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Multichannel Audio No surround output


bnwbass

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bnwbass

Recently spun up new Emby server ~ 500 tittles of mix .mkv, Mp4 and BD.   Video playback seems fine however audio decoding via Apple TV (gen 4K) device is not passing thru HDMI receiver correctly.  Media-info shows audio format below.

  • Format :AC-3,Dolby Digital
  • Codec ID :A_AC3
  • Bit rate :448 kb/s
  • Channel(s) :6 channels
  • Channel layout :L R C LFE Ls Rs
  • Sampling rate :48.0 kHz

This Issue:  The receiver indicates multichannel format on the display, sound working for L,C, R, LF (sub), but not surround L or R

I have eliminated the file as the the problem for the reason that Roku devices played from the same server and AVR combo and produce sound from all channels. So this points to the interface between Emby app and Apple TV device.  Furthermore, I ruled out the Apple TV device and my AVR together because other content played directly from apple store downloads sound as they should with surround L and R working.  Also , ran the app "speaker Check" for apple TV and this verified all channels working through receiver HDMI / Apple TV.

My conclusion,  something is preventing full multichannel support (L and R surrounds in this case) from working as it should and I suspect the Emby Apple TV app/interface is the issue. 

This is such a basic feature not to be working so I am sure I am not the first to notice if a know issue, or, my setup is unique somehow but I don't that is the case either.

If anyone else is having this issue please comment. Also, if this is working as it should for you please share your settings.  I have tried many settings without success. 

One other question regarding enabling MPV, I don't see a plugin so this feature must be integrated with the interface.

 

Thx

Bnw

Edited by bnwbass
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vdatanet

What are your Apple TV audio settings?

Audio Format can be:

Change Format: Off (Auto): Audio is decoded by Apple TV and send to your AVR as uncompressed multichannel LPCM

Change Format: New Format Dolby Digital 5.1: Audio is re-encoded into a format supported by your equipment

Change Format: New Format Stereo: Surround mode is ignored and down mixed to Stereo

I use Change Format Off (Auto). Using native player and MPV player, AC3 multichannel audio is decoded by Apple TV and send as multichannel LPCM, I don't notice any channel lost. If audio is DTS, then is transcoded to AC3 by the server, decoded by Apple TV and send as multichannel LPCM, I don't notice any channel lost.

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  • 4 weeks later...
mitchgoos

Having the same issue. No surround sound with any file when playing on my Apple TV. Netflix and other streaming/server apps do succeed. What to do?

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20 hours ago, mitchgoos said:

Having the same issue. No surround sound with any file when playing on my Apple TV. Netflix and other streaming/server apps do succeed. What to do?

Hi.  What are the answers to the questions Vdata asked?

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mitchgoos
47 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  What are the answers to the questions Vdata asked?

The audio format in the Apple TV settings is set on ‘Automatic’. Also using the native tvOS player in Emby. Do I have to change settings anywhere?

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Have you tried setting it to Dolby Digital?  What are the audio formats being played?

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vdatanet

What’s your receiver? Maybe you have to set your receiver input to multichannel or direct mode. If you set your Apple TV to Dolby Digital, then audio is sent as dolby digital bitstream.

Can you post the media info of your file?

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mitchgoos
On 03/08/2020 at 22:07, ebr said:

Have you tried setting it to Dolby Digital?  What are the audio formats being played?

I set it to Dolby Digital, but there's no difference. Does the audio format matter? It's a file that I use to show guests the surround sound, and it's always worked up until now. It still works when airplaying from my Beamer app to my Apple TV. Just not with Emby anymore.

 

On 03/08/2020 at 22:50, vdatanet said:

What’s your receiver? Maybe you have to set your receiver input to multichannel or direct mode. If you set your Apple TV to Dolby Digital, then audio is sent as dolby digital bitstream.

Can you post the media info of your file?

What do you mean by 'media info'. I attached some info about the video and audio.

My receiver is an Apple TV 4th gen, with a Sonos system hooked on to it via ARC HDMI. This also hasn't changed the past months. Any more suggestions?

