Print

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

[natehansen66]

Ok, I feel like I've asked this before so sorry if it seems like a repeat. I use MC exclusively for audio..........all of my video sources are streaming so I've had no use for MC's video capability. There are rare occasions when I use a physical disc, but I've never been able to get audio playback to work with video in MC so I use MPC for video and Loopback/WDM to JRiver for audio.

A little background on my setup (which I'm sure is the source of my problems): 2 channel setup with 2.5 way active speakers and 2 subs. Crossovers and eq are done in JRiver's PEQ.

For my normal audio use I have output format set to 12 Channels because I have a 12 channel DAC and I use the extra channels for dual channel measurements.

Trying to play a DVD in MC gives me no sound with this setup, and the DVD in question has only 2 channels. Changing to 2 Channels (in a 7.1 container) doesn't work either, though it works fine for audio only content.

Switching to a different zone with stock settings does make sound, but of course that's no good with my active setup.

I was thinking there's some kind of downmixing I need to do in the PEQ, but surely that's not the case when the video source has only 2 channels.......what am I doing wrong here?

[natehansen66]

Bump

[blgentry]

I don't have enough experience with your kind of setup to diagnose this.  But I think you're on the right path with the number of channels.  A few things to consider:  Can you play multi-channel audio files?  Like a 5.1 surround audio only file?

Are you sure your video files only have two channels?  For movies, that would be unusual.  Most of mine have a surround track of 5.1, and one or more stereo (2 channel) tracks.  You can pick which audio track to play from the Player > Stream menu.

Since you only have 2.5 physically channels, you'll definitely need to do some kind of downmixing.  There are guys here that are very experienced with that.  I'm hoping one of them will chime in here and help.

Good luck,

Brian.

[mwillems]

Your situation is definitely peculiar.  Have you tried looking at the audio path, or DSP studio's analyzer, or at your audio device's monitoring utility to see if any sound is being played on any channels when this is happening?  I guess I'm wondering if the channels that the DVD is playing on aren't channels that are mapped differently in your setup?  It is unusual to see a stereo DVD, but not unheard of (concert DVDs will sometimes be in stereo).

Your normal 12 channel setting will not do downmixing for you (it has a 7.1 mixing target) so if anything the normal 12 channel setting will upmix the stereo DVD to 7.1 if JRSS mixing is enabled, which would obviously be undesirable. However, 2 channel in a 7.1 container should do the downmixing just fine (assuming you've enabled JRSS mixing).  I use 2 channel in a 7.1 container regularly. 

So I guess my advice is: confirm what is happening during playback in Audio path (# of channels, mixing, potentially forgotten DSP settings, etc.), then have a look at analyzer and see if sound is playing back on an unexpected channel(s), and then have a look at your audio device's monitoring panel and see if any audio is being sent anywhere.

The fact that it works with a standard setup suggests there's an issue somewhere in the mixing chain; you may have a few channels muted somewhere in your DSP chain; you can diagnose that by selectively disabling a block and seeing what happens).  I've never encountered your issue, but all of my video is 5.1 or 7.1 so there may be some special challenges with 2 channel video that I'm not aware of (i.e. maybe it's not mapped to L and R or something crazy like that).  If these steps don't help, I'd suggest posting your DSP studio settings (screencaps)

[mattkhan]

There are rare occasions when I use a physical disc, but I've never been able to get audio playback to work with video in MC so I use MPC for video and Loopback/WDM to JRiver for audio.

do you have any zoneswitch rules active? is the video being routed to some other zone that is talking to a different audio device? For example the default device which might be your mobo.

[natehansen66]

Thanks for the replies....bumped it then forgot.

The disc is a music documentary which is why it's only in stereo. I've had the same issues in the past with regular dvds as well. I'll look into your suggestions in the next day or two.

[natehansen66]

Here's a shot of my audio path and output format with a typical 5.1 DVD playing. I see no output in analyzer in the DSP Studio, no output to any soundcard in the Windows sound devices menu, and of course no output in my audio interface sw. Nothing is muted anywhere which I confirmed by playing the DVD in MPC and using the WDM for audio. Audio is fine there. I tried 12 channel and 2 channel (in a 7.1 container) with no mixing, and both of those with JRSS mixing stopping playback every time I made the change. Nothing. I lowered the volume in my mixer to all channels and turned off my PEQ blocks for each of the aforementioned settings and still see no output. What's a bit maddening is I DO get sound with a different zone that I have set for 2 channel with no mixing and no other PEQ or anything. I get sound through my tweeters (as I should since they're on the L/R channels). Replicating those same output format settings in my Movies zone still gives no output. Obviously something is set differently, but I have the Output Format settings the same for both, and the audio device is the same for both. What else could it be?