Play MKV files via Plex no sound – Solution

This article focuses on why we play MKV files via Plex with no sound problem and shows you some possible ways to resolve the problem.

I installed the Plex Home Theater on my Windows 7 PC. The PC is connected to the TV via HDMI, the audio output is connected to the audioreceiver via optical cable. I have a Plex server running on a separate PC. Everything was working fine untill I lost sound when playing MKV files. The AVI files I currently have shown up with no problem. Searching further and widely, I got some clues. If you don’t have idea how to get it done, or play MKV via Plex with no sound issue, just read on for details.

As we all know, MKV is the norm for high definition video content. Usually, these files have a 5.1 surround sound audio track. There are two issues with these 5.1 audio MKV files. The main issue lies with Dolby Digital and DTS audio. Plex has issues playing any MKV with 5.1 surround sound and DTS audio. To fix the problem, I searched from Google and got some recommended solutions.

Possible ways to enable Plex read MKV files without no sound issue:

Solution 1: Make sure the whole file names were being recognized by Plex. For example, if all of mkv videos are all Sports videos so the names, there were kind of random. To solve it, you can set ‘Scanner’ as ‘Personal Video Files Scanner’ and ‘Agent’ as ‘Personal Media’. Plex picks up pretty much any file with that setting.

However, I found it’s stuttering on large MKV files Plex.

Solution 2: Download Handbrake and use the default setting in it to convert MKV files to MP4 for streaming to Plex.

Some guys reflect Handbrake is spamware. Just downloaded it and had to do two malware cleans to get rid of all the shit it put on the computer.

Solution 3: In order to stream MKV files via Plex Media Server without problems, the easy option is to convert MKV to Plex compatible video files. Along with some help from third party program like EaseFab Video Converter, it can be done effortlessly.

This video app is professional on fast transcoding MKV to Plex Media Server with MP4 format (the most compatible video format for Plex) without quality loss. In addition, it not only supports MKV videos, but also handles various common video formats, like MXF. MTS, MOV, MP4, AVI, WMV .etc. For Mac users, EaseFab Video Converter Mac is also a helpful app to encode videos for further usage.

EaseFab Video Converter is not freeware. While, if you do not mind to pay $27.96, you can follow the guidance for you to transfer MKV to Plex for streaming, sharing without no sound and other problems.

Guide: How to convert MKV to play via Plex

Step 1. Load MKV files

Click “Add Video” button to load your MKV files to the program. You can also directly drag and drop your videos to it.

Step 2. Select output format

Click “Profile” (located below where your files are displayed) and select the format you want from the drop-down list. To convert MKV for Plex, just choose “MP4” from “Common Video” as the output format.

Tips: The default setting works well. Of course, if you want to customize video and audio encoding settings, just click the “Settings” button to customize these settings. You can adjust the output video/audio resolution, frame rate, bit rate, etc. to customize the output files to get the best quality you want.

Step 3. Start the conversion

Tap the Convert button on the main interface to start converting MKV to Plex Media Server.

The process will be finished soon. After the conversion, you can easily find the encoded MKV video clips in the destination folder by clicking “Open”button for playing and sharing to your other devices via Plex Media Server.

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Top 5 Free MKV Players for Mac OS X
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