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[badger]

Something has happened to my setup to disable my ability to play MKVs.  I've been using MC (always the latest beta) to play MKVs (ripped BDs) for several years (bitstreaming via HDMI to a Sony receiver).  I turned on my HTPC 2 days ago and MC18 upgraded to build 122 automatically. When I tried to play an MKV file, I got the "playback could not be started on the selected audio output".... audio format may not be supported.... you can use DSP studio, etc etc" error.  In light of all I've done to troubleshoot, I don't think the problem is with build 122 (at least specifically).

Here is what I have:
-Win7, Asus HD 6450 video card (latest driver)
-Sony Receiver
-3/2.1 speaker setup

MC has really been bullet-proof for me for such a long time, I really don't know all the settings I had, but I believe the key settings were:
-Audio Out (Wasapi-Event Style)
-Output Mode (set to the AMD HDMI HD device.... and the default audio device is set to such in Windows sound)
-Bistreaming - HDMI checked
-Video Output - Red Oct standard... nothing else checked

I'm willing to try anything but here is what I've done so far.
-tried to play MKV without bitstreaming and that won't work either... same error.
-If I set audio out to "direct sound", the mkv will play (haven't really checked which channels play because I know I don't want that)
-installed several older builds (same error)
-Loaded a complete backup image of the disk from December (still same error).
-because the backup didn't work I figured it must be hardware, so I bought another HD 6450 for $35... same error
-complete re-install of windows 7 and MC.  no help

I'm left wondering if my receiver is busted, because a few times it appeared MC "tried" to play the file (black screen with movie poster) for several seconds before it returned the "playback could not start" error.

If anyone has any ideas on what I can check I'd appreciate it.  Music files do play with bitstreaming on, but I don't even know if the audio output options screen has anything to do with music files.  Short of buying a new receiver I'm at a loss.....  would a log help?

Thanks in advance if you can help.

[Matt]

I would configure DSP Studio > Output format to a consistent format.  Turn off bitstreaming.

Get audio playing.

Then play a video.  If you leave the Output format enabled, it should work if audio was working.

Then slowly move back towards the settings you prefer and see what triggers the problem.

[badger]

Thanks Matt.  I finally had success last night and my guess is it was related to the AMD video card driver... because after re-installing the card and driver (twice) I was again able to play the videos (both bitstreaming and not).  How or why the driver got corrupted or changed in the first place is still a mystery.  Another factor may have been a firmware update for my TV that turned ON the ARC (audio return channel) function... sending hdmi audio from my TV to the receiver.  Turning ARC OFF seemed to be conincidental with my problem going away... as I was also re-installing the video card driver.