how to get 5.1 Surround sound

[mbakirov 2]

So, I have a windows 10 computer, I have Asus Xonar SE sound card with optical out to my receiver. The receiver is old ish but it can process Dolby Audio 5.1 over the optical sound. 
Netflix app is playing the 5.1 signal.
Emby Windows app used to play the 5.1 signal too but now only gives me a stereo signal no matter what the movie I play .

My sound card settings are attached. 

Emby app is running on the same computer as the emby server, the quality of video is auto/maximum.
I remember that it used to work and somehow does not work anymore!
Thank you!

 

[mbakirov 2]

I remember i changed  to things when it stopped working, moved the sound card to pcie 4x lane slot (from the 1x lanes ), and also i have installed nvidia nvs310 instead of amd radeon 7400. however  i dont see how that should affect anything and netflix works fine??
thank you!

[lorac 100]

What are your speaker settings in W10 and the emby app there are audio output settings as well. 

[mbakirov 2]

I have "sony muteki HTDDW1600"  , when it is on AFD AUTO  i can  see if the incoming signal is 5.1 or stereo.

the sonar has a toslink output that goes into the sony receiver. 

netflix works with no issues.

where are the audio output settings in emby app?

all i can control is the audio quality over internet, but this is my local network.
 

[generiq 113]

Download the app from the Emby website. You're using the store app. More options in the app from the Emby website.

https://emby.media/emby-theater.html

[mbakirov 2]

thank you. now i am confused what the audio pass through means.
it seems when i enable none of it i dont get surrond sound, when i enable ac3 it works sometimes?

[rbjtech 4266]

2 hours ago, mbakirov said:

thank you. now i am confused what the audio pass through means.
it seems when i enable none of it i dont get surrond sound, when i enable ac3 it works sometimes?

As the name suggests - passthough literally passes the bitsream directly into the AVR.  In your case via Optical/Toslink.

This will be limited to AC3 and DTS - so just select those in ET.  if you attempt to play any other format, emby will hopefully intervene and convert to AC3 (or play the DTS Core in the case of DTS-HD) for you so you get the best possible output.  if it converts DTS-HD to AC3 - try enabling the DTS-HD passthrough, it may just pass the DTS Core.  I'm assuming here your AVR supports DTS ..   Also tick the 'DTS' option in the Audio card if it does.

Edited April 26, 2023 by rbjtech

[generiq 113]

Most of that doesn't apply with mpv. The server won't get involved. 

You need to only enable AC3 passthrough, and I need to help you apply a filter to convert everything else to AC3. You'll have to give me some time though. It's an easy thing to do, but my time is otherwise engaged

[mbakirov 2]

I have enabled AC3 , it seems that some movies are now in 5.1 format. what confuses me at times is that while i see the 5.1 audio coming into receiver, (i think it says dolby digital 5.1),  if you click "stats for nerds" it still says converting to stereo...
I will try to make a screenshot.
With dts i am a bit confised if it works or not, the receiver manual says yes, but if i would try it in windows (see my first screenshot - DTS audio) there is no sound, so i disabled it. 

or is dts audio not the same as dts???

[generiq 113]

1 hour ago, mbakirov said:

I have enabled AC3 , it seems that some movies are now in 5.1 format. what confuses me at times is that while i see the 5.1 audio coming into receiver, (i think it says dolby digital 5.1),  if you click "stats for nerds" it still says converting to stereo...
I will try to make a screenshot.
With dts i am a bit confised if it works or not, the receiver manual says yes, but if i would try it in windows (see my first screenshot - DTS audio) there is no sound, so i disabled it. 

or is dts audio not the same as dts???

Ok, so this part is correct

18 hours ago, rbjtech said:

This will be limited to AC3 and DTS - so just select those in ET.

yes, dts audio and dts are the same. And AC3 is Dolby.

What you see in the stats for nerds saying that it's stereo, isn't correct. It's just a quirk of how mpv is implementing spdif for passthrough. I've argued with them about this and how it's misleading. But they wouldn't do anything to change it. The developers don't like audio passthrough, they prefer to software decode the audio. So just ignore that in the stats. 

On to the last piece of the puzzle. I'm attaching a text file. Copy that file to this location:

C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\mpv

All of your dreams should come true!

