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[kaczor47]

[I apologize for a somewhat long-winded post, but I might as well be clinical from the start]

So I have given up on the XBMC project to sort out the DLNA rendering issues that I have moaned about on both forums. I now have MC 17(.0.180) installed locally on the HTPC for all audio and XBMC for the movies (mainly because the kids know how to work it). I ran into playback issues with hi-quality 5.1 audio...

Setup:
Acer Revo 'HTPC', Win7 Pro 64bit, NVIDIA Ion (driver 295.51), feeding via HDMI to a Yamaha RX-V465 receiver (set to no processing, ie 'Straight' playback) to 5.1 speakers. Media is on a Synology NAS mounted as a network drive (ie, not a media server), not that this is relevant...

in MC: Output mode: WASAPI / Device: NVIDIA HDMI Out (High Def. Audio) / Output Format in DSP disabled
attempting to play a 5.1 24bit 96kHz .flac I get the following error: "The mixing format of your hardware does not support the current output format. Please use the 'Output Format' tool in DSP Studio to convert to...  Sample rate 48000 Hz, Channels 6, Bits per sample 32."

After clicking OK (multiple times) I am presented with Automatically Configure Output Format window,  telling me that '48kHz 24bit 6ch' format would work, and if I'd like to have DSP Studio adjust it automatically. If I let it do so, playback proceeds fine but with the receiver reporting 48kHz input (as expected).  

(edit: playback of a 5.1 16bit 48kHz ac3 file is fine)

But, when playing the same file using XBMC with the 'audio device' set as WASAPI: HDMI Out (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)' the receiver correctly reports is as a 96kHz signal (I can't seem to find the bit depth), PCM. No issues.

Back in MC, setting the Output Mode to Direct Sound or WaveOut (Output Format in DSP disabled again), the audio plays fine but the receiver reports it as 48kHz signal (5.1 channels, PCM), not 96kHz. Same after enabling Output Format in DSP Studio forcing the sample rate of 96kHz input to 'no change' (channels and bitdepth to same as source) - still reported as 48kHz. Furthermore, even when I select a standard 2ch, 16bit 44.1kHz .flac file, the receiver reports it at 48kHz and actually shows all 5.1 channels active (although the C, RS, LS are silent).

Now, I will admit that I haven't studied the various windows audio modes in details (yet), however I am a bit perplexed. What are the correct settings that I should be using here? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help.

pawel

[eddyshere]

If direct Sound is the selected audio device you could check your settings in Windows.
right click on your speaker icon next to the date in the taskbar -> playback devices -> "choose your active device" -> click on properties -> Advanced.
Here in default format select 24bit, 96000 Hz.

Just a thought but I have experienced in direct mode that the DSP settings of MC to be overruled by these windows settings.

[JustinChase]

Try changing the audio device in Media Center to WASAPI: HDMI Out (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)

I think direct sound and wave out both go thru the windows mixer, which you want to avoid.

[kaczor47]

Try changing the audio device in Media Center to WASAPI: HDMI Out (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)

I think direct sound and wave out both go thru the windows mixer, which you want to avoid.

Thanks for the response.

The problem occurs with the audio device set to WASAPI: HDMI Out (....) in MC. Sorry if I wasn't clear...
I looked at the properties of NVIDIA HDMI Out and under Supported Formats it lists 16 and 24-bit quantizations and sample rates of 44.1, 48, 96 and 192 kHz (up to 8 channels).

I do not understand why MC fails to play even if I force 24bits in DSP.

[Hendrik]

My suggestions:

Output Mode: WASAPI - Event Style
Output Mode Settings: Check "Present 24-bit data in a 32-bit package", 100ms buffering

I've been using this on NVIDIA over HDMI before, and it works just fine.

[kaczor47]

My suggestions:

Output Mode: WASAPI - Event Style
Output Mode Settings: Check "Present 24-bit data in a 32-bit package", 100ms buffering

Some progress... enables me to play 5.1 96kHz 24bit, 2.0 96kHz 24bit, 2.0 44.1kHz 16 bit (all flac)
but not 4.0 96kHz 24bit flac  (error: 'this format would work 96kHz 24bit 2ch')
nor       5.1 48kHz 16 bit ac3 (error: 'this format would work 48kHz 24bit 6ch')

The last one results in multiple error pop-ups eventually crashing MC

[kaczor47]

Sorry to reply to my own post...

Is there any other info I can provide (logs?) to see what the problem is. Unfortunately I don't have another device with NVIDIA ION to test this on...

[JimH]

If you want the receiver to decode, turn on "bitstreaming".  The setting (unfortunately) is under video.

Try testing from Windows Control Panel / Sounds to make sure it works from Windows.  If not, it won't work from any player.