feat(plex): an off-by-default loudness normalisation toggle for playback

Bug hunt 2026-09, item 14 — "how does the multichannel downmix work, and is it
normalised?" It isn't: `plex/stream.py` has always encoded `-c:a aac -ac 2 -b:a
192k`, i.e. fixed stereo with ffmpeg's default downmix matrix and no loudness
handling at all, which is why a film mastered for a cinema arrives with whispered
dialogue and deafening action.

New admin knob `plex_audio_loudnorm` (Configuration → Plex), DEFAULT OFF: it makes
a film markedly louder and narrows its dynamic range, which is a taste call rather
than a fix. It sits at the end of the Plex group, after the software-transcode
knobs — it is an audio concern, not one of the libx264 ones.

  -af aformat=channel_layouts=stereo,loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11,aresample=48000

Three things about that chain are load-bearing and each has a test:

  * the downmix is FORCED FIRST rather than left to `-ac 2` — measuring 5.1 and
    folding it down afterwards would normalise something other than what is heard;
  * the trailing resample is not decoration: `loudnorm` runs its own resampler at
    192 kHz internally, which the AAC encoder will not take;
  * one `-af`, no stream index, so EVERY audio rendition of a multi-audio file is
    normalised — not just the first.

The knob is also part of the session directory name (`…_multi-ln_+0.00`), because
it changes the audio the segments contain, and a session left over from before the
admin flipped it must not be mistaken for one that honours it. The suffix is
appended with a DASH: `_SESSION_DIR_RE` treats the tag as one underscore-free
field, and that regex is the only thing keeping the orphan sweep off what may be a
shared scratch path. A test pins both halves — the name changes, and the sweep
still recognises it.

Measured end-to-end on the app's own HLS segments (a real 5.1 AC3 file, same item,
same 160 s offset, same ten segments): OFF -35.2 LUFS, ON -17.2 LUFS. On a 60 s
bench: I -27.6 → -16.6 LUFS with LRA 13.3 → 9.8 LU. A/V sync is untouched — under
this pipeline's own `-copyts` the audio start PTS is identical with and without the
filter, so the 3 s lookahead desyncs nothing.

Direct-played files are served untouched and stay so; a 5.1 mix is always `remux`,
so the reported case is fully covered.

backend/app/config.py

@@ -271,6 +271,11 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     # trades quality for size (lower = better + bigger). `max_height` caps the SOFTWARE transcode's output
     # height (0 = keep source) so a CPU re-encode of a tall source stays affordable — the GPU path always
     # encodes at source resolution.
+    # Loudness normalisation of the downmixed stereo audio on the HLS path (EBU R128 `loudnorm`).
+    # OFF by default: it makes a film ~11 dB louder and narrows its dynamic range, which is a taste
+    # call, not a fix. Only affects files that go through remux/transcode — a direct-played file is
+    # served untouched, but those are browser-native stereo anyway, not the 5.1 mixes this is for.
+    plex_audio_loudnorm: bool = False
     plex_transcode_preset: str = "veryfast"
     plex_transcode_crf: int = 20
     plex_transcode_max_height: int = 1080

backend/app/plex/stream.py

@@ -271,6 +271,30 @@ def _hwaccel_in_opts(hw: bool, tonemap: bool = False) -> list[str]:
     return ["-hwaccel", "vaapi", "-hwaccel_output_format", "vaapi", "-vaapi_device", _VAAPI_DEVICE]
 
