Dolby Digital and DVB-T (1 Viewer)

[dman_lfc]

Works perfectly for me in RC2 without having to configure anything manually. We have two DVB-T channels that broadcast with AC3 audio all the time (even if it most of the time only contains only stereo) here in Sweden.

DMan - you wrote:

The next release will record the transport stream so if two audio streams are part of the broadcast then both will be recorded.

What is the "next release"? Are you referring to 0.2.0 final or a later release?

At the time of writing MP 0.2.0 was going to use a new recording engine but the guys ran into major issues so we've gone back to dvr-ms for now.
At this stage when 0.2.0 release is done it is unlikely to have TS recording but MP will in the future.

DMAN

 

[kamrat]

How do you actually know that it is AC3 they transmit? Do they transmit DD2.0? My amplifier - Sony STR-DB780 - says "PCM 48" all the time, I wonder if that will change then to DD 3/2 when they show movies at prime time....

My amp "clicks" when I change to a channel with AC3 audio. I can then toggle the display info to se if it is a 2/0-transmission or a 3/2/1 (i e 5.1) program. Some of the drama shows have this. It's great!

 

[dm15644]

Hm, still not working....

There's a programme on right now in DD but the amp just stays at "PCM". (This is like playing an audio CD).

However for DVDs 5.1 works perfectly. I'm using the MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder for both DVD and TV - however I seem to remember that setting the audio renderer in the DVD section to Default WaveOut Device was essential for having 5.1... and the audio renderer cannot be set in the TV section :-(

Can you check what is set in the Channels tab under TV in the configuration tool? Is the Audio pid on the left side the same as the AC3 pid on the right side? I'm surprised that some people seem to have AC3 straight away!

Any other ideas what I should check?

For completeness, here's the rest of my config:

MP Version: 0.2.0 CVS 2006-01-02
Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Professional SP2
CPU Type: AMD Sempron 3200+
Memory: 512MB DDR
Motherboard Chipset: Asus K8V-MX
Video Card: MSI Radeon 9550
Video Card Driver: 6.14.10.6451
Video Card Resolution: 800x600
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: DScaler
Audio Codec Type & Version: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder
TV Card: Pinnacle PCTV 310i
TV Card Type: DVB MPEG
TV Card Driver: 1.3.2.6

Cheers

/jayrock

 

[jawbroken]

I believe the problem at the moment is that MediaPortal doesn't detect when an AC3 audio stream is available, so you can either tell it to use AC3 all the time (which will give you no sound in programs with no AC3 stream) or to use the MPEG2 audio stream, which will give you sound all the time but not AC3 sound when it is available. (correct me if I am wrong here)

 

[dm15644]

Ok, solved it. I loaded a dvr-ms file into Graphedit and indeed it used the Default DirectSound Device. When I manually changed that to the Default WaveOut Device and played it in Graphedit, the amp switched to Dolby Digital!

Now the *only* problem was to tell Media Portal to use the Default WaveOut Device instead of the Default DirectSound Device. This didn't work with the RadLight Filter Manager, it would tell me "Cannot change merit" when I tried to do so. I also noticed that both the Default DirectSound Device and Default WaveOut Device where related to the single file "quartz.dll", maybe that was part of the problem?

While playing around I unregistered and registered quartz.dll. After that the graph in Graphedit looked slightly different: It now used the ffdshow audio recorder. Can't remember what audio decoder was used before, but it was something else. Miracously the Default WaveOut Device was now also used. Maybe the reason is that I set ffdshow to use the Default WaveOut Device only. In MediaPortal however I still use the MPEG/AC3.... decoder. But anyways now I also get AC3 when watching TV in Media Portal!

Conlcusion: I have no idea how exactly I managed to make the system and Media Portal use the Default WaveOut Device but now it works. Probably someone knows how to do this in a more goal-oriented way...

/jayrock

 

[hellmelt]

Works perfectly for me in RC2 without having to configure anything manually. We have two DVB-T channels that broadcast with AC3 audio all the time (even if it most of the time only contains only stereo) here in Sweden.

When I used version 0.1.3 on XP Home I had AC3 sound on the two SVT channels (the ones transmitting AC3 in Sweden), as I preferred.

Recently I formatted and I reinstalled to XP MCE 2005 and MP 0.2 RC2. And I don't have AC3 sound anymore. (And the AC3Filter that I used previously is not even selectable in MP config).

So what do you think is the trick? Make the output device the default Wave Out device instead of Direct Sound? But how? Reinstall quartz.dll? Copy the AC3 pid to Audio on the left pannel? Or the Audio field below the AC3 pid?

 

[dm15644]

So what do you think is the trick? Make the output device the default Wave Out device instead of Direct Sound? But how? Reinstall quartz.dll? Copy the AC3 pid to Audio on the left pannel? Or the Audio field below the AC3 pid?

I think it's both: First, copying the AC3 pid to the audio field.

Then, record a bit of AC3 TV, open and play the dvr-ms file with Graphedit and verify that if you use the Default Wave Out Device you get AC3 sound.

Then you have to tell MP to use the Default Wave Out Device for TV. As mentioned earlier I'm not really sure how I managed to do it. For me it worked when in RadLight Filter Manager I unregistered and then again registered quartz.dll.

Good luck!

/jayrock