Bad audio when streaming video to Panasonic using optical ou

I have Serviio v1.1 running on Ubuntu 12.04 - I have ripped my DVDs using Handbrake v0.9.8 to .m4v files.
These play back fine pictures and sound to my Panasonic TX-L37E TV using the internal speakers but I have recently connected an Orbitsound T9 soundbar using the Optical Digital Audio connector and now I just get digital clicking sound.
Normal DTV channels and other inputs into the TV sound good over the optical connector.
MP3 music files streamed from serviio to the TV work fine over the optical link.
Any thoughts?

[slyguy42o]

maybe try transcoding the audio into mp3 for this format?

Can Serviio perform that transcode of the audio or do I have to go back to Handbrake?

[slyguy42o]

you should be able to edit the transcoding profile for your device to do that for you.

[zip]

does Serviio transcode the files or play them natively? Try to turn off transcoding.

I turned off transcoding and now the digi optical sound works - although one of the films had a very (horizontally) squashed up Aspect ratio, but it could be corrected on the TV