 

mpv.conf

[mbakirov 2]

So the bottom line , if i configured speakers to be 5.1 and said i can support ac pass through (dolby) then it means that the videos should either send ac3/dolby to receiver or be recoded to the correct format?
thank you!

[generiq 113]

1 hour ago, mbakirov said:

So the bottom line , if i configured speakers to be 5.1 and said i can support ac pass through (dolby) then it means that the videos should either send ac3/dolby to receiver or be recoded to the correct format?
thank you!

Speaker config in windows should be stereo. If it tries to stuff uncompressed 5.1 into the optical cable, it won't work. With the audio filter I gave you, it shouldn't happen, but best to be prepared.

Edited April 27, 2023 by generiq

[mbakirov 2]

speaker config in emby should be stereo? if i am trying to get the 5.1 sound? thanks.

[mbakirov 2]

oh and to add - the first screenshot, the dts audio if i press "test" in windows does not seem to work this is why i disabled it . it should as the receiver supports dts but somehow maybe the audio card is not supporting it? hard to say.

[generiq 113]

4 hours ago, mbakirov said:

speaker config in emby should be stereo? if i am trying to get the 5.1 sound? thanks.

Stereo, yes. That setting has no effect on audio passthrough, which is the only way you can get 5.1

4 hours ago, mbakirov said:

oh and to add - the first screenshot, the dts audio if i press "test" in windows does not seem to work this is why i disabled it . it should as the receiver supports dts but somehow maybe the audio card is not supporting it? hard to say.

Don't use that. It's just going to confuse you. Test by playing in Theater. If dts won't passthrough, just disable it in Theater, and let the filter I gave you, output it to AC3.

[rbjtech 4266]

1 hour ago, generiq said:

If dts won't passthrough, just disable it in Theater, and let the filter I gave you, output it to AC3.

..although converting DTS to AC3 is criminal if your AVR supports DTS.  I would 'try' and get it passed through .. 

 

[mbakirov 2]

9 hours ago, generiq said:

Ok, so this part is correct

yes, dts audio and dts are the same. And AC3 is Dolby.

What you see in the stats for nerds saying that it's stereo, isn't correct. It's just a quirk of how mpv is implementing spdif for passthrough. I've argued with them about this and how it's misleading. But they wouldn't do anything to change it. The developers don't like audio passthrough, they prefer to software decode the audio. So just ignore that in the stats. 

On to the last piece of the puzzle. I'm attaching a text file. Copy that file to this location:

C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\mpv

All of your dreams should come true!

mpv.conf 23 B · 1 download

so,, this should be for the user that is running the client? my emby server runs as a service as local system....

i am very confused .it seems enabling ac is the best option, though some movies dont play well , i have a movie that is encoded in dts and the stat for nerds says it gets encoded to ac3 but.. it still produces stereo while the original soundtrack is 5.1!
I will send a screenshot later..

[mbakirov 2]

7 hours ago, generiq said:

Speaker config in windows should be stereo. If it tries to stuff uncompressed 5.1 into the optical cable, it won't work.

 

2 hours ago, generiq said:

Stereo, yes. That setting has no effect on audio passthrough, which is the only way you can get 5.1

Don't use that. It's just going to confuse you. Test by playing in Theater. If dts won't passthrough, just disable it in Theater, and let the filter I gave you, output it to AC3.

so the filter, which user appdata folder should it go to? the client or the server? the server runs as a localsystem service.

[generiq 113]

2 hours ago, mbakirov said:

 

so the filter, which user appdata folder should it go to? the client or the server? the server runs as a localsystem service.

You aren't doing anything with the server. As I already said, the server will have no involvement, unless it's forced to. I gave you the instructions where to put the file in the post with the file.

Edited April 27, 2023 by generiq

[mbakirov 2]

11 hours ago, generiq said:

You aren't doing anything with the server. As I already said, the server will have no involvement, unless it's forced to. I gave you the instructions where to put the file in the post with the file.

Thanks a lot!
So I ended up enabling ac3 and  DTS , as it seems my receiver processes DTS (even if the test in windows does not work).
Finally putting your file the mpv was the magic trick that made it all work!

 

[mbakirov 2]

It is interesting that it actually tries a few files.. I was hoping there would be a one mpv.conf systemwise that i could use everywhere but i ended up adding this to all users and to the default user.... 

thanks again!