streams.

The receiver is a Denon X2500H.

I’ll edit this post with software version numbers if needed (don’t have them on hand since I’m not at home right now).

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on? With 5, I feel that this might be an error with how I set up Plex since passthrough works with VLC on the shield.