[MikeyFresh]

  I've been trying to determine a way to stream hi res and CD-ripped music stored on my Synology DS214 NAS to my Sony ZX2 DAP. Most of the Synology-supplied DAP apps (i.e., DS Audio) down convert the music. I've been trying to confirm if Plex would work but have seen some inconsistent results on the web. What is the view here? I wonder too if there is a way to stream over the internet so the Sony DLNA app could deliver my music unaltered. Any other tips that would work in my situation?

Read back in this thread just a little, another member @georgelai57 did just what you are describing with his ZX1.

 

[DavidWeinberg]

Yes, I saw that but TommyNavara commented in post 20 "If i install the Plex app and i've got FLACS on the server, there has to be a way to be sure that i'm playing without transcodes.." and yay101 answered in post 21 "Long story short, no."  So I'm unclear if it will work without down converting (or transcoding). I'm intrigued (but still puzzled) how to make it work with DLNA.

 

[vnmslsrbms]

  I've been trying to determine a way to stream hi res and CD-ripped music stored on my Synology DS214 NAS to my Sony ZX2 DAP. Most of the Synology-supplied DAP apps (i.e., DS Audio) down convert the music. I've been trying to confirm if Plex would work but have seen some inconsistent results on the web. What is the view here? I wonder too if there is a way to stream over the internet so the Sony DLNA app could deliver my music unaltered. Any other tips that would work in my situation?

From what I can see, it doesn't go above CD quality.  It shows 16/44.1 on my DAC.  I'm streaming from the latest Plex server to my Plex app on iOS.  It could be iOS restriction too. Not sure on that.  I like that it does indexing. That's a huge plus as some other ones that I tried can't load my songs since there are too many.  Plex is the fastest in that instance.  Their player is nice too.  Just waiting for their next fix to cure the stop after 3 songs issue.  
 
Edit: Does anyone know of a solution similar to Plex that offers hi-res streaming?  Or I need to get a network streamer like Auralic Aries?

 

[yay101]

What exactly are you after? Foobar 2000 (and kodi) can host a upnp library of any size and stream at the files actual quality. BUT your receiver needs to handle the format on the other end AND explicitly say so. Upnp does a handshake at the controller for agreed quality control, Plex down samples to match the capability, more basic upnp streamers do not, I think its optional with foobar2000's plugin.

Basically upnp is a wav (or mp3 or any other agreed format, even ogg) stream with packets for metadata tacked on. Airplay is aac (I think) with metadata tacked on. But there's no rule about what can be sent (even files) as long as both sides agree to the transaction.

This is why something like xbmc (kodi) will upnp 4k video to other installations of kodi, but most other devices will either error, or get sent something much smaller they can handle or will just try really hard to play it and get terrible playback.

Plex tries really hard to guarantee playback, which you will notice is why it has so many transcoding settings.

 

[yay101]

Yes, I saw that but TommyNavara commented in post 20 "If i install the Plex app and i've got FLACS on the server, there has to be a way to be sure that i'm playing without transcodes.." and yay101
 answered in post 21 "Long story short, no."  So I'm unclear if it will work without down converting (or transcoding). I'm intrigued (but still puzzled) how to make it work with DLNA.

Hi DavidW (my real name is David W too).

Basically upnp can, plex won't (I'm happy to he proven wrong). In perfect conditions with a great renderer you will get any format piped as 16:44 WAV, obviously perfect copy of anything less than that. Anything more will be converted down to guarantee playback.

I hope that clears it up. With high buffer settings and a VPN on your router normal upnp CAN be used in the wild as long as your connection can deal.

Subsonic I used years ago can do all the Plex stuff with more options including lossless streaming also. But with great options comes great responsibility.

 

[tayano]

Plex can't play ALAC on iOS, it's transcoded to MP3 strangely enough. My solution was to put my music on my owncloud server and use the app cloudbeats. The app plays the files and the interface is OK. It also has gapless playback.

I do wish that plex would play lossless on iOS. I cancelled my premium subscription when I understood that plex couldn't play ALAC on my iPhone.

 

[MikeyFresh]

.

 

[tayano]

Who told you that?

I had asked the same question a long time ago and was assured by the developer that Plex does play back ALAC on iOS with no transcoding, Plex only transcodes to MP3 when it senses the connected device does not support that file type.

In the case of iOS devices, they do of course support the ALAC file type and thus no transcoding by Plex unless something changed in a subsequent update of the app.

The new version of the iOS app does not play ALAC. It can be seen in PMS that it's transcoded to MP3. If you still don't believe me, google it.

 

[vnmslsrbms]

The new version of the iOS app does not play ALAC. It can be seen in PMS that it's transcoded to MP3. If you still don't believe me, google it.

Yeah it's limited at CD quality from my research.  But you can do the passthrough option which could just pass it on to the destination instead of decoding itself.  Plex can decode pretty much anything out there, so you're running into the risk of your device not being able to handle what it's pumping out (like say DTS for surround sound audio won't work for my stereo DACs).  Technically they say it sounds the same, but I am not sure.  I tested some tracks and it sounded worse streaming from the Plex player vs straight from my iphone even.  

 

[tayano]

Yeah it's limited at CD quality from my research.  But you can do the passthrough option which could just pass it on to the destination instead of decoding itself.  Plex can decode pretty much anything out there, so you're running into the risk of your device not being able to handle what it's pumping out (like say DTS for surround sound audio won't work for my stereo DACs).  Technically they say it sounds the same, but I am not sure.  I tested some tracks and it sounded worse streaming from the Plex player vs straight from my iphone even.  

How do I passthrough the music in plex?

 

[Failed Engineer]

Is there any browser that will stream FLAC in conjunction with Plex Web?  My regular web browser is Firefox and I don't think FLAC is supported.  I've checked the logs and it appears transcoding is going on.
 
I recently purchased Plex Pass, and I am very very impressed with the navigation and information Plex provides on albums and artists and am contemplating using it full time instead of foobar for playback, but I'd like to figure out the FLAC streaming.
 
Edit: I just tried the Plex Media Player available to Plex Pass subscribers and it appears that does not transcode, but the browsers do.  This is ultimately not a solution because the web interface is significantly better than the Plex Media Player interface.

 

[tayano]

I think that only PHT or PMP will stream flac/alac without transcoding. iOS/web-player does convert and that does suck.

 

[TommyNavara]

  Is there any browser that will stream FLAC in conjunction with Plex Web?  My regular web browser is Firefox and I don't think FLAC is supported.  I've checked the logs and it appears transcoding is going on.
 
I recently purchased Plex Pass, and I am very very impressed with the navigation and information Plex provides on albums and artists and am contemplating using it full time instead of foobar for playback, but I'd like to figure out the FLAC streaming.
 
Edit: I just tried the Plex Media Player available to Plex Pass subscribers and it appears that does not transcode, but the browsers do.  This is ultimately not a solution because the web interface is significantly better than the Plex Media Player interface.

Hi,
i feel you bro.
Plex is overall a better solution but can be a pain on transconding stuff.
The problem, in that case, is not PLex but your browser, try to check here what are the formats supported by your browser:
http://hpr.dogphilosophy.net/test/
Firefox does not support flacs.

 

[Failed Engineer]

Yes, I have visited that website from reading the Plex forums, but I've not found a browser that supports FLAC.  Do you know of one?  Any OS, Windows, OSX, or Linux.

 

[TommyNavara]

I've found none so far.
The problem for Plex are the mobile application also: you don't even know your birate during playback on mobile.