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[GaryWW]

I am in the process of ripping my SACDs and everything is seemingly going well except that J River (MC 19.0.138) will not play some of the multi-channel rips, without altering the output format, while it will play others. So far, it will play

• Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
• Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

The following are giving me problems:

• Chesky - Ultimate Demonstration Disc 2
• Antiphone Blues
• Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Attachment Capture_1 shows Pink Floyd being played and the resampling. Capture_2a shows a 2ch Chesky recording being played (so the rip is OK). Capture_2b shows the error message for the Chesky multi-channel recording. I don't want 2ch. and I don't care about the 64bit.

I don't understand why the Chesky SACD is not being handled like the Pink Floyd SACD.

[Hendrik]

Many audio devices don't support 5 channel playback, which is presumably what you are running into here.
5 channel is unusual for audio output, and from that screenshot its not even clear which channel would be missing, possibly no LFE, or maybe no front center.

There is no perfect solution for this problem right now. You can tell Media Center to output using a fixed channel count (matching your speakers) instead of "Source Number of channels", that way output always works.

[Hilton]

You can setup zone switcher to automatically switch 5 channel SACD to a fixed 5.1 config and it should automatically route to the right channels.

I have some 5 channel DTS and SACD material too and I don't have problems because I have different zones setup for the different channel configurations and rules that tell which zone to switch to.
On my HTPC I have the following zones setup with rules for auto-switching:

2ch 192/24bit (anything 2 channel and not SACD up to 192k plays through this zone)
6ch 96/24bit (anything multi channel and not SACD plays as 5.1 on this zone)
2ch SACD (only 2ch SACD downsampled to 192k PCM on this zone)
6ch SACD (>2ch SACD downsampled to 96k 5.1 PCM on this zone)
7.1 Movies (all movies/blurays upconverted to 7.1 with 2.1 for 2 channel)

Each zone switch rule turns off all the other zones as they all use the same HDMI input into my amp.

[GaryWW]

All of the rips I am having issues with are detected as having 5 channels. My ears tell me most are actually 4.0 while one is 5.0. I'll try the zone switcher solution. Thanks guys!

[6233638]

I wonder - since Media Center is now capable of encoding DSD in real-time, might it be possible to "add on" additional channels of silence for devices which don't like formats such as 4.0 or 5.0, without converting the original stream to PCM?

[Hendrik]

Bitstreaming can and will by definition not mess with the signal in any way.

[6233638]

Bitstreaming can and will by definition not mess with the signal in any way.

Yes, I understand that - but what I'm wondering is if it would be possible to put a four or five channel DSD track into a larger 6 channel (5.1) container without an intermediate PCM conversion, for devices which only like 2.0/5.1 signals.
 

[Matt]

Yes, I understand that - but what I'm wondering is if it would be possible to put a four or five channel DSD track into a larger 6 channel (5.1) container without an intermediate PCM conversion, for devices which only like 2.0/5.1 signals.
 

It would be possible, but it's not a path we'll likely pursue.  Converting to PCM delivers the same quality and offers advanced things like channel routing.

[6233638]

Well it's not something which affects me anyway - my DAC will only do stereo DSD, and I typically convert to PCM rather than bitstreaming anyway.
But it seemed like it would be a useful feature for people that do want to "bitstream" native DSD to a multichannel DAC that only supports certain channel layouts.
 
That said, as I'm typing this I realize how small a number of people that must be.
If we ever get hardware which can send DSD out over HDMI from a PC, then it might make sense, but the number of DSD-capable multichannel USB DACs is incredibly small.

[manisiutkin]

It would be possible, but it's not a path we'll likely pursue.  Converting to PCM delivers the same quality and offers advanced things like channel routing.

By not having these extra channels JRiver just complicates things. Really, when DAC asks for 6 channels and you have a little less the simplest way is to add silence. At least, it doesn't have to be explained

[GaryWW]

Many audio devices don't support 5 channel playback, which is presumably what you are running into here.
5 channel is unusual for audio output, and from that screenshot its not even clear which channel would be missing, possibly no LFE, or maybe no front center.

There is no perfect solution for this problem right now. You can tell Media Center to output using a fixed channel count (matching your speakers) instead of "Source Number of channels", that way output always works.

In my case, this must be a PC related issue since my AVR will accept 5.0 SACD (DSD) audio. I took a picture of my Cambridge Audio Universal Player playing the Chesky SACD on my Intgera AVR. The bottom line of the info display shows that the SACD is 5.0 and that SACD DSD is being bitstreamed to the AVR. The Integra AVR info display is in the upper left corner. It shows that 5.0ch DSD is being received from the CA Player. And the music is playing.

[Hendrik]

PCs are inherently unable to bitstream DSD, and 5 channel PCM is a different deal entirely - but it may as well be a limitation of the HDMI device in the PC instead of the AVR, its somewhat impossible to say which end is to blame from the information we have, and the end-result is really the same.

[6233638]

To clarify - PC's cannot output multichannel DSD over HDMI - or stereo for that matter.
No video cards support this.
 
You can only output multichannel DSD over USB from a computer right now, or convert it to PCM if you want to use HDMI.
So in this case, it seems that the issue is not the channel layout, but rather the output used.
 
 
 
P.S. Is there any technical reason for why DoP wouldn't work over HDMI if the receiver uses it? It's just a 16-bit 176.4kHz PCM signal, right?