I've been having lots of problems playing back MKV videos with AC3 stereo audio. The video freezes but the audio keeps playing. I tried transcoding the video, but the audio remains on direct play and causes the issue. I tested the same video with nexus player and it plays correctly. I also converted the video to MP4 with different audio settings and its flawless. I posted in the Plex forum but havent received a response, anyone know who to report the issue to?
Plex is essentially unusable for me on the Mi Box.
Kodi works well though, if that's an option for you.
I'm from Xiaomi and we hear this. Unfortunately we didn't run a full test of Plex -- our engineering team is looking into this issue right now. Please stay turned.
I think the mi box is a piece of shit with Plex. Let's hope Xiaomi fixes issues. I got a feeling since they are a bargain basement Chinese junk peddler nothing will be resolved unlike nVidia.
Did you try playing it via VLC's 'Local Network' option? I've yet to throw anything at it (other than some Bluray remuxes with 7.1 audio, some do work tho) that it doesn't handle with ease.
Do the files in question play through Archos media player?
I created a thread in the Plex forum. I made a USb a to USB a and was able to dump logcat info. http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/239333/ac3-stereo-issues-with-the-new-mi-box#latest
My MKV videos with AC3 audio play fine however I cannot control the volume with them. The same videos with AAC audio play well and can control the volume. Not sure if its related, but may help identify where the fubar is happening.
Just found out I am getting the same exact thing...
Does this problem only happen with plex or will it bug out even with the video on a flash drive or hard drive?
This is a pain in the ass but Xiaomi should get it fixed.
IN THE MEAN TIME YOU CAN STILL WATCH THESE VIA PLEX
I'm using the ox via the cast protocol, so my server is direct streaming the video and transcoding the audio to aac. It's not a perfect solution, but it's working for now.
To all those currently monitoring this thread, there has been some testing and a potential workaround with plex on this forum:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/239333/ac3-stereo-issues-with-the-new-mi-box#latest
It appears that the Mi Box and plex has problems with digital audio streams over 448kbits.
For now you can hack your plex Android.xml profile file to force transcoding of bitstreams over 448k, which gets you operational again. Not an ideal fix though.
Worth a look though.
I found a work around. I've changed the Android.xml profile on the plex server, added the following to <CodecProfiles>
<VideoAudioCodec name="ac3">
<Limitations>
<UpperBound name="audio.channels" value="2" />
<UpperBound name="audio.bitrate" value="128" />
</Limitations>
</VideoAudioCodec>
which basically forces all ac3 into 2 channels @ 128 bitrate. I also had to disable Direct Play.
Same thing with me
Others have reported this as well. You are not alone.