Surround Sound Working for TV but Not Movies

[johnvic]

I posted this on the 7 forum so my apologies to those reading it twice.

I'm new to WMC, I believe I filled out my specs fairly well. All Win updates are up to date. I watch TV via antenna through a Silicon Dust HD Homerun Dual. I used that previously on a mythbuntu setup. When I set up WMC I set the speakers as 5.1 and heard the test sound appropriately.

As the Thread Title says TV is playing in surround sound. My receiver is detecting and indicating DOLBY D and TV shows that have center and rear audio are playing it appropriately. I recorded a football game as a test. But if I watch a movie that I ripped from a DVD that I own the movie plays in Stereo fold down and my receiver detects and indicates STEREO. These are movie files that I watched previously on an XBMC setup and they had rear effects as well as center dialog. One of these movie files I test with is a rip from a surround test DVD. So I exited media center and watched the movie in VLC, same thing, stereo fold down. So I looked at Windows Control Panel and saw that the hdmi output speaker setup shows stereo. So I set it to 5,1, tested it and then tested the movie in VLC. Surround! Great, but not.

I then entered WMC again. Now the receiver said MULTI IN. When I watched TV the sound would stutter or not play at all. I would get a message stating that I needed to reboot because the codec needed wasn't loaded. If instead of watching tv I went right to the WMC speaker setup and test I would get no sound. A reboot did not solve it.

The way I found to repair this was to quit WMC, disable Media Center, delete the files in the ehome directory, re-enable MC and then do the WMC setup again. I would have to leave the Windows Control Panel Sound setup in it the default stereo.

So I have TV in surround. I get movies in stereo fold down. I would be fine watching movies in another app like VLC but it will only play in stereo. My movies are m4v rips for my mac, but they did play in VLC fine if I set Windows Control Panel to 5.1. But then TV in WMC doesn't work.

I'm guessing that I am either setting it up wrong or I need some sort of codec install. But I don't know what I am doing wrong.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[newfiend]

Are you using HDMI from PC to AVR? If so set the audio in Windows > Control Panel > Sound to stereo. Open WMC > Tasks Settings and run through the audio setup for your speakers and set it to 5.1/7.1 depending on your speaker setup.
The movies with multi channel audio need codecs installed to play correctly. I installed LAV filters and in the audio settings enabled the check boxes for all the multi channel audio codecs to bit stream to the AVR. This should get you multi-channel audio from your movies. Setting windows audio to 5.1 and WMC to 5.1 will result in a codec missing error in WMC as you already experienced. I've had very good success with LAV filters and use those and Media Browser 3 for display/playback and it works great.

[newfiend]

Here's a link to LAV http://code.google.com/p/lavfilters/

[newfiend]

I used the installer package 0.63 here https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters/releases

[newfiend]

Here is a good guide for setting it all up http://www.thehtpc.net/htpc-tips-and-tw ... subtitles/

[johnvic]

Thank you for the info but I must be doing something wrong or skipped a step. I'm still just getting stereo on movies that have surround. I checked with mediainfo and see a 6 channel AAC stream. I rebooted and still stereo.

[mcewinter]

Verify that you don't have "auto volume" enabled in your dvd audio settings in media center.

Edit: I'm assuming your rips are dvd structure.

[newfiend]

Thank you for the info but I must be doing something wrong or skipped a step. I'm still just getting stereo on movies that have surround. I checked with mediainfo and see a 6 channel AAC stream. I rebooted and still stereo.

OK,..
Here is where the problem lies.. It is in the fact that the audio container is in AAC. When you setup LAV I'm sure if you followed the steps you did it correctly.

Enabling Bitstreaming means the PC sends the Audio "un-touched" (or un-decoded by the PC) to the AVR for Decoding. So instead of the PC decoding the Audio the AVR will do it for you. Most AVR's support AC3 Audio (aka Dolby Digital), E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby TrueHD, DTS, and DTS-HD audio. Since you are sending an AAC Audio to the AVR for decoding it can not decode the audio as AAC is not a container the AVR can Decode and is converting it to PCM Stereo.

I actually dislike AAC audio and when I get a movie that has it I use Handbrake to convert the file from AAC Multi-Channel Audio to AC3 Multi-Channel Audio.

While AAC audio works on some software decoders (The closest thing we can get to a universal standard these days.) it has a drawback, with AAC while it can carry 6 channel sound, not many receivers handle it and it's not designed for it. (It's telling that Apple—the champion of AAC—doesn't even support AAC as a raw format in their products.) Converting to AC3 fixes the problem for me with files with AAC audio. I can then Bitstream the AC3 audio to the AVR and get 5.1 Surround.
I have tried multiple settings with AAC audio in the LAV Audio Configuration and can't get Multi-Channel AAC to work.
I encode to either AC3 or DTS formats for best results in either a .mp4 or .mkv container.
I hope this helps you out.. I'm sorry if I made you spend a lot of time installing and configuring software if all your files contain AAC Multi-Channel audio.
If you do get AAC Multi-Channel working let me know how you do it as that one has had me scratching my head for some time. If you want to convert the files Audio track to AC3 you can use this.. works great https://handbrake.fr/
newfiend~

[Shark007]

Since you are sending an AAC Audio to the AVR for decoding

Neither LAV nor Windows is capable of sending AAC to an AVR for decoding.

