DTS-HD MA via Plex add-on

[beisat]

Hi all

Since Apple TV always sends decoded PCM so it's hard to verify what is doing, I wanted to verify if my assumptions below are correct:

• Stock Apple TV only supports DTS (core), not DTS-HD MA (to save licence costs)

• Apple TV doesn't support passthrough of any kind

• MrMC app has the DTS-HD MA codec / licence and sends full decoded DTS-HD MA via PCM to the AVR. This is when setting up MrMC for direct access, e.g. via WebDAV or SMB.

• Plex doesn't have the DTS-HD MA codec / licence, they depend entirely on the player. So using official plex app on Apple TV only will give DTS (core).

• Main question:: If I use the Plex add-on in MrMC, will it send decoded DTS-HD MA via PCM or only decoded DTS (core)?

Thanks for clarifying!

[amet]

I am not sure what and how plex does it, sorry

MrMC sends pcm only unless we are doing atmos… @davilla will correct me if I am wrong

[davilla]

AppleTV only support one of these three. 1) multichannel pcm, 5.1 Digital Dolby, And Dolby Atmos. If not the last two (settings dependent), the audio is converted to multichannel pcm.

[beisat]

AppleTV only support one of these three. 1) multichannel pcm, 5.1 Digital Dolby, And Dolby Atmos. If not the last two (settings dependent), the audio is converted to multichannel pcm.

Thanks, this is exactly my open question which is unfortunately still not clear to me (unless I am misunderstanding you):

The source file is DTS-HD MA. AppleTV doesn't support this out of the box (as you also state). So now the audio is converted to multichannel pcm. This is where I would be interested to know what MrMC does:

- The default Apple TV afaik will extract the lossy DTS core, and convert this to mutlichannel pcm. Example: Using the official Plex app. They just let the Apple TV handle it, and Apple only supports the lossy DTS core. They extract the lossy DTS core, decode it and send lossy multichannel PCM.
- Infuse: They do not just let Apple TV handle it. They have the license to decode DTS-HD MA (and not just the lossy core!) and do it in software. They then send the fully decoded DTS-HD MA without quality loss as multichannel PCM.
- MrMC: This is what I am curious about. Does it just send the decoded lossy DTS core as PCM, or does it send full lossless multichannel PCM (decoded DTS-HD MA). And if MrMC does the lossless PCM: Does this change if I use the Plex Add-On MrMC offers me?

Thanks

[timstephens24]

MrMC does the lossless decode of the DTS-HD MA track (same goes for TrueHD) and sends that as PCM. It does this regardless of what you’re using, SMB/NFS, the Plex add on, or using the native Plex integration.

[beisat]

Thanks, that is the information I was looking for. Glad to hear MrMC can handle this well