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[pepar]

Yes, I am reposting with, hopefully, a catchier subject line. My other post is getting ZERO attention/replies from the ppl who would know how to solve my problem. Sorry if I am a pest.

I have verified that my PC, Win 10 and Intel HD Audio/Display Audio are working. Windows Media Player BITSTREAMS the audio codecs to my pre/pro. The pre/pro reports it; DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby True Audio, etc. WMA does that whether it is set to Default Audio Device, which is Intel Display Audio, or directly to Intel Display Audio.

When set to bitstream HDMI, MC will not play video files, period. It throws the “Playback could not be started on the selected audio output” message. Here’s new information: If Bitstreaming is TURNED OFF, it will play the video, BUT THERE IS NO SOUND.

The MC audio settings were not changed. It just stopped working. This seems like a bug. I need help.

[JimH]

You wouldn't normally bitstream video.

The wiki has a topic on Video Setup.

When you play video, you can select the audio track you want.  Use the OSD buttons (up, down, left, and right) to select.

[pepar]

Audio. Bitstreaming audio.

I’ve used MC for a while. It’s simply not playing anything. While, on the same PC, WMA works fine.

[pepar]

I am going to reinstall Win 10, this time making sure all updates have been applied before installing MC. The only “change” I can think of in my PC was Windows updates happening after having a perfectly operating Media Center instance.

Last night I booted up my theater and watched an Avengers movie on MC; it worked perfectly. After the movie I tried a TV episode and MC went black and then threw the “Playback could not be started on the selected audio output” error message.

I immediately dropped the episode onto WMP and it played fine. I next went back to MC and tried the Avengers movie I had just watched and it wouldn’t play.

[tij]

I immediately dropped the episode onto WMP and it played fine.

When playing with WMP after MC failed to play, does your WMP actually bitstream? (it might just be playing in stereo ... if thats true, could be HDMI handshake problem when MC switches video modes that causes AV processor to report something wrong)

Also more details on your setup can help a lot:

Are you using multi monitor setup?
How long is your HDMI cable?
Make model of GPU and AV processor?
RO Standard or RO HQ?

[pepar]

WMP bitstreams the codec. The Avengers uses DTS-HD MA 7.1 and that's what my pre/pro reported it was receiving when I tried WMP after MC lost its way.

Pre/pro is an Emotiva XMC-1. Display is a JVC 1080p front projector. Cable from the HTPC to pre/pro is High Speed and ~4' long.

The MC box is a wee Asrock 490 chipset, Intel i3-10100T CPU, "graphics" are handled by the CPU and chipset, including hardware acceleration of all relevant video codecs.

I have Red October set to standard as the CPU isn't a screamer.

[fitbrit]

Audio bitstreaming only works in exclusive mode. That means if you have been playing files in other programs, just pausing them there will not release the audio device. You should exit the other programs to be sure.
Also, if you have display refresh rate switching turned on, MC sometimes needs extra time to make an exclusive audio connection with the changed display settings in effect, so do implement a delay to allow the refresh rate to change and stabilise first. It's in Options>Video

In Audio options, make sure the sound device you choose is the WASAPI version and not Direct Sound. In Windows sound control panel, make sure your Emotiva is configured for 7.1 and that supported formats check off everything relevant up to 192 KHz.

[pepar]

Thanks. I did have exclusive turned on but MC stumbled before I began troubleshooting with WMP. It's moot for now though as I wiped the SSD, reinstalled Win 10, installed the LAN driver and am now letting Redmond have its way with the PC before I install even the Intel display and Display Audio drivers. MC will be the last program I install.

[pepar]

Still a fail. I have as basic a system as is possible. A completely fresh and updated Win 10 install, the latest Intel display driver w/Intel Display Audio. I launched 1917 (m2ts) and … IT STARTED. I stopped it and started the first episode of Star Trek Discovery (mkv) and it failed and gave me the can’t start yadda yadda on the selected audio output.

I went back and tried to launch 1917 and .. it failed the same way.

I am going to reboot and see if I can get something to play .. one time.

[pepar]

Rebooting did nothing to “refresh” my PC. Since the initial, first time ever, successful playing of 1917, I have not been able to play ANYTHING, not even 1917 again.

I have rebooted several times. I rolled back the Intel display drivers from the latest beta to the latest production release. I can switch to WMP and play whatever just failed to play on MC. I am at wit’s end.

What info do you need to troubleshoot this? Can/should I roll back to 27?

[pepar]

MC27 threw the can’t start message. I installed VLC, adjusted a few audio settings and - bingo - it bitstreamed the audio to my pre/pro.

