Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[vagskal]

I am trying to watch a DVD with 5.1 audio on a 5.1 setup, but the dialogue will not come out of the center speaker or any other speaker, i.e. the center channel is not sent to any speaker but I can hear some sound coming out of the center speaker. I can hear the dialogue if I let MC downmix to stereo, 2.1 or 4, but not if I set MC to 5.1 or disable MC Output format. If I play an old DVD with only stereo sound MC upmixes to 5.1 correctly.

I run MC as a client on a XP PC with some kind of budget NVida video card with HDMI to my Samsung TV and from there via SPDIF to a receiver connected to the 6 speakers. I use Direct Sound but I have also tried Wawe Out with the same result (Kernel streaming does not work at all).

Any ideas?

[JimH]

This might help:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Surround_Sound

[vagskal]

Thanks.

That webpage seems a bit outdated.

I could not find these options in MC 18.

Again in Options > Playback, pick 'DVD playback settings...'.
On Windows XP or non-premium Vista / Windows 7:
Under 'Audio Decoder', choose ffdshow (requires installation of CCCP)
Double-click 'ffdshow Audio Decoder' in the filter list and pick 'S/PDIF' for AC3 and DTS

Maybe this is part of Red October now?

The other steps on that webpage I think I have covered (I get sound and my receiver was capable to handle the audio when I played my few old DVDs from a DVD player connected directly to the reciever, and there is nothing wrong with the number of speakers or their connection to the reciever).

Is it this issue mentioned on the webpage that is affecting me?

If you configure your HDMI audio output for 5.1 - to get non-Dolby audio streams like AAC decoded to 5.1 PCM - but configure your PC to output Dolby and DTS as bitstreams - Media Center usually goes haywire with Dolby audio. To get this to work you either have to leave your PC to decode - which is fine with Dolby but not DTS out-of-the-box - or configure your speakers for 2.0 and put up with stereo PCM output of 5.1 AAC sources

I have tried with and without the MC Output Format option to output Dolby Digital checked with the same result. Is there any workaround today (other than reducing the number of channels that MC outputs)? I just want to be able to hear the dialogue and have surround sound; I do not really care if that is called Dolby Digital, DTS or PCM.

Playing Netflix from a webpage (not from inside MC, which does not work in my country) on that PC gives me both dialogue and surround sound as expected.

I see now that it in my initial post looks like I am playing a DVD on the PC DVD player with MC. That is not the case. I am actually trying to play DVDs ripped by MC, if that could have any impact on my issue.

[Matt]

You're using HDMI to S/PDIF, so I think AC3 encoding (bitstreaming or letting MC encode) are the only ways to do more than 5.1 channels.

It would be better if you could switch to a connection that natively supports 5.1 channels (analog or HDMI).

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply!

You're using HDMI to S/PDIF, so I think AC3 encoding (bitstreaming or letting MC encode) are the only ways to do more than 5.1 channels.

It would be better if you could switch to a connection that natively supports 5.1 channels (analog or HDMI).

I am afraid I do not understand. (I do not need more than 5.1 channels for my six speakers.)

How can I set MC to do this AC3 encoding, or was it something I should have done upon ripping with MC?

Playing from the Netflix webpage on the PC without MC interference works to my satisfaction with my setup: PC => HDMI => TV => S/PDIF => Receiver. I am afraid my old receiver does not have HDMI, and the new Samsung TV does not have 5.1 analog out. I use digital/optical S/PDIF between the TV and the receiver and it works fine with the cable TV card in my TV and with the built-in Netflix app in the TV.

Does digital/optical S/PDIF not natively support 5.1 channels? Is that the problem? Before I had S/PDIF between my set top cable TV box and the receiver and was happy with that.

(I tried to go from the PC built in sound card via digital/optical S/PDIF directly to my receiver but could not get that to work; no sound at all although I switched sound device on the PC and in MC. This is not my preferred solution, but I just wanted to say that I nevertheless tried it as a workaround before posting.)

Sorry if these are really basic questions.

[Matt]

S/PDIF really only supports 2 channel audio.  However, you can encode AC3 surround sound (5.1) into a 2 channel package and pass that over S/PDIF, effectively allowing it to do surround sound but with a slightly lower quality (since AC3 is lossy compression).

To always output using AC3, in DSP Studio > Output Format pick '5.1 channels' and check 'Output surround sound as Dolby Digital'.

You could also enable bitstreaming for AC3 content like DVD, although this disables any processing like VideoClock, volume, etc.

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply and your patience! I think I understand now. I will try the Dolby Digital option again (perhaps a restart of MC is needed for that to take effect).

[eddyshere]

I would first check the (as you use sound direct) the windows settings : right click on your audio sign and choose playback devices. Then select your nvidia hdmi output and click on "configure". Make sure that you have enabled the 5.1 setup.
NB : If it isn't available it might be that the TV advertizes itself only as stereo and so the HDMI link would be the culprit.
Furthermore I Don't know if the TV can passthrough multichannel received per HDMI to it's sPDIF out (to the Receiver)....actually it looks like it can passthrough audio received on it's Spdif in : maybe you could use an spdif out of the PC mainboard to the TV...
But considering the netflix experience somehow it has to be setup correctly....hum  ?
Just a idea

[vagskal]

I am having no luck with this. Now MC tells me to switch to 2 channels.

The settings are the same as in the screen shots above, except that I switched on the Dolby Digital option. I have told the Windows sound control panel that I have a 5.1 setup and in MC I use for Direct Sound the recommended Default channels setting selected.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help with these probably basic questions.

[eddyshere]

take the bit rate down to 24 in dsp. 32 is uncommon and check if you still have the error.