Who uses Kodi?

general
21

Yes, this worked.
Basically, you go to trakt.tv, create a new API key and secret key, then edit the config file for Kodi, start Kodi, re-authorize trakt.tv through Kodi as you always do and it works like before.

22

Canā€™t speak to your specific situation, but Iā€™ve got surround sound working with plex without problems. Iā€™ve got the plex server app running on a Mac Mini, which is connected via HDMI to my surround receiver (which is in turn connected to the TV and the speakers). Iā€™m using my Synology NAS as just a dumb backend, mounting my video share on the Mac via SMB.

To actually play stuff, Iā€™m running the Plex Media Player on the same mini, with pretty much all of the audio settings at default.

Files with embedded DTS and other surround formats play properly in surround without me having to do anything.

If youā€™ve had issues in the past, you might try using HDMI for your PC-TV interfaceā€”it seems to be the key.

23

Itā€™s probably just a quirk of the way Iā€™ve got things set up.
In my lounge I have a smart TV, an Apple TV, a TV recorder set top box, and a home theatre system - no dedicated media server. My NAS is my media server, and it is in my office.
All the appliances in the lounge are connected to the TV via HDMI.
When Iā€™m playing something through the smart TV (media from the media server, YouTube, Netflix etc), it sends the sound back to the home theatre system via the return channel.

For some reason, when I run the Plex media server on my NAS I canā€™t get surround sound to work. Serviio does work pretty well for me though so I havenā€™t spent a huge amount of time trying to get Plex to work.

24

That sounds like the difference between our configsā€”I go HTPC ā†’ receiver ā†’ TV, and it looks like youā€™re going HTPC ā†’ TV ā†’ receiver. Not sure if thereā€™s something quirky about how plex handles the return channel or notā€”sounds like there might be.

25

Lots of TVs (even new ones) donā€™t do surround passthrough - so if youā€™re hooking your media player directly to the TV and the TV to the receiver, the receiver will only pick up the stereo audio stream. The solution, as @Lee_Ars says, is to connect your media player to the receiver and the TV to the receiver - assuming that said receiver has HDMI switching.

Mine doesnā€™t, so I had my media player connected directly to my TV, and the TV connected via optical to the receiver. This allowed for surround sound when watching free-to-air but only stereo when using any other sources. So I now have the TV and HTPC connected to separate optical inputs and manually switch the receiver source with the TV. Clunky, but itā€™s cheaper than buying a new receiver. :wink:

26

The TV does do surround passthrough - it works using Serviio, just not with Plex.
Given that the media server is in a separate room, connecting it to the receiver using HDMI isnā€™t an option. I could probably plug my Apple TV into the receiver, but then that would add another level of complexity to the equation and the rest of the family would probably kill me.

Serviio works. It doesnā€™t have some of the flash bells and whistles of Plex, but I can live with that :smile:

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