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[Deribas]

hello, JRiver for Mac experts,

I recently became aware that when playing back multichannel SACD .iso files (that I ripped from own SACDs on a ps3) using JRiver 20 running on a Mac mini (osx 10.10.5), all the channels (speakers) are playing except the Right Surround channel. For playback, JRiver transcodes iso files on the fly as PCM 24-bit/88.2 kHz 5.1 channel files and sends the output via HDMI to my marantz processor (into which I also connect hdmi input from my Oppo universal player).

Strange, I thought. Just to confirm the problem is not the speaker or the channel in the processor or the amplifier, I played the same physical SACD (source for the rip) on the Oppo player, and this time the right surround speaker came alive.  Is there a known problem that could affect channel assignments from mch .iso files transcoded in JRiver? Thanks in advance for any helpful ideas.

[JimH]

What version of MC are you using?  Please see the top of this board for the latest.

[Deribas]

What version of MC are you using?  Please see the top of this board for the latest.

20.0.132 is my current version.


To help me track this problem, is there a way in JRiver to see how channels are mapped in a given mch file?

[blgentry]

I have a funny feeling there's something going on with the MC connection to your receiver.  But I'm TOTALLY guessing.

I suggest you play some test tones.  Tools > Advanced Tools > Audio Calibration .  Select 5.1 channels and hit play.  This should confirm whether or not MC is able to access all of your channels correctly.

Brian.

[Deribas]

Thanks for your suggestion. Did try the 5.1 channel test - all the speakers play fine. My connection to the processor is an hdmi cable, so I will try another cable.  Somehow, this seems to be an intermittent problem, in that some mch .iso files play fine across all channels, and quite a few others have a silent R surround channel (whereas the corresponding physical SACD has a working r surround channel). Really hard to think of a logical explanation

[Deribas]

OK, I finally had a bit more time to investigate the silent R surround channel, and I think I finally figured out what is happening. It is not so much a bug in JRiver but a awkward feature that makes it too easy to enter wrong settings. I am surprised that no one else playing multichannel SACD files has come across this issue, or else has not registered that one of the surrounds is silent.

Here are the facts:

1. Some of the mch SACD tracks are 6-channel  (5.1 configuration), while others (mostly some classical labels) are 5-channel (5.0 with no discrete LFE channel). JRiver "detailed view" correctly reports which ones are which
2. The way channels are given numerical assignments in JRiver are 1= front left; 2 = front right, ...4 = subwoofer, ..., 6 = surround right
3. In the DSP studio window, I had the # of channels set to "source # of channels" (Which I thought was reasonable).
4. All channels played when the mch SACD track was of the 5.1 variety, and the R surround channel was quiet when it was the 5.0 variety

My conclusion is that the mch signal from 5.0 tracks was truncated at 5 channels only, leaving out the last sixth (R surround) channel. So, I changed the Channels setting from "source #" to "5.1" and all became well. In retrospect, maybe it was to obvious of an error, so no one but me made it.

[blgentry]

Thanks for reporting back.  This kind of channel numbering issue seems like something easy to miss and maybe hard to diagnose.  Also, the conversion from multi-channel to multi-channel is also sort of subtle.  Or at least non-obvious.

Good job in diagnosing and correcting it yourself! 

Brian.