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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 21 for Windows => Topic started by: richard-ec2 on March 09, 2016, 06:01:56 am

Title: Can't get multichannel playback to work
Post by: richard-ec2 on March 09, 2016, 06:01:56 am
I'm a complete beginner with multichannel so please be patient! This is the first time I've ever tried it.

The setup is:

Windows 10 PC with MC21, connected by HDMI cable to a Yamaha A/V receiver (RX-V377) which supports both DSD and PCM. The A/V receiver is attached to 4.1 speakers (no centre channel yet).

I have downloaded a DSD 5.1 file and am trying to play it, but I can't.

I am aware that it's impossible to play back DSD through a PC's HDMI output but I thought JRiver had a way around this.

Instead, every time I hit the play button in MC21, I get the "Something went wrong with playback" message and the detail is: "Playback could not be started on the output Wasapi using the format DoP 2.8 MHz 5ch".

I know the basic setup is OK because I can play back ordinary 2-channel FLAC files through this setup without any problem. Also, if I go into the Sound control panel in Windows, the test tones work fine.

So it must be something to do with DSD or multichannel.

In the DSP Studio, I have right-clicked on the sample rates and reset the sampling rate for ALL frequencies to 44.1 kHz for test purposes, so it's not that.

I've tried all the different encoding options and none of them make any difference - I always get same error message with the same wording. Changing the number of channels doesn't make any difference, either.

I must be missing something, but what?

Update: I tried converting the same DSD file to PCM (flac, 88.2/24) and that played back in multichannel so it does seem to be the DSD that's the problem. BTW, I should have said, DSD bitstreaming is enabled.
Title: Re: Can't get multichannel playback to work
Post by: Hendrik on March 09, 2016, 07:35:02 am
Disable DSD bitstreaming. Its not supported over HDMI.
Title: Re: Can't get multichannel playback to work
Post by: richard-ec2 on March 09, 2016, 08:26:32 am
Amazing! It works! I set bitstreaming to None and that's all there was to it. I'm now playing back multichannel DSD through the HDMI output of a PC, which everyone says is impossible!

What I don't understand is why the guys in the following thread, who seemed to be up against the same problem, weren't able to do the same thing:

DSD bitstreaming with Yamaha RX-A1000 not working (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85629.msg585138#msg585138)

Anyway, many thanks indeed for solving my problem.
Title: Re: Can't get multichannel playback to work
Post by: Hendrik on March 09, 2016, 09:58:20 am
I'm now playing back multichannel DSD through the HDMI output of a PC, which everyone says is impossible!

Actually you are not, you are playing PCM. MC decodes the DSD files to PCM for you.
Title: Re: Can't get multichannel playback to work
Post by: richard-ec2 on March 09, 2016, 12:10:00 pm
Oh, I see. I thought I was getting DSD wrapped up in a PCM container  - DoP? - but clearly I've misunderstood the whole thing. Never mind, it works, I'm getting high res multichannel, and I'm happy.