[fitbrit]

That must be frustrating.
Can you switch to direct sound and see if it works? I mean to get playback started with audio. Forget the audio quality for a second.
I’m pretty sure I could figure this out with access to your system. And if you are switching refresh rates, please increase the delay before playback starts in the video options.

[pepar]

I installed PotPlayer and it wouldn't play the audio. It's message was "It is not possible to play the audio.
DirectX audio driver is not installed or not installed correctly.
Please note that some systems require that the output device (headphones, speakers) be connected for audio to be used."

I checked the DirectX files and I am on DX12, so PotPlayer is misinformed. Nonetheless, it offered to get the codec which, after some hesitation on my part, I said OK. It installed some Core files and an item called OpenCodec Files. I loaded a 7.1 DTS-HD MA movie and am now sitting here watching the credits with the audio streaming to my pre/pro.

As for MC, I have audio and video settings to pass the audio and to not change the FPS. I am too low on willpower right now to troubleshoot MC any more tonight. Am pretty sure I tried every variation of the HDMI display audio device, but I will poke around the next session in my theater. That may or may not be tomorrow when Ida is to blow through.

edit: I summoned the energy to have another fiddle with the settings in MC. There is no combination that lets MC play a file, period. At this point I am dead in the water. I have been able to bitstream the audio in WMP, VLC and PotPlayer. There is some sort of a conflict between my hardware (or a driver?) and MC. The little 3rd Gen Intel NUC I abandoned to move up to a newer platform at least played all of my files. The hardware wasn't capable of bitstreaming and my pre/pro received PCM in whatever channel configuration the file's audio codec had. I moved to 10th Gen CPU to enable streaming and now I can't play anything.

[tij]

You using Windows Defender or other Antivirus software?

Did you configure them to exclude MC? Also firewall exception for MC.

For windows defender .. https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114101.0.html

[pepar]

It’s gotta be something simple, right? I thought I saw MC pop up a Windows security message and allow me to set an exception? I know PotPlayer did at least one.

Just so I understand, Defender is antivirus and firewall is something different, right? You linked a piece on Defender - thanks - where can I find instructions for what steps to take for the firewall?

[tij]

In tutorial ... one of the screen shots shows firewall ... just configure that to allow MC to pass

I am not familiar on Microsoft security as i am on bitdefendor which also needs to be configured for MC.

This Defender/Firewall is root of many problems ... so just wamted to make sure you configured it properly before troublrshootimg further.

PS. Once you configured Antivirus for MC28, you dont need to do it for minor updates like 28.51, etc

You will need to do this though for major upgrades like MC29 and MC30 etc ... lots of ppl forget that

[tij]

I thought I saw MC pop up a Windows security message and allow me to set an exception?

Defender dont pop up messages ... from my understanding ... it keeps monitoring MC activity including files it accesses ... slow things down a lot and can cause timeouts

Firewall can block MC from dowloading components it needs ... theoretically, things should pop up to warn you ... but if you ignored that warning ... i think it will not ask again and just keep blocking

[Hendrik]

The description of the issue sounds to me like the wrong audio device is selected for output. You should double check the selection and maybe try some other options.

[pepar]

Thanks. It’s just not a wrong selection. Plus I have tried every output device listed.

[tij]

Screen cap your MC audio settings and DSP settins ... easier to understand that way

[fitbrit]

Screen cap your MC audio settings and DSP settins ... easier to understand that way

+1 Good call

[pepar]

Alrighty, I am back at this. I now have an Win10/Intel NUC7i5 as a MC Library Server, and my content is still on an unRAID box, to go with the Win10/mITX 10th Gen Core CPU MC Client. The client is a fresh Win10 Pro install with updated Win 10, BIOS, firmware, drivers, some computer monitor utilities, MediaInfo and MC28. No 3rd party codecs and no 3rd party AV/firewall.

When I launched MC for the first time, Windows Security (Firewall, I think) popped up a dialog and I allowed MC to pass. (I suppose I could look at a log and get the exact message/action?) The Client is connected to both the Library Server and the unRAID SMB share. No issues.

But it still will not play content. “Playback could not be started on the selected audio output”

Where do I start?

Jeff

edit: Am now looking through Awesome Donkey's "Taming Defender" thread ...

[fitbrit]

If you are ok with me remote connecting to your system to look at it, I could do a voice call with you. This is bugging me!
Also, try going into Options> General> Features and make sure Video is checked.

