S/PDIF.. one of hells seven layers.. i'm sure of it!

[Roger]

This is not a Mediaportal issue but since I have read almost every post there is in here about the subject and 'cause you all have the knowledge
I'll make a shot. My final goal with this is to use Mediaportal so I'm not that off.. :wink:

The problem is that I, in some situations, can't get S/PDIF to work.
Sounds familiar huh!?..

Hardware:
HP NC8000 http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...f1-364182.html
Graphic: Radeon Mobility 9600, driverversion 6.14.10.6436
Sound: (Analog devices) SoundMAX, driverversion 5.12.1.5250
WLAN: Gigabyte GN-WMAG

These hardware and drivers are the only thing installed upon my Windows XP Pro SP2 installation.

Once the sounddriver is installed I check that the AC3- and PCM S/PDIF option is activated in the volumecontrol in systray. I then install PowerDVD 6 and start it up. Configures it to use S/PDIF and verifies the output with a Dolbydigital-trailer (.VOB). The amplifier (NAD T743) recognizes the digital stream and switches automatically from stereo to Dolby Digital. I then fire up Graphedit and opens the stream. A graph is shown that cyberlink codecs are used to both encode audio and video. When hitting the play button the video is shown but the amplifier doesn't change from stereo. When looking at the properties for the audiocodec it is set on stereo. The S/PDIF option is present as a choice but can't be chosen.. is isn't selectable. I have also tried with WinDVD and the same situation, it works within the application but not when using the codec outside, with for example Graphedit or Mediaportal. I have also been using the builtin codecs in Mediaportal, FFDShow and AC3-filter with no success. When looking at the properties for AC3-filter the graph within the codec shows that the sound is present on all 5.1 channels but the digital signal isn't recived by the amplifier. Could this be an direct x issue, since the last box in the graphedit-scheme is a directsound output!?? Doesn't PowerDVD/WinDVD use the same structure?

Yes.. I have tried with adding keys to the registry to make the S/PDIF output active. Yesterday evening was the last time I tried it. No success. I have even downloaded the registrychanges (PowerDVD-SPDIF.reg) that comes with Meedio just to compare with the changes I have found within this forum.

Please feel free to laugh, present valuable information or some way to get this working.

-Roger-

[scoop]

Hi Roger,

If it works from Cyberlink PowerDVD, then it should also work from MediaPortal. So IMHO it must be a settings problem. You could try the internal audio codecs first. The internal audio codecs are easier to configure via Configuration --> Filters.

Try the MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM audio decoder, and configure it to "S/PDIF" for AC3/DTS. That whay AC3/DTS-passthrough should work. If that works, it must be a settings problem for the Cyberlink audio codec (in the registry, that is).

Kind regards,
Michel

[Roger]

Hi!..

I'll try that option again. I'll reinstall the system (WinXP) once again to be certain that no application has manipulated the registry and may cause any trouble. I'll then install the graphic and sounddriver followed by Mediaportal. I'm familiar with the codec and the settings that they should have. Is there any trouble with playing a .M2V-file in Mediaportal? I know that it doesn't handle .VOB very well but some other applications doesn't even play any sound, even if it is present, when a file has a .M2V-extension.

-Roger-

[Roger]

Well.. that's the second time that I first spend days of troubleshooting, second post a topic here and then all of a sudden find the problem.

I installed Mediaportal once more and made the necessary settings,
activating S/PDIF for both DScaler audio codec and the Mpeg/ac3/dts/lpcm codec. The movie setting used Dscaler
as default and DVD used Mpeg/ac3/dts/lpcm (can anyone rename that codec please :wink: )
I then select a DolbyDigital trailer and the amplifier displayed Stereo.
I then changed the Audio renderer from Default DirectSound device (default setting in Mediaportal)
to Default Waveout device and the amplifier now detects the stream as a DolbyDigital signal.
I have also played a DVD with DTS and it also works.

Happy happy joy joy..! -R-

[lcdguy]

Glad you got it to work. But as some tips in regards to the digital output on alot of these on board soundcards.

1. unless it's encoded in 5.1 it will be stereo regardless of the settings.

there is an exception to this rule though, the soundcard i have supports DDE (Dolby Digital Encoding) which basically means it recodes a say divx or mp3 file from stereo into 5.1 on the fly with no CPU drain (it does it all on the card) Personally if i could afford it and wanted that feature i would get this card as none of the audigy line can do this at a hardware level.

either way glad you got it to work.

[CHli]

Originally Posted by lcdguy

Glad you got it to work. But as some tips in regards to the digital output on alot of these on board soundcards.

1. unless it's encoded in 5.1 it will be stereo regardless of the settings.

there is an exception to this rule though, the soundcard i have supports DDE (Dolby Digital Encoding) which basically means it recodes a say divx or mp3 file from stereo into 5.1 on the fly with no CPU drain (it does it all on the card) Personally if i could afford it and wanted that feature i would get this card as none of the audigy line can do this at a hardware level.

either way glad you got it to work.

Is there another SoundCard that the NVidia Soundstorm that does this ?

[Callifo]

Is there another SoundCard that the NVidia Soundstorm that does this ?

If you mean, is there anothe card except Soundstorm then yes, there are 2. I only remember 1 of them because I have the HDA X-Mystique. The other might be made by Turtle Beach I think.