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[thurston]

There is no audio heard from my DVD in either the menu or extras when using MC.  Nero is able to play it fine.  Audio is heard for both on the movie itself.  How can I fix this?

[glynor]

What DirectShow filters are you using to handle playback?  I've seen this issue with some of the newer Nero filters, PowerDVD filters, and a few others.

Nvidia's PureVideo filters (not free) work well with MC, as does Gabest's MPEG-2 decoder (free).

[thurston]

OK I might need a little guidance here.  Which file(s) in the video_TS folder should I analyze (I have G-spot)?

[glynor]

Play a DVD back in MC, right click in the Display Window and point at DirectShow filters.  Take a screenshot and post it.

BTW -- make sure to play an actual DVD, not a ripped one.

You may also want to take some time to read this: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DirectShow_Playback_Guide

[thurston]

Glynor-
Excuse my mistake.  I mistook codec for filter.  I'm kinda new to this.  Here's the screenshot (taken during extra playback where audio doesn't work)

Thanks for taking time to help.

[glynor]

Yeah... It's AC3Filter which is kinda bunk (especially old versions).

Uninstall AC3Filter from Add/Remove Programs and make sure FFDSHOW is installed and set up to handle AC3 (Dolby Digital) playback.  Read this: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Why_Does_My_Video_File_Have_No_Sound%3F

FFDSHOW should probably automatically take over decoding duties if it is installed and AC3filter isn't there.  Try it again and if it doesn't, then take another screenshot and post it (after removing AC3filter).

[thurston]

Thanks I'll give it a shot.  Would it make sense for the video quality in Nero to be better than in MC?  It may just be me but it appears that Nero playback is better quality.  I've tried to take screen shots (using alt+print screen) of the same scene with both programs to compare, but neither shot seems to paste well.  Is there a better way to copy video screen shots?

[glynor]

Note... The technical reason for this is:

AC3Filter handles AC3 and DTS audio decoding.  The DVD you are using HAS AC3 and/or DTS audio (probably AC3) for surround-sound support.  However, like many DVDs, they didn't encode all of the audio to AC3 on the disc, but only encoded the "main movie" file to AC3.  All of the menu and extras audio is probably all just 2-channel PCM audio (essentially WAV audio).

The problem is that AC3filter can't decode PCM audio.  It is getting loaded when you start the DVD because the DVD supports AC3, but only for some of the media.  AC3filter doesn't know what to do with the PCM audio and just ignores it.

It's actually pretty stupid that AC3filter doesn't either handle this itself, or pass it back off to DirectShow for a different filter to handle it.  Perhaps it works correctly with newer versions, but this is the same behavior I've seen before when using it.  (Actually, I just looked and they claim that MPEG joint audio is fixed in the newest stable build -- who knows.)  Unless you are using AC3filter for some really fancy stuff, I'd just get rid of it and use FFDSHOW instead.  It is just as capable in almost every way, and far less troublesome.

[glynor]

If you're using video Overlay (Legacy Renderer) you can't take screenshots of the video because it is rendered in the physical hardware of the video card on the way out to the monitor (Windows just sees a black square).

Using VMR9 mode instead of Overlay (legacy) mode lets you grab frames.  I don't know how to turn that on in Nero.

It shouldn't be different, but the JRiver bitrate monitor could conceivably be affecting playback quality.  You can try turning it off in Options --> Playback --> Video --> DVD Playback Settings.  You may also get better results by turning on VMR 9 instead of Legacy in the Video Renderer selection in that same dialog.

It's also entirely possible that Nero is doing some post-processing in the player after the decoding filter is done with it (noise reduction and whatnot).  You can use MC to route the video to FFDSHOW for post processing and set up all sorts of cleaning (though you need to know what you are doing).  The Nero Decoder filter also has some Post-Processing capabilities built-in which you can turn on in MC if you want.  Go to that same DVD Playback Settings dialog, double click on Nero Video Decoder in the DVD Filters list, and you can play with some of the Post-Processing settings.

For some reason, I can't ever get these options to "stick" with the Nero filter.  I'm not sure if they actually work, or if you need to configure it every time during playback.

[glynor]

That's actually a very good question...

Why don't these options "stick" when accessed via MC?

[thurston]

Uninstalled AC3 Filter and FFD Show was already set to handle AC3.  It worked!  I can't thank you enough, you are a HUGE asset to this program; I probably would've stopped using it soon after I tried the trial version without your advice.  I can't tell you how many problems I've solved by reading your posts. 

If you're using video Overlay (Legacy Renderer) you can't take screenshots of the video because it is rendered in the physical hardware of the video card on the way out to the monitor (Windows just sees a black square).

I have been using the legacy renderer due to playback issues I had (freezing video with sound still playing) when I first bought MC.  Maybe the other renderers will work better now.

You can use MC to route the video to FFDSHOW for post processing and set up all sorts of cleaning (though you need to know what you are doing).

I don't, so I won't

Also, thanks for the explanation of the AC3 problem.  Makes perfect sense.  I hope this helps others with the same issues.

[glynor]

No problem at all.  I actually might add this to the Wiki later today.

[glynor]

No problem at all.  I actually might add this to the Wiki later today.

Done: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/My_DVD_movie_has_sound%2C_but_the_extras_and_menus_do_not

[skeeterfood]

Just as an aside, I recently found another way to cause essentially the same problem.

If you're using the Nvidia audio filter from the PureVideo codecs and you adjust the lip-sync delay to more than some amount (I think it was 30 ms) it will quit outputting audio for non-AC3 sources.  This may only happen if you're using SPDIF output, or it could be an issue with the driver for my card, who knows, but it took me a LONG time to figure out what was going on...

-John

[glynor]

Nice tip, John.  (And thanks for the clean-up on the View Schemes page.)

[Yaobing]

That's actually a very good question...

Why don't these options "stick" when accessed via MC?

Do they stick when accessed from another program?
In MC we only bring out the filter's property pages. We have no idea whether the settings changed on the property pages are saved somewhere. It may well be the case that the property pages do not save the settings, but requires the application to query it for its settings, but we have do idea what interface to use for such queries.