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More => Old Versions => Media Center 14 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Lunatique on April 07, 2010, 06:14:52 pm

Title: Some files have no sound?
Post by: Lunatique on April 07, 2010, 06:14:52 pm

I have noticed that a small minority of my music files have no sound when played in MC14, but plays fine in other media players. What could cause MC14 to play them without any sound (the progress bar moves, but just silence)? I checked the Replay Gain and it's not that.

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: JimH on April 07, 2010, 06:17:22 pm

What format?  Did you check Options for File types to see how they are played in MC?

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: Lunatique on April 07, 2010, 06:31:56 pm

All the file formats are set to play automatically.

The examples I'm looking at right now are MP3's. And strange enough, now there's sound, but only on the left channel. They haven't had sound in MC/Jukebox for years and now all of a sudden there's sound, but only left channel. How weird is that?

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: JimH on April 07, 2010, 06:43:22 pm

Bad mp3 file?

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: red86 on April 07, 2010, 07:33:14 pm

Are you using ASIO or DirectSound?  Also, XP or Vista?  Regardless, I would check your Sound settings in both Windows and MC.  In Window's it's Control Panel --> Sound...  Look at the device properties for whatever you're using.  It's possible the output setting (e.g. CD Quality, DVD Quality, Studio Quality up to 192000KHz) is not the best match for your setup.

I used to have J River set up to use ASIO on my Logitech Z Cinema speakers (via ASIO4ALL, since the speaker's USB connection doesn't natively support ASIO), and I would notice that poorly produced files would either give me an error about the KHz rating being incompatible OR only play on one channel.

Chances are the files playing on the left side are mono (not stereo) and your Windows/MC settings are more fine-tuned than the other media players, which I've found typically just spit out the mono channel in both left or right.  Which would mean that MC is actually giving you the more accurate (if not unpleasant) sound.

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: Alex B on April 07, 2010, 09:27:20 pm

If the files are indeed mono, a possible explanation is

- Previously: outputted to the non-existent center channel speaker (i.e some SW component was set to 5.1, but only the L & R speakers were connected)
- Now: outputted to the first available channel
- The difference may be caused by different settings, a different Windows version or a different sound device.

A possible solution: set MC to always output 2 channel stereo.

Title: Re: Some files have no sound?
Post by: Lunatique on April 08, 2010, 05:13:03 am

It looks like messing with the settings in the DSP Studio's Output Format helped (forcing 2 channels). Thanks!