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Author Topic: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?  (Read 3985 times)

Marquis

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How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« on: January 24, 2007, 08:00:54 am »

I am looking for a way to play videos with 2 audiostreams. I have several .avi files that contain german and english language. With Mediaplayer Classic I can switch between the streams easily, but MC12 plays both streams at the same time. Is there a function to select the language (and a hotkey to toggle)?

BR/Marc
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JimH

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Marquis

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2007, 08:40:56 am »

 :( The link is not working.
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JimH

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2007, 08:45:52 am »

Sorry.  It's on the beta board here.

Here's the text:
It's curious how this suddenly started working for you also don't you think?

Earlier in my testing I went through all the different Filter combo's but this was pre the PID change.  The give away was hearing the digital noise over the top of the MPG Audio track (in Oz the SD channels broadcast both MPG Audio and SD on some channels) - as soon as I changed the Filter from "let Direct Show Choose" to NVIDA the filter picked has picked up the correct output pin for the DD feed (all a guess of course  :D).  Next is to settle down the stability the add/fix:
- Time Shift
- Manual Record
- Schedule Recording
- Pass through from external boxs (eg Cable/Sat - for us Foxtel)
- and waaaay down the track the holy grail of integration with all the differnt EPG's in the world (good luck!)
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Marquis

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2007, 08:53:01 am »

Thanks,

doesn't sound related to my question for me. I need something like a language selector that is available for the DVD module. When I playback a DVD I can switch to another language, because there is another stream available. Same for my videofiles, but the streams are included in the video-file (not seperate as on a DVD).  I tried to investigate on the filter-side as well, but the filters are not offering such choice.
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JimH

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2007, 08:54:39 am »

You're hearing two audio tracks, and should be hearing just one.  Is that correct?
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Marquis

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2007, 08:55:19 am »

yes, that's true.
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Yaobing

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2007, 09:15:40 am »

This is a bit unusual. Sorry, there is no built-in mechanism to handle that in current version.
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glynor

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2007, 10:00:30 am »

FFDSHOW and Haali can handle this just fine.  Try searching for CCCP on this board for the best way to obtain and install these filters.

For XviD/DivX AVI's you'd want FFDSHOW to handle it.  For MKV or MP4's, you'd want Haali to handle it.  Haali works by default with the CCCP install, but FFDSHOW takes a tiny bit of configuration.  In FFDSHOW's Audio Decoder configuration, choose Stream Switcher, check enable.  If you don't enable the Stream Switcher in FFDSHOW, you end up with both audio tracks mixed during playback (which is what you're seeing).  MPC provides a built-in Stream Switcher interface (MC doesn't) but FFDSHOW has one so there's really no need for MC to do it too.



And then in the tray icon you'll be able to easily right-click and choose which audio track to hear.



For more modern media container formats, the situation is even easier.  As long as Haali is set to handle your MP4 and MKV media (and OGM and other formats that it handles well), it'll just work automatically.  Just right click on the Haali icon in your notification area (by the clock) and you'll get a popup menu where you can select the different audio tracks:



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Yaobing

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2007, 11:05:57 am »

Thanks, glynor!
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Marquis

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2007, 05:55:55 am »

Thanks,

I tried it yesterday and it worked. But I have a side-effect. When activating this feature, all my movies get freaky apromixately at the second half of playback. the pic is suddenly freezing or the sound is off for some minutes. I am not sure if it's from my movies or from the filters. When I deactivate it, it's running without problems.

cu/Marc
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ThoBar

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2007, 06:54:17 am »

I have experienced this problem also. I also used Glynor's method to circumvent, however this is highly inconvenient in a HTPC. Obviously, having no ability to change this from within Theater View is rather detrimental.

Personally, I would like to see an audio channel selection menu located alongside the Aspect Ratio menu.

C.
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bspachman

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2007, 03:17:13 pm »

OK!

This was the problem I was having with multiple audio tracks in mp4 containers. Although a little kludgy, this solution would work fine for me (choosing the active stream from the ffdshow or Haali tray icons). However....

Those tray icons were not showing up when I played the files. I checked the settings for both ffdshow & Haali, and both have their tray icons turned on. I DO see the tray icons when I'm playing audio files. AAC-encoded files (m4a extensions) show both the Haali splitter icon and the ffdshow audio renderer icon.

A restart of MC12 didn't help, neither did a reboot of the machine...

When I investigated the MC12 DirectShow settings, I stumbled on a couple of issues.

First, 'mp4' was not selected in the 'DirectShow Filters' area of the options. Checking that box brought the ffdshow audio/video tray icons to life the next file I played, but I still had no choice of audio streams.

Second, I delved into the filter selections for mp4 files. I chose "Haali Media Splitter" as my source filter, and left everything else as the default. The next file I played showed all 3 tray icons, and the Haali icon allowed me to choose the audio stream. Success!

My remaining question is this--is there a tutorial about DirectShow and how all the myriad of MC12 settings affect it? I think I understand the basic concept, but I'm befuddled as to all the options. For example, in my case, with DirectShow 'off' for mp4 files, why was I able to play them back at all? What's the difference between a source filter and 'other filters'. Why would I want to choose multiple filters for a given file type, etc. etc.

Any knowledge will be gratefully accepted!
Brad
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Yaobing

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2007, 06:21:24 pm »

My remaining question is this--is there a tutorial about DirectShow and how all the myriad of MC12 settings affect it? I think I understand the basic concept, but I'm befuddled as to all the options. For example, in my case, with DirectShow 'off' for mp4 files, why was I able to play them back at all? What's the difference between a source filter and 'other filters'. Why would I want to choose multiple filters for a given file type, etc. etc.

Currently we do not have a tutorial about DirectShow. There maybe one elsewhere.

Just to answer some of your questions.

mp4 is not checked by default to avoid  giving new users too many filter related problems. The mp4 extension can be used for either audio or video. When it is video, there tends to be more troubles. We leave it unchecked so the file type is played in Quicktime engine by default. Quicktime engine, bad may it be, does not require a lot of user action to play a file. On the other hand, DirectShow requires installation and configuration of filters that a novice user may not be familiar with. By leaving mp4 to Quicktime, we avoid having too many novice users screaming about not being able to play mp4 podcasts.

A source filter loads a file and pass the content of the file to downstream filters.

"Other filters" essentially are decoders and other filters that transform audio video data before passing it further downstream.

You do not need to specify all filters. DirectShow can automatically add needed filters. You choose filters when you know a specific filter you want to use (the Haali and FFDShow filters that you choose are perfect examples.)

Why do you need more than one filter? I will give you a hypothetical example. Suppose you do not have Haali, nor FFDShow, but do have a decoder that will decoder the video, but will not give you the capability to pick audio stream. So you add a second filter that will allow you to pick audio stream, and let these two work in tandum.
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glynor

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2007, 09:58:56 pm »

Good description Yaobing.  Actually, all of this should be added to the Wiki.  One of these days (maybe tomorrow if there's time) I'll try to add some of my DirectShow related posts to a page or two over there...
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bspachman

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Re: How to handle videofiles with more audio-streams?
« Reply #15 on: March 01, 2007, 04:30:41 pm »

Thanks for all of this... I have some more specific DS questions, but I will split them off into their own post to avoid cluttering this one up....

Best,
brad
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