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No surround sound with TV video playback, only stereo


davesurfer
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davesurfer

Hi! So I've been noticing that I only have surround sound, 6 channels, when I playback my movie videos, but only stereo when playing back TV videos. Sometimes some videos play with noticeably more audio on the left side when they play in stereo, probably because they are 6-channel and something is messing up.

 

So how can I get the TV videos to playback in 6-channel? It's always worked before I switched from Emby WMC classic plugin to Emby Theater. Right now I have these settings:

 

Speaker Layout: Auto

 

Enable passthrough for:

AC3 (Checked)

EAC3 (Checked)

DTS (Checked)

DTS-HD (Checked)

True-HD (Checked)

 

Enable exclusive audio mode is unchecked.

 

Thanks for any help and suggestions!

Edited by davesurfer
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Guest asrequested

That's a weird one. First check that your windows default audio device is configured, correctly for your speaker configuration. Do you have mpv logging set up?

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davesurfer

That's a weird one. First check that your windows default audio device is configured, correctly for your speaker configuration. Do you have mpv logging set up?

Not sure what "mpv logging" is. So now I've played some other ones and they are 6 channel. So it's not ALL TV videos. Not sure what's up. Maybe it's the MKV videos, some of them claim to be 6 channel but aren't compatible somehow

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davesurfer

Set your speaker layout as well, rather than leaving it on auto

Would that affect passthru? I have it passthrough and go straight through the amp. I would just not want stuff that is actually only 2-channel to be split around 6 channel.

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Guest asrequested

Pass through exists outside of other audio settings. It's a direct bitstream. What may be happening is that some channels aren't AC3, and are subject to conversion. Play one of those channels and either press Ctrl+j or use the cog to pull up the stats. Look at the bottom. It will tell you what the audio is. With that info I can probably give you an alternative to 'fix' the issue. But still make sure your default audio device is configured, correctly.

Edited by Doofus
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davesurfer

Pass through exists outside of other audio settings. It's a direct bitstream. What may be happening is that some channels aren't AC3, and are subject to conversion. Play one of those channels and either press Ctrl+j or use the cog to pull up the stats. Look at the bottom. It will tell you what the audio is. With that info I can probably give you an alternative to 'fix' the issue. But still make sure your default audio device is configured, correctly.

 

The audio device looks to be configured properly. I've been using it for years that way, but I did check and everything tests fine. Also pretty much all the movies that have 6 channel play in 6 channel without issues. 

 

So I think I know the difference between the videos that play in 2 channel and the ones that play in 6-channel. The 6-channel ones are AC3, the ones that play incorrectly in only 2-channel, are EAC3. So is this some sort of newer codec now? I guess I should be looking at my codecs to make sure that I have that updated? Right now I use Shark007, but I haven't updated it for a while, because it seems like when I change stuff like that, stuff stops working.

 

So I read somewhere about that, and it's Dolby Digital Plus instead of the Dolby Digital. Is it because I use S/PDIF and that's not supported?

Edited by davesurfer
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Guest asrequested

The audio device looks to be configured properly. I've been using it for years that way, but I did check and everything tests fine. Also pretty much all the movies that have 6 channel play in 6 channel without issues. 

 

So I think I know the difference between the videos that play in 2 channel and the ones that play in 6-channel. The 6-channel ones are AC3, the ones that play incorrectly in only 2-channel, are EAC3. So is this some sort of newer codec now? I guess I should be looking at my codecs to make sure that I have that updated? Right now I use Shark007, but I haven't updated it for a while, because it seems like when I change stuff like that, stuff stops working.

 

So I read somewhere about that, and it's Dolby Digital Plus instead of the Dolby Digital. Is it because I use S/PDIF and that's not supported?

 

Your external codecs, like Shark007, won't have any involvement. MPV is self contained and uses ffmpeg. The codecs that you're used to, are directshow. EAC3 is Dolby Digital Plus, and is a common codec. Make sure your receiver supports Dolby Digital Plus. If it doesn't, deselect EAC3. MPV will convert it PCM, and I can show you how to make mpv re-encode to AC3. 

 

Are you using optical and not HDMI?

Edited by Doofus
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davesurfer

Your external codecs, like Shark007, won't have any involvement. MPV is self contained and uses ffmpeg. The codecs that you're used to, are directshow. EAC3 is Dolby Digital Plus, and is a common codec. Make sure your receiver supports Dolby Digital Plus. If it doesn't, deselect EAC3. MPV will convert it PCM, and I can show you how to make mpv re-encode to AC3. 

 

Are you using optical and not HDMI?