Schermafbeelding 2020-08-06 om 13.39.54.png

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vdatanet

All my files have AC3 audio tracks instead of EAC3, playing files with AC3 do you get the same behavior?

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vdatanet

I've tested this sample:

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/Matroska/H264+EAC3.mkv

If Apple TV audio is set to "Automatic", using both players (MPV and Native) audio is sent to AVR as LPCM 5.1. On the other hand, if audio is set to "Dolby Digital" audio is sent as DD 5.1 bitstream to AVR (using both players) as expected.

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mitchgoos

Hey guys, sorry for my late response. I was on holiday. 😉 
I just did some testing.

On 07/08/2020 at 16:34, ebr said:

Hi. Which player do you have enabled in the app?  Have you tried the other one?

I've tried both players, with the same result: no surround output.

 

On 10/08/2020 at 13:55, vdatanet said:

I've tested this sample:

http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/Matroska/H264+EAC3.mkv

If Apple TV audio is set to "Automatic", using both players (MPV and Native) audio is sent to AVR as LPCM 5.1. On the other hand, if audio is set to "Dolby Digital" audio is sent as DD 5.1 bitstream to AVR (using both players) as expected.

I tested your sample, with following results:

- Native player, Apple TV audio on automatic: no surround
- MVP player, Apple TV audio on manual (Dolby Digital): no surround
- Native player, Apple TV audio on manual (Dolby Digital): no surround
- MVP player, Apple TV audio on automatic: no surround

Weird thing is: when checking whether the Sonos system is receiving a 5.1 signal, it actually says that it is when checking the settings in the Sonos app. But my rear speakers make no sound at all. And again: when using another app (an Airplay streaming app called Beamer), I do get surround output with the same files. So it must be something in Emby, right?

----

I tested some more as well, because there were doubts about EAC3 versus AC3 (don't know what the difference is though). I tried to play the following two files:

- A demo trailer with DTS audio (find it here, I tried 'Living world of audio 1'): it just wouldn't load at all in Emby (native player). Through the Beamer app it streamed perfectly, with surround output.
- A demo countdown trailer with AC3 audio (so no EAC3, find it here, I used 'Countdown v1'): this played well in Emby (native player) AND here I actually got surround output as well!

So it seems that DTS won't play at all (no video either), and EAC3 gives me no surround output no matter what settings I tinker with. Apple TV or the file can't be blamed, because through Beamer, they always stream perfectly. My Sonos setup also cannot be blamed, because it's getting the 5.1 signal (I can see that in the Sonos app) and through Beamer (and other apps like Netflix), it plays surround perfectly.

 

Any more suggestions? Or is this something that needs fixing in the Emby app? It would be a shame not to be able to play surround when it concerns EAC3 files when other players can...
Thanks again for your help and time guys, I really appreciate it!

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vdatanet
5 minutes ago, mitchgoos said:

Hey guys, sorry for my late response. I was on holiday. 😉 
I just did some testing.

I've tried both players, with the same result: no surround output.

 

I tested your sample, with following results:

- Native player, Apple TV audio on automatic: no surround
- MVP player, Apple TV audio on manual (Dolby Digital): no surround
- Native player, Apple TV audio on manual (Dolby Digital): no surround
- MVP player, Apple TV audio on automatic: no surround

Weird thing is: when checking whether the Sonos system is receiving a 5.1 signal, it actually says that it is when checking the settings in the Sonos app. But my rear speakers make no sound at all. And again: when using another app (an Airplay streaming app called Beamer), I do get surround output with the same files. So it must be something in Emby, right?

----

I tested some more as well, because there were doubts about EAC3 versus AC3 (don't know what the difference is though). I tried to play the following two files:

- A demo trailer with DTS audio (find it here, I tried 'Living world of audio 1'): it just wouldn't load at all in Emby (native player). Through the Beamer app it streamed perfectly, with surround output.
- A demo countdown trailer with AC3 audio (so no EAC3, find it here, I used 'Countdown v1'): this played well in Emby (native player) AND here I actually got surround output as well!