 
+# Audio is ALWAYS re-encoded on the HLS path: the source is typically AC3/DTS 5.1, which no browser
+# plays, so it is downmixed to stereo AAC. `-ac 2` uses ffmpeg's standard downmix matrix; nothing is
+# normalised, which is why a film mastered for a cinema arrives with whispered dialogue and deafening
+# action (bug hunt 2026-09, item 14).
+_AUDIO_ENC = ["-c:a", "aac", "-ac", "2", "-b:a", "192k"]
+# Optional loudness normalisation (admin knob `plex_audio_loudnorm`, default OFF). EBU R128 single-pass
+# `loudnorm` — two-pass is impossible here, since a seek-restart session must start emitting segments
+# immediately and cannot analyse the file first.
+#
+# The downmix is FORCED FIRST (`aformat=channel_layouts=stereo`) rather than left to `-ac 2`: measuring
+# 5.1 and then folding it down would normalise something other than what the viewer hears. `loudnorm`
+# runs its own resampler at 192 kHz internally, so the chain resamples back to 48 kHz for the AAC
+# encoder. Measured on a real 5.1 AC3 film (Westworld S1E6, 60 s from 15:00): I -27.6 → -16.6 LUFS,
+# LRA 13.3 → 9.8 LU — the quiet/loud gap narrows, and everything gets ~11 dB louder, so expect to turn
+# the volume down after switching this on. The filter's 3 s lookahead does NOT desync A/V: measured
+# under this pipeline's own `-copyts`, the audio start PTS is identical with and without it.
+_LOUDNORM_AF = "aformat=channel_layouts=stereo,loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11,aresample=48000"
+
+
+def _aenc_opts(loudnorm: bool) -> list[str]:
+    """Audio encoder args for one output, with the normalisation filter when the admin enabled it."""
+    return [*_AUDIO_ENC, *(["-af", _LOUDNORM_AF] if loudnorm else [])]
+
+
 def _venc_opts(
     transcode: bool,
     hw: bool,
@@ -446,6 +470,7 @@ def _ffmpeg_cmd(
     preset: str = "veryfast",
     crf: int = 20,
     max_height: int = 0,
+    loudnorm: bool = False,
 ) -> list[str]:
     # For a transcode session the video is re-encoded (VAAPI or libx264) instead of stream-copied; the
     # hwaccel decode options go before -i, the encoder args replace `-c:v copy` below. Everything else is
@@ -473,7 +498,8 @@ def _ffmpeg_cmd(
         args += ["-map", "0:v:0"]
         for i in range(len(audio_langs)):
             args += ["-map", f"{ai}:a:{i}?"]
-        args += ["-sn", *venc, "-c:a", "aac", "-ac", "2", "-b:a", "192k"]
+        # One `-af` covers EVERY audio output of this file, so each rendition is normalised.
+        args += ["-sn", *venc, *_aenc_opts(loudnorm)]
         var = ["v:0,agroup:aud"]
         for i, lang in enumerate(audio_langs):
             entry = f"a:{i},agroup:aud,name:a{i}"
@@ -494,7 +520,7 @@ def _ffmpeg_cmd(
     else:
         ao = audio_ord if audio_ord is not None else 0
         args += ["-map", "0:v:0", "-map", f"{ai}:a:{ao}?", "-sn"]
-        args += [*venc, "-c:a", "aac", "-ac", "2", "-b:a", "192k"]
+        args += [*venc, *_aenc_opts(loudnorm)]
         args += _HLS_TAIL + [
             "-hls_segment_filename",
             str(out_dir / "seg_%d.ts"),
@@ -579,11 +605,19 @@ def start_session(
     src = paths.local_media_path(db, item.file_path)
     if src is None:
         return None
+    # Read once, here: the knob has to be identical for the directory name and the ffmpeg argv, and a
+    # session respawn (the HW->SW fallback) must not pick up a mid-playback config change.
+    loudnorm = sysconfig.get_bool(db, "plex_audio_loudnorm")
     key = item.rating_key
     start_s = max(0.0, float(start_s))
     audio_langs = _probe_audio_langs(src) if multi else []
     is_multi = len(audio_langs) > 1  # only worth a master playlist when there really are ≥2 tracks
-    tag = "multi" if is_multi else str(audio_ord)
+    # Loudness normalisation changes the AUDIO THE SEGMENTS CONTAIN, so it belongs in the directory
+    # name beside the other parameters that do (offset, audio track, A/V offset): a session left over
+    # from before the admin flipped the knob must not be mistaken for one that honours it. Appended to
+    # the tag with a DASH — `_SESSION_DIR_RE` treats the tag as one underscore-free field, and that
+    # regex is the only thing keeping the orphan sweep off a shared scratch path (see its comment).
+    tag = ("multi" if is_multi else str(audio_ord)) + ("-ln" if loudnorm else "")
     directory = _HLS_ROOT / f"{key}_{int(start_s)}_{tag}_{aoff:+.2f}"
 
     def _seg(i: int) -> Path:
@@ -632,6 +666,7 @@ def start_session(
                     preset=preset,
                     crf=crf,
                     max_height=max_height,
+                    loudnorm=loudnorm,
                 ),
                 stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL,
                 stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL,

backend/app/sysconfig.py

@@ -167,6 +167,8 @@ SPECS: tuple[ConfigSpec, ...] = (
     ConfigSpec(
         "plex_transcode_max_height", "int", "plex", "plex_transcode_max_height", min=0, max=4320
     ),
+    # Audio loudness normalisation on the HLS path (remux + transcode alike, not direct play).
+    ConfigSpec("plex_audio_loudnorm", "bool", "plex", "plex_audio_loudnorm"),
     # NOTE: plex_watch_sync_interval_min is a config.py default read by the watch-sync scheduler job
     # (scheduler.py); it is intentionally NOT a runtime admin knob, so it stays out of SPECS.
     # --- TMDB enrichment (E5 S2; optional) — the API key is the only secret ---