Makes sense. Yeah, I'm using optical. My Yamaha receiver has really old HDMI ports on it that only support 1080i or something. So I've been reading, and apparently DD+ should still be compatible with older receivers as they can just down-convert to regular Dolby Digital with a lower bit-rate. 

 

So I did de-select the E-AC3 passthrough, but it's still stereo. So you mean I'd have to re-encode all these videos?

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Guest asrequested

Makes sense. Yeah, I'm using optical. My Yamaha receiver has really old HDMI ports on it that only support 1080i or something. So I've been reading, and apparently DD+ should still be compatible with older receivers as they can just down-convert to regular Dolby Digital with a lower bit-rate. 

 

So I did de-select the E-AC3 passthrough, but it's still stereo. So you mean I'd have to re-encode all these videos?

 

No, mpv can take care of everything. But stereo will be stereo. The difference will be that as AC3, you'll have a surround sound effect. So, if you're using optical, you should only select AC3 and DTS in the audio settings. Optical doesn't support the rest.

 

So here comes the sticky part. I can give you a way that mpv will re-encode to AC3, but because it's stereo, anything stereo that you play (music included), will be processed to AC3. You had said that you don't want that. I haven't found a way around that, yet. There is a complicated scripting option, which I haven't really looked into. If it were 5.1 DD+, this would be ok, as I can make that work. But in your case, for stereo DD+, I can't separate that from your music. Unless you choose the upmix option in the music player (it will override the command I give you), or play music in a different app.

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davesurfer

No, mpv can take care of everything. But stereo will be stereo. The difference will be that as AC3, you'll have a surround sound effect. So, if you're using optical, you should only select AC3 and DTS in the audio settings. Optical doesn't support the rest.

 

So here comes the sticky part. I can give you a way that mpv will re-encode to AC3, but because it's stereo, anything stereo that you play (music included), will be processed to AC3. You had said that you don't want that. I haven't found a way around that, yet. There is a complicated scripting option, which I haven't really looked into. If it were 5.1 DD+, this would be ok, as I can make that work. But in your case, for stereo DD+, I can't separate that from your music. Unless you choose the upmix option in the music player (it will override the command I give you), or play music in a different app.

 

Sorry I missed what "MPV" was? So these DD+ videos are actually 6-channel though, so all channels are available, but in a higher bitrate that's incompatible. Can't we just somehow downsample the bitrate and yet still use the original 6 channels?

 

And I don't mind audio files being played back in surround.

 

So if I bought a new receiver, and used HDMI instead of optical, this would fix the issue I'm assuming.

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Guest asrequested

If the receiver supported DD+, yes. But if the streams that you have (that aren't working, correctly) are 5.1 DD+, I've got you covered :)

 

First, follow this

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50975-how-to-enable-mpv-logging-for-theater/

 

Then add this line to the mpv.conf

af=lavcac3enc=yes:384:5

And you should be good to go :)

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Guest asrequested

This way, anything that you play that has more than 5 channels, and isn't AC3 or DTS, will be converted to AC3 and bitstreamed to your receiver :)

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Guest asrequested

@@Luke, it might be good to add the AC3 encoding option to the UI, with a note saying this may be helpful to people who are using optical cables. Also, for the passthrough options, put in parenthesis next to EAC3, DTS HD and TrueHD, (HDMI ONLY)

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davesurfer

This way, anything that you play that has more than 5 channels, and isn't AC3 or DTS, will be converted to AC3 and bitstreamed to your receiver :)

Oh ok. So yeah that works now, it's playing those E-AC3 with 6 channels now. Thanks! So is this using the original channels for true surround or is it just splitting the sound evenly across all the channels. Like a sound effect that's supposed to originally be output only on the center channel, will it still be output on the center channel? Or will it be spread evenly across the channels?

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Guest asrequested

What's happening is that mpv is converting the EAC3 to PCM, then the AC3 encoder is converting back to AC3. As AC3 only supports core 5.1, that's what it converts to, so the optical cable and your receiver can use the bitstream. If you post the mpv log, I can show you the process.

 

I'm glad that works for you :)

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davesurfer

What's happening is that mpv is converting the EAC3 to PCM, then the AC3 encoder is converting back to AC3. As AC3 only supports core 5.1, that's what it converts to, so the optical cable and your receiver can use the bitstream. If you post the mpv log, I can show you the process.

 

I'm glad that works for you :)

 

Right so it does actually retain the 6 channels when converting it then. So then, sound effects meant for a specific channel will only come out on that channel after it's been converted to AC3.

 

Here's the log file.