So it seems that DTS won't play at all (no video either), and EAC3 gives me no surround output no matter what settings I tinker with. Apple TV or the file can't be blamed, because through Beamer, they always stream perfectly. My Sonos setup also cannot be blamed, because it's getting the 5.1 signal (I can see that in the Sonos app) and through Beamer (and other apps like Netflix), it plays surround perfectly.

 

Any more suggestions? Or is this something that needs fixing in the Emby app? It would be a shame not to be able to play surround when it concerns EAC3 files when other players can...
Thanks again for your help and time guys, I really appreciate it!

For me DTS is remuxed to AC3, when I get home I will try with your DTS samples.

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vdatanet

I've tested again and here are my conclusions:

- If track is AC3 5.1 and it's not remuxed, works as expected, multichannel audio is sended to AVR, AVR shows multichannel and rear speakers are working

- If track is remuxed because its unsupported (EAC3, DTS...), multichannel audio is sended to AVR (remuxed DTS to AC3), AVR shows multichannel but rear speaker does not sound

So I guess there is a problem remuxing audio, here is a remux log. I see audio is remuxed to AAC instead of AC3. I thought the audio was converted to AC3. It has always been like this? No:

 

Apple TV has never officially supported 5.1 AAC only Dolby Digital 5.1. So DTS should be remuxed to AC3.

I have not encountered the problem before because most of my DTS items have an alternate AC3 track. But some do not.

ffmpeg-remux-772a1518-91be-4997-a3ef-e4779f49a479_1.txt

Edited by vdatanet
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vdatanet

II have looked for old logs and indeed, DTS audio was converted to AC3.

This is a snippet from an old log:

ffmpeg version 4.0.3-emby_2019_03_26 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers and softworkz for Emby LLC
  built with gcc 6.3.0 (crosstool-NG crosstool-ng-1.23.0)
Local Time: 06:16:26
T=0.000s
T=0.002s
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'file:/media/movies/Blancanieves y los siete enanitos [MicroHD][1080 px][DTS-Castellano DTS-Ingles+Subs]/BlancanievesM1080.www.newpct.com.mkv':
  Metadata:
    title           : Blancanieves y los 7 Enanitos [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    encoder         : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.0
    creation_time   : 2013-08-25T09:37:30.000000Z
  Duration: 01:23:11.24, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 12775 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, Level 41, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      title           : Blancanieves y los 7 Enanitos [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:1(spa): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      title           : Castellano DTS 5.1 [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s
    Metadata:
      title           : Inglés DTS 5.1 [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:3(spa): Subtitle: subrip (default) (forced)
    Metadata:
      title           : sub.forz.es [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:4(spa): Subtitle: dvd_subtitle, 1920x1080 (forced)
    Metadata:
      title           : Castellano (forzados) [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:5(spa): Subtitle: dvd_subtitle, 1920x1080
    Metadata:
      title           : Castellano [www.newpct.com][toni32]
    Stream #0:6(eng): Subtitle: dvd_subtitle, 1920x1080
    Metadata:
      title           : Inglés [www.newpct.com][toni32]
T=0.014s
    Last message repeated 3 times
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:2 -> #0:1 (dts (dca) -> ac3 (native))
T=0.014s
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help

 

Edited by vdatanet
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mitchgoos

Wow, great detective work there, vdatanet! 😉 

Thanks a bunch for helping me figure this out. So this is actually fixable through a future Emby software update?

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vdatanet
6 minutes ago, mitchgoos said:

Wow, great detective work there, vdatanet! 😉 

Thanks a bunch for helping me figure this out. So this is actually fixable through a future Emby software update?

Yes, in the current beta it's working only the conversion from AAC 5.1 to AC3 5.1 is pending

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vdatanet
39 minutes ago, mitchgoos said:

Wow, great detective work there, vdatanet! 😉 

Thanks a bunch for helping me figure this out. So this is actually fixable through a future Emby software update?

If you want, you can join the beta program to test if the issue is fixed for you. Send a PM to @ebr asking for a TestFlight invitation providing him your app store email.

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