[pepar]

Sent PM

[pepar]

This will be my last post on this now-solved issue. I can't thank @fitbrit enough for his time and willingness to help; by 15 mins into our remote session he had solved the main problem. Along with ensuring I had the box checked for exclusive control of audio, he dialed in a delay (on the video tab) to allow my front projector and pre/pro to handshake after the switch from desktop frame rate to the 23.976/24 rate of the content.

And he spent another 15 mins tweaking Red October and MadVR, and explained to me what and why he was doing as he was doing it.

Jeff

[fitbrit]

As I suspected, it was mostly a matter of the projector taking too long to switch display rates, and MC throwing up that message which points to the audio device and is essentially a misdirection in this case. In the past, for a while at least, the message that comes up actually mentioned lack of delay to accommodate refresh rate changes as a possible cause of the error, if I recall correctly; it was later modified and that part removed.

Please can we have a sentence saying that the error can occur if your display device is not able to switch refresh rates quickly enough?
Not only is it a very frustrating problem, the error message points you away from the actual cause. We can spend ages trying all manner of audio settings, when in fact it is really a video/HDMI handshake issue.

In pepar's case, however, a second issue was present too - that exclusive mode had been turned off at one point in the troubleshooting process. So even introducing the delay didn't immediately fix the issue. Once we checked off using Exclusive mode everything was fine. And I could reintroduce the error by disabling the playback delay or exclusive mode, thereby proving that we had been dealing with two simultaneous causes for the same symptoms.

[macdonjh]

I've had a similar problem.  If I try to play multi-channel video when only my computer is on, I get the audio error.  However, if my pre-pro is turned on, I don't get the error and the video plays.  My theory is my computer's internal sound card is only 2-channel, and when MC/ Windows can't see a multi-channel device it hiccups.

Thoughts?

[fitbrit]

I've had a similar problem.  If I try to play multi-channel video when only my computer is on, I get the audio error.  However, if my pre-pro is turned on, I don't get the error and the video plays.  My theory is my computer's internal sound card is only 2-channel, and when MC/ Windows can't see a multi-channel device it hiccups.

Thoughts?

When your multi-channel processor is on, MC sees a surround capable device for audio. When it is off, your TV/monitor is the active sound device, and it cannot play the correct number of channels. There are ways to fix this.

Option 1. Turn on your pre-pro (of course)
Option 2. Create a new audio zone with the same audio device, but with JRSS downmixing to two channels activated in DSP Studio.

Use the audio zone created in option 2 when you want to watch something without turning on the pre-pro.

[macdonjh]

When your multi-channel processor is on, MC sees a surround capable device for audio. When it is off, your TV/monitor is the active sound device, and it cannot play the correct number of channels. There are ways to fix this.

Option 1. Turn on your pre-pro (of course)
Option 2. Create a new audio zone with the same audio device, but with JRSS downmixing to two channels activated in DSP Studio.

Use the audio zone created in option 2 when you want to watch something without turning on the pre-pro.

Excellent, thank you.  I thought there were functions in MC to do what I wanted, but I haven't tried them yet, so didn't know how to do it.

[fitbrit]

Your post about zone switch would achieve something like this automatically, but it might be hard to come up with a rule that somehow signifies whether the pre-pro is on or not. As you know Zone Switch is based on properties of the file being played.

[macdonjh]

Your post about zone switch would achieve something like this automatically, but it might be hard to come up with a rule that somehow signifies whether the pre-pro is on or not. As you know Zone Switch is based on properties of the file being played.

I get that.  I imagined I'd have to make that part a rule for me.  My pre-pro will be on, regardless.  If I get my Zone and Zone Switch set up properly:

• If watching a Video, I'd know MC would direct output to my HDMI comm port, which is connected to Input 1 on my pre-pro.
  If listening to a 2-channel Audio file, I'd know MC would direct the output to a USB comm port, which is connected to Input 2 on my pre-pro.

That part I'm used to.

Thanks for your help with this.

[JJ510FTC]

This will be my last post on this now-solved issue. I can't thank @fitbrit enough for his time and willingness to help; by 15 mins into our remote session he had solved the main problem. Along with ensuring I had the box checked for exclusive control of audio, he dialed in a delay (on the video tab) to allow my front projector and pre/pro to handshake after the switch from desktop frame rate to the 23.976/24 rate of the content.

And he spent another 15 mins tweaking Red October and MadVR, and explained to me what and why he was doing as he was doing it.

Jeff

I can't thank both of you enough for this! I spent so much time trying to figure out this same issue, and boom, changed the delay and problem solved. So grateful for this forum! Thank you Jeff and @fitbrit!!!!

[pepar]

This problem/solution should be in the MC For Advanced Dummies FAQ.