Theater mpv log.txt

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Guest asrequested

Yes, the channels in this case, remain mostly unchanged. If you were to play something with 6.1 or 7.1, a slight adjustment would me made. Here's what the log is showing. I should mention that there is an inherent error with how mpv reports. You'll notice that it's reporting as stereo, in parts. It's incorrect. I should probably report that to mpv.

[ad] Opening audio decoder eac3
[   0.044][v][ad] Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
[   0.044][v][ad] Selected audio codec: eac3 (ATSC A/52B (AC-3, E-AC-3))
[   0.044][v][cplayer] Starting playback...
[   0.046][v][ffmpeg/video] h264: Reinit context to 1920x1088, pix_fmt: yuv420p
[   0.047][v][af] Adding filter lavcac3enc 
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'tospdif' = 'yes' (flags = 0)
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'bitrate' = '384' (flags = 0)
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'minch' = '5' (flags = 0)
[   0.050][v][af] Audio filter chain:
[   0.050][v][af]   [in] 48000Hz 5.1(side) 6ch floatp
[   0.050][v][af]   [lavcac3enc] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][af]   [out] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][af]   [ao] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][ao] Trying audio driver 'wasapi'
[   0.050][v][ao/wasapi] requested format: 48000 Hz, stereo channels, spdif-ac3
[   0.051][v][ao/wasapi] No device specified. Selecting default.
[   0.052][v][ao/wasapi] Selecting device '{11be20eb-21de-42b2-9934-888fe74f7521}' (Realtek Digital Output(Optical) (Realtek High Definition Audio))
[   0.052][v][ao/wasapi] Monitoring changes in device {0.0.0.00000000}.{11be20eb-21de-42b2-9934-888fe74f7521}
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Trying stereo spdif-ac3 (16/16 bits) @ 48000hz (exclusive) -> ok
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Accepted as stereo spdif-ac3 @ 48000hz -> stereo spdif-ac3 (16/16 bits) @ 48000hz (exclusive)
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Device period: 10 ms
[   0.067][v][ao/wasapi] Buffer frame count: 480 (10 ms)
[   0.067][v][ao/wasapi] IAudioClock::GetFrequency gave a frequency of 48000.
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davesurfer

 

Yes, the channels in this case, remain mostly unchanged. If you were to play something with 6.1 or 7.1, a slight adjustment would me made. Here's what the log is showing. I should mention that there is an inherent error with how mpv reports. You'll notice that it's reporting as stereo, in parts. It's incorrect. I should probably report that to mpv.

[ad] Opening audio decoder eac3
[   0.044][v][ad] Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
[   0.044][v][ad] Selected audio codec: eac3 (ATSC A/52B (AC-3, E-AC-3))
[   0.044][v][cplayer] Starting playback...
[   0.046][v][ffmpeg/video] h264: Reinit context to 1920x1088, pix_fmt: yuv420p
[   0.047][v][af] Adding filter lavcac3enc 
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'tospdif' = 'yes' (flags = 0)
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'bitrate' = '384' (flags = 0)
[   0.047][v][af] Setting option 'minch' = '5' (flags = 0)
[   0.050][v][af] Audio filter chain:
[   0.050][v][af]   [in] 48000Hz 5.1(side) 6ch floatp
[   0.050][v][af]   [lavcac3enc] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][af]   [out] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][af]   [ao] 48000Hz stereo 2ch spdif-ac3
[   0.050][v][ao] Trying audio driver 'wasapi'
[   0.050][v][ao/wasapi] requested format: 48000 Hz, stereo channels, spdif-ac3
[   0.051][v][ao/wasapi] No device specified. Selecting default.
[   0.052][v][ao/wasapi] Selecting device '{11be20eb-21de-42b2-9934-888fe74f7521}' (Realtek Digital Output(Optical) (Realtek High Definition Audio))
[   0.052][v][ao/wasapi] Monitoring changes in device {0.0.0.00000000}.{11be20eb-21de-42b2-9934-888fe74f7521}
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Trying stereo spdif-ac3 (16/16 bits) @ 48000hz (exclusive) -> ok
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Accepted as stereo spdif-ac3 @ 48000hz -> stereo spdif-ac3 (16/16 bits) @ 48000hz (exclusive)
[   0.059][v][ao/wasapi] Device period: 10 ms
[   0.067][v][ao/wasapi] Buffer frame count: 480 (10 ms)
[   0.067][v][ao/wasapi] IAudioClock::GetFrequency gave a frequency of 48000.

 

Oh ok yay! That's nice to know that it's still true surround. Saves me from stressing over having to buy another receiver lol! My Yamaha has been working flawlessly for so many years.

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Guest asrequested

Thanks again for the solution! :)

 

Happy to help :)

 

I think Luke may add these options to the UI. So watch for them.

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