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[twgehr]

When Windows went to 1803 update don't get 5.1 output from WDM Driver when the source is something other than JRiver Media Center. For example, from Direct TV online, or YouTube channels. This worked before. Please advise. Thanks so much.

[RD James]

Do you have the WDM device configured for 5.1 in Windows?

[twgehr]

Yep it is. Please see attached file w/screen shot.

[twgehr]

Any more ideas on this? WDM was useful, but now does not seem to work. Thanks so much.

[RoderickGI]

It worked before? Are you sure MC wasn't upconverting or something? Are you testing with exactly the same sources?

I don't know the answer, just more questions, but...

It can be a bit of a challenge when the source can't be put into Exclusive mode, such as with YouTube and I suspect DirectTV, although I saw a comment that DirectTV was beta testing 5.1 Channel support. Windows DirectSound can get in the way, even if the WDM Driver is set to 5.1 Channels I suspect.

Try with a known 5.1 YouTube sample like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9-sIZRDHg and see if you can get it to work. Note that as far as I know YouTube only supports Stereo, and so only encoded audio will produce multichannel audio, such as DTS in this sample or Dolby Digital. So the source (YouTube) is Stereo, MC receives Stereo, decodes that to 5.1 Channel, and will show 5.1 Channel in the Audio Path inside MC.

I'm not at my 5.1 channel system at the moment, but might have a look later using that sample above.

Also, you may want to Google "does youtube support 5.1". You will find some interesting reading.

[RD James]

I got around to testing it, and multichannel support still works as expected with 5.1 or 7.1 inputs.
 
However: I was testing this using another video player (mpc-be) to play a 7.1 movie.
YouTube does not support 5.1 audio - only stereo.
I don't have DirectTV, but most web audio is only stereo. If it supports 5.1, you likely have to use the Microsoft Edge browser.

Try with a known 5.1 YouTube sample like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9-sIZRDHg and see if you can get it to work. Note that as far as I know YouTube only supports Stereo, and so only encoded audio will produce multichannel audio, such as DTS in this sample or Dolby Digital. So the source (YouTube) is Stereo, MC receives Stereo, decodes that to 5.1 Channel, and will show 5.1 Channel in the Audio Path inside MC.

The video they uploaded may have been 5.1, but the audio track on YouTube is stereo.

[RoderickGI]

I haven't checked properly, but I think DirectTV on Firefox using HTML5 supports 5.1. Any flash based web video will only support stereo of course.

Also, I think the YouTube test video I linked to is stereo, but DTS encoded, so MC can decode to the full 5.1 channels. I haven't tested properly, but MC Audio Path showed I had 6 channels when playing the video via the WDM Driver, from YouTube in Chrome.

[RD James]

Also, I think the YouTube test video I linked to is stereo, but DTS encoded, so MC can decode to the full 5.1 channels. I haven't tested properly, but MC Audio Path showed I had 6 channels when playing the video via the WDM Driver, from YouTube in Chrome.

It's not DTS encoded - that would be destroyed by YouTube's conversion process even if it was originally.
MC's audio path will always show 6 input channels if the device is configured as 5.1 - but only two of them will be playing anything via YouTube (or most web sources).

[twgehr]

Yes using MC WDM to upconvert from stereo to 5.1. It worked before the recent Windows 10 upgrade. Not sure what to do at this point. Thanks so much for the replies.

[RD James]

If you want it to upconvert, make sure that Output Format is configured for 5.1 and JRSS is enabled.

[RoderickGI]

My workstation updated to Windows 10 Version 1803 (OS Build 17134.48) after I posted above, and I see that Microsoft has completely changed the Sound Device arrangement and how settings are changed. So I wouldn't be surprised if they change something under the covers in how it worked. It took me a while to even find the Audio Device configuration dialogues again.

Anyway, the way you used to have your sound set up, it was Windows DirectSound that was upconverting to 5.1 because the WDM was set to 5.1, I believe. Not the best way to upconvert. MC upconversion is much better.

So do as RD suggests, and take in Stereo from the WDM into MC, then upconvert inside MC using the settings he mentioned.


BTW RD you were correct, as usual, and the YouTube video was 2 Channel AAC audio. MC was showing 6 Channels when I had the WDM set to 5.1, and 2 Channels when I had the WDM set to Stereo. So Windows was doing the upconvert and the source was just ordinary stereo. That still works now after the Windows update.