I have tried multiple settings with AAC audio in the LAV Audio Configuration and can't get Multi-Channel AAC to work.

decoded Multichannel AAC audio (=multichannel PCM) can be sent to an AVR for playback if using an HDMI connection from the PC to the AVR

To allow LAV to decode the Multichannel AAC audio within the Windows players, you need to disable the Microsoft Audio decoder.

I suggest that you uninstall all previously installed codecs such as LAV (DirectVobSub) and use the Shark007 STANDARD Codec pack.
This version of the codec pack only contains LAV and xy-VSFilter to handle subtitles.

Once installed, the Settings Application(s) opens automatically. Make the settings below before closing the App(s).
On Most systems, Media Center will use the 64bit App and Windows Media Player will use the 32bit App.
To playback all files, bitstream Audio that your AVR can handle and decode MultiChannel AAC, do the following steps
select the [x] SUGGESTED settings checkbox
Go to the Audio TAB and select the HDMI setting
Go to the Windows SWAP TAB and disable the Microsoft Audio decoder

[newfiend]

Since you are sending an AAC Audio to the AVR for decoding

Neither LAV nor Windows is capable of sending AAC to an AVR for decoding.

I have tried multiple settings with AAC audio in the LAV Audio Configuration and can't get Multi-Channel AAC to work.

decoded Multichannel AAC audio (=multichannel PCM) can be sent to an AVR for playback if using an HDMI connection from the PC to the AVR

To allow LAV to decode the Multichannel AAC audio within the Windows players, you need to disable the Microsoft Audio decoder.

I suggest that you uninstall all previously installed codecs such as LAV (DirectVobSub) and use the Shark007 STANDARD Codec pack.
This version of the codec pack only contains LAV and xy-VSFilter to handle subtitles.

Once installed, the Settings Application(s) opens automatically. Make the settings below before closing the App(s).
On Most systems, Media Center will use the 64bit App and Windows Media Player will use the 32bit App.
To playback all files, bitstream Audio that your AVR can handle and decode MultiChannel AAC, do the following steps
select the [x] SUGGESTED settings checkbox
Go to the Audio TAB and select the HDMI setting
Go to the Windows SWAP TAB and disable the Microsoft Audio decoder

Thanks for the Reply Shark007..
I have a Question.. I have installed LAV 0.63 and xy-VSfilter for subs currently. I set up LAV Audio to bitstream all the Audio over HDMI to the AVR and it works as it should for every audio format I listed above except AAC.. I used the Win7DSFilterTweaker v5.9 to disable the Microsoft codec for AAC and LATM AAC and switched the Preferred DirectShow Decoder for AAC formats from Microsoft to LAV Audio, Yet every time I play a .mp4 with AAC audio my AVR puts out PCM Stereo.. Am I missing something here?? I would think since changing the Decoder over to LAV it should (in theory) be decoding the AAC Multi-Channel Audio.. Correct? Does your pack convert the AAC to AC3 so the AVR can decode?
I guess I have gone the "easy" route and encoded my files so that they play audio I know my AVR supports instead of trying to get all the different audio formats that aren't supported to bend to my will... haha
Thanks,
newfiend~

[Shark007]

I have a Question..

I have no experience with the tools mentioned or what you have done.
It seems pretty complicated when compared to what I posted.

[newfiend]

I have a Question..

I have no experience with the tools mentioned or what you have done.
It seems pretty complicated when compared to what I posted.

This is exactly what I have done.. no more, no less.. http://www.thehtpc.net/htpc-tips-and-tw ... subtitles/

[Shark007]

I'm not into reading guides because I create a solution.

I suggest that you uninstall all previously installed codecs such as LAV (DirectVobSub) and use the Shark007 STANDARD Codec pack.
This version of the codec pack only contains LAV and xy-VSFilter to handle subtitles.

Once installed, the Settings Application(s) opens automatically. Make the settings below before closing the App(s).
On Most systems, Media Center will use the 64bit App and Windows Media Player will use the 32bit App.
To playback all files, bitstream Audio that your AVR can handle and decode MultiChannel AAC, do the following steps
select the [x] SUGGESTED settings checkbox
Go to the Audio TAB and select the HDMI setting
Go to the Windows SWAP TAB and disable the Microsoft Audio decoder

If you're into testing my latest rendition of a codec pack
there would be one more setting to get that mp4 to use LAV
on the Windows SWAP TAB, choose to [x] disable Media Foundation for MP4

I even have a bonus for you if you have a SmartTV.
You can rightclick an MKV (or whatever) and have the Windows Play To functionality use LAV filters for playback.

[johnvic]

I installed the Shark Pack and that worked! I am now able to watch movie rips in Dolby D. Thanks Shark.

[newfiend]

I installed the Shark Pack and that worked! I am now able to watch movie rips in Dolby D. Thanks Shark.

Glad that worked for you.. sorry I wasn't more help.
newfiend~

[johnvic]

I installed the Shark Pack and that worked! I am now able to watch movie rips in Dolby D. Thanks Shark.

Glad that worked for you.. sorry I wasn't more help.
newfiend~

No need for an apology. Your comments helped the thread move forward.