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[harlington]

Hi all, I am brand new to MC19 and have a few questions.  Please help.

1. I am using ASIO output mode with bistream set to NONE.  I played a movie that I know its sound format is dtsMA7.1 and my receiver shows dtsMA7.1 when using Mediabrowser WMC.  Play this same movie with MC19, hit the arrow up a few time, and it shows dts5.1.  The dtsMA7.1 streaming is not there in MC19. Any idea why? Regardless, my Denon shows 7 channels plus sub as input and output which leads to question 2 below.

2. With ASIO output mode and with bistream set to NONE as recommended, my Denon receiver shows Multi In 7.1 as input for ALL movies regardless of the movie being only 2 channel, 5.1 or 7.1.  I do not understand how all of my movies are seen as having 7.1 channels with MC19.

3.  While playing a movie, MC19 Audio path input shows '48khz 32bit 6CH from source format dts' and output shows '48khz 32bit 6CH using ASIO (direct connection)' but my Denon receiver info shows 7 channels plus sub as input and output (Front panel shows Multi In 7.1)

I am very confused.  Please help.  Is there an audio set up somewhere that I've missed?

Other than these, I love MC19.  I just wish it can look as good as my MediaBrowser Diamond theme (backdrops and thumpnails just look sharper with Mediabrowser).  Thanks.

[jmone]

Welcome to MC!  Have a look in the Wiki regarding DTS-MA decoding - http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Blu-ray  It should answer some of your Q's.
Thanks
Nathan

[harlington]

Thanks Nathan. That link did it for dtsMA7.1 as my MC19 now shows all 8 channels.  It still does not explain the 8CH as input when I was playing an AC3 5.1 movie (6CH) though.

[jmone]

Great that part is sorted out.   

Now have a look in the DSP Studio (Tools --> Options --> Audio --> Settings --> ... DSP & Output format).  You have a whole bunch of options under here that you can play with, including "Output Format", where in Channels you can select either a fixed number of Channels (say 7.1) for MC to mix to, or "Source # of Channels" and MC will just output what it receives. 

See if these settings make the changes you need, else we then need to look at if Windows is doing the mixing.

Thanks
Nathan

[jmone]

More on the Audio Setup -> http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Setup

[harlington]

Thanks Nathan. I have output unchecked (not enable)and it shows the correct input and output channels in MC19. What I don't understand is that my Denon receiver shows 8CH as input even though the movie source is only a 5.1 AC3 (6CH). I guest MC19 decodes and mixes the audio as 8CH for all of my movies and sends it to my receiver which then shows what being received (8CH) which explains why my Denon receiver sees all of my movies as 8CH input (from MC19). 

[jmone]

Nope - almost there.  My guess is that you are currently using the default Windows Audio Output Mode where remixes the audio to to that you have set in the Windows Control Panel.  You have other modes available - http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Output_Modes

Try setting "Tools--> Options--> Audio--> Audio Device" to WASAPI (I assume it is on Direct Sound at present).

Thanks
Nathan

[harlington]

I set  Audio device to ASIO4ALL v2 [ASIO]  Am I better off using my  AMD HDMI output [WASAPI]? I thought ASIO is recommended for direct sound. Thanks.

[jmone]

WASAPI was introduced by MS from Vista Onwards and is the preferred render in most cases (but it gets down to what your device supports).  Anyway, give it a try to see if the Channel # are fixed.

[Hendrik]

I set  Audio device to ASIO4ALL v2 [ASIO]  Am I better off using my  AMD HDMI output [WASAPI]? I thought ASIO is recommended for direct sound. Thanks.

ASIO is recommended if your device has a native ASIO driver. ASIO4ALL is NOT recommended.
If you do not have a native ASIO driver, I recommend using WASAPI.

[harlington]

WASAPI does it. All my questions have been answered. Thanks guys.

[akira54]

Sorry to butt in, but could someone explain why with an audio set-up which incorporates a proper surround amp you would want to choose anything but bit streaming (HDMI passthrough)? I can understand it if the PC does the amplifying or if you would want a sound output that differs from the source. But if you just want exactly what the source has to offer, isn't bit streaming the way to go? I am asking because no one suggested it here.

[Hendrik]

Bitstreaming disables all of MCs processing features, which is why we do not recommend it as a default.

Even the most simple things like Volume Leveling, which do not really modify the audio much, but just ensure you have a equal volume on all playback, are impossible with bitstreaming.

[jmone]

You AVR is still doing the Digital to Analogue Conversion (DAC), as MC is just decoding the Audio to PCM (not amplifying it) and then transmitting it over HDMI in digital form.  As Hendrik says, with this approach you then (optionally) get all the goodies MC has to offer under the DSP area + Video Sync etc that with bitstreaming you will never get.  You still use your AVR for it's own additional DSP processing on the signal as well if you want.

[akira54]

Thanks for the elaborations. Doesn't the amp look after video sync?