WMA 5.1 in WMV decodes to stereo

[EVH999]

Originally Posted by JonL

I have same issues with MP3 and AAC. MCE/WMPlayer output 5.1 digital to my receiver (I get the Dolby indicator), but the same files are in analog stereo (no Dolby indicator). I use ffdshow for AAC and AC3Filter for everything else (NVIDIA SPDIF for DVDs).

I can get full DD 5.1 using media Player classic.

[JonL]

Originally Posted by EVH999

I can get full DD 5.1 using media Player classic.

So can I, but I don't want to use an external player.

[EVH999]

Originally Posted by JonL

So can I, but I don't want to use an external player.

Me neither...

[Coolit]

Any news on a fix for this? I'm having the same problem, it works fine with zoomplayer.

[dman_lfc]

Use SVN 16236 or later.
It works here - I tested the Terminator 2 sample.

DMAN

[JonL]

Does this fix WMV audio only, or will it also work for AAC, MP3, and other formats that need transcoding before sending to a receiver?

[dman_lfc]

The change is for the "WMAudio Decode DMO" filter used for WMV files.

Multi-channel output is specific to the audio decoder filter being used to playback your file.
Hence why some users set ffdshow to do the audio decoding with WMV files for multi-channel audio.
So your MP3 & AAC decoder must be configured to output what you want.
For example CoreAAC downmixes to 2 channels by defualt - you just have to uncheck this option.

DMAN.

[JonL]

Originally Posted by dman_lfc

The change is for the "WMAudio Decode DMO" filter used for WMV files.

Multi-channel output is specific to the audio decoder filter being used to playback your file.
Hence why some users set ffdshow to do the audio decoding with WMV files for multi-channel audio.
So your MP3 & AAC decoder must be configured to output what you want.
For example CoreAAC downmixes to 2 channels by defualt - you just have to uncheck this option.

DMAN.

OK. I've been playing with this a lot and maybe you can expand on what I've found. I've been using MCE 2005 for over a year and am (hopefully) just being naive because I'm so used to how it works with my system configurations.

With MCE, MPC, or any other external player, I can playback AAC (MP3 is sent directly to AC3Filter) and see my receiver accept that as a DD AC3 3/2.1 stream. According to graphedit, what is happening is that the player sends the AAC stream to ffdshow where it is decoded to a 16-bit stream that is sent to AC3Filter for transcoding into a 3/2.1 AC4 640kbps audio stream (I have it configured for this). It then passes to an audio switcher and then out to the DirectSound device (soundcard). However, when using MP's internal player, the AAC file is sent to ffdshow where it is decoded into a 16-bit stream (I have tried the output to AC3 configurations posted in this forum with no luck) and sent directly to my default DirectSound device. AC3Filter does not pick it up...I can only assume, by design.

I have found that my receiver is getting PCM 48Khz that is multichannel, however (I believe, anyway). I have my receiver set for NEO:6 decoding and I get surround from all of these files that require decoding from the PC before reaching the receiver (AC3, DTS, PCM are all passed through correctly by AC3Filter). It sounds the same to me, but I'm just seeing that Dolby Digital Decoding light pop up on my Sony receiver like I'm used to with any other player I use aside from MP.

I've tried several different codecs for AAC (ffdshow, the included MPA, CoreAAC, and a couple others) and MP3 (ffdshow, Aud-X, AC3Filter - which is bypassed when going directly out to it) with no luck. I get the audio, I'd just really like to see that it's being passed as a DD AC3 stream. Should I just be happy with the PCM? Is there anything I can show you that may help my situation (I've been through the logs, but don't see anything that tells me anything).

I have decided to start using MP over MCE anyway...I just like it too well. I think I'm more curious as to how to get it working like that as opposed to really preferring it!

Thanks!

[dman_lfc]

Originally Posted by JonL

OK. I've been playing with this a lot and maybe you can expand on what I've found. I've been using MCE 2005 for over a year and am (hopefully) just being naive because I'm so used to how it works with my system configurations.

With MCE, MPC, or any other external player, I can playback AAC (MP3 is sent directly to AC3Filter) and see my receiver accept that as a DD AC3 3/2.1 stream. According to graphedit, what is happening is that the player sends the AAC stream to ffdshow where it is decoded to a 16-bit stream that is sent to AC3Filter for transcoding into a 3/2.1 AC4 640kbps audio stream (I have it configured for this). It then passes to an audio switcher and then out to the DirectSound device (soundcard). However, when using MP's internal player, the AAC file is sent to ffdshow where it is decoded into a 16-bit stream (I have tried the output to AC3 configurations posted in this forum with no luck) and sent directly to my default DirectSound device. AC3Filter does not pick it up...I can only assume, by design.

I have found that my receiver is getting PCM 48Khz that is multichannel, however (I believe, anyway). I have my receiver set for NEO:6 decoding and I get surround from all of these files that require decoding from the PC before reaching the receiver (AC3, DTS, PCM are all passed through correctly by AC3Filter). It sounds the same to me, but I'm just seeing that Dolby Digital Decoding light pop up on my Sony receiver like I'm used to with any other player I use aside from MP.

I've tried several different codecs for AAC (ffdshow, the included MPA, CoreAAC, and a couple others) and MP3 (ffdshow, Aud-X, AC3Filter - which is bypassed when going directly out to it) with no luck. I get the audio, I'd just really like to see that it's being passed as a DD AC3 stream. Should I just be happy with the PCM? Is there anything I can show you that may help my situation (I've been through the logs, but don't see anything that tells me anything).

I have decided to start using MP over MCE anyway...I just like it too well. I think I'm more curious as to how to get it working like that as opposed to really preferring it!

Thanks!

Yikes! complicated. So as I read it you're using AC3Filter to create a DDLive! stream similar to what some chipset now allow in drivers.
The reality is that MediaPortal does not give you expanded control of graphs and how they're built like MPC.
I'm not going to change the players to always add AC3Filter to the graph but if you say this works in MCE then surely it's a case of AC3Filter not receiving some info correctly based on the output from the audio decoder in the first place.

Try the changes today for WMV and see if it made a difference there.

DMAN

[JonL]

Haha. It's not that complicated. It's just AAC->decode in ffdshow to format that AC3Filter understands->AC3Filter transcodes to a 6-channel Dolby AC3 stream->receiver sees it as a DVD-spec AC3 stream. My receiver wouldn't know what a DDLive! stream is.

I suppose it's more complicated for me since I don't really know how the information is passed and what controls it to begin with.

I have ffdshow set for all 16 and 32-bit outputs (AC3 output does not work for me). For my external players, it seems as though whatever ffdshow is outputting, AC3Filter is able to grab it instead of my default DirectSound device. I don't know why (lack of know-how here, I'm sure). AC3Filter configuration is set to decode all formats (in 32-bit Float, which is enabled in ffdshow as well), except AAC which is not supported. When I use MP's internal player, it goes straight from ffdshow to the DS device. Are you saying that MP controls the way these files are graphed? If that's the case, then I understand and it's just ignorance on how the lower-level of things play out on my part. I was just expecting for AC3Filter to grab ffdshow's output regardless of the player.

Thanks, it's starting